This blog is good news for any MSP that has ambition and vision. And, for any MSP that has been worried about the future of this profession there is some good news for those that will listen. I’ll explain how.
The MSP channel community has, for years, been wondering how Microsoft, Google, and other large vendors, will be impacting the channel. In particular, MSPs have been concerned with these giants and their cloud ambitions. For the last few years I’ve been hearing nothing else from MSPs; but could it be possible that these fears have been misplaced? 
It’s true that Microsoft and Google are competing in a bitter battle on a number of fronts. Search, mobile, cloud, and desktop, these are just a few of the competitive battlefields. Some MSPs have been concerned that the battle of these giants would spill over into the channel and negatively impact the managed services community. Office 365 and Google Apps are the two cloud based office productivity suites that have interfered with the status quo of many MSPs. But, what if this concern was misplaced?
In a recent announcement, Microsoft claimed that it was making progress in the promotion and accpetance of Office 365. While some MSPs may wonder where the good news is in this announcement. Here it is. Accourding to Microsoft, over 90% of Office 365 customers are coming from businesses with less than 50 users. Still wondering? If this statistic is correct, then the impact of Office 365 (and probably Google Apps as well) should be relatively minimal to MSPs. The managed services market has traditionally been at the 50 end-user seat level and above. Sure, a lot of our members may have a few cuetomsrs with fewer than 50 users but they probably don’t add up to a lot and I’m guessing that the revenue from these clients pales in comparison to those larger customers, those north of 50 users.
If you really read between the lines of this news, the impact of these “threatening” cloud based applications should not really have any effect on MSPs at all. If it does, MSPs should heed what other successful MSPs have been doing for over 15 years; go upstream. If the sub-50 user market is going to be dominated by Google and Microsoft then why fight that battle? Go into an area where we all know there is less competition, more demand for managed services, and fewer qualified MSPs capable of delivering those services.
The sub-50 user market doesn’t demand high touch, valuable managed services offerings. This is why they are ideal candidates for commoditized cloud and managed services products. Why not acknowledge this fact of life and go where MSPs are not only wanted but where you can make real money? Upstream is wehre the future of managed services is, has been, and will be in the future. If you aren’t swimming upstream today, I would start paddling very quickly.