Top 3 MSP Trends to Watch in 2023

An industry-wide research into the state of managed service providers concluded that in 2023, the 3¹ MSP industry trends to watch for are:

1. Increased need for automation for MSPs and their clients
2. Higher dependency on cybersecurity services
3. Constant integration between different business applications

As discussed previously, since businesses become increasingly reliant on managed services, the growth of managed service providers hinges on weathering the scalability challenges of the whole MSP industry.

In this article, we name companies that are exploring the three MSP industry trends that could be shaping the MSP industry, offering insights into the future of managed services.

1. Automation for both MSPs and their clients

90%² of MSP respondents said that automation and cloud computing is fueling their growth by freeing technicians to focus on business-critical tasks.

For example, RPA is one of the most popular automation tools with the ability to automate between 70-80% of all rule-based tasks within an organization. And with digital transformation poised to add $100T to the world economy by 2025, RPA:

• Is poised to achieve almost universal adoption in the next 5 years
• Market is currently valued at almost $14B³ , and is expected to reach $50B by 2030
• Has exceeded adopters’ non-financial expectations, like accuracy, punctuality, flexibility

However, adoption barriers and automation challenges, such as⁴ process fragmentation, and lack of a clear vision critical infrastructure and IT readiness, is stopping the scaling of intelligent automation (IA) (Figure 1). Managed service providers can do more in helping their clients reach a stage of end-to-end automation by navigating them through these said-challenges.

One way is to partner with an RPA technology provider. However, in a saturated market like RPA, it’s not often easy to find a vendor that can meet your and your clients’ needs. You can learn more about the best practices you can follow when choosing an RPA technology partner by reading our whitepaper:

Guide to Choosing an RPA Technology Partner

2. Cybersecurity services

Managed services industry should be prepared to offer more⁵ security solutions to clients. Business operations are under threat from an increasing number of cyberattacks. That’s evident from managed services industry clients now requiring more cybersecurity data protection-related services than they did in 2022 (Figure 2):

1. Email security (11 to 15%)
2. Security awareness training and phishing testing (7% to 11%)
3. Password manager and identity access management (5% to 8%)

That is why two out of four areas with the highest⁶ rates of growth for security MSPs have been (Figure 3):

• Enhanced security services
  • 2 factor authentication (2FA)
  • Intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS)
  • Dark web monitoring
  • Security awareness training
  • Security patch management
  • Information and event management
  • Penetration testing
• Business continuity and disaster recovery as a service
  • Backup and replication
  • Disaster recovery plans
  • Failover and failback
  • Testing and validation
  • Monitoring and alerting
  • Incident management and support
  • Compliance

We expect these areas to keep on growing, also because more MSPs plan on offering the following services⁷ :

• Regulatory compliance management (39%)
• Managed detection and response (32%)
• Dark web monitoring (32%)
• Identity and access management security (26%)
• Security awareness training (25%)

3. More integrations

90%⁸ of MSP respondents claimed that integration between different applications is integral to theirs and their clients’ business continuity. Specifically, time wastages due to switching between different apps (18%) and suboptimal usage of applications (39%) are the two biggest barriers to organic growth.

As more MSPs’ clients use different applications and systems, in addition to having a remote workforce, MSPs can use more cloud-based services to streamline their own processes, and in extension, offer a better value-proposition to their clients.

The trend has already taken off. For instance, when it comes to a PSA (professional services automation) solution, the most important feature MSPs will look for is how well they integrate with other tools, such as RMM (remote monitoring and management), remote desktop services, and IT documentation (Figure 4).

For MSPs, specifically, the benefit of using cloud based servers include:

• Ability to better support remote workers
• Agility to handle planned and unplanned maintenance
• Scalability to handle new clients, even if they are larger companies that need special attention 

1. “2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey Report.” Kaseya. Retrieved on May 12, 2023.
2. “2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey Report.” Kaseya. Retrieved on May 12, 2023.
3. “Robotic Process Automation Market.” Fortune Business Insights.” Retrieved on May 12, 2023.
4. “Automation With Intelligence.” Deloitte. 30 June, 2022. Retrieved on May 12, 2023.
5. “2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey Report.” Kaseya. Retrieved on May 12, 2023.
6. “2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey Report.” Kaseya. Retrieved on May 12, 2023.
7. “2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey Report.” Kaseya. Retrieved on May 12, 2023.
8. “2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey Report.” Kaseya. Retrieved on May 12, 2023.