The MSPVerse – Weekly Managed Services News and Analysis for the Week Ending May 13, 2022
My opinion and analysis of the week’s news and events in a succinct summary format. Feel free to comment.
Security and Efficiency in your MSP Practice
It might seem counterintuitive, but security and efficiency are both possible, but it does require some effort. While the first decade or so of the managed services profession could be generally characterized as MSPs seeking greater efficiency, the modern-day MSP is largely preoccupied with security. Both ought to be a goal and reality for all MSPs.
Backup for the Modern day MSP
We went through a “phase” about 10 years ago when everything we discussed was focused on backup. While backup may seem like yesterday’s news, it still is a vital technology and business practice for both MSPs and customers.
Storagepipe CEO Steve Rodin joined the MSPZone and shared his thoughts on the role of backup technologies for the modern-day MSP.
Governments Try to Help MSPs
Several agencies from several governments throughout the world have jointly issued guidance on MSP supply chain threats and how to mitigate them. The United States government agency CISA was one of the groups taking part in the advisory document aimed at addressing cyber threats towards MSPs and their customers.
Just a curious side note on this effort; while we very much appreciate government agencies coming out in 2022 and giving us recommendations on how to improve managed services supply chain integrity, it would be a huge mistake to think that these agencies developed these “best practices.” In fact, these MSP best practices have been around for a long time. But, glad to see them coming around. Better late than never.
Microsoft Expands Managed Services Efforts
Microsoft has been a dominant player in the IT channel for a long time. They have also not been shy about their willingness to use the IT channel (including MSPs) while at the same time offering competitive offerings to the end-user market such as managed services.
Microsoft recently announced new managed services offerings focused on mid-market and enterprise security. While the number of MSPs focused on these market segments may be smaller than SMB, it does raise possible business issues for those providers who could end up competing for managed services contracts with the company from Redmond.
MSPs I have been talking to have also expressed discomfort with recent licensing and pricing changes Microsoft has made to its Office 365 products. We will continue to watch this issue as it evolves.
