For years, I have personally heard from countless analysts and so-called "experts" in the IT field that the managed services profession was going to be a "flash in the pan," a temporary anomaly in the IT channel. Today, there are many indicators that the managed services profession is not only a long term ingredient in managing IT but that the MSP profession is going to be around for a very long time.
For reasons I cannot explain, I never believed the analysts when they spoke negatively about managed services. Speaking personally, I had always had a sense of faith and trust in the MSP business model, even before MSPAlliance became what it is today.
While my anecdotal recollections may not be enough for some, I can offer a few examples to support my beliefs.
MSP Spending Reports
Do a quick Gooogle search for managed services spending, and you will get pages of search results all saying the same thing: spending on managed services is on the rise and will continue that way for at least a decade. These reports are coming from a variety of analyst and research firms.
While I cannot vouch for each of these firms, it is undeniable that this many firms forecasting the same result is not coincidental and must be taken seriously. Even taking the Gartner IT spending research should lead reasonable people to conclude that IT services (of which managed service is a significant portion), is on the rise and beating other IT spending categories.
MSP Vendor Valuations
If you need further evidence of managed services strength, take a look at the several MSP platforms companies who have made significant advancements in the last few years.
Thoma Bravo purchased ConnectWise. Datto and Autotask merged to create an MSP tool juggernaut. Most recently, Kaseya announced $500 million in new funding and claimed a corporate valuation of over $1.7 billion.
No matter how you evaluate these indicators, these are all companies whose primary revenue source are MSPs. If MSPs were not doing well, companies like Kaseya, ConnectWise, Datto, Continuum, and others, wouldn't be posting such monumental gains.
Unique MSP challenges aside, our profession is doing quite well. MSPs have tremendous tail winds and more to gain than to lose in the coming years. MSPs have a lot of work ahead. However, the hard work is a marker of the advanceent, and potential our profession has been given.
