5 Questions to Ask Your IT Provider

A lot is at stake when it comes to IT management, especially around security practices, business continuity, disaster recovery, supporting a mobile workforce, and more. After all, your IT operation is the backbone of your business. You simply can’t afford to hire a provider that promises the world and doesn’t deliver, or even worse, one that doesn’t adhere to the right practices. Below are five questions to ask your IT provider.

Do you staff your own in-house help desk or outsource to a third party?

While outsourcing your help desk may seem like an easy way to save money, many companies find they end up spending more than if they had kept the job in-house. When you contract with a third party for support, you’re hiring someone who has no connection to your organization. They won’t be able to give the level of attention you need to expect from a company that’s part of the same family as your other departments. In addition, you don't get the advantage of working directly with a knowledgeable person on your team. So before signing off on a deal to outsource, consider whether your organization needs a dedicated support staff or not. This will make hiring them easier later down the line and mean you'll have less headaches to contend with.

Besides, you should always do due diligence on any organization that wants to do work for you -- whether it's a vendor or another employee. If you're going to trust your entire business operations to somebody, why not start by getting to know the people running it? And what better place to look for character than inside the office yourself? With our IT services,  we offer IT services outsourcing to other IT consulting companies. We take care of the heavy lifting so you can focus on growing your business.

What is your model for high availability?

How does your service respond immediately after a catastrophic failure? Does it recover quickly and automatically without human intervention? How long would it take to restore service? Most providers use some variation of three levels of redundancy: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary refers to servers (or other systems) installed within your building(s), while secondary uses remote sites or servers hosted elsewhere. Tertiary means you've set up multiple backup copies of data that reside at separate locations if anything goes wrong. The best providers offer highly redundant systems, and these include features such as automatic failover to alternate sites. However, keep in mind that having multiple backup sites isn't enough. You also want to confirm that each site is backed up using a different method so that there's no chance of corruption during the transfer from one location to the next. This helps ensure that your critical data is safe and ready to roll from site to site in a matter of minutes and hours instead of days or weeks.

What are the terms of your service-level agreement (SLA)?

An SLA defines what a service provider should provide on your behalf, including the number of accesses allowed per month, how often backups should occur, and the amount of time between restores. It's important to note that many providers that advertise "24/7" uptime might only mean they promise 99 percent availability. For example, a provider that meets its targets based on a daily snapshot of system activity might still report an outage of several hours if something happens overnight. And some providers might say they guarantee 99 percent uptime but then decline to specify the precise criteria they apply in determining downtime. SLA's aren't just good policy; they're essential when choosing a provider. You can check whether the provider includes explicit SLA guarantees. Kaspys, an IT services provider offers software-based solutions that Kapys offers software-based solutions that meet various industry standards for availability and performance, which means the company guarantees consistent uptime. Additionally, these services are supported by a 24x7 network monitoring center staffed by certified engineers. It is an IT consulting experts in software solutions Try us now — our award-winning customer service team stands ready to help you get started on your journey to success.

What references can you offer who are running the same kind of applications I’ll be using?

You need to get a feel for the reliability of the service through references. When looking into their backgrounds, find out where they operate and what type of business they run. Is their client base local or global? Does it focus primarily on small businesses or large enterprises? Do they have experience with organizations similar to yours? Check with them about the kinds of applications they recommend, as well as any special requirements you'll have (such as specific hardware configurations) that could affect the overall cost of your project. This information will help you make a more informed decision about the service provider you choose. In addition, if your current provider doesn't seem willing to provide information about alternative vendors or clients it has worked with, ask why not. They might be reluctant because it makes them look bad, but this reluctance could indicate that your current provider lacks experience working with companies like yours. 

What type of automated monitoring do you provide?

Monitoring ensures that your website or application runs smoothly on your server over time. If someone accesses your website and sees your pages load slowly, your provider must be doing something wrong. Monitoring can alert you whenever problems arise, allowing you to fix things before anyone gets annoyed. However, the most robust monitoring solution needs to catch problems as soon as they happen, prevent errors from developing, and minimize downtime. Services that automate many of these functions - such as those offered by Kapys - are much better than manual controls. Many providers simply allow you to monitor certain aspects of their service, usually only email alerts about events like failed logins. By contrast, Kapsys monitors all system components, including user accounts, databases, security settings, and operating system processes. These data points ensure that no one is accidentally locked out. If there's an error, it's caught immediately, so you don't have to worry about restoring lost files or logging into a nonfunctional site! In addition, if your current supplier doesn't seem willing to share information about alternative vendors or other customers it has worked with, it might be because they lack experience working with companies like you. Ask them why not. They may be reluctant because it makes the provider look bad, but this resistance could mean the provider lacks expertise in dealing with companies like yours. Get quotes from at least three different providers and compare prices, features, technology, and support options. With this knowledge, you're armed with enough ammunition to negotiate a deal that works best for both parties. These are five essential questions you should ask your web hosting provider when deciding whether or not to move forward with your new hosting package. There's nothing worse than moving ahead with a plan, only to discover that you've made a poor choice later. The last thing you want is to sign up for services that aren’t exactly what you expected! Suppose you’re still unsure how to choose between managed hosting, VPS hosting, shared hosting, or dedicated servers. In that case, you’ll want to look at our beginner's guide to choosing a web host to help you understand the differences and the benefits of each! Kapsys offers quality managed, cloud-based web hosting solutions designed to meet the unique demands of today’s dynamic online environments. Our managed cloud hosting platform combines premium toolsets with 24/7 support to power high-performance websites. So what is services in business? Whether you’re building a blog or launching an enterprise-level eCommerce site with hundreds of thousands of users, we offer everything you require to keep content fresh, deliver engaging digital experiences and scale your business seamlessly. Kapsys offers IT consulting business, superior support, flexible payment options, free custom domain name registrations, and a fast setup process.