5 IT Trends That Benefited MSPs in 2013
The needs of our customers change every day. Many of the trends in 2013 were distressing for MSPs, as more businesses moved to large cloud providers and PC sales continued to slump. Fortunately, many of the trends provided tremendous opportunities for IT providers who were able to leverage new technologies for their customers.
As I consider the past 12 months, here are some of the trends that most benefited the MSP community:
- Cloud Adoption: I certainly don’t need to tell this crowd about the seismic paradigm shift the cloud has caused. The cloud continues to grow, as businesses of all sizes adopt the model. As huge as Amazon has grown, however, more and more businesses are realizing that a more nuanced approach is required. MSPs are providing the support to help their customers determine what can be stored publicly and what should be supported locally. Those same customers turned to their MSPs for private cloud deployment and public cloud planning.
- Lower-Cost SSD Drives: Performance is key. Functioning “well enough” doesn’t cut it for most customers today, particularly with remote and cloud connectivity. The cost of Flash memory has been steadily decreasing. This allows cloud systems that are simultaneously accessed by many users to be faster and more responsive than ever, finally bringing virtual desktop and server performance closer to their physical counterparts.
- Convergence: Converged systems—and, increasingly, “hyper-converged” systems—are growing in popularity. These coordinated systems are designed to work together to make system design, maintenance and expansion easier and quicker. It has allowed MSPs to simplify their day-to-day support activities to focus more on the end user experience and supporting customer business goals.
- Tablet and Mobile Device Sales: As PC sales have fallen, tablet and smartphone sales have exploded. With demands for BYOD, remote access and combined personal/professional devices, a whole new area of IT management has developed. From policy and planning to security and support, IT service professionals are now being called upon to support more than server racks and PCs.
- Data and Network Security: NSA snooping, breaches of major cloud providers and the theft of thousands of passwords by cybercriminals … cybersecurity is a hot topic today. With work devices also being used for personal interests, increasing amounts of business-critical data being stored in the cloud and continuous connectivity, data security is a major concern for many customers. This is particularly true for those dealing with sensitive customer information, such as health or financial data. MSPs who know the latest security standards and tools are in high demand as customers work to ensure that the only ones with access to their systems are themselves.
The anticipated IT trends in the year to come will build on these themes. Gartner predicts that the top strategic technology trends for 2014 will include mobile device diversity and management; mobile apps; the “Internet of everything” and “smart” machines; hybrid and personal clouds; and cloud/client architecture. As a community of IT and cloud professionals, we need to be on the cutting edge of our increasingly interconnected and interdependent world to serve our customers into the future.
John McCallum is vice president of Sales at Zenith Infotech. Monthly guest blogs such as this one are part of Talkin' Cloud's annual platinum sponsorship.