Kaseya MSP Benchmark Survey 2020 Finds Compliance Up, Cloud Declining

… MSP management of cloud environments dropped from 70% of respondents in 2018 to 56% in 2019 for public cloud. Public cloud environment examples are Azure, AWS or Google. The data also show a decline in management for private cloud — 59% in last year’s report to 49% in this year’s survey.

“I look at this like a cloud shakeout,” he said. “I think the decline we’re seeing is coming from smaller MSPs who felt the need to start a cloud practice. But they were never truly committed to it. They also didn’t have the tools to build a mature cloud practice. Now they’re saying that maybe it’s not for them.”

At the same time. Lippie suggests that smaller business clients’ public and private cloud needs tend to be limited compared to larger businesses.

“Smaller clients also tend to default to SaaS solutions, which is not covered in those cloud questions,” he said. “I think we’ve come a long way in our community to recognize the difference between SaaS and cloud services [referring to infrastructure].”

Same Time, Next Year

As compelling as the new Kaseya MSP benchmark survey results are, the data was collected and compiled prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lippie expects that MSPs’ sentiment to do more with less, expressed in this year’s survey, will escalate next year. That includes the need to drive more profit with an existing employee base and the need for more workflow integration among their current applications.

Last month Kaseya launched Kaseya CARES to help partners through the crisis. In talking with MSPs since the crisis began, Lippie sees a big disparity among MSPs. Those focused on verticals such as hospitality, travel and retail are suffering.

“They’re getting crushed, and they are organizations that built nice practices,” he said. “And the smaller MSPs tend to be suffering more than the larger MSPs.”

In March, Lippie said MSPs took on a lot more projects and were working overtime. Ticket volumes were up 50%. But in April, business slowed down.

“With fewer customers to support, revenue decreased,” he said. “Some MSPs are down 10-20% in April and May. Some are down as much as 40-50%.”