IT Infrastructure Management Services: Cut Costs by 60% (With 24/7 Coverage)

When a critical server fails at 3 a.m., someone has to wake up and fix it. For most enterprise IT teams, that reality (along with the constant pressure of patching, monitoring, and troubleshooting) leaves little bandwidth for work that actually moves the business forward.

But it doesn't have to be this way. A growing number of enterprises are discovering that modern IT infrastructure management services can slash operational costs—by as much as 60 percent—while actually improving coverage and service quality. This post breaks down the economics, scope, and value of managed infrastructure for today's IT leaders, and explains why the math increasingly favors this shift.

This approach allows businesses to shift from a reactive, firefighting model to a proactive one, freeing up internal teams for innovation and growth—but not all service providers are made equal. This blog post breaks down the economics, scope, and value of managed infrastructure services for today’s IT leaders, explaining how the math overwhelmingly favors this strategic shift.

The hidden cost of "keeping the lights on"

Enterprise information technology teams spend most of their time on maintenance, patching, and troubleshooting rather than innovation. The reality of 3 a.m. calls—when critical systems fail outside business hours—remains a persistent source of stress.

The root problem isn’t whether to invest in infrastructure, but how to do so efficiently. Internal teams are expensive, not just in salary but also in benefits, training, turnover, and the opportunity cost of having highly skilled engineers focused on firefighting instead of strategic projects. The market’s growing appetite for managed infrastructure services is a direct response to these pressures with many seeking alternatives to in-house management.

What does in-house infrastructure management actually cost?

Let’s break down the true cost of internal infrastructure management:

• Base salary: In the U.S., the average infrastructure engineer salary sits between $120,000 and $133,000, with top earners making up to $200,000 or more.
• Loaded cost: Benefits (health, retirement, etc.) add another 25 to 35 percent to base salary, and recruiting or replacing talent can cost $15,000 to $25,000 per hire. Ongoing training and certifications add $5,000 to $10,000 annually, and IT turnover is notoriously high, with average tenures of just two to three years.
• True 24/7 coverage: Two full-time equivalents (FTEs) are insufficient for round-the-clock coverage. Realistically, 2.5 to 3 FTEs are required per technology area to achieve 24/7/365 support, pushing annual costs to $350,000–$500,000 or more for full coverage.
• Opportunity cost: Senior engineers are often bogged down with routine tasks, diverting focus from innovation and core business objectives.

When you multiply these costs across multiple domains (servers, networks, storage, security, cloud), total spend can easily reach $1 million+ annually for mid-to-large enterprises.

What's included in IT infrastructure managed services?

A comprehensive IT infrastructure management services (IMS) offering extends far beyond basic monitoring. Leading providers, such as Pythian, deliver holistic management across:

• On-premise and cloud infrastructure: Unix, Linux, Windows servers, VMware, Citrix, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (Azure), Google Cloud (GCP), Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and hybrid/multi-cloud environments.
• Networks: Switches, routers, firewalls, wireless access points, load balancers, and network OS.
• Storage and backup: Network Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Network (SAN), Direct Attached Storage (DAS), file/block storage, and backup solutions (Veritas, Commvault, Rubrik, Acronis).
• Security, identity, and access: Security posture analysis, vulnerability detection, access management, and compliance (Service Organization Control 2 [SOC 2], Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA], General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]).
• Operational support: 24/7 event monitoring, incident management, change management, patching, upgrades, disaster recovery, and request fulfillment.
• Advanced projects: Performance tuning, capacity planning, audits, vulnerability mitigation, architecture design, automation, and analytics.

All of this is delivered with contractual service level agreements (SLAs) for uptime, response, and resolution—ensuring predictable, accountable service.

The math behind 60 percent infrastructure cost savings

So, how do managed infrastructure services like Pythian's deliver such dramatic cost reductions?

Direct cost comparison

Industry studies confirm these savings: CompTIA found that 50 percent of companies reduced IT costs by up to 25 percent with a managed service provider (MSP), 33 percent saved up to 50 percent, and 13 percent reported savings greater than 50 percent. Other research shows typical cost reductions of 25 to 45 percent, with some organizations achieving even more depending on their previous in-house structure.

When you partner with Pythian, you get more—for less. We've saved organizations up to 60% in operational costs with our 24/7 managed service.

Why the gap?

• Global delivery models: Providers leverage lower-cost regions for 24/7 support.
• Shared resources: Experts and tooling are spread across multiple clients, reducing per-client cost.
• Economies of scale: Established processes, automation, and monitoring reduce manual effort and errors.
• No turnover/recruiting burden: The MSP manages hiring, training, and coverage gaps.

Beyond direct savings

• Predictable OpEx: Fixed monthly operating expense (OpEx) costs replace volatile capital expense (CapEx) and emergency spend.
• Reduced downtime: Proactive management slashes the business impact of outages, which can cost more than $9,000 per minute for large enterprises.
• Freed internal capacity: In-house teams can focus on innovation and strategic projects instead of routine maintenance.

Proactive vs. reactive: why 24/7 managed infrastructure support changes everything

The value of managed services is not just in cost savings, but in a fundamentally different approach to IT operations.

Proactive vs. reactive

Proactive managed services use automation, AI, and analytics to predict and prevent outages, optimize performance, and ensure security compliance. This  24/7 infrastructure support model transforms IT operations from a cost center into a strategic enabler. This means issues are often resolved before they impact users, and capacity is scaled to match demand.

SLA benchmarks

• Uptime: 99.9 percent or higher is standard, with some providers offering 99.99 percent or even 99.999 percent ("five nines") availability.
• Response and resolution times: Clearly defined by incident severity, with contractual penalties (service credits) for missed targets.
• Continuous monitoring: 24/7 monitoring and alerting, with best practices recommending checks every 10 to 60 seconds for critical systems.
• Integrated security and compliance: Automated patching, vulnerability management, and audit-ready reporting for frameworks like Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

What triggers enterprises to outsource infrastructure management?

Survey data and industry analysis reveal several common triggers:

• Talent shortages: 76 percent of IT employers struggle to find qualified infrastructure talent, driving up salaries and turnover.
• Cost pressures: The need to convert unpredictable capital expense to predictable operating expense, and to avoid the escalating costs of internal teams.
• 24/7 reliability needs: Business demands for uninterrupted uptime and rapid incident response exceed what most internal teams can provide.
• Security and compliance: The pace of new threats and regulatory requirements makes it difficult for internal teams to keep up.
• Cloud and hybrid complexity: Multi-cloud and hybrid environments require specialized skills that are hard to maintain in-house.
• Focus on core business: Freeing up internal teams to drive innovation and business value, rather than routine maintenance.

Choosing an IT infrastructure management services provider: key criteria

When evaluating managed infrastructure partners, enterprises should look for:

• Technology breadth: Full-stack coverage—from on-prem to cloud, across servers, networks, storage, and security. Multi-cloud expertise is increasingly essential.
• Flexible engagement models: Advisory, on-demand, and fully managed options, allowing organizations to start small and scale.
• Unified accountability: A single partner for infrastructure and databases, eliminating finger-pointing between siloed vendors.
• Proven track record: References, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and demonstrated experience with enterprises of similar scale.
• Speed to value: Rapid onboarding and immediate 24/7 coverage.
• Transparent SLAs: Clearly defined uptime, response, and resolution guarantees, with meaningful penalties for non-compliance via SLAs.

Red flags include rigid contracts, lack of transparency, and generic MSPs without deep infrastructure expertise.

Stop firefighting (and start building)

The choice facing IT leaders today is not whether to invest in infrastructure, but how to do so in a way that maximizes value and minimizes risk. As we've shown, the math overwhelmingly favors managed services. With up to 60 percent cost savings, guaranteed 24/7 coverage, and the ability to refocus internal teams on innovation, the case is clear.

The best managed service partners become an extension of your team, delivering elite expertise, unified support, and true peace of mind. If you’re ready to transform your IT operations, now is the time to explore how the right IT infrastructure management services (IMS) provider can help you stop firefighting and start building.

Ready to stop firefighting infrastructure alerts and start focusing on what drives your business forward? Talk to our infrastructure team about how Pythian delivers enterprise-grade managed services—for less.