Outsourcing server/network alerts

rsutton

I work at a MSP and right now we monitor a bunch of servers and network devices. I'm considering outsourcing the after-hours monitoring to a 3rd party, but I have limited experience in this area and am looking for recommendations. I would need this 3rd party to respond to any alerts within 15 minutes and either resolve the issue, or escalate the issue to my team. Competency is probably my biggest concern as I want to minimize escalations, and minimize the number of rookie mistakes that the 3rd party might make. Has anyone used a company in this arena that they loved?

santaowns

Ipsoft, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, TCS, these are all vendors my company uses in some form or another. I can't recommend anyone of them that doesn't make any mistakes.

IIIMaster

Just dont use any company that outsource overseas.

pram

Having previously worked at an MSP (IPsoft) I can tell you with certainty that outsourcing your after-hour operations is a terrible idea. All of your issues will be handled solely by people in India, and unless your account has a dedicated lead at that time of day (unlikely) no one will know how to solve the issues unless they're easy. This means you're paying people to call you to fix your own problems. You're an MSP so what is the point?

IIIMaster wrote: »

Just dont use any company that outsource overseas.

lol this is every single company

gorebrush

Yeah we outsource to India too, but thankfully most stuff remains in the UK for security reasons

hoktauri

What you save in money now you'll more than make up when the first major failure hits and no tells you until SOB because "they couldn't get in contact with anyone".

netsysllc

Most that I have seen have a 2 hour response SLA and you must use the same monitoring platform they use. I have not seen stellar reviews of any 3rd party platform but Continuum seems to have the best reviews, but again you have to use their software.

the_Grinch

Probably cheaper to have one person who works the night shift to handle it. The MSP I worked for had me on the nights from Monday till Friday and another guy Friday to Sunday. The weekend guy worked 12 hour shifts so obviously it was difficult to fill, but definitely worth doing.

IIIMaster

lol this is every single company[/QUOTE]

Not necessarily, sometimes it can be outsource to a 3rd party US company.

Priston

ePlus | Managed Services this is a US company...