Flexible multisourced deployment options, ranging from internal deployment and management to complete outsourcing and all forms of hybrid arrangements; and
A range of flexible financing options, letting customers do everything from paying for all IT resources and management up front to paying by the individual user or transaction.
Eighty-three percent of MSPs (managed-service providers) said their revenue grew by more than 54 percent in 2003, with the number of customers served jumping, on average, from 500 to 700, according to an October joint MSPAlliance and ThinkStrategies study that focused on the managed-services and IT-outsourcing industries. In addition, these providers said contract renewal rates are above 90 percent, with nearly 65 percent of customers buying additional services.
All this good news for the MSPs makes it look like many of us are turning to outsourcing to get network and systems management done ... and we are. But remember, the survey is done by and for the select group of MSPs in the MSPAlliance, and it does butter their bread to show things in a good light.
Still, for most companies, network management is only a cost, so moving management to outsourcers makes sense. In addition, contract lengths and up-front costs have been dropping, making it easier to move to an MSP model.
It may seem like utility computing will undercut this MSP advance by making it possible for enterprises to simplify network management, but that's not likely inasmuch as one important goal of utility computing is creation of procedures and policy. And of course, for an MSP, this isn't anything new, as most MSPs attempt to define service deliverables for clients to help manage the relationship. As enterprises adopt utility computing, their internal service definitions and policies will help the MSPs, lowering their cost-to-manage by removing the need to create a definition to manage to. So though utility computing may increase competitive pressures on MSPs, it's not likely to change their role, simply because they are a management utility now.
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