What is a managed service provider (MSP)?

A managed service provider (MSP) looks after your business IT for a fixed, predictable monthly fee — proactively monitoring, securing, patching and supporting your systems so problems are prevented rather than just repaired after they have already caused downtime.

How an MSP differs from "the computer guy"

The traditional model is break-fix: you call someone when something breaks, and you pay by the hour to fix it. There is no monitoring, no prevention, and — bluntly — no incentive for the provider to stop problems happening, because they only earn when things go wrong. Costs are unpredictable and downtime is your problem. An MSP flips that around: for a flat monthly fee we keep everything running, so a smoothly operating business is in everyone's interest.

What a good MSP actually does for you

• Proactive monitoring — we watch your systems around the clock and catch issues before they become outages.
• Layered security — MFA, endpoint protection, email filtering, patching and backups, working together.
• Helpdesk support — real people to call when something goes wrong, with clear response targets.
• Backups and recovery — tested, immutable backups so a failure or attack is a bad hour, not a bad year.
• Strategy — regular reviews so your technology supports where the business is heading.

Is an MSP right for your business?

For most Perth businesses of 10 to 100 staff, an MSP works out cheaper and far less stressful than either hiring in-house IT (expensive, and one person can't cover everything) or lurching from one break-fix emergency to the next. If you want to see how the two models compare on cost and risk, read our managed IT vs break-fix guide.