The latest Datto report into the state of MSPs has found that they are very worried about competition.
MSPs are seeing signs and portents about profitability and revenues that vex those with channel partners.
All this fear is countered by the fact that MSPs also think it is a great time to be an MSP, the report said.
Top areas where MSPs had invested included cloud-based infrastructure and management, office productivity software, and business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR).
There were signs that demand for break-fix was also increasing as customers looked to partners as a source of help to make existing technology work, rather than opting for a fresh vendor.
Christopher McKie, VP, product marketing security and networking solutions at Datto, a Kaseya company, said there were some findings that were highlights from this year’s research.
“Several things stand out, the first being that 95 per cent of the respondents believe that now is a good time to be an MSP
“That is encouraging and certainly bodes well for market sentiment. From a cyber security perspective, it is exciting to see so much growth opportunity in additional security services, including managed detection and response [MDR], dark web monitoring, endpoint detection and response [EDR], access management, and more.”
“The MSP world appears to be healthy and growing, with three out of five MSPs stating that they increased revenue over the last 12 months.
“However, with growth comes greater competitive pressure. Competition was the number one challenge reported, which indicates MSPs will be forced to become better marketers to stand out and continue to increase revenue.
“Economic downturns often drive demand for more cost-efficient technologies, such as leveraging cloud-based services. With 95% of MSPs seeing new market opportunities in the cloud, one could imagine that moving more workloads securely to the cloud will actually accelerate revenue while the market slows goes through its turbulent cycles.”
