ChannelE2E predicted the answer would go something like this: In addition to infrastructure monitoring, we figured MSPs would introduce application performance monitoring (APM) to maintain and optimize on-premises and cloud applications. The overall goal: Improve customer and user experiences (CX and UX). It seems like we are starting to see the beginnings of that prediction come to fruition.
MSPs that bank solely on traditional hardware management for recurring revenue may hold a losing hand very soon. There are already predictions that by 2020, over 95 percent of IT workloads will be in the cloud. With the revenue streams of the past fading quickly for MSPs, it is no wonder they are looking to fill the gap, and APM seems to be one way to do that.
MSP Launches Enterprise Monitoring and Analytics Practice
A case in point: AHEAD, a provider of IT consulting and enterprise cloud solutions, recently announced the expansion of its services portfolio into APM with the launch of an Enterprise Monitoring and Analytics practice. The practice will initially concentrate on Application Performance Management and the Cisco AppDynamics product line -- but quickly will expand into measuring and optimizing all facets of enterprise cloud performance, the company says.
The company claims that the Enterprise Monitoring and Analytics practice will also utilize platforms like BigPanda. The offering will provide the instrumentation and processes to baseline, analyze, present and alert on all measures of system performance.
In preparation for this launch, AHEAD named Joe Wrzosek as practice lead for the new Enterprise Monitoring and Analytics services. Wrzosek brings more than 17 years of experience in enterprise IT, and will directly spearhead the new practice, the company says.
Wrzosek said in a prepared statement, “From automated performance testing as part of DevOps code promotion, to identifying operational issues before they impact business, to injecting defect information back into the software development lifecycle, our new Enterprise Monitoring and Analytics services will help clients add more transparency and end-to-end oversight to IT.”
How long with AHEAD remain ahead of the MSP crowd -- particularly when it comes to APM services? We expect to get some answers during conferences like Datadog Dash 2018 (July) and AWS re:Invent 2018 (December). Both events are expected to attract cloud-centric MSPs.
Datadog, which has a growing base of MSPs, develops cloud-scale monitoring tools for infrastructure, applications, logs and more. For its part, AHEAD typically attends and promotes its services at AWS re:Invent.
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
