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It’s clear that for MSPs across the industry, cloud services are the most important foundation to their service offerings.
The majority of MSPs in our survey ranked cloud services as the #1 most common service provided in 2023, the #1 service to be offered in 2024, and the #1 service planned for expansion in 2024.
While moving to cloud-based technology has been in the works for years, the COVID pandemic impacts have accelerated the move. In order to support a wider range of clients and services, leveraging cloud-based solutions for the problems clients face have kept MSPs progressing in an otherwise tumultuous few years.
Now that businesses around the world are recovering, the accelerated need for cloud services have made an irreversible impact on the efficiency and flexibility offered to clients.
Cloud services are a foundational element to an MSPs sustained success and potential for growth in 2024.
We've been able to have good conversations with clients about the importance of taking responsibility for your data in a cloud service, both from backing it up, protecting it, and security and detection.
So we think our clients and our operations are reasonably mature or reasonably well ahead on that, and that our clients are already well protected. But talking to others and vendors, I think the vendors see that particularly those sorts of services, like web filtering and backup for Microsoft 365, is a big market for them that is untapped.
… So there's a lot of growth there potentially. Not for us, because we've done it, it's always been baked in. Our growth is probably going to be from net new clients. We're very fortunate. Our clients, we have a very good trusting relationship, two way relationship with them, and they are in very good shape already.
James Ratcliff
Managing Director, Ratcliff IT
In all of our years, pretty much everything's been in the cloud that we do. So our ticketing system, CRM system, etc, has been in the cloud. I would say when you look at different sizes of MSPs, when you get into some of the bigger ones a lot of them are trying to move up-market to midsize companies and then they're getting into business automation, different things like that, processes really helping digitize businesses. Our mission is Main Street, USA, and what we're looking at is SharePoint 365, pretty basic stuff.
Ann Westerheim
Founder and President, Ekaru
Cloud will become even bigger than it is now, as people are working more hybrid or remotely. So there's not necessarily all those office spaces anymore. There is no central location to house a server, to house your network. Having to move all of that into the cloud environment just only makes sense in order to be able to diversify the workforce more.
So I think that's going to be a huge part of it. There are no physical locations for a lot of companies anymore. They need to be able to service their staff and their customers. In order to do that, you have to be flexible and put things up in the cloud.
We haven't had on-prem servers in eight years and we are an office based, MSP, right? We all work out of the office. It's just taking away that one more piece of hard infrastructure that you have to really keep up and maintain. It's much easier to maintain within a virtual environment.
Carrie Green
SVP of Operations, Alt-Tech Inc.
currently offer
cloud-based services
plan to expand existing
cloud services in 2024
behind cloud services for these MSPs
Cyber security has emerged as one of the biggest trends impacting business success and growth for MSPs. Where cloud services have been a positive force for MSPs, cybersecurity has been a big concern for both MSPs and clients.
Survey respondents ranked cyber security threats as the #2 biggest concern for their business growth in 2024. Cyber security services ranked as the #2 most important offering for MSPs across both 2023 and 2024.
MSPs are realizing the need to step up their cybersecurity efforts due to the rising threat of cyber attacks. Our survey shows a growing awareness among MSPs about investing in strong defenses to protect against breaches and ransomware. Clients are increasingly prioritizing MSPs with robust cybersecurity measures in place, recognizing the importance of safeguarding their sensitive data.
Besides addressing immediate threats, MSPs focusing on cybersecurity are also better equipped to obtain cyber liability insurance for clients and comply with regulations around data protection. This not only keeps them competitive but also builds trust with clients. Essentially, the survey results emphasize that cybersecurity isn't just a technical requirement but a key factor for MSPs aiming for long-term success in a digitally driven and competitive landscape.
I think there's a lot of people still getting to grips with doing cyber security well. We've noticed where we've won clients, that even their cloud systems are not really well provisioned and there's a fair bit of work to get them ship shape.
That sort of tells us that, despite where the industry and the vendors are, at ground level people are not actually getting into this stuff in Microsoft 365 and other tenants.
So as incidents invariably happen, people are going to start sharpening pencils and brushing up on their practices… Slowly they'll get better at it. Even the less good MSPs will lift up, I'm sure, in time.
James Ratcliff
Managing Director, Ratcliff IT
Smaller organizations need to get protections in place and the good news is technology is advanced to a point where you can actually get great protection on a small business budget. So that's really cool. The other thing is configurations as people move to the cloud, particularly the whole work from anywhere thing. It's a disaster from a security perspective.
That's another area where I think that small businesses need more cyber protections. They need the whole gamut. They should have an incident response plan, right? It could be very simple, but because there's so much need there some of it is maybe needs that businesses aren't really fully aware of.
I think that translates to an opportunity to help a lot more businesses.
Ann Westerheim
Founder and President, Ekaru
Education has to be first. And it's not just putting people through cyber security training. It's also the education on why. It's so easy for us to say you need to do this, but why? What am I covering? How is that going to better my business? What is my ROI on that? What is that protecting?
It's just a matter of really educating and understanding. If you have those liability waivers saying ‘Oh they declined this service. I'm just going to cross that off the list and, well, it's on them.”
Really, it's not anymore. You've still got that liability on yourself. So as an MSP, that's where we really need to stop and think about are we in alignment of our values. Do I really want to take on that risk because they chose to not understand? Or are we not doing a good enough job educating on why that's important? Yes, it's going to be pain up front to implement the MFA or the SSO or any of those kind of things. But what is the long term benefit? And how is that going to help them? I think education is probably one of the bigger pieces.
Carrie Green
SVP of Operations, Alt-Tech Inc.
of MSPs said cyber security threats
were a top external concern for their
business in 2024
of MSPs currently offer
cyber security services
plan to expand cyber
security services in 2024
While many MSP have backup solutions, managing those backups effectively is an area of growth they are looking to improve in.
Our survey highlights the crucial role of Backup Management beyond just offering backup solutions. MSPs recognizing the growing need for reliable data protection are incorporating it as a key service.
Backup management is seen as taking the foundational service of backups and dedicating more time and resources into efficient management, restoration checks, and health monitoring.
Client data security and access is a vital factor in running a successful business, so it’s no surprise that effectively managing backups is so impactful to the operation of MSPs.
The survey indicates a rising demand from clients for MSPs offering robust backup monitoring. Businesses understand the importance of safeguarding data against potential losses and system failures, making backup service a critical factor in MSP selection.
MSPs specializing in backup management not only meet client demands but also align with compliance standards. This focus can improve an MSPs competitive value and also builds trust with existing clients.
Those prioritizing this service are well-placed to address client needs, build trust, and succeed in the competitive MSP landscape.
Backup management is the basics, is the fundamentals. You have to manage backups. They need to be checked, tested and so on.
If you're serious about your data, it's your data, your risk, your problem, you have to back it up. You have to manage the backups. It should be as integrated as possible. It should be seamless and integrated for all the stakeholders, everyone who's responsible, both the business whose data it is, and those who are responsible for protecting it and able to restore when needed, have to be on absolutely the same page. And again, confident we've got it.
James Ratcliff
Managing Director, Ratcliff IT
If all else fails that's what's going to save you is your backup and nobody wants to be on the other end of the phone call when somebody calls to maybe it's just recovering some files and they're not there.
I would say it's also a lot of work to manage backups. There are so many different scenarios. You can have a scenario where your backup, it's running but your backup set has changed. It's running perfectly, it's not giving any errors, but it's not backing up anything.
So to actually manage backups is a lot of work. I don't see how you cannot manage backup. If you're going to take phone calls to help ‘Hey, I need this file back,’ you better make sure you can get it.
Ann Westerheim
Founder and President, Ekaru
What keeps me up at night, aside from cyber security, backups. Let's take this back. You have a cyber event and you've lost your data, how are you going to get that back? Where's your reputational risk? So it all ties together, but I could not imagine not offering backups.
How many MSPs though are checking those backups? It's not enough just to say you're offering backups. Are you actually checking those backups? Are you verifying the data? Are you pulling and restoring to do those tests? And are you showing that to your customers?
Carrie Green
SVP of Operations, Alt-Tech Inc.
of MSPs say they offer backup
management beyond basic backup
solution service
of those who don't offer it, Backup Management is the highest ranked service they plan to offer in 2024
of those who will offer it in 2024 said it is a service they plan to expand on
Network Management joined the top ranks of important services for MSPs across the board in both 2023 and 2024.
The survey findings highlight a growing awareness among MSPs about the importance of providing robust network management solutions. Because almost every client is now tied to the network, proper management and service is more important than ever.
As cyber security threats continue, MSPs with a focus on network management show clients that they are committed to proactively addressing vulnerabilities and ensuring the integrity of digital communication channels.
I know there's a lot of still servers out there running one way or another that people do use, but is it running, is it doing what it should and is it fast enough?
And that was the limiting factor, the network was mainly internal. It was web browsing and some emails. Now all the applications, everything, and all email, and all the security vectors are all on the network, all through the local and the WAN. Now if something's slow, it's my internet's slow.
So if that's slow, it's a huge impact, more than it used to be, because you can't do anything. So managing the network is obviously more critical and it's more visible. People have now got used to the fact that, yes, they're going to need to have highly manageable, highly reliable networks, but more importantly, [networks] that you and your clients are confident in.
James Ratcliff
Managing Director, Ratcliff IT
You need to know what's on your network. So if you get back to the NIST cybersecurity framework, identify, protect, detect, respond, recover. You need some sort of network management to actually even know what's on your network. I'd say the additional piece of that is if something happens and you need to troubleshoot, you need to have data, otherwise you're walking around with a clipboard trying to figure out what's going on.
You really need to see it more logically presented. Maybe you have to troubleshoot phones, avoid phone issues, you want to have some capability to analyze the network for that. So I think as more stuff runs over the network becomes more important to businesses.
It’s more that we can offer.
Ann Westerheim
Founder and President, Ekaru
of MSPs say they currently offer network management
of those who offer network management plan to expand the service in 2024
Project management has proven to be one of the key differentiating factors for successful MSPs. Being able to go beyond the technical service and manage the execution and communication of larger projects and goals has a substantial positive impact on the client experience.
The survey responses reveal a growing recognition of the importance of providing effective project management solutions. In an industry where successful project execution is essential for business growth, MSPs that take project management seriously are seeing improved employee performance and improved results for clients.
Project management also lets an MSP staff develop their skills and position in the business, offering opportunities for growth and improving employee retention. The impacts of a positive internal company culture reflect in the end result for clients.
Projects for both upgrades, implementing new systems, improving people's businesses and taking that step forward, and cycling out legacy systems and devices and so on, is super important to all MSPs and their clients.
People like to do that work. It's a fantastic progression for staff, to improve their skills and position. It's interesting work. Most engineers love to get involved and actually where we do it is we'll have as many people involved in the project delivery as they can. But having a solid project management methodology, again, is a key differentiator.
…And I think the fact that people are recognizing that project management is a valuable part of projects, not just the technical, and that it can be resourced and improved and innovated is overall a good thing.
So if MSPs are able to understand the value and build in the value to their projects, and their clients are willing to do that. I think it's a win that the businesses will get a better, smoother project with the right outcomes.
James Ratcliff
Managing Director, Ratcliff IT
Actually being able to get stuff done because project management helps you keep stuff on track. I think it also helps a lot with communications, so everybody can know where they're at. There's a plan. You can communicate progress against the plan.
And I think also from employee satisfaction, some folks have very great organizational skills, some people don't. People who don't have good organizational skills run the risk of being really overwhelmed and feeling ‘Oh, I can't get anything done.’ Nothing gets done. It makes them frustrated.
…
I've been thinking a lot from the employee side, when once they feel overwhelmed it really turns negative. In an MSP, we figure there's a certain amount of work we can do. We bill for something. We have to have a level of efficiency and you can't just be inefficient and hire three more people. It doesn't work like that.
You can wind up with people who are very frustrated and then they're in a negative place. They're not delivering on the project. So [project management] actually has grown on my own list.
Ann Westerheim
Founder and President, Ekaru
We've spun out a professional services kind of wing to take on those projects because we're finding that it's no longer just projects within our managed clients. We're getting other people who are like, "Hey, I'm looking at doing this kind of work. Did you guys offer that?" And a lot of times that's a door to crack. So you do a little bit of that project work and then they end up being a monthly client after that.
So having those dedicated resources now to pull, they can still pull the technical resources they need from the rest of our organization, but it allows them to do proper scopes of work. It allows us to capture the revenue correctly, the hours, right? It's not just an add on. And it's allowed us to capture a lot of the out of scope work that we were doing before. For essentially free. So now we're actually able to capture that and report on that and it's been hugely beneficial to us.
Carrie Green
SVP of Operations, Alt-Tech Inc.
of respondents say project management has been a service they are focusing on
of MSPs that focus on project management plan to expand in 2024. Additionally another 51.7% of those respondents also plan to expand cloud services as well
Cyber security came in third in services they plan to expand on
ScalePad creates software that helps IT managed service providers work more effectively, both internally and with their clients. From wrangling hardware and software assets to monitoring vital backups and compliance frameworks, our platforms give MSPs the tools they need to succeed.