Managed Services are changing to meet increasingly specific market needs. This is true for small and medium-sized enterprises that want to start their migration path to the cloud or integrate a transversal cybersecurity strategy, as well as for large companies. The latter refer to an increasingly interconnected and complex IT infrastructure, which must be active 24 hours a day to be able to offer a continuous service. Being online constantly is a necessity that no service provider can help, because from a network infrastructure may depend on the very existence of a company. These two market needs have led to a pervasive transformation of Managed Services, which first of all involves cloud and cybersecurity, with specialized solutions and changes in the market scenario.
Enterprise clouding requires more specialized Managed Services
In recent years, a more niche need has strengthened: enterprise clouding. All main public cloud solutions, such as those provided by Microsoft, Amazon and Google, are very large and often generalized. To increase their efficiency, companies are not only interested in a cloud infrastructure that is efficient and scalable, but also in being able to take advantage of those features typical of on-premise IT environments. The combination of these needs allows the company to have total control over multiple aspects of the corporate cloud. Supporting this need is one of the main vehicles for the evolution of those Managed Services Provider (MSP) offerings on the market. Service providers are therefore introducing more niche solutions, but very sectoral and capable of aligning themselves with very specific market needs.
Hybrid IT changes the face of MSPs
According to Gartner, the hybrid IT infrastructure, combining private solutions with a public cloud service, has gone from being an ancillary feature of a company's organization, to being a real pillar. This need develops through two ways. Managed Services Providers must be prepared to face the convergence of hybrid solutions in order to remain competitive through offers adapted to the heterogeneous situation of their customers. On the other hand, companies must ensure, before choosing a Managed Services Provider, that the latter is actually in step with the evolutions of the IT market. This is also the reason why Managed Services Providers are actively investing in continuous training projects for their staff.
Managed Services and RPA
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will strengthen its role within the digital transformation strategies of companies. Freeing up the most competent resources maximizes core business activity, allowing personnel to concentrate skills in the most critical operations that require more attention. This result can only be achieved by automating the most frequent routines and allowing all departments of a company, from HR to Business Operations, to express themselves at their best. According to research by Gartner, by 2022, global spending in RPA will reach 2.4 billion dollars and 85% of large - or very large - companies will have implemented an RPA system within their own organization. By automating the most monotonous tasks (from resetting passwords and IVR to automatic ticketing of technical problems reported by users), staff can focus, for example, on customer service or the most important tickets to be solved. RPA's commercial solutions take advantage of advanced Machine Learning algorithms, thanks to which Managed Services Providers can offer a constantly improving service. Artificial Intelligence, the large branch within which Machine Learning falls, allows us to imitate human behavior. RPA solutions can therefore be integrated into existing processes, reducing implementation time and covering various business areas and activities.
Managed Services for cybersecurity exceed $ 10 billion
Just as cyber attacks continue to evolve, defenses also need to do so, constantly. An effective managed service to protect companies from potential cyberattacks, in fact, can no longer only prevent (an element that remains, in any case, fundamental), but must also be able to guarantee a rapid and fluid resumption of business activity in the event of a successful attack. According to Gartner's latest "Magic Quadrant for Managed Security Services", in 2018 the Managed Security Services market was worth $10.7 billion worldwide. Attention to cybersecurity will be increasingly high and generic MSPs such as telco, system integrators and IT outsourcers will work to specialize their offers and meet the needs of the market. Vulnerability management, threat intelligence and incident response solutions will become increasingly central. This scenario will be further diversified by the migration from on-premise technologies to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions.