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EMERGENT In many ways, it’s not surprising that MSPs are hot for IoT. The market itself is red hot, and opportunities align with their skills and market positioning. “The number of connected devices and endpoints is vast. Adding in a whole system of smart IoT de- vices and sensors ups the complexity of the net- work,” argued CompTIA researcher. CIOs are looking for outside providers to monitor and manage these newer devices as they would a traditional network, hence the demand. “Conventional MSPs, with some additional training and skills, are a natural fit to man- age these more sophisticated networks,” said the research report. Under the IoT umbrella, CompTIA reminds us, lies “an amalgam of different yet connected technolo- gies that providers can tap into.” Within that vastness of technologies, and the complexity of adding whole systems of devices and sensors, often in niche or use- specific cases, exist opportunities for MSPs of all types and sizes to apply their specific skill sets in one or more area. CompTIA sees three distinct areas MSPs can at- tack. First is the hardware component, such as the sensors and devices that are deployed as part of an IoT engagement at a manufacturing plant or an ag- ricultural setting. Next is a management component, where services are provided remotely to monitor, track, troubleshoot and update the hardware. There is also the software element, specifically data collec- tion and analytics. “An MSP, depending on its skill set can be involved in one or all three of these IoT components,” said the CompTIA study. “So a smaller company may deal strictly in the devices and their management in a con- sumer setting, such as a smart home, while a large MSP may create a practice heavy on the analytics piece and implementations with many end points.” The market is still void of any real “big blue” or AWS-type provider that is dominating sales pies, leav- ing opportunity for smaller players to establish niche expertise, while at the same time creating a need for CIOs to seek help navigating choices. Analysis of nearly 500 million IoT transactions from more than 2,000 companies that crossed the Zscaler cloud network in a two-week period revealed a total of 553 different IoT devices in 21 categories from 212 unique manufacturers. Source: Cisco, 2020 S urce: Baird, June 2020 Downtime in hours MSP Reported Service Offerings Source: CompTIA Helpdesk/IT support Network Cybersecurity Business (compliance, analytics) Application/software Internet of things (IoT) Storage Backup and recovery Desktop support Mobility/MDM Telecom or A/V Print 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Zoom Phone Dialpad Co Greatly Decelerated Slightly Decelerated <1 1-4 5-8 9-16 17-24 > 24 63% 59% 55% 55% 54% 53% 52% 52% 47% 29% 29% 29% 42% 50% 12% 24% 53% MSP Planned and Current Managed IoT Offerings No Plans Currently Working Toward Currently Offering Monitoring/Management of new devices on network 14% 35% 51% Monitoring/Management of equipment 12% 41% 47% Predictive maintenance 11% 43% 46% Monitoring/Management of logistics and supply chain 16% 41% 44% Monitoring/Management of HVAC/building systems 21% 39% 40% Real-time asset tracking 12% 53% 35% Source: CompTIA 10 CHANNEL VISION | July - August, 2020