IT managed services set to grow

Consuming IT technology as a service rather than buying hardware has been established for a long time. But what is more noticeable is the rise and need for managed services. As the number of servers, applications and infrastructure complexity grows, organizations need more ongoing attention for all those elements. Standard reactive maintenance (break-fix) is no longer sufficient for most customers.

From a service provider perspective it becomes meaningful to standardize maintenance tasks, remotely connect devices across a variety of customers, get usage and log telemetry, and utilize the scale to drive unit costs down.

In some areas of IT, the need for a proactive managed service approach is even more visible. Take cybersecurity: the relentless pace of cyberattacks despite investment in security gear and software, indicates that something is missing. Namely, security requires constant attention and real-time visibility, so it's especially suitable for proactive servicing. Furthermore, a provider having ongoing experience with incidents across multiple organizations will be better positioned at responding and mitigating threats. The scalability of the business model matters.

So it's no wonder that according to a just published survey, the vast majority of European business leaders are anticipating managed services sales to grow in the next 3 years. Almost three-quarters of surveyed tech businesses expect to sell more managed services over that time, increasing the revenue stream as a result.

With the pace of digital transformation, other services are also expected to grow: professional services are expected to increase for 65% of respondents, followed by consumption-based anything as a service (XaaS) (50%).

This seems to echo the recent Kaseya survey, where 95% of respondents said they believe now is a good time to be a managed service provider.