Global State of the MSP Report

Introduction

Datto surveyed 1,800+ managed service providers (MSPs) worldwide to learn more about who they are and what they care about. The result: a wealth of data and insights on topics that range from how they run their business, what solutions they plan to offer, and what is driving growth in today’s challenging environment.

For the first time, we identified the specific behaviors of high-growth MSPs that separate them from their competition, developing a roadmap for growth. This year, we delved deeper into the technologies MSPs rely on to deliver services to their clients and how they expect that to change in the years ahead. Additionally, we expanded our research to include MSPs who are not Datto partners and focused on ensuring we had strong representation for the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. We’ve also included a Table of Figures at the end of this report to share findings on a regional level.

We conducted our initial research before the COVID-19 pandemic shook the economy worldwide. To better reflect the current mindset of MSPs, we conducted a second, shorter survey* to find out if and how MSP priorities had shifted. You will find information from this second round of research peppered throughout the report.

MSPs are not just the core of the IT Channel and Datto’s business, but essential service providers for millions of small and medium businesses. We hope that this report helps shed light on how MSPs can overcome challenges and grow their businesses in the face of a new SMB landscape.

Major Findings

1. MSPs that set specific growth goals for their business and increase the portion of their revenue from managed services grow faster than their peers. For every 10% of total revenue derived from managed services, MSPs add 0.25 to 0.75 additional points of annual growth to their business. Setting specific revenue targets adds an additional 2 points of annual growth, on average.
2. Cloud migrations and security are expected to drive the managed services opportunity through 2020. MSPs were already expecting cloud migrations and security to be major drivers of managed services, and the impact of COVID-19 on SMBs is accelerating those trends.
3. COVID-19 presents new challenges for MSPs, as well as opportunities. After expecting significant growth in 2020, MSPs revised expectations downward to be nearly flat in light of COVID-19.