Author: Mike Harvey
Maintenance vs. Support – The Down & Dirty
Some words that you may often hear in terms of IT services are “Maintenance” and “Support”. If you’re not in the business of delivering IT services, these words may be synonymous to you. In fact, they are not at all. When dealing with IT Service providers, it will benefit you to remove any ambiguity about “Maintenance” and “Support” in understanding what is being provided.
Simple Definitions
So let’s define these things in their simplest terms and provide some real world examples.
What is the Context?
The context in IT terms are applications, services, hosts, etc. Any “thing” that contributes to the functionality you expect requires some level of Maintenance and Support. Combined, Maintenance and Support determine the overall Availability, Security, and Usability of the thing.
Both Maintenance and Support combined determine the overall Availability, Security, and Usability of the thing.
What is Maintenance?
Maintenance is the ongoing care and feeding of the thing. It is:
- the proactive measures to ensure the thing continues to do what it is meant to do,
- regularly performed on a schedule,
- determines the ultimate availability of the thing,
- critical to ensure the Availability and Security of the thing.
What is Support?
Support is the activity of restoring or enhancing the functionality of a thing. It is:
- the reactive measures to return the thing to a desired state,
- performed as a result of an event,
- critical to ensure the ongoing Usability of the thing.
What You Should Know
So what does this mean to you? If you subscribe to any IT Services, both Maintenance and Support will determine the overall value of the service to you. Here are the takeaways:
- Maintenance applies to the systems/services, code, and content of the thing. Like your house or car, without adequate Maintenance, the thing will ultimately fail.
- Hosting does NOT typically include all the maintenance required. It only provides for the Maintenance of the systems(network and hosts) required to deliver the code and content, not maintenance of the code OR content itself.
- Lack of adequate Maintenance is the primary reason that the thing:
- does not perform as desired through failed code resulting in lack of Availability and Security exposure (hacks),
- and drives up reactive Support events needed to restore the thing to its desired state.
- Support is the people and process by which a thing is restored when needed (when some event happens).
- Lack of or inadequate Support:
- degrades the usability of the thing,
- delays the restoration of the thing when an event occurs,
- erodes customer confidence in the thing.
Summary
In dealing with any IT Service Provider, it is important you not only understand the Maintenance and Support being provided, but make sure you are getting the levels of each you need to have peace of mind in knowing your “thing” will perform as needed for the duration. While the levels of maintenance and support vary depending on the thing being provided, you should never assume you need none of either unless you are a gambler.
... Make sure you are getting the levels of each you need to have peace of mind in knowing your “thing” will perform as needed for the duration.
At CMHWorks, we provide many levels of Maintenance and Support, and can tailor one to meet the needs of your thing. For more information see:
The Technology DIY Trap
In last month’s news, I covered the Four Pillars for any Business, and why selecting the right tools as the foundation of your business is critical to your success. Now I’d like to dive a little deeper into the most common mistakes we see that cost businesses time, money, and potential erosion of customer confidence - Tech DIY.
Today you can get most any technology tool via monthly subscription. But… just because you can, doesn't mean you should. While anyone can “do the Google”, it doesn’t make you an expert anymore than WebMD makes you a doctor.
In the IT world, these tools are often referred to as Software as a Services (SaaS) solutions. The companies that provide these services also market them aggressively. But not all of these services are alike in terms of features, cost and most importantly quality. Sure they want you to buy their stuff. Like any industry, the technology services space a “buyer beware” jungle. Unless you know, you may be a sucker and fall into the DIY Trap.
Something we see very often is business owners attempting to manage their technology infrastructure themselves in an effort to save money. The truth is in almost every case, unless you are a Technology Professional, you will do more harm than good. This is a classic case of being “penny-wise and dollar foolish” as it always costs more to undo mistakes and service outages than to engage a professional to manage your changes in the first place.
Lastly, let’s consider the impact of service outages on your customer’s confidence. If your customer depends on your service, there is a erosion of trust in that service every time it doesn't work. And trust is easy to lose and hard to regain.
At CMHWorks, we offer services to help our client avoid the DIY Trap including Technology Assessments, Professional Services Consulting and Support to help you navigate the Tech Solutions jungle.
Stay tuned for future installments where we will be discussing each of the Essential Tools in more depth.