MSPs have experienced steady growth over the past three years, with 24% of MSPs reporting growth of up to 10%. Now with increased focus on digital transformation, MSPs have seen an even bigger increase in business.

That growth is expected to continue as MSPs are also benefitting from the loss of jobs in the IT sector. After three months of rebound, the U.S. IT job market reversed course in November, cutting 8,300 jobs. And while the pandemic has certainly resulted in some negative impacts for MSPs, there are still increasing opportunities for MSPs within the IT sector.

For example, many companies are turning to MSPs for data protection services. IDC has predicted that by 2025, the world will be generating almost half a Zettabyte (which is equal to a billion Terabytes) of data each day by 2025. MSPs can help sort through that data, including storage and backup, BC/DR, data protection, and data management and movement.

“One of the challenges is more and more MSPs are jumping into the market,” said Quest Software’s Bennett Klein. “That means the market is more competitive, but also that customers are able to be more selective about who they do business with.”

MSPs need to make sure they can deliver services such as optimizing IT resources, reducing storage requirements and costs, and simplifying IT management. Another concern is cybersecurity. Data shows that 31% of organizations have experienced cyberattacks on operational infrastructure—and that number is assumed to be higher since many incidents go unreported. According to cybersecurity expert Wes Spencer, MSPs have increasingly become targets of cyber criminals’ attacks.

As a result, thousands of MSPs have activated two-factor authentication as a means to protect data and stop hackers from entering systems. And when it comes to selecting an MSP, SMBs in particular need to focus less on price or word-of-mouth references, and more on researching whether an MSP is following best practices around items like third-party assessments.