By Marco Maggio, All Covered VP Strategic Strategies, Konica Minolta

The Evolution of Privacy and the Role of MSPs

Technology will change the IT industry in 2020

We are currently at an incredible tipping point with technology innovation in the IT industry. The concept of a fault-tolerant quantum computing engine and how it could speed up AI & ML is fascinating, but it's also important to consider the ramifications of the pure and simple size of the Data Universe and the impact it will have on our technological evolution.

IDC estimates that the data universe will crack the 40 zettabytes mark in 2020 - that's a 4 with 22 zeros at the end! As amazing as that is, it's difficult to comprehend that 90 percent of that data was generated in the last two years alone.

To think about this in a more practical way, we have to look at the way we collect, secure, store, access and analyze data and that will represent the largest change to our industry in 2020. The scale that weighs the value of your work product when intelligence workers have open access to all data, versus locking everything down and limiting access to everything to enhance data privacy and security, was a daunting question plaguing countless business leaders this past year.

Data privacy will continue to evolve and remain a top concern with the onset of GDPR, CCPA and upcoming legislation being written across the country starting with states like California, Nevada, New York and Washington leading the charge. Data privacy will also continue to change the way we work with data throughout 2020, and security will certainly become even more challenging.  Privacy and security will prove increasingly difficult in the SMB space, where most organizations simply can't keep up with the pace of cybersecurity. SMBs are often unable to maintain a posture that truly protects them and, for this reason alone, it's anticipated that we'll see another uptick in IaaS & SaaS adoption this year.

AI & ML will also have a major impact across all of these areas, from deciphering false alerts in remote monitoring, to interpreting network traffic preventing malicious attacks, to analyzing and visualizing the endless streams of information coming into our data centers. This also creates an opportunity for 5G -  which already made a splash in 2019 -  to continue the evolution of how and when our clients use Wi-Fi.

Technology innovation is happening at an unimaginable rate, creating a challenge in determining which technologies will make the largest impact. The only consistent variable remaining is that more change is coming, and it will arrive at an alarming pace. As we become more permanently connected, at home and at work, we're also generating more data as we approach yottabytes in storage. As an MSP, we will uncover exponentially higher levels of value that we can drive for our customers, specifically on the way we collect, secure, store, access and analyze our clients' data.

The Role of MSP's Will Shift in the Coming Years

Our role, our value and our existence as an MSP will change dramatically over the next few years. When you think about the traditional role of an MSP to date, it has been solely focused on proactively managing a physical network with servers, PC switches, routers, etc. Now, as more organizations encroach a server-less environment with access from any device from anywhere at any time, the focus of an MSP will continue to shift to improving clients' data experience. As all MSPs reinvent our value proposition to our clients, the ability to prepare them for rapid technology shifts will certainly keep us on our toes and help them focus on their desired business results and let us leverage our world-class expertise to effectively manage the technology.

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About the Author

Marco is responsible for All Covered's best of class vertical teams and owns the go-to-market strategy and execution for the Education, Finance, Healthcare, and Legal verticals. Marco is focused on driving sustainable value for our clients by providing a comprehensive suite of technology services, countless strategic industry offerings, and security & compliance services so that our clients can focus on their core competencies. He joined All Covered in August of 2013 and previously held the role of the Legal Practice Director.

Marco has 20+ years of experience leading sales & support teams for various products, solutions, and services across numerous industries. Marco currently holds degrees in industrial engineering, marketing & communication arts and has held executive leadership positions at organizations such as Lanier, Mosaic, Ricoh, and Hewlett Packard before joining Konica Minolta.