The managed IT service industry has evolved significantly over the last several years, and the resources they offer are essential for helping many technology-dependent Florida businesses maintain their competitive edge. Managed service providers (MSPs) assist small to medium-sized companies in fulfilling their increasingly complex and ever-changing IT requirements without having to assemble an expensive in-house technology department on their own.
If you’re just now discovering cloud-based IT management solutions, understanding the distinction between serverless technologies and managed IT services is essential. In this post, we’ll explore the differences between these two solutions to help you make an educated decision about which option best meets your company’s needs.
What are fully managed IT services in Florida?
When you need to build a critical business application, one of the first questions to arise is whether or not to develop the application serverlessly or through a fully managed solution on the cloud. It’s worth mentioning that, in the tech industry, these terms lack fixed definitions, and the two service types frequently overlap. It’s not uncommon for packages to fall somewhere in between a serverless and fully managed service, as many are both a the same time.
Managed services or MSPs provide IT services to companies such as networking, application maintenance, infrastructure, and cybersecurity through the regular, ongoing support of a third-party data and information security center. Managed providers in Florida supply native services in tandem with other third-party services like cloud LaaS.
Fully managed IT services tend to focus on the core offers of a single technology or vendor and may incorporate services from various provider types. Historically, MSPs have been referred to as infrastructure and device services, but have since expanded to include tasks like continuous network monitoring and maintenance.
In Florida, you can expect reputable fully managed IT service providers like PCH Technologies to provide regular, proactive management of all your technology requirements along with the latest software and cybersecurity solutions.
What is serverless management?
The general concept behind serverless management is that your business applications and services link to the cloud and it doesn’t matter where they run, as long your customer can access them upon demand. Under the serverless model, you won’t have insight into the machines that run your applications since they’re generally shielded from view.
This lack of visibility means you can’t see the mechanisms your applications depend on to operate. Most of the time, serverless managed applications simply accommodate the request before disappearing after it’s fulfilled. If you run a query, you won’t be able to determine the number of machines used to compute it. So, when you run your apps on serverless containerization platforms the required elements are the written code while you leave the infrastructure and scaling to the cloud.
Under the no-server management platform, you’ll never have to manage servers or invest additional time and resources into scaling them. Serverless databases let you store your data in a way that eliminates server management and location or data replication. Another advantage of no server management is that it is typically pay-per-use. This, of course, can vary depending on the type of service you choose.
Most of the time, under serverless management, you can expect your rates to correspond to the function’s duration, including how many times it’s engaging and the number of resources provisioned to the application itself. Other pricing models include pay-per-image and pay-per-feature options that give you choices for determining the specific management plan required.
Fully managed vs serverless management
Fully managed IT services in Florida allow the end-user to engage and benefit from a given service without worrying about setting it up or supporting the expensive infrastructure required to meet your ongoing IT needs. Under the managed platform, also referred to as platform as service, your cloud service provider will solicit your input to ensure that the solutions provided fulfill all your business application requirements.
Fully managed services allow you to set up your own parameters and provide a Docker image. After that, the service generally takes care of itself by handling your virtual machines, web servers (if required), load balancing, and scaling. Managed services are abstractions of non-managed platforms in the sense that they’re typically interfaced through web forms.
When you deploy an MSP solution, you won’t have to about software updates, patching, network maintenance, and so on… This is mostly because won’t be able to access the machines that run your applications, as mentioned previously. The MSP handles everything on your behalf. In some cases, you might have limited control over the underlying systems like your operating system or the software solution in use.
Serverless, on the hand, entails a unique model that departs the more conventional server-orientated computing methods. While server-based computing uses physical or virtual machines to run applications, serverless or Function as a Service (FaaS) products is somewhat similar. However, these solutions let you run code on a per-user basis.
With the FaaS model, you’ll typically only pay for services as long as they run. Serverless solutions aren’t technically absent from a server, you’ll just never see it on your dashboard, and you will not have access to the specific details about the server running your applications.
The main benefit of going with a serverless FaaS solution is that it’s easy to scale because the platform is rooted in light installation media such as Docker images. You’ll subsequently never have to provide additional machines. Because serverless code is billed pursuant to your time usage, it is better for running your shorter workloads.
Managed IT service solutions from PCH Technologies
Not all managed service providers in Florida are alike, yet partnering with a service that offers the right core set of solutions is essential. As an MSP, PCH Technologies can handle all your remote monitoring, network security, risk migration, and endpoint detection and response services.
If you’re a business owner or operations manager in Florida, learn more about best-in-class managed IT and cybersecurity solutions by booking your free discovery call online, or connect with our team of expert technicians now at (856) 754-7500.