Those who leverage managed server providers (MSPs) often use the MSP to access and manage public cloud services.  However, there are right and wrong ways to do this.

Many believe that MSPs and public clouds live in very different worlds.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In the past, ‘managed service providers’ was a term used to describe infrastructure services delivered on a subscription basis.  With the advent of cloud computing, managed IT services and management services have become synonymous.  Indeed, most MSPs are very cloud-like.  Many even provide auto- and self-provisioning capabilities, as well as some elastic scaling features.

However, as MSPs continue to grow in popularity, along with cloud computing, best practices are beginning to emerge around how to use MSPs as management layers for cloud-based resources.  Simply put, it’s the ability to leverage a tiered model to deal with public clouds using the MSP as …