The End of IT Tech: Automation - Level1Techs

[exile360]

An interesting analysis of current trends in technology and the IT field from someone who works in IT:

 

[AdvancedSetup]

Changes are always in IT and this stuff isn't cheap either. It certainly has many Pros and they even have an entire network where your workstations are virtual, your servers are virtual, etc. There is a small army at Microsoft managing it though. Much is automated but much requires human monitoring and intervention too. But again the cost to start and cost to maintain is not cheap. In the long run say a 5 year period or more I'm sure the costs eventually pay off and they have all sorts of documents and presentations on how it saves you money in the long run. The start up costs though for small mom and pop shops is often a barrier as many run their shops without dedicated support anyways and run on software that is often years old. It does what they want to do and thus it makes it difficult to convince them it's a better deal.

 

[exile360]

I believe there are some budget MSPs for small businesses that provide remote IT/network services, though of course I have no idea what the cost is relative to a dedicated IT staff or how hard it is to set it all up.  It is another option though, and with servers becoming cheaper from the likes of Microsoft and Amazon, I expect they are and will continue to increase in competitiveness with regards to pricing.

[AdvancedSetup]

Yes, there are many paths that a business can follow. Not everything has to be from Google or Microsoft as they'd love for you to believe. I still think an MSP can provide good solid support for all local systems for a business if they choose to do so. Like it or not, not everyone wants or needs to be on the latest greatest software offered out there.

 

[exile360]

Yeah, it makes perfect sense.  They just need it to be fit for purpose, and cost is of course always a consideration, whether it is labor costs, hardware costs, or software costs.  A limited MSP solution (such as an individual, on-call remote IT person with a managed software solution) can be a real benefit to smaller businesses that need some level of management and IT infrastructure without having to foot the bill for a full-time IT employee (at least 1, if not more) as well as any hardware and software that would be required for the solution.  It's much like outsourcing other task oriented jobs such as product testing/QA and technical support.  For a small business with few employees and limited finances, hiring staff to handle these tasks may cost too much and an outsourced solution may be just the right fit for what the business needs, but again it all depends on the business and their particular situation.