It used to be that offshore outsourcing (be it managed services or any other form of outsourcing) was frowned upon and marginalized as being useful only for those companies looking to cut costs with less expensive services. Years ago managed service providers used to go to great lengths to explain to customers that they were delivering "onshore" or in country IT services, which goes a long way for a lot of organizations who turn over their IT management to a MSP.
Today, however, a new era of managed services may be arriving where MSPs will actually have an advantage based on the location of their service delivery staff and infrastructure. Regardless of your political views regarding the NSA PRISM program, MSPs must address the issue of where customer data resides and who touches it. For some MSPs (those who have customers sensitive to data privacy and security), the location of the MSP NOC/help desk and infrastructure could actually become a selling point. This could also potentially include MSPs creating offshore service delivery or data storage capabilities.
There is much that isn't known about the US government's surveillance programs but more disclosures are being made every day and these disclosures are casting even greater doubt as to the privacy data that resides in the cloud. For MSPs who do have customers with sensitivities to data privacy and security, it would be wise to begin tailoring your service delivery architecture to address customers who demand more security and privacy controls when it comes to the management of their data.
While it is unclear what will happen in the next 12-24 months, it does seem very clear that every day people are becoming more and more aware of who may be looking at their data. MSPs should be aware of this trend and be ready to respond with real solutions.
