N-able’s Second Annual MSP Horizons Report Shows Significant Growth Opportunity for Global MSPs with Cybersecurity Leading the Way
Research highlights key disruptive trends including the buildout of true cyber resilience, as well as compliance, co-managed, and AI
Robin Ody, MSP Analysis Practice Lead, Canalys (now part of Omdia) shared, “The IT managed services market is expected to be worth an estimated
Key Findings Include:
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Growth outlook overwhelmingly positive for MSPs
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59% of MSP respondents expect to grow overall revenue by20% or more in 2025. -
Almost
40% of respondents expect more than20% managed services profit growth in 2025. Key growth factors include a bigger focus on endpoint, powerful cybersecurity and compliance tailwinds, co-managed expansion, and automation levers—including AI. - The top challenges to growth include new customer acquisition and upskilling staff.
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Cybersecurity force factor continues to strengthen
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Cybersecurity managed services sales growth is expected by
90% of respondents in 2025, up from80% in the previous year’s report. - Security-related services represent the top four most important contributors to managed services revenue over the next three years, with third-party MDR topping the list of new services MSPs are planning to add.
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The most in demand future managed backup and disaster recovery services are SaaS application backup (
53% ) and AI-powered backup and recovery (51% ). - Cyberthreat complexities, compliance requirements, and data breach liability concerns by partners and customers top the list for fueling cybersecurity growth.
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Cybersecurity managed services sales growth is expected by
“A central theme of this year’s report is cyber resilience and a constant trend remains: cybersecurity is a key revenue driver,” said John Pagliuca, N-able President and CEO. “Conversations with MSPs worldwide make it clear that the line between IT operations and security operations has blurred. The leading MSPs differentiate themselves by addressing security across the entire attack lifecycle: from protection and detection to response and recovery. When it comes to cybersecurity, ‘good enough’ is no longer good enough.”
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AI adoption is maturing with more attention to governance and risk management
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Only
6% of respondents are not using any generative AI. -
40% have generated data governance rules and designed guidelines for human oversight. - The biggest AI use cases are for building workflow automations and automating the sales and ticketing process.
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Only
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M&A is now back on the agenda
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90% of those surveyed are interested in M&A, with specific growth tactics (acquiring new skills and/or regions) the main motivator—up from44% last year. - M&A drivers include the determination to improve competitiveness via expansion into new regions, verticals, or other niches.
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Cloud modernization is in full swing
- On-premises will always have a place but modern MSPs are cloud-first for software and infrastructure according to the findings.
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However, concerns remain with security/compliance cited by
40% and cost control by38% .
“There is all sorts of value in the MSP Horizons Report,” said John Joyce, Owner, CRS Technology Consultants. “I feel that we have a pretty good sense of what’s going on in the industry. But to see things distilled down to numbers and to see the feedback from the sample group reflecting what we’re seeing is a powerful validation. The cybersecurity piece is only going to continue to grow because we don't have a choice. The report clearly highlights that many of us have been able to go on and build a piece of our business out of it, and I don't see that changing. I see it only increasing.”
The MSP Horizons Report was conducted from October 2024 to November 2024. Partners were asked to provide feedback via an online questionnaire distributed by N-able and Canalys via its Candefero website. The survey captured feedback from 451 business-to-business channel partners across EMEA,
About N-able
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Category: Company
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Kim Cecchini
kim.cecchini@n-able.com
Source: N-able, Inc.