IDC Survey Reveals New Demands in Increasingly Competitive MSP Space

Managed service providers have been hit with a huge wave of activity over the last two years, as businesses and enterprises look to join in on the cloud evolution sweeping the modern economy. Although this has been relatively good news for MSPs, the increasing demand for these services has caused competition to rise across the board. As a result MSP leaders are now on high alert to make sure new offerings and solutions are meeting the evolving demands of new and existing customers.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) recently released the results of a new survey titled Managed CloudView 2021, which analyzes the new business requirements managed service providers should focus on to remain competitive in the coming years.

"Ensuring success in the managed cloud services market will require that managed SPs provide a means of adapting their talent, technologies, processes, and organizational structures to meet client needs; integrate professional services into managed cloud services; emphasize customer centricity; and work with cloud service provider partners to optimize matrix position and market opportunities," said David Tapper, Program VP, Outsourcing and Managed Cloud Services at IDC.

IDC found the following to be necessary points of focus for maintaining a competitive edge in the MSP space:

• Cloud Strategy and Business Resiliency-Organizations are becoming increasingly interested in public cloud capabilities, multi cloud management platforms, and emerging technologies (IoT, edge computing, blockchain)
• Critical Metrics-The need to quickly move IT infrastructure to the cloud is becoming a higher priority for customers.
• Enterprise Maturity-Businesses and enterprises are growing more concerned about service level agreement and security features, and are looking to invest more in these services over the next year.
• Sourcing Strategy-customers are becoming more interested in working directly with managed service providers for a direct line of communication.
• Advanced Automated Technologies-Firms are interested in adopting no code/low code solutions, AI, and machine learning to enhance IT functionality. 
• Operational Expectations- Enterprises are collectively becoming more conscious of the environmental impact of their operations, and working with MSPs that maintain status as centers of excellence(CoE).

Readers can click here to for more details on the IDC survey report.

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