The Real State of the Managed Services Industry

When I look back at almost 10 years of this industry I am really inspired by how far we have come. Everybody is talking about managed services and I suppose in some small measure, that makes me feel like I wasn't completely crazy all those years ago telling everyone I met that this thing called managed services was the future of IT management.

Today, however, too much of a good thing can actually be bad. Case in point, conflict in the managed services channel. At some point it was inevitable that vendors would get wind of managed services and start to become jealous of all the benefits MSPs were receiving from this professional model. Today, there are some people who would have you believe that MSPs are concerned about this industry. I would take issue with such a position.

The Managed Services profession is at the early stages of end-user adoption. This means that over the next 5-10 years more and more end-users will be using MSPs to manage their IT. Naturally, this is a good thing for MSPs.

However, any pessimism that exists today in the IT channel (i.e., the MSP world at large) is primarily focused on vendors who are both courting the MSP and end-user community simultaneously. MSPs simply want a relationship with their vendors that is devoid of any conflicts. MSPs want to work with their vendors and talk about product roadmaps, solving customer problems, and other such things of importance. The last thing a MSP wants from their vendor is to worry about whether they are going to lose clients to a direct sales person cold calling on behalf of the vendor.

Yet, as serious as these issues are, I believe the average MSP out there is pretty optimistic about the future of managed services. Are you?