MicroScope+ Premium Content/MicroScope

With IT spending among small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) predicted to enjoy a significant increase, the role of managed service providers (MSPs) is becoming increasingly important as smaller businesses seek to adopt more managed services. Cloud, virtualisation and automation have created a delivery platform that makes the provision of managed services to smaller businesses much more cost-effective and efficient. But what can MSPs do to ensure they make the most of the SME opportunity, and how prepared are they to support SMEs as they shift spending to managed services? One attractive option for MSPs has been to link up with cloud service providers (CSPs) and effectively act as resellers in a cloud brokerage model. But this model is questioned in a report commissioned by Asigra from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), entitled Trends in creating MSP value – a 2020 view. The report acknowledges that the CSP cloud brokerage model has made steady gains in the partner community because it makes the transformation from reselling ...