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3 Enterprise IT Factors That Will Make MSPs More Successful in 2022

Dennis Callaghan
OpsRamp

A new study by OpsRamp on the state of the Managed Service Providers (MSP) market concludes that MSPs face a market of bountiful opportunities but must prepare for this growth by embracing complex technologies like hybrid cloud management, root cause analysis and automation.

With digital transformation initiatives accelerating in the wake of the pandemic even as internal IT departments wrestle with the Great Resignation, 2022 is shaping up to be another banner year for MSPs. the survey shows that MSPs are bullish on growth, both for their own businesses and in the economy as a whole. 85% of survey respondents are either extremely positive (39%) or somewhat positive (46%) about growth prospects in 2022.

One reason for this optimism could be that businesses will keep investing in technology to stay ahead of their competitors, especially as digital transformation accelerates in the wake of the pandemic. And most organizations will need outside help (from service providers) to keep their IT environments and services humming smoothly, especially as the Great Resignation takes its toll on internal staffing.

MSPs aren't just bullish about overall economic growth. They believe this will translate into an expansion of their own businesses. Nearly half of respondents (46%) expect their managed services business to grow more than 10% this year, with another 44% expecting growth rates of between 2 and 9%. Just 7% expect their managed services business to flatline in 2022 and only 3% expect to see a decline in revenue. But that doesn't mean that complex IT problems will get any easier to solve.

Root Cause Analysis Both a Challenge and Opportunity

One of those complex IT problems is finding the root cause of IT performance issues. The survey indicated that faster root cause analysis was both the top IT monitoring challenge faced by MSPs, cited by 46% of respondents, as well as the No. 1 AIOps capability critical to winning deals, cited by 48% of respondents.

It's About the Cloud, and the Network

We asked MSPs to name just one technology that would get the most traction in 2022. Managed cloud services and managed network services tied for the top spot, each garnering 20% of responses, outpacing managed security services, at 16%. IT infrastructure monitoring was the clear winner for the most critical technology needed to manage delivery of those services, selected by 55% of respondents, followed by network performance monitoring at 47%.

Don't Just Monitor, Automate!

While monitoring is critical for service delivery management, MSPs are looking to do more than just keep an eye on service performance. More than half of all respondents cited the ability to automate routine tasks as the monitoring capability that was most critical to winning deals. Nearly half cited hybrid monitoring as the most critical monitoring capability as MSPs' manage workloads running both in the cloud and on-premises. They need monitoring tools that can handle both, as well as automate configuration changes and IT processes.

MSPs are competing in a growing but challenging market for managed IT services. While customers are prepared to spend more money for the right services, their needs are growing increasingly complex along with their IT environments.

Dennis Callaghan is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at OpsRamp

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3 Enterprise IT Factors That Will Make MSPs More Successful in 2022

Dennis Callaghan
OpsRamp

A new study by OpsRamp on the state of the Managed Service Providers (MSP) market concludes that MSPs face a market of bountiful opportunities but must prepare for this growth by embracing complex technologies like hybrid cloud management, root cause analysis and automation.

With digital transformation initiatives accelerating in the wake of the pandemic even as internal IT departments wrestle with the Great Resignation, 2022 is shaping up to be another banner year for MSPs. the survey shows that MSPs are bullish on growth, both for their own businesses and in the economy as a whole. 85% of survey respondents are either extremely positive (39%) or somewhat positive (46%) about growth prospects in 2022.

One reason for this optimism could be that businesses will keep investing in technology to stay ahead of their competitors, especially as digital transformation accelerates in the wake of the pandemic. And most organizations will need outside help (from service providers) to keep their IT environments and services humming smoothly, especially as the Great Resignation takes its toll on internal staffing.

MSPs aren't just bullish about overall economic growth. They believe this will translate into an expansion of their own businesses. Nearly half of respondents (46%) expect their managed services business to grow more than 10% this year, with another 44% expecting growth rates of between 2 and 9%. Just 7% expect their managed services business to flatline in 2022 and only 3% expect to see a decline in revenue. But that doesn't mean that complex IT problems will get any easier to solve.

Root Cause Analysis Both a Challenge and Opportunity

One of those complex IT problems is finding the root cause of IT performance issues. The survey indicated that faster root cause analysis was both the top IT monitoring challenge faced by MSPs, cited by 46% of respondents, as well as the No. 1 AIOps capability critical to winning deals, cited by 48% of respondents.

It's About the Cloud, and the Network

We asked MSPs to name just one technology that would get the most traction in 2022. Managed cloud services and managed network services tied for the top spot, each garnering 20% of responses, outpacing managed security services, at 16%. IT infrastructure monitoring was the clear winner for the most critical technology needed to manage delivery of those services, selected by 55% of respondents, followed by network performance monitoring at 47%.

Don't Just Monitor, Automate!

While monitoring is critical for service delivery management, MSPs are looking to do more than just keep an eye on service performance. More than half of all respondents cited the ability to automate routine tasks as the monitoring capability that was most critical to winning deals. Nearly half cited hybrid monitoring as the most critical monitoring capability as MSPs' manage workloads running both in the cloud and on-premises. They need monitoring tools that can handle both, as well as automate configuration changes and IT processes.

MSPs are competing in a growing but challenging market for managed IT services. While customers are prepared to spend more money for the right services, their needs are growing increasingly complex along with their IT environments.

Dennis Callaghan is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at OpsRamp

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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