I’ve made the trip from CompTIA’s Managed Services Summit (Miami, Fla.) to the N-able Partner Summit 2008 (Dallas, Texas). As I consider the state of the managed services industry, here are three trends I expect to see and track at the N-able conference.

Worth Watching:

1. All IP, All the Time: It’s time for managed service providers to push beyond PC, laptop and server administration. Proactive patch management and system maintainence are worthwhile opportunities. But a growing number of managed service providers are striving to manage all IP devices.

That was a major theme at last month’s ConnectWise Partner Summit in Orlando. And it’s a central focus for N-able’s N-central 6.7 platform, which the company is demonstrating this week.

2. Rival Views, Healthy Discussion: During a rare moment, rival executives from Autotask, ConnectWise and Tigerpaw Software will participate in a panel about professional services automation. For the managed services industry to grow and thrive, we need rivals to share the stage more often.

3. It’s the Economy, Stupid: Generally speaking, MSP software companies remain upbeat about their growth. In recent months, N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt has expressed continued business optimism to me.

But in the past two or three weeks, I’ve heard more and more rumblings about the economy impacting MSPs. Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie told me on October 21 that small MSPs in particular are facing new economic challenges. And back in September, we noted that financing issues were starting to impact some MSPs and their customers.

I’m sure other trends will surface here at the N-able Partner Summit. Stay tuned for live coverage October 23 and 24.

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