IT Managed Services vs IT Consulting Services: Know the Difference

Some of the biggest IT companies today provide an entire range of services to cater to the varied requirements of the enterprises and their distinct business goals and objectives. So, you have IT consulting, managed support services, managed IT services, software development services, and so on. Here let us look at two of these services – IT Managed services and IT Consulting services – to understand their differences.

What is IT Managed Services?

IT Managed Services refer to proactive M&A IT consultant outsourcing of one or more aspects of a company’s IT infrastructure support and management to a managed service provider. The service provider is an Information Technology firm with a team of domain experts and is referred to as Managed Service Providers (MSP). In this model, the enterprise that seeks the services (the client) holds complete ownership of the IT infrastructure being outsourced while the liability of the provider only extends up to providing the managed services. There is a contract or agreement signed by both parties that defines the criteria and metrics to be adhered to.

While most big IT companies have an in-house team that looks into the management of IT infrastructure, small and medium businesses, including startups, cannot afford to have a team of experts working for them. This makes it difficult for them to keep up with the latest technology updates and security threats. Often non-IT professionals in the firm are forced to research on management of IT infrastructure, which takes up time and drives the focus away from other aspects of business operations.