Monday Morning Impact – December 4

New Report from Kaseya Explores the Challenges and Opportunities for MSPs

Kaseya has released its third annual “Datto Global State of the MSP: Trends and Forecasts for 2024 Report,” reflecting high growth in the industry, but also increased competition.

“While MSPs have long been the unsung heroes of tech, this year’s survey results clearly speak to a growing understanding of the critical role technology plays in a sustainable business,” said Holly Pateman, Kaseya’s SVP of Product Marketing. “With revenues and competition on the rise, and a focus on the need for a superior customer experience, MSPs have a front row seat to what makes their customers successful. As a result, these MSPs have a clear view into what keeps a major cornerstone of our economy – small and midsize businesses – running.”

According to the report, the MSP industry has exploded over the last few years with major growth in 2023, despite a difficult economic climate. In North America, 68% of MSPs experienced a revenue increase, and among them, 38% saw their revenue grow by more than 10%. Likewise, the revenue increase was also significant in Europe. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of MSPs in Europe experienced year-over-year revenue growth, and among them, 37% of those experienced an increase of more than 10%.

At the same time, the survey notes heavy competition in this space. More than a third (35%) of MSPs globally cite competition as the biggest challenge, up from 29% last year. While seen as a challenge, MSPs are harnessing this competition to drive innovation and are offering solutions to better meet their clients’ needs, with 91% regarding customer experience as a high or top priority.

Among the key findings of the report, 74% of respondents said they prefer to use fewer vendors to meet their technology needs — up from 64% in 2022. Fewer vendors is seen to enable a streamlined supply chain, improving procurement, delivery, deployment, asset management and services. Top services that respondents anticipate adding to their portfolios include collaboration software (27%), business intelligence or analytics software (22%), and incident response and forensics (22%). Approximately half of the respondents report that 50% or more of their clients are shifting their workloads to the cloud. MSPs in North America anticipate the most significant shift in cloud migration in the next three years, driven by clients adopting Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and migrating databases and email servers to the cloud. Nearly half of the respondents (47%) predict that 75% to 99% of their client base will move workloads to the cloud in the next three years. On the cybersecurity front, 28% of respondents cited their customers’ lack of concern about cyber-risks as a major cybersecurity challenge.

The report is based on a survey of 1,575 MSPs worldwide, providing an in-depth look at the current state of the MSP market, demonstrating the critical role MSPs play in the overall success for small and mid-size businesses, as well as how the landscape has evolved and what the industry can expect in the coming year.

Channel Impact^®
The report underscores the importance of customer experience in a highly competitive market, and also reinforces the need for MSPs to be equipped with the tools and knowledge to educate their customers effectively – particularly in the cybersecurity space.

New Ransomware Survey Says Companies Still Don’t Believe They are Targets

OpenText has released the results of its annual 2023 OpenText Cybersecurity Global Ransomware Survey. Findings show a similarity in how small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises (more than 1,000 employees) think about ransomware attacks, including a disconnect about who is a target and growing concern about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by threat actors. While the majority of organizations don’t believe they will be attacked, they do understand the business risks as evidenced by increased security spending and plans to expand security teams.

“The conviction ‘it won’t happen to me’ is a risky mindset,” said Prentiss Donohue, Executive Vice President of OpenText Cybersecurity. “While many businesses take the right defensive steps like using access controls, deploying backup and monitoring for threats, a layered security approach that includes education remains the best defense against ransomware. Ongoing education of the risks as well as the techniques used to perpetuate an attack is essential to avoid falling victim.”

Almost half of SMBs and enterprises (46% each) have experienced a ransomware attack, yet 65% of SMBs don’t think or aren’t sure they are a ransomware target; a slight increase from 59% in 2022. More than half (54%) of enterprises also don’t think, or aren’t sure, they are a ransomware target. While SMBs and enterprises don’t think they are targets, both are still very concerned about ransomware attacks and the use of AI by threat actors, according to the report.

Despite these findings, 90% of SMBs are extremely or somewhat concerned about a ransomware attack. This is a slight increase from the previous year’s 88%. Similarly, most enterprises (87%) are extremely or somewhat concerned about a ransomware attack. Over half (54%) of SMBs and enterprises feel more at risk of suffering a ransomware attack from increased AI use by threat actors.

More than half (57%) of SMBs plan to increase their security budget in 2024. Of these, 40% plan to increase budgets by 5 to 10%; and 33% plan to increase budgets by 10 to 20%.

Similarly, 53% of enterprises plan to increase their security budget in 2024. Of these, 37% plan to increase budgets by 5 to 10%; 31% plan to increase budgets by 10 to 20%.

OpenText Cybersecurity polled 2,016 security, IT professionals, and business leaders from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with up to 1,000 employees, and enterprises with more than 1,000 employees in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia from September 27 to October 17, 2023.

Channel Impact^®
The data, particularly as relates to budget increases, demonstrates a solid market opportunity for channel partners.

TD Synnex Adds New Partner-Driven Features to CommunitySolv

TD Synnex has announced an expansion of its recently launched partner-led CommunitySolv, a network of customer-led peer groups where community members work together to share industry insights and business ideas that foster their growth and success in the channel. The company announced that CommunitySolv will continue to build and facilitate additional groups throughout 2024, as announced during a 3-day event in Palm Springs, Calif.

Facets include events, partner portals and facilitated peer group forums.

“We are constantly evolving our program to ensure we are providing the highest value to our members, and these new additions reflect thoughtful feedback from our partners on what will make the biggest impact for their business,” said Kaye McMillan, SVP, Sales Development and Communities, TD Synnex. “We appreciate the commitment our partners make to this community and look forward to continued partnership that enables their growth in a variety of ways.”

Channel Impact^®
The initiative provides the opportunity for TD Synnex to share its vision and strategy for the upcoming year.