The managed services market is changing rapidly as enterprise adoption of external, managed and unmanaged infrastructure services goes mainstream, according to 451 Research. It sees the biggest opportunity for vendors and providers who deliver high automation, rapid provisioning and services that address complex enterprise needs while retaining high-touch delivery. Those providers who focus on specialist regional and vertical markets will also see substantial growth.
As the ‘as-a-Service’ model evolves beyond IaaS, PaaS and SaaS to include new kinds of cloud-based services, 451 Research finds there is increasing demand for managed security, managed cyber-disaster recovery, managed networking services and managed hosting. Its Voice of the Enterprise: Hosting and Cloud Managed Services study shows that managed services and security services are attached to roughly half of the total hosting and cloud opportunity, and are increasing year-on-year.
“This spending trend, alongside feedback from providers, indicates there is an appetite for a wider range of bundled offerings from the managed service sector including systems integrators, VARs and others with service delivery experience. We see a significant opportunity for technology vendors to partner with service providers to offer higher-value, niche and vertical offerings as these services rapidly emerge,” said Rory Duncan, Research Director for Managed Services and Hosting.
As much of the physical infrastructure delivered through IT distribution has become invisible to end users, many businesses have progressed from tin-shifting commoditised IT to supplying new kinds of cloud services. As a result, 451 Research believes the role of the channel is now more important than ever in delivering support, maintenance and consulting services.
With the emergence of new kinds of managed services, hardware appliances and security requirements, analysts believe the ability to “connect the dots” will become a key differentiator for channel partners and service providers. Plus, the move from cloud construction – with a focus on technology and infrastructure – to cloud consumption with an emphasis on service choice and delivery increases the importance of established customer relationships and the ability to offer a retail model for cloud.
Launching today, 451 Research’s Managed Services & Hosting research channel focuses on the global managed services and hosting market. It will track IT managed services providers, web and applications hosting firms, and content delivery networks. This includes coverage of services, market sizing, M&A activity, and factors that affect the strategies for these competitors. The service will provide:
· Ecosystem and trends analysis for technology vendors, including supply and demand dynamics and disruptive factors.
· Market development insight for global and regional service providers as well as strategies for partnering between vendors and partners to better address the ‘sell with’ opportunity for cloud services.
· Competitive dynamics analysis for financial investors.
· Opportunities for IT distribution (aka “the channel”) to adapt to the “Everything-as-a-Service” model and take a key role in facilitating the managed services ecosystem.
Technology & Business Insight reports that will be published in 2H 2017 include:
· Managed Security Services Global Market Overview 2017
· Web & Application Hosting Global Market Overview 2017
· Managed Application Services Global Market Overview 2017
