MSPs (Managed Service Providers) are putting together their 2023 plans as 2022 comes to a close. Successful projects will take advantage of trends that will emerge within 12 months. Describe them. The MSP market will be shaped by the following five significant trends in 2023.
1. Consolidation will be the main thought.
The MSP industry experienced growing consolidation last year, with more established businesses absorbing less well-known competitors to spur expansion. This consolidation trend will persist in 2023 as MSPs turn to acquisitions rather than organic expansion to increase their reach. The industry’s skills gap will accelerate the trend toward consolidation.
MSPs will embrace M&A to find the talent they need and advance their businesses as they struggle to staff their operations effectively. Specialization, another consolidation strategy, will be famous among MSPs in 2023. Being everything to everyone is difficult. Thus MSPs will keep combining their offerings. For instance, due to the complexity of the technology and the high degrees of domain expertise required, a generalist MSP may need help to provide cybersecurity services efficiently. As a result, MSPs will increasingly decide to specialize in a single field or sector where they can provide top-notch services.
2. Datacenter investments will need to be reevaluated due to inflation.
If inflation persists, the pressure to preserve earnings in 2023 will be on MSPs. As a result, they will need to review every part of their organization, including how their business model operates and how to accomplish growth in a setting where expenditures are unpredictable. The cost of the data center, which includes the ever-rising cost of storing data in public clouds, is one of the most significant expenses for any MSP.
The belief that using the cloud is inexpensive is being called into doubt as a result of the considerable price increases these massive data centers are being forced to impose.
Indeed, research company Canalys predicts that due to the surge in energy costs, public cloud pricing will increase by more than 30% in Europe and around 20% in the U.S.
Because of this, a trend for MSPs in 2023 will be to move away from the major public clouds and look for more affordable, high-performance storage options local to them. Rising energy costs may also prompt some SMBs to completely reevaluate their cloud strategies and begin repatriating their data from the cloud back on-premises. This development will provide MSPs with a new chance to offer on-premises storage and data backup options to their clients.
3. Demand for data recovery will increase.
Any business may back up its information. The actual test is how quickly it can restore that data following a hack or other disturbance. Too many MSPs and their clients think that backing up data is the beginning and end of disaster planning, but they need to remember that backup alone is insufficient. MSPs will begin to focus more of their efforts in 2023 on assisting clients with swift data recovery in an emergency. Customers will be advised on creating a solid recovery plan as the first step in these efforts.
Data backups resemble a jigsaw puzzle. Without a solid recovery strategy, restoring it would be like assembling a puzzle without the top-of-the-box image. It takes a lot more time. Companies don’t have time when interruption strikes; therefore, they must recover their data immediately rather than waiting days or weeks. When time is of the essence, and prompt, decisive action is required, a strong recovery strategy helps them put everything back together.
4. CRaaS will offer tremendous potential.
Cyber-recovery as a service will be a significant market for MSPs in 2023. (CRS).
IDC asserts that CRaaS is a service whose time has come, particularly in light of the ongoing ransomware attacks that require victims to pay a hefty fee to regain access to their data. IDC thinks MSPs benefiting from CRaaS will find high-growth prospects with healthy margins.
Customers like CRaaS because it relieves them of the laborious chore of backing up their data and gives them immutable, untouchable copies of it. Data is safeguarded via immutable storage by using snapshots every 90 seconds.
With the help of these snapshots, it is possible to quickly restore whole file systems and go back in time to precise moments before an assault. Consequently, clients may rapidly and easily convert their information to a relatively recent point even if a ransomware attack is successful and a lousy actor overwrites the current data state.
5. Customers’ to-do lists will include data tiering at the top.
Organizations of all sizes will reconsider how they keep their data as energy costs climb. Not all data is equally valid, and not all are created equal. Additionally, if saving money is the main objective, keeping or backing up all of the organization’s data is optional.
Many redundant data, such as system images or replacement data, can be kept for a short time. Remote employees, who frequently mash together their personal and professional data, are a case in point. The last thing a business wants to do is spend money keeping all of its data on its computers.
By offering storage systems with data-tiering capabilities, MSP market may gain a lot. Organizations can shift less-frequently used data to less expensive storage levels thanks to data tiering. It enables them to save money on storage while protecting their most important data. Because consumers use less computer power for storage, data tiering has the additional benefit of improving energy efficiency and resulting in cheaper electricity costs.
Data tiering will become increasingly important in 2023 as storage costs rise.
Conclusion
For practically all industries, the upcoming year is complicated. The MSP market’s successful participants will recognize trends and modify their strategies to capitalize on them. They are the ones who will prosper in 2023 and beyond.
