Migrating to AWS is a major milestone for any organization, but once the migration is complete, the real opportunities present themselves.
Maintaining a cloud environment without a comprehensive support structure can (and often does) result in escalating costs, wasted resources, and significant risks regarding security and downtime. That’s why the difference between prospering in the cloud or finding yourself obstructed by it generally comes down to the finesse with which environments are managed after go-live.
It’s also why forward-looking organizations treat migration not as the finish line but as the starting point. They embed SLAs/SLOs, governance frameworks, observability practices, and disaster recovery patterns such as multi-AZ or cross-Region design to ensure AWS remains resilient, cost-efficient, and enterprise-ready.
And this is where Managed Services come in, providing the operational backbone that turns migration into long-term success.
Leading organizations understand that cloud migration isn’t the finishing line; instead, they see it as the starting point for continuous improvement, optimization, and resilience.
Why Life After Migration Matters
The cloud is dynamic by design, with new services, features, and pricing models being released constantly.
Without a well-formulated strategy for monitoring, optimization, and governance, businesses risk:
- Rising costs from unused or overprovisioned services.
- Security and compliance risks if updates or policies are missed.
- Burnout of key staff when developers are pulled into firefighting instead of building.
- Operational gaps if patching, disaster recovery, or monitoring are neglected, and particularly if multi-AZ or cross-Region disaster recovery patterns aren’t in place.
Organizations that view cloud as a one-time project rather than an ongoing strategy often find themselves facing these challenges within months of going live.
To prevent these issues, organizations need strong governance, clear SLAs/SLOs, and robust observability from the start.
Best Practices for Managed Services on AWS
The organizations that succeed long-term adopt a few common principles when it comes to managing their cloud environments.
Here they are, based on our conversations with AWS leaders and from what we’ve seen in practice:
1. Proactive Support
Traditional support models are reactive: teams wait for something to break before acting. Managed Services 2.0, as AWS defines it, takes the opposite approach: anticipate problems before they cause disruption. Proactive monitoring, alerting, and preventive maintenance keep systems stable and secure. This approach is strengthened with automation, runbooks/playbooks, and knowledge transfer that ensure issues are resolved consistently and transparently.
2. ITIL-Based Processes
Consistency matters in complex environments. Following the globally recognized Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework ensures structured processes for incident management, change enablement, and service request management. Together with a defined governance cadence, this helps organizations maintain order as workloads grow.
3. Empathy and Expertise
Every business is different. Mature cloud teams may need specialized support in one area, while organizations newer to the cloud may need more comprehensive coverage. Tailoring services to match technical maturity, budget, and workload criticality is key.
4. People First, Tools as Catalysts
Dashboards and automation are powerful, but they can’t replace human expertise. The most effective managed services are people-first: dedicated micro-teams that know the client, understand their priorities, and build trust over time. Tools support the process; they don’t define it.
“As an Enterprise-Grade Managed Services provider, we deliver SLA-driven reliability, ITIL-aligned governance, and AIOps innovation, reinforced by FinOps to keep cloud spend accountable and aligned to business priorities.”
Cyril Mathew, Senior Director & Head of AWS Managed Services, EPI-USE
Common Post-Migration Questions
When organizations first go live on AWS, the same questions tend to surface:
Who carries the pager after hours?
A: Managed Services ensure someone is available 24/7, including nights, weekends, and holidays, to handle incidents and keep operations stable.
Who handles disaster recovery, patching, and monitoring?
A: These are critical but often overlooked tasks. A comprehensive managed services model takes responsibility for keeping systems compliant, patched, and resilient.
How do we avoid paying for services we’re not using?
A: Cloud Cost Optimization (CCO) is essential. By applying FinOps principles, costs are monitored continuously, anomalies are flagged in real time, and quarterly executive dashboards translate technical usage into business insight.
How do we keep our developers focused on innovation?
A: Managed Services frees high-value engineers from day-to-day operations. This keeps them focused on delivering features, not managing alerts.
How does support adapt to business priorities?
A: The best managed services models tailor escalation paths and reporting to the criticality of applications, from ERP systems to customer portals, so that IT operations always reflect business risk.
What exactly is managed day-to-day?
A: A typical scope includes:
- 24/7 incident response and escalation
- DevOps support and workload management
- Proactive monitoring, patching, and compliance
- Ongoing cost optimization with quarterly reporting
- Tailored dashboards and cadence calls with leadership teams
Cloud Cost Optimization: From Spend to Strategy
AWS operates on a pay-as-you-go model, and while flexible, it can quickly become unpredictable. Many clients admit: “I don’t even know what half of these services are, let alone why I’m paying for them.”
Cloud Cost Optimization addresses this head-on by providing:
- Trend analysis and anomaly detection.
- Rightsizing resources to match real demand.
- CFO-level dashboards for transparent financial reporting.
- Anomaly detection to flag usage spikes before they hit the bill.
- Monthly and quarterly reports by service, department, and region.
- Unit economics reporting that aligns spend with business outcomes.
- Real-time guidance on right-sizing and decommissioning unused resources.
- Chargeback/showback and cost allocation for accountability across teams and departments.
The goal is beyond saving money: it’s to ensure cloud spend is aligned with business priorities.
Transparency and Trust
One concern organizations often have with outsourcing cloud management is the risk of being “locked in.
A strong managed services model removes that fear. With RACI models, documentation handovers, and a clear service catalog/portfolio, clients retain control and visibility. Structured service reviews create predictable checkpoints for accountability.
In practice, however, churn is rare. When services are proactive, people-first, and results-driven, relationships endure because they work.
AWS MSP Certification
Not all providers are equal.
AWS recognizes only 189 partners worldwide with the Managed Services Provider (MSP) designation. This certification follows a rigorous audit and validates deep capabilities across architecture, security, DevOps, and long-term client support.
For organizations choosing a managed services partner, MSP status offers assurance that best practices are being met and that expertise has been independently verified.
Looking Ahead: Managed Services 3.0
Today’s managed services are defined as 2.0: proactive, ITIL-based, people-first, and cost-conscious.
But the next wave is already forming.
Managed Services 3.0 will see the adoption of AIOps, predictive scaling, self-healing infrastructure, and continuous optimization. More than just reacting to issues or even preventing them, the overarching aim is to continuously learn from patterns and improve automatically.
Future-concerned organizations are already making moves to prepare for this shift, meaning that their managed services approach can evolve alongside the technology.
Why Managed Services Matter
The organizations that succeed long-term are those that treat modernization as an ongoing process, not a one-time milestone.
And that’s because cloud migration is simply where the journey begins.
By adopting best practices — proactive support, ITIL processes, people-first teams, cost optimization, and transparency — businesses can:
- Reduce risk and downtime.
- Free technical teams to innovate.
- Build resilience against future challenges
- Keep costs predictable and aligned with priorities.
Managed Services are not just about the upkeep of infrastructure. They center around promoting growth, safeguarding investment, and guaranteeing that the promise of the cloud results in long-term success.
For organizations looking at how best to support their AWS environments, Managed Services provide a proven framework for running smarter, safer, and more effectively in the cloud.
Why Choose EPI-USE Managed Services
With over 100 AWS certifications, more than four decades of enterprise experience, and one of only 189 AWS MSP partner badges worldwide, EPI-USE brings the structure, transparency, and people-first approach needed to run AWS environments with confidence.
Ready to take AWS management off your plate?
Whether you’ve just migrated or need a stronger foundation for long-term success, our Managed Services team is ready to work with you. Proactively, transparently, and with zero lock-in.
Book a no-cost consultation today and discover why our clients stay.
