The global managed IT services market will reach $354.8 billion by 2026, up from $242.9 billion in 2021, according to MarketsAndMarkets research. That's a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9 percent during the forecast period, the market research firm says.
The growth rate largely aligns with ChannelE2E's repeated MSP market forecasts in 2020 and 2021, during which we predicted that the the MSP industry would grow somewhere between 8 percent and 9 percent annually.
In contrast, the MSSP (managed security services provider) market is growing closer to 12 percent to 15 percent annually, MSSP Alert forecasts. Much of the MSSP industry growth involves SOC (security operations center) as a service (SOCaaS), and the expansion from traditional MSSP services toward MDR (managed detection and response) and XDR (eXtended detection and response), MSSP Alert asserts.
MSP Market Growth, Size & Forecast: Managed Services Research Trends
Meanwhile, the MarketsAndMarkets managed services research report largely focuses on the enterprise MSP market. Key trends in that market segment, according to the research firm, include:
- The emergence of new technologies such as blockchain, AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning), and data analytics is helping MSPs to enhance their offerings and empower organizations.
- 60% of enterprises reported that the IT challenges are becoming more acute, and IT is getting harder to manage.
- Roughly 90% of the IT enterprises report that their cloud skills gaps nearly doubled from 2016 to 2019, in one or more cloud disciplines, compared with just 50% in 2016.
- Nearly 70% of the enterprises are reaching out to MSPs to fill cloud IT skill gaps.
- By implementing managed IT infrastructure services, it is possible for customers to reduce server and network downtime by more than 85%.
- By bypassing the need for additional staffing costs, enterprises that embrace MSPs have experienced a 42% savings in IT budget.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Public Cloud Services and MSPs
With the trends above in mind, ChannelE2E is closely tracking if or when RPA (robotic process automation) will influence, transform and/or further automate MSPs in the SMB sector.
Early RPA movers in the MSP market include ElectroNeek, which has raised $20 million to promote RPA to MSPs. Also, Ingram Micro agreed to distribute UiPath’s RPA software worldwide, the two technology companies confirmed in May 2021.
Also of note, ChannelE2E is tracking the continued rise of public cloud MSPs focused on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and/or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
