Managed service providers (MSPs) are becoming increasingly important in the IT management industry. The role of an MSP does not just stop with monitoring, managing, and maintaining the IT services of their clients; it extends to keeping a close watch on everyday IT developments and proactively securing clients’ IT networks against cyberthreats.
To balance all these responsibilities, MSPs need comprehensive IT management and monitoring solutions that can cater to all their needs. For MSPs, the importance of a remote monitoring and management (RMM) solution is undeniable. RMM solutions enable IT administrators to manage all customers’ endpoints and perform all network monitoring capabilities from a single console.
The key question for MSPs is how to choose the right IT management tool. Here are a few of the necessary checkboxes that MSPs need to tick before zeroing in on an RMM solution.
Data privacy
The foremost priority of MSPs while looking for any solution is managing and maintaining client data privacy. This is essential in building trust with clients, and it will pave the way for expanding and retaining a global customer base. For customer retention and trust building to be perfected, any monitoring and management solution should uphold the privacy of every customer’s data managed in the tool. There should be no data overlap between two client networks.
Another criterion in upholding data privacy is to be in compliance with various regulations and guidelines provided across the globe. Utilizing solutions that are compliant with regulations like the GDPR, ISO, CIS, HIPAA, and POPIA enables MSPs to promote their data handling capabilities as safe and regulated.
Scalability
Every business changes over time, oftentimes expanding into new areas, and so does the customer network of MSPs. An MSP’s RMM tool needs to be scalable as per market requirements. It must be efficient and agile and offer flexibility over managing the entire client network. Maintaining network performance and managing endpoints and network devices allows MSPs to be prepared at all times to serve clients’ needs and meet SLAs faster.
Multi-platform support
Every client network has an independent function and structure. Instead of depending on multiple solutions to manage different operating systems, MSPs need to opt for a single solution catering to multi-platform support. Also, software that has multi-tenant architecture helps MSPs handle the network operations of multiple clients concurrently and from a central console.
As organizations digitally transform their IT environment, adapting to the dynamic network structure brought on by the shift in work environments would be simple and efficient with such a seamless solution.
Automation
Automation is the key for every modern MSP. MSPs should standardize and automate everyday processes like network discovery, patch and software updates, fault management, device performance monitoring, oversight of IT assets, and report generation to maximize their staff’s productivity.
Automating functions such as OS updates and other network maintenance tasks across client environments allows MSPs to improve the quality of their service delivery and execute remote operations faster.
Security
Security is always the underlying factor when it comes to managing an IT network. Managing and monitoring clients’ IT involves proactively looking out for security threats in the network and identifying and remediating vulnerabilities as soon as they’re detected. MSPs need to create multiple layers of security by discovering faults in client networks, deploying security configurations and patches to applications, and monitoring and configuring real-time alerts and notifications in case of abnormalities to secure their clients’ devices from any cyberthreats that might penetrate the IT network.
RMM solutions are the key to successful IT management for MSPs, and choosing the right tool is essential to accelerate an MSP’s growth and ROI.
ManageEngine RMM Central is one such tool that enables MSPs to discover, manage, monitor, and secure their clients’ entire IT infrastructures from a single solution. It unifies network monitoring and endpoint management and provides a holistic view into all managed clients’ networks.
Want to learn more about RMM Central? Start exploring the product with a free, 30-day trial.
