Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
2022 will see the continuation of hybrid work, increased compliance regulations and more automation
By Mike Puglia, Chief Strategy Officer, Kaseya
With 2022 right around the corner, now's the time to prepare
for both the challenges and opportunities the new year will bring. Small and
medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will continue to turn to MSPs to meet the
growing need for IT services brought on by the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
IT professionals will need to plan for three market trends - ongoing remote and
hybrid work environments, a growing number of compliance regulations and an
increased need for automation and integration.
The hybrid office is here to stay
During the pandemic, technology enabled us to keep going. Remote and hybrid
work arrangements will persist into the new year and beyond. Businesses will
continue their focus on cloud migration and enabling effective collaboration
for remote teams. MSPs have significant opportunities to shift customers'
workloads to the cloud, manage these cloud solutions and reshape work
environments to ensure maximum productivity, regardless of location. Also, due
to the evolving threat landscape and prevalence of remote and hybrid work,
security will be top-of-mind. MSPs will need to enhance their technology stack
and security strategies to have a layered approach to protecting customers, and
their own businesses, from cyberthreats. One solution to consider is managed
detection and response (MDR) technology, which provides 24/7 threat monitoring
and breach detection to protect against cyberthreats across entire
environments. MSPs who can pivot and adjust their pricing and service delivery
strategies to effectively cater to the hybrid work environment will experience
significant growth.
Compliance regulations will grow in complexity
The past few years have also seen an increasing number of
new regulations, making compliance management a daunting task for organizations
of all sizes in 2022 and beyond. MSPs can develop and leverage their expertise
in this space to help clients with ever-evolving compliance regulations like the
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). Because SMBs often do not
have an individual dedicated to managing compliance regulations, MSPs can
provide compliance-as-a-service to ensure that their clients are not only
meeting the requirements, but also properly documenting necessary
information-since failure to do so may result in significant fines that can
cripple a smaller organization. Because many of the regulations are rapidly
evolving, MSPs will need to stay informed by leaning on trusted partners and
vendors to help their SMB customers through any changes that may occur.
Automation and integration are even more critical due to
the tight labor market
Automation will become even more important in 2022. While MSPs have been
automating time-consuming, manual processes for some time, it's now even more
critical to address the tight global labor market. It's getting increasingly
difficult to hire and retain IT professionals and it is not currently possible
for businesses to hire their way into growth, as organizations are competing
globally for talent at a higher cost. To compound the problem, inflation is
increasing the price of everything from hardware and software to building
leases.
To succeed, MSPs will need to significantly increase their
efficiency by automating manual processes such as patching and reporting.
Automation will free up time for technicians to focus on higher-level tasks
that will move the business forward and keep staff engaged, improving
retention. Additionally, integration will also become more critical in 2022.
The time that technicians spend moving between disparate solutions and
searching for information in various places translates to many wasted hours.
Since MSPs need to accomplish more with limited resources, they will need to
rely on integrated solutions that enable technicians to easily access key
information in one screen and move seamlessly between needed software like
professional services automation (PSA), remote monitoring and management (RMM)
and backup and disaster recovery solutions.
Though no one can predict the future, it's safe to say that
the next few years will see MSPs adjust their offerings and processes to
account for the new challenges of the hybrid work environment, complex
compliance regulations and the tight labor market. There are significant growth
opportunities in 2022 for MSPs that effectively automate manual processes and
choose integrated solutions for their technology stack.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Puglia brings over 20 years of technology, strategy,
sales and marketing experience to his role as Kaseya's chief customer marketing
officer. He is responsible for global customer marketing, management and
development across Kaseya's portfolio of solutions with a focus on driving the
success and growth of Kaseya's existing customers and ensuring delivery of
exceptional customer experience. Prior to joining Kaseya, Mr. Puglia was vice
president of marketing for TimeTrade Systems, where he managed and executed on
marketing programs and communications strategy. Mr. Puglia joined TimeTrade
from Salesforce.com, where he led the technical program management integration
of real-time collaboration technologies into Salesforce's Chatter Social
Enterprise platform. Prior to his role at Salesforce, Mr. Puglia was vice
president of marketing at Dimdim, a provider of cloud-based collaboration
software, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2011.