Entering into 2024, small to mid-sized enterprise IT administrators are both excited and concerned, suggest findings from JumpCloud’s Q1 2024 edition of its biannual SME IT trends report. On one end, they are optimistic about the potential upside AI can bring to their organizations, with 79 percent reporting that AI will be a net positive to their companies versus the 6 percent who see it as a net negative. In turn, just more than three-quarters of IT administrators agree their organizations should be investing in AI. At the same time, IT teams are wary about AI’s potential for organizational security, as 62 of respondents agree that AI is outpacing their organization’s ability to protect against emerging threats. The good news is, this combined sense of potential opportunity and impending threat appears to be increasing reliance on the expertise of trusted advisors as well as the perceived benefits they deliver. According to the findings, MSPs now completely manage the IT environment for 42 percent of organizations. That represents a 56 percent increase over the 27 percent of respondent who said the same thing in April of 2023. Overall, three-quarters of SMEs rely on an MSP for some features, while 13 percent don’t currently use an MSP but are considering it. Just 11 percent of SMEs don’t work with an MSP and have no plans to do so, showed the JumpCloud findings. For SMEs working with MSPs, the most popular reason is that they are up to date on the latest technologies such as AI (65 percent, up from 61 percent in April 2023), followed by their ability to provide a better user experience (60 percent, up from 55 percent in April 2023), and they are cost-effective (56 percent, up from 50 percent in April 2023). At the same time, system security is the most common area for which organizations use MSPs (57 percent versus 53 percent in April 2023). Perhaps that’s not so surprising considering security challenges are IT admins’ biggest concerns, cited as number one by 56 percent of respondents. And about two-thirds of respondents said working with an MSP has resulted in better security, with larger SMEs (101-2,500 employees) reporting slightly better results. Of course, IT administrators surveyed for JumpCloud have a lot more on their minds than AI. But few things are more central on their radars than the new applications and services it can enable as well as the new abilities it provides attackers. Certainly, the simultaneous excitement and trepidation is creating an opportunity for MSPs and partners that can offer guidance in achieving outcomes and assurance against the emerging threats. More Need of MSPs LETTER Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Brady Hicks Contributing Editor brady@bekabusinessmedia.com Gerald Baldino Contributing Editor gerald@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Rob Schubel Digital Manager rob@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Michael Burns National Account Executive michael@bekabusinessmedia.com (262) 993-9116 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2024 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media What areas of your IT program are managed by MSPs? (select all that apply) IT Area 4/23 11/23 System security 57% 53% Coud storage 52% 53% System monitoring 51% 47% System management 47% 47% Managed backup 40% 40% Hardware procurement 34% 33% help desk 35% 30% BC/DR 32% 30% Change management 27% 26% Source: JumpCloud; Q124 SME IT Trends Report 6 CHANNELVISION | MARCH - APRIL 2024
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