MSP business and technology trends

Even with rising competition, 95% of respondents said they believe now is a good time to be an MSP. Also, sentiment is growing (64%) around the preference of using fewer vendors to meet technology needs. This seems to confirm the trend of vendor consolidation, especially in IT security, already outlined by Gartner.

The survey results were released by Kaseya (actually its member company Datto), a provider of IT management and security software, in its report titled Global State of the MSP Report.

In a context of growing managed IT services, Datto surveyed more than 1,800 managed service providers (MSPs) worldwide to find out what keeps them busy and where they think their biggest growth opportunities are.

The majority of surveyed MSPs serve the SMB sector or businesses with 20 to 200 employees, with an average revenue per client of 13000 USD/year.

It's a bit surprising that MSPs still report rising revenue associated with break-fix services. Break-fix business incurs extra charges typically for projects that fall outside of normal contractual responsibilities and pro-active maintenance. This model is usually reserved for legacy clients that have not been converted over to managed services, so the growth of break-fix business seems counter intuitive.

Reasons vary, but many feel this shift is not the same as the break-fix the industry dealt with 20 years

ago. Break-fix has conceptually changed to more of a co-managed service offered by MSPs to help

over-burdened IT departments stay afloat. So it could be this increase is attributable to a shift to new

business opportunities.

MSPs also report the top managed services currently offered are cloud-based infrastructure design and management services, and office productivity software services.

Also, Cybersecurity is still a very large area for growth. While services for ransomware and phishing/email security remain the top focus for MSPs, others are finding further growth offering services around expanding reporting, auditing, training and policy building for clients. Here MSPs consistently report a shortage of skilled staff and difficulties managing too many different cybersecurity products.

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