Small businesses believe outsourcing various IT services to MSPs offers numerous benefits, according to recent survey results.
A study by Infrascale, a cloud-based data protection company, shows that 68 percent of business executives believe that working with an MSP helps them stay ahead of the competition.
The research also showed that most executives (51 percent) choose MSPs in order to help save on costs. The second most common reason was for increased security (46 percent).
Almost all of the respondents said that it is extremely or very important to have a predictable IT budget right now, according to the researchers.
When it comes to budgeting, the areas of information technology thought to be the most expensive were:
- Information security (60 percent)
- Data storage (48 percent)
- Data analytics/business intelligence (45 percent)
Results: Lead With Security-Focused Solutions
Infrascale CEO Russell P. Reeder, commented on the results:
“We conducted this survey to better understand the dynamics of how business executives perceive and select MSPs, as well as how MSPs can provide the greatest value to their SMBs and mid-market customers. Based on the results, we recommend that MSPs continue to lead with solutions focused on security, data storage, and data analytics. Our most successful MSP partners are enabling their businesses to be more secure and to always access and analyze their data. The lifeblood of any business is its data, so it makes sense that securing it, backing it up, and analyzing it is most important to businesses.”
What Else Can MSPs Offer?
Independent of the services offered, the six most important criteria for selecting an MSP, according to the Infrascale survey, are:
- Quality of solutions (52 percent)
- Attention to security (46 percent)
- 24/7 support (45 percent)
- Cost (38 percent)
- Flexibility and special accommodations (37 percent)
- Saving time/offloading time-consuming tasks (37 percent)
Widespread Cloud Adoption
The move to the cloud is almost complete, with 97 percent of respondents saying they’ve implemented cloud-based infrastructure with a cloud service provider. Meanwhile, 72 percent said they used an MSP for cloud-based infrastructure.
Almost all businesses surveyed (98 percent) are using a backup solution and almost as many businesses (94 percent) use disaster recovery. In most cases, MSPs help provide these solutions. Eighty percent of businesses said they use an MSP for disaster recovery and backup.
Moreover, the survey results indicated that working with an MSP can help reduce the time required to implement new technology solutions. Seventeen percent of business executives said that without the assistance of an MSP, their company would require three months or more to implement a new technology solution. Only 9 percent of respondents said three months or more would be required to implement a new technology solution when an MSP assists the company with that task.
