They say the worst of the recession is behind us. It’s true that there are signs of recovery. But businesses look across the landscape of the economy, and it’s clear that only the leanest and meanest are in the right position to forge into the future. Competition is tight in most every industry, while customers are still skittish about over-spending, and no one’s too sure what the future holds. That makes saving money, streamlining operations, and optimizing your workforce essential. Hire fewer workers, do more with what you’ve got, and live to compete another day — that’s the mantra of the successful business.

In that effort, IT outsourcing is a critical partner for your success. Outsourcing your IT operations allows you to leverage the best of today’s technologies for a fraction of what those products and services cost on-premises. Via the cloud, you can get most any IT product or service you need, paying for only what you use and only when you need it. Here are some of the smartest things to hand over to your IT outsourcing partner.

1. Storage as a Service

The cloud can act as your offsite data center, allowing you to shift data storage, applications, desktops, etc. into the cloud environment. You also shift the cost of those servers, processing power, and other data center infrastructure, as well as the responsibility for maintenance, troubleshooting, and repair. This cuts your IT infrastructural costs enormously, and also frees you from the costly, time-consuming, and often inaccurate process of capacity planning for your future IT needs. As you have new needs emerge, you simply contact your IT outsourcing vendor for the latest tech products and services you need.

Cloud storage and applications also free you from the frustrations of trying to get computers to do what you need them to when you need them to. This isn’t always as easy as it should be. You aren’t “tech handicapped” and you aren’t alone. Many computer users struggle with the most mundane tasks.

2. Security as a Service

A few years ago, IT security basically meant installing business-class firewalls and antivirus software. Today, the nature of threats evolves almost daily, meaning you can’t depend on simple parameter protection anymore.

Modern security requires 24-7 monitoring of the traffic on applications, across the network, and within the data stores. It also requires the knowledge and experience to recognize a potential threat and pick one out of a variety of meaningless traffic anomalies. Acquiring this expertise and manpower is much cheaper and easier when you partner with an IT outsourcing vendor, particularly since qualified IT security talent is difficult to come by and expensive when you can get it.

3. Backup & Disaster Recovery

Most businesses simply aren’t protected from a significant disaster that knocked out the sum total of their data and IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, many small businesses never reopen after such an event, and even fewer survive the next year. The beauty of IT outsourcing is that you can have everything — all of your archived and current data, all applications, desktops, configurations, everything — backed up and protected in the cloud. Download our cloud report to learn more about the advantages gained.

With cloud-centric IT services, you could literally lose your entire business, walk into secondary facilities with new machines, and resume operations as if nothing happened. The only thing you’d lose is whatever paperwork wasn’t stored digitally, your squeaky office chair, and that dusty stress ball you keep on your desk that your secretary gave you for boss’s day.

IT outsourcing is surprisingly more affordable than you think. Request a quote for the services you need today!