Now in its 11th year, the research includes data about the priorities, challenges and predictions of more than 1200 MSPs worldwide.
Key findings showed that compliance is becoming a bigger pain point for MSPs’ customers, with 74 per cent of MSPs stating that their customers struggle to meet regulatory compliance requirements.
MSPs have been stepping up to help customers navigate this, with 75 per cent of respondents either offering or interested in offering compliance services. 59 per cent had clients that were required to comply with HIPAA guidelines, followed by PCI DSS (41 per cent) and GDPR (27 per cent).
Cybersecurity also remained a key concern — 50 per cent of those surveyed said their business is more at risk to cybercrime compared to one year ago, an 11 per cent increase from 2021’s data.
Almost half of MSPs reported that a significant portion of their clients fell victim to a cyberattack within the last 12 months. Although cybersecurity is a concern, it's also been a revenue driver for MSPs — the survey found that 50 per cent of MSPs evaluate the threat landscape quarterly to add new service offerings for their organisation.
While the threat of cyber attacks continues to grow, only four per cent of respondents said that 100 per cent of their client base has an active incident response plan. About half of the respondents reported that only 25 per cent of their clients had an active response plan, and eight per cent of MSPs stated that none of their clients had a plan in place.
Most MSPs are testing their disaster recovery capabilities, but frequency was shown to vary. The survey found that 30 per cent of MSPs simulate disaster recovery capabilities quarterly, 25 per cent test annually and nine per cent test monthly — with 15 per cent admitting that they never test.
Nearly a quarter of respondents (22 per cent) said that remote workforce setup as the top service requested by their clients, followed by cloud migration (21 per cent) and business continuity (13 per cent). 36 per cent selected remote work as one of the top three IT problems for clients in 2022.
Supply chain issues and hiring were two major challenges MSPs expected to face in 2022, with 92 per cent saying supply chain issues have impacted their ability to sell solutions while 19 per cent said hiring would be the primary challenge this year — a 15 per cent jump from 2021.
Integration among core applications including RMM, PSA and IT documentation software was described as critical or very important to 64 per cent of MSPs, and 78 per cent said this integration helps to drive bottom-line profits.
In addition to the focus on key services for their SMB clients, many MSPs are assessing the landscape and their readiness to buy or sell, with the research finding that nearly 36 per cent of respondents plan to sell or acquire within the next 24 to 36 months.
“With Covid-19 continuing to affect everything from global logistics to the work environment, it’s no surprise that 76 per cent of MSPs said the pandemic affected their ability to expand services within their customer base,” said Mike Puglia, chief strategy officer at Kaseya.
“There’s an increased need for the security, business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) and remote work support services that are driving revenue growth for MSPs, and we expect the demand for these services to continue in 2022 and beyond.”