When a new expression starts to become popular one has to be extremely careful that everyone understands the same thing behind it.
One definition of an MSP could be : “A company commercializing remotely managed services, without owning the intellectual property or the infrastructure”. As you can see, this is a rather restrictive definition and excludes hosting companies, ISVs and telecom operators by only taking into account companies that actually resell services.
Another definition might be “A company commercializing their own or third party services managed remotely” which would of course be more relevant, but the problem would be that since it is a much broader definition it would have to systematically include exceptions.
One definition of an MSP could be : “A company commercializing remotely managed services, without owning the intellectual property or the infrastructure”. As you can see, this is a rather restrictive definition and excludes hosting companies, ISVs and telecom operators by only taking into account companies that actually resell services.
Another definition might be “A company commercializing their own or third party services managed remotely” which would of course be more relevant, but the problem would be that since it is a much broader definition it would have to systematically include exceptions.
So, how can we define what an MSP is?
One of our studies on Cloud skills revealed three activities that stood out from the rest: Outsourcing (facilities management), hosting, and integration of software solutions. These are currently activities that are most apt for service solution commercialization by third parties.
1 E 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 STATS_PRC_REF_TOTAL_COLUMN STATS_VAR_FIRST_PERCENT STATS_TOTAL_PRC_NONE STATS_PRC_FORMAT_DEC_2_PRC 21289 DACH 0 21309 UKI 0 2794 France 0 21291 BeNeLux 0 21299 Iberian Peninsula (ES,PT) 0 2798 Italy 0 21290 Nordics 0 21781 Central and Eastern Regions 0 17189 Other Europe 0 18096 Middle East 0 18542 Africa 0 21030 North America 0 18545 Latin America 0 21031 Australia and New Zealand 0 17965 Singapore 0 19202 Cloud Service Provider (MSP) - Cloud active 0 19211 Managed Services Resellers (VAS resellers - MSP) - Cloud active 0 MSPs (Managed Service Providers)
The term "MSP" actually refers to a quality rather than an activity. It describes the ability to resell a hosted or managed service, such as a cloud solution for network administration, message hosting, web services, or SaaS solutions.
An MSP is skilled in selling these services on a regular basis using cloud technology, and has the necessary human resources to provide consultancy and client support, as well as manage and invoice clients.
The concept of "quality" encompasses a wide range of activities as long as third party solutions are used for commercialization. For example, a hosting company that includes third party solutions in its offers, such as SaaS or cloud solutions, can be considered an MSP.
MSP - the most debated IT acronym?
Define your MSP target and filter it according your need
An MSP is skilled in selling these services on a regular basis using cloud technology, and has the necessary human resources to provide consultancy and client support, as well as manage and invoice clients.
The concept of "quality" encompasses a wide range of activities as long as third party solutions are used for commercialization. For example, a hosting company that includes third party solutions in its offers, such as SaaS or cloud solutions, can be considered an MSP.
MSP - the most debated IT acronym?
Define your MSP target and filter it according your need
1 E 1 MSP.sel 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 STATS_PRC_REF_TOTAL_COLUMN STATS_VAR_FIRST_PERCENT STATS_TOTAL_PRC_NONE STATS_PRC_FORMAT_DEC_2_PRC 21289 DACH 0 21309 UKI 0 2794 France 0 21291 BeNeLux 0 21299 Iberian Peninsula (ES,PT) 0 2798 Italy 0 21290 Nordics 0 21781 Central and Eastern Regions 0 17189 Other Europe 0 18096 Middle East 0 18542 Africa 0 21030 North America 0 18545 Latin America 0 21031 Australia and New Zealand 0 17965 Singapore 0 2665 Unknown number of employees 0 2666 1 person 0 2667 2 to 4 persons 0 2668 5 to 9 persons 0 2669 10 to 24 persons 0 2670 25 to 49 persons 0 2671 50 to 99 persons 0 4329 100 to 249 persons 0 2672 250 to 499 persons 0 22365 500 to 2499 persons 0 17103 more than 2500 persons 0 MSPs by company size
1 E 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 STATS_PRC_REF_TOTAL_COLUMN STATS_VAR_FIRST_PERCENT STATS_TOTAL_PRC_NONE STATS_PRC_FORMAT_DEC_2_PRC 21030 North America 0 18545 Latin America 0 21289 DACH 0 21309 UKI 0 2794 France 0 21291 BeNeLux 0 21299 Iberian Peninsula (ES,PT) 0 2798 Italy 0 21290 Nordics 0 21781 Central and Eastern Regions 0 17189 Other Europe 0 18096 Middle East 0 18542 Africa 0 21031 Australia and New Zealand 0 17965 Singapore 0 1036 Hosting / Services Cloud - CSP / Managed Services ... 0 21724 Network and IT Monitoring Services 0 18779 Data Center / Hosting Server / Colocation 0 4214 Hosting third party SaaS, bPaaS solutions, Managed Services 0 5754 Third party Hosting / Cloud solutions resel. 0 21490 IaaS - PaaS - Data Hosting Services 0 21718 Asset and Software Management Services 0 1037 Hosting Center (Internet, Audiotex) 0 21489 Telephone hosting services - Managed VoIP - Cloud Telephony 0 21511 Managed IT help desk services 0 22706 CaaS - Compute as a Service 0 22880 Aggregator of Cloud Services and Managed Services - CSA 0 21506 Other Managed Services 0 21735 Managed Print Services 0 18417 Remote security / MSSP 0 Volume of partners by Cloud Services proposed
1 E 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 STATS_PRC_REF_TOTAL_COLUMN STATS_VAR_FIRST_PERCENT STATS_TOTAL_PRC_NONE STATS_PRC_FORMAT_DEC_2_PRC 21289 DACH 0 21309 UKI 0 2794 France 0 21291 BeNeLux 0 21299 Iberian Peninsula (ES,PT) 0 2798 Italy 0 21290 Nordics 0 21781 Central and Eastern Regions 0 17189 Other Europe 0 18096 Middle East 0 18542 Africa 0 21030 North America 0 18545 Latin America 0 21031 Australia and New Zealand 0 17965 Singapore 0 19169 Cloud Technology Provider - Cloud active 0 19184 Data Center - Cloud active 0 19193 Cloud Builder - Cloud active 0 19220 Cloud Adviser - Cloud active 0 19229 Cloud Application Provider - Cloud active 0 19238 Cloud Broker Platform - Cloud active 0 19247 Cloud Market Place - Cloud active 0 19395 Not yet classified - Cloud active 0 19386 Cloud / SaaS All active 0 Other Cloud Activities
1 E 1 Cloud_active_MSPs_all_geo.sel 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 STATS_PRC_REF_TOTAL_COLUMN STATS_VAR_FIRST_PERCENT STATS_TOTAL_PRC_NONE STATS_PRC_FORMAT_DEC_2_PRC 21289 DACH 0 21309 UKI 0 2794 France 0 21291 BeNeLux 0 21299 Iberian Peninsula (ES,PT) 0 2798 Italy 0 21290 Nordics 0 21781 Central and Eastern Regions 0 17189 Other Europe 0 18096 Middle East 0 18542 Africa 0 21030 North America 0 18545 Latin America 0 21031 Australia and New Zealand 0 17965 Singapore 0 1923 Government Bodies 0 1924 Aerospace 0 1925 Agriculture, Biotech 0 1926 Food & Beverage 0 1928 Associations - Non Profit 0 1927 Insurance 0 1929 Automotive 0 1948 Bank and finance 0 1930 Building - Architecture - Public Works - Construction 0 1934 Chemicals - Oil 0 17284 Government - State 0 1936 Local Authority 0 17285 Digital Economy - Online Services 0 1940 Distribution - Retail 0 1961 Publishing - Printing - PrePress 0 1945 Electronics 0 1946 Energy & Utilities 0 1947 Education / Training 0 1944 Industrial Equipment 0 1966 Raw Materials Extraction - Mining 0 1960 Property Management - Real estate 0 1967 Medical - Health 0 1957 Hotels and Restaurants 0 1962 Heavy Industry 0 1975 Naval Industry 0 1963 IT Industry 0 1964 Legal 0 1965 Logistics 0 4273 Leisure Industry - Entertainment & Arts 0 1971 Industrial Machinery 0 1973 Pharmacy - Medical 0 1969 Metallurgy 0 1970 Military - Defence 0 1976 Fishing 0 1977 Press- TV - Cinema - Media 0 1978 Primary Sector (Miscellaneous) 0 1979 Advertising Pr Media Marketing 0 1983 Research and Scientific 0 1984 Security 0 1985 Services (Miscellaneous) 0 1988 Telecoms 0 1989 Textile & Fashion 0 1991 Tourism 0 1992 Transport 0 16017 Any market type 0 MSPs by vertical market addressed Vertical means: The market(s) in which the partner's clients operate.
Create Your Own MSP Target With Our Online Selection Tool
compuBase has developed a sophisticated yet easy-to-use Partner-selection tool. It allows you to set your own partner target and instantly get a count of potential MSP Partners in a given region or meeting other criteria. The counting functions are accessible without subscription.