- The Future of Intel and Why it Matters to the Channel (and the World)
- HPE OpsRamp: MSPs ‘Remarkably Optimistic’ About Business Growth
- MSP Tools Platform Vendors Cozy Up To Cybersecurity
- Businesses’ Generative AI Needs Create MSP Opportunities
Each week, MSSP Alert brings you channel-focused business news from our affiliate site ChannelE2E.
We know that security service providers care about more than cybersecurity. There are business issues, news about tools, artificial intelligence advancements, and more. This week, we explore Pat Gelsinger's exit from Intel and how the chip giant's decline impacts the channel, an HPE OpsRamp survey that showed MSPs are "remarkably optimistic" about the growth potential, why MSPs are cozying up to cybersecurity vendors and how the need for generative AI solutions is creating opportunities for MSPs.
Here’s a look at the top headlines for the week from ChannelE2E.
The Future of Intel and Why it Matters to the Channel (and the World)
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger stepped down from the top job at the troubled semiconductor giant this week. The news came about a month after Canalys Chief Analyst Jay McBain made the bold prediction that Intel would cease to exist in its current form one way or another by the new year.
McBain’s prediction was focused on Intel’s foundry business and a belief that this business would have to be spun off, among other factors.
A decade or more ago, all the big chip makers divested their manufacturing operations – they went “fabless.” They designed the chips but outsourced the manufacturing to contract manufacturers such as TSMC. All the big companies, including AMD and Nvidia, went fabless. Only one company held onto its manufacturing operations – Intel. Today, TSMC performs 90% of chip manufacturing.
When Gelsinger returned to Intel as CEO in 2021, he saw the foundry business as an opportunity to rebuild the company where he spent the first 30 years of his career. He pursued a strategy of offering contract manufacturing to other chipmakers like AMD and Nvidia.
HPE OpsRamp: MSPs ‘Remarkably Optimistic’ About Business Growth
Have the golden days of double-digit year-over-year MSP revenue growth ended? Hardly. Most MSPs (60%) expected their businesses to grow by more than 10% in 2024.
That’s according to a survey of 618 large MSPs commissioned by HPE Business OpsRamp earlier this year. (MSPs surveyed reported at least $25 million in annual managed services revenue.)
“This confidence is fueled by stabilized inflation, post-pandemic economic normalization, and increased investments in AI and cloud technologies, suggesting MSPs feel well-positioned to leverage these trends,” said Taruna Gandhi, head of product marketing for HPE Business OpsRamp, told ChannelE2E. “MSPs are remarkably optimistic about 2024,” she added.
MSP Tools Platform Vendors Cozy Up To Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is now table stakes for MSPs. Customers are demanding these services, and MSPs are following the money. That's why MSP tools platform companies have partnered with or acquired cybersecurity vendors over the last few years. Most recently, RMM and PSA platform SuperOps announced a partnership with Malwarebytes that integrates Malwarebytes' ThreatDown endpoint security products with SuperOps’ IT management platform.
The SuperOps/Malwarebytes deal is only the most recent of several that also include MSP platform vendor N-able acquiring XDR and MDR provider Adlumin. Kaseya recently acquired SaaS Alerts. ConnectWise previously acquired Perch Security. Kaseya previously acquired RocketCyber MDR.
Cybersecurity services offer the highest markup for MSPs, according to Colin Knox, CEO of Gradient MSP, which offers a platform for optimizing billing, sales, costs for MSPs. Knox told ChannelE2E that markup for cybersecurity services is 133% -- the difference between what MSPs pay for those services and what they charge customers for those services.
This cybersecurity trend in the MSP vendor ecosystem comes as MSPs are incorporating cybersecurity into their stacks by integrating EDR, MDR, XDR, and other security technologies for their customers. In many cases, MSPs lead their sales discussions with cybersecurity.
Businesses’ Generative AI Needs Create MSP Opportunities
The fast growth of generative AI across business applications and customers in the last 18 months is creating a steady rush of new opportunities for MSPs that can pivot quickly to serve their customers with the GenAI services they are demanding.
That is the conclusion of a new ISG Market Lens GenAI Use Case Study, which in August asked 201 IT and business decision-makers at Global 2000 enterprises across the Americas and Europe about how they are supporting their internal GenAI initiatives. Some 65% of the respondents said they are working with MSPs on their GenAI projects to gain immediate expertise and knowledge and to address in-house skills limitations, according to the study by the global technology research and advisory firm.
“I think the most important finding for service providers is that the research shows relatively little agreement about which use cases for GenAI will be the most successful long term,” Alex Bakker, an analyst for ISG, told ChannelE2E. “All the evidence we have so far has been accumulated over a fairly short period of time and represents a very dynamic period in the development of AI technology. As the tools mature and more use cases are tested, we will have a better idea of where businesses need to start to guarantee specific benefits.”
The study also found that 45% of enterprises still struggle with finding the right AI skills for their businesses and that enterprise spending on GenAI initiatives is expected to rise by 50% in 2025.
