For MSPs, Dealing With Hardware Is, Well, Hard

Experienced MSPs have learned to get a customer&s network up to snuff as part of the initial deployment cost of managed services. Make sure all the hardware is under warranty, and that there&s plenty of server capacity and room on the storage drives. Then maintain the integrity of the network through managed services—avoid insuring against hardware failure.

“What many VARs do is make sure all the hardware is under warranty and running properly and then manage and refresh hardware to avoid the cost of failure and replacement charges,” said Konstantin Vilk, managing consultant at I-Span Services, San Francisco.

Ted Swanson, president of IT Solutions Consulting, Jenkintown, Pa., agrees. “We are not covering hardware from a component standpoint. In our plan if your server hard drive fails, the server better be under warranty. Then let [a vendor] send a new hard drive, and we will restore it from backup tapes,” he said. “The clients understand that. And if you want a service contract like you have on a copier, I&m going to have to charge you a whole lot of money.”

If a customer insists on a managed program that includes hardware maintenance, outsourcers such as CenterBeam, San Jose, Calif., can shoulder the burden. But it&s one that even CenterBeam spokesman Brian Johnson said “is hard.”