Introduction
Companies have long outsourced the management of their IT infrastructure to gain efficiency and peace of mind. Between server maintenance, security updates, and performance optimization, this approach allows IT teams to focus on innovation rather than daily management. This outsourcing logic automates these tasks while ensuring a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective infrastructure. As a managed services provider, Clever Cloud offers solutions tailored to the needs of CIOs, CTOs, and technical teams, ensuring optimized and efficient management.
What Is a Managed Service? Definition
Managed services refer to the outsourcing of IT infrastructure and service management to a specialized provider. This approach enables businesses to focus on their core activities without worrying about maintenance, security, or technical updates. Unlike traditional management, managed services offer continuous monitoring, process automation, and resource optimization. They also ensure the operational maintenance of the client’s applications and services, along with technical support to guarantee their smooth operation.
Managed Services: An Overused Term
This concept is often used too broadly, covering a wide range of services. Some providers offer only hosting, while others fully manage infrastructure, including operational maintenance and scalability management. This confusion makes it necessary to precisely define the services offered by each provider.
Is IT Outsourcing Still Relevant?
There is often confusion between managed services and IT outsourcing, especially in French. Today, IT outsourcing generally implies a model payed by the hour, with a dedicated team managing and maintaining IT infrastructures and services. In contrast, managed services can be fully automated or offered as products or solutions “as a service,”reducing the need for human intervention.
Clever Cloud is among the cloud providers that have adopted this automation culture. We see this model as an industrialized product, designed to ensure performance, scalability, and resilience while providing customers with autonomy for an excellent time-to-market.
Clever Cloud’s Definition of Managed Services
At Clever Cloud, it go beyond simple outsourcing. We offer an automated platform that handles deployment, execution, and application monitoring without manual intervention. Our goal is to enable developers and technical decision-makers to focus on their products without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. We provide solutions tailored to modern development requirements, emphasizing scalability, continuous integration, and data security.
Managed Services Offered by Clever Cloud
PaaS: A Cloud Platform Without Constraints
Clever Cloud’s Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a turnkey environment for developing, testing, and deploying applications. Unlike traditional hosting solutions, our PaaS automatically manages the necessary resources based on workload demands. It integrates essential tools such as log management, monitoring, and automatic scaling. You deploy your code, and we take care of the rest. This is the core business of Clever Cloud: offering an entirely automated platform that includes hosting, allowing businesses to focus on their added value rather than infrastructure management.
DBaaS: Hassle-Free Database Management
With our Database as a Service (DBaaS) offering, we take care of hosting, backups, and database optimization. PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, Redis ®, ElasticSearch, and Materia: each technology benefits from proactive monitoring and high availability. No more critical failures due to misconfigurations or unexpected overloads.Thanks to automatic replication and regular backups, your data remains accessible and secure. In just a few clicks, you can order and deploy a fully managed database without worrying about installation, configuration, or monitoring.
IAM as a Service: Simplified Access Management
Identity and access management is crucial for application security. At Clever Cloud, our managed IAM service is based on Keycloak as a Service, a proven open-source solution for centralized identity management.
With this offering, businesses can easily implement Single Sign-On (SSO), manage roles and permissions, and seamlessly integrate with their existing applications. The solution supports standard protocols such as OpenID Connect, OAuth2, and SAML, ensuring interoperability with various services.
Our managed IAM is designed to offer simplicity, security, and autonomy, allowing organizations to centralize identity management without handling the underlying infrastructure. Implement robust access strategies, automate authorizations, and protect your sensitive resources without added complexity.
And Many Other Managed Solutions
Additionally, Clever Cloud offers a marketplace that allows customers to access a wide range of solutions in just a few clicks. These services, provided either directly by Clever Cloud or by partners, offer great flexibility and simplify infrastructure management. With this approach, businesses can quickly deploy databases, authentication solutions, observability tools, and many other products without worrying about maintenance. The marketplace significantly expands possibilities, enabling each customer to find a solution that fits their needs while benefiting from the quality and reliability of a fully managed environment.
Coming Soon: FaaS and IaaS
We plan to expand our offering with Function as a Service (FaaS) to execute code on demand without persistent infrastructure, and an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution to provide virtual machines tailored to specific customer needs. These services will further enhance flexibility for businesses looking to deploy modern and scalable cloud architectures.
Conclusion
Managed services allow businesses to offload the complexity of their infrastructure while benefiting from effective and high-performance management. Clever Cloud offers an automated and reliable approach, designed for developers and operations teams. Adopt a managed cloud and focus on what matters most. With Clever Cloud, you can concentrate on development while we handle operational maintenance.
FAQ: Everything You Need to Know About Managed Services
What Is a Managed Service?
It is a solution where a provider takes care of managing IT infrastructure or services for a client. This includes maintenance, monitoring, updates, and resource security.
What Is the Difference Between a Managed Service and IT Outsourcing?
IT outsourcing often involves human intervention, with dedicated personnel handling infrastructure management. Managed services, on the other hand, can be fully automated or provided as an “as a service” model to minimize the need for human oversight.
What Are the Benefits of Managed Services?
- Cost reduction: Less internal management, fewer manual interventions.
- Reliability and scalability: Proactive monitoring and automatic adaptation to demands.
- Enhanced security: Automated updates and security patches.
- Faster time-to-market: Quick and simplified deployment of applications and infrastructure.
How to Choose a Managed Services Provider (MSP)?
Choosing an MSP (Managed Services Provider) depends on several key factors:
- Service scope: Ensure the offering covers your specific needs (hosting, databases, IAM, monitoring, etc.).
- Automation level: Some MSPs offer fully automated solutions, while others require more human intervention.
- Security and compliance: Check compliance with relevant regulations (GDPR, ISO 27001, etc.).
- Scalability and reliability: A good MSP should provide services that can scale without manual intervention.
- Support and SLA: Verify the provider’s commitments regarding availability and technical support.
Who Are the Leading French Managed Services Providers?
In France, several providers offer high-quality managed services, including:
- Clever Cloud: Specialist in PaaS, DBaaS, FaaS, and automated solutions.
- OVHcloud: Cloud and hosting solutions with managed services.
- Scaleway: Cloud solutions with various management levels.
- Outscale: A sovereign cloud provider with a strong focus on security and compliance.
- Cloud Temple: A cloud provider with the most SecNumCloud-certified services.
Clever Cloud partners with these MSPs, allowing you to deploy our solutions on their infrastructures.
Why Choose Clever Cloud for Managed Services?
Clever Cloud offers fully automated solutions, enabling businesses to focus on development without managing infrastructure. The platform ensures performance, security, and autonomy through its industrialized approach.