Have the MSPs jumped the shark?

Everywhere you turn today, the focus is away from managed services and towards the cloud and mobility. Consider the biggest news this week: Google allows VoIP calls from Gmail, Apple’s new TV and rental model, and a bunch of stories about location services across multiple vendors and devices.

Hardware not even on the front page – somewhere half way through the newspaper (the model of irrelevance) there is a scribble about some bidding over 3PAR, a company 99% of you have never heard of and 99.9999% never used a product from. 

No, the MSPs haven’t jumped the shark.

We (the entire ecosystem) are more relevant and profitable than we’ve ever been.

It’s just that we’re not exciting to write about because the industry is mature and for the most part dealing with legacy issues – servers, workstations, uptime and other “junk” that rarely sees the front page.

What concerns me… is that the question is being posed to me, repeatedly, by service providers around the globe. Which leads me to the logical conclusion that many of you are also seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – and it’s the locomotive of the train heading right for you. We can certainly match it up with our numbers: the “recovery” hasn’t happened everywhere and in some places it’s only getting worse.

Tip: It’s only there if you choose to look for it. I’m not championing ignorance here – but if you’re only going to stand by doing what you’ve been doing and eat a donut while the great big cloud shark is swimming up from under you.. we all know how the story ends. Microsoft didn’t save anyone with Windows 7, put the koolade down, Aurora / SBS 7 won’t either. You don’t need to change your products, you need to change your business model. It really is as simple as that. And if you won’t – there are new MSPs rolling up their sleeves and getting into it every day. Give me a call, I’ll show you how.