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Hybrid IT sparks MSP opportunities
Research from Westcon-Comstor highlights the areas where partners can generate recurring revenues
Hybrid cloud is becoming the popular choice of users and generating opportunities for the managed service partner community, according to Westcon-Comstor.
The distributor, which regularly shares research with partners to identify areas where additional investments and revenues should and could be generated, has found that there is growth in selling cloud, security and data to support hybrid IT.
The idea of dealing with on and off-premise environments and multiclouds is not a fresh concept for partners, but with the increasing cloud repatriation moves and the current focus on sovereignty, the debate about hybrid now seems to have been settled.
MSPs revealed to the distie that cloud migration and management were the areas creating the largest revenue opportunities emerging from hybrid. This was followed by security and threat management, with signs that customer demand for data analytics, governance-led services is increasing.
“In the UK, partners are being asked to make hybrid environments consistent for customers, particularly where data needs to move reliably between platforms,” said René Klein, executive vice-president of Europe at Westcon-Comstor. “The MSPs that productise governance and operational management are the ones best placed to build recurring revenue and defend margin in a competitive market.”
The increasing complexity of hybrid environments is also playing into the hands of those managed service players that can provide the support and expertise customers are looking for, but some partners indicated they were struggling to get into that position.
Further challenges for MSPs included being able to provide consistent security across hybrid environments and to keep on top of governance and compliance requirements.
The advice from the distributor is for partners to develop standardised, governed services that could provide a template that could be repeated to increase recurring revenue. Partners that treat integration, identity and policy as a bundle of services are more likely to be able to package them into repeatable managed services.
“Our research clearly shows that the opportunity for MSPs lies in cloud management, security and data governance – with most of the growth still there for the taking,” said Patrick Aronson, chief marketing officer and executive vice-president of Asia-Pacific at Westcon-Comstor.
“The partners who capture it will be the ones who own the glue layer spanning automation, security and integration, doing the work that turns hybrid complexity into something a customer can rely on month after month,” he added.
Aronson said that the channel player would continue to share research as part of its Future Ready series, and viewed sharing market insights as a critical element in a distributor’s relationship with vendors and partners.
Where MSPs add value
The Westcon-Comstor research lifted the lid on the attributes managed service providers felt were most in demand from customers.
A third of UK respondents stated that being able to act as a trusted adviser for hybrid technology strategy was crucial.
A similar number viewed being able to provide end-to-end management of hybrid systems as their most important role.
Finally, more than half (58%) revealed they were prepared to partner with other MSPs that had specialist expertise they lacked to provide the customer with a more complete hybrid solution.
