The world has gone remote, and IT teams are feeling crushed. MSPs can provide flexibility and extra IT horsepower.

By Eric Russo, Senior VP of Database Services, Datavail

New challenges are squeezing IT teams. Two years of a global pandemic have fundamentally changed the way companies across the globe do business. Remote work has become the norm, and that shift has taxed IT teams with greater demand for supporting remote workforces. Combine these demands with the mass job exodus known as the Great Resignation, and you have a recipe for IT teams in crisis.

It's no secret that the pandemic and Great Resignation have overworked IT departments. The result? Ticket backlogs, 80-hour workweeks, burned-out IT experts, understaffing, and a growing need for IT support. Many companies faced with staffing issues were forced to push IT projects aside or abandon them entirely to maintain the support for their database environments.

Fortunately, there are some ways to ease the IT pinch.

Resources to unlock new IT power

Companies that find themselves short on talent have an option that can increase productivity, flexibility, and the reach of their IT teams-adding a managed service provider. With MSPs, you get specialized knowledge that fits your organization's needs. Instead of hiring one or two DBAs, you're hiring a team of experts suited to address what you need when you need it.

MSPs specialize in team-based approaches that augment existing IT departments. They grow your company's toolbox to achieve its IT goals. Whether it's filling staffing gaps related to DBA, analytics, or application development, MSPs give you the flexibility that can turn an IT staffing crisis into a chance to optimize operations and significantly advance your company's IT objectives.  

The best MSPs have been working remotely for the past decade and are well-versed in security. They can super-charge work on analytics, data management, customized applications, and application modernization. It's like adding extra horsepower to your current IT team.

Recognize the warnings: When to integrate outside IT resources

Amid the Great Resignation, it's important to take a hard look at your company and its IT environment. Are IT staff burned out? Drowning in tickets? Frustrated at not being able to achieve their goals? If so, what do they need?

Some companies find themselves staring at a backlog of a thousand tasks. Or they watch good employees resign each month. Some need fractional support to help with 24/7 systems monitoring and coverage. Other companies are looking into the future, wondering how they will manage big initiatives-a cloud migration, for instance-with an IT team already stretched thin.

A specialized MSP is the perfect resource for addressing these issues. Instead of replacing workers, they augment and strengthen IT teams, adding the extra support they need to complete projects, work through backlogs, and achieve goals. They help free up time for DBAs and other staff by reducing their workloads, giving them back their evenings and weekends to recharge and taking pressure off overworked teams. They also provide expertise in navigating complex cloud offerings and help determine what products and services are the best fit for your company.

Take stock now. Current staffing gaps and stress can lead to major breakdowns within your IT department. Integrating MSP support can ensure that IT systems run smoothly while adding the extra horsepower you need to stay ahead of your IT workload.

Manage workloads better with a specialized MSP

Companies have understandably tried to "do more with less" these past two years. But doing more with less is one of the root causes of the burnout fueling the Great Resignation. Innovative companies find ways to do more with more, but in savvy and efficient ways.

When you bring in a specialized MSP, someone has already done the recruiting, vetting, and training. You're getting experienced professionals who can fill any staffing gap and add extra IT coverage on day one expertly addressing your needs.

MSPs reduce the burden of IT staffing and lets your IT team take a step back, breathe, then focus on moving the company ahead instead of drowning in daily churn. For example, Datavail assisted a customer that was close to folding and needed help dealing with COVID-related staffing impacts. We facilitated a move to the cloud while reducing database and IT costs, allowing them to stay afloat and allowing us to continue providing support.

Today's business environment can be in rapid and continuous flux. For instance, some customers don't need a full-time DBA. They only need a "half DBA" or other fractional support to help their IT teams run efficiently. MSPs fill these gaps in ways that traditional hiring can't. Fractional services can offer 20 hours a week with senior DBAs, not junior-level employees. And when you combine the investment that many MSPs have made in intellectual property that automates some mundane, repetitive tasks, it means more savings to you.

Bringing in a full-service MSP gives you a wide range of talent at your fingertips. It also offers your company a service-delivery team to meet your needs. The value isn't just in gap coverage or right sizing your IT; the influx of experience will boost employee satisfaction by taking work off the shoulders of your IT team and helping it run more efficiently. The Great Resignation and IT burnout are two major challenges in a complicated time, but they don't have to sink your business. Offloading IT work to specialized MSPs can provide the flexibility and on-demand expertise you need to keep your IT staff happy while enabling your IT department to operate better.

##

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric Russo is senior vice president of database services at Datavail. Eric has 25 years of experience working in the technology industry. His specialties include database administration, web development, programming, scripting and more.