Mike Vizard

All posts by Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard has covered IT for more than 25 years, and has edited or contributed to a number of tech publications including InfoWorld, eWeek, CRN, Baseline, ComputerWorld, TMCNet, and Digital Review. He currently blogs for IT Business Edge and contributes to CIOinsight, The Channel Insider, Programmableweb and Slashdot. Mike blogs about emerging cloud technology for Smarter MSP.

Survey: The AI shift is redefining the role of MSPs

Survey: The AI shift is redefining the role of MSPs

A survey of 1,224 business leaders suggests organizations will soon be relying on managed service providers (MSPs) more than ever to drive technological innovation in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Conducted by International Data Corp (IDC) on behalf of...

/ April 16, 2026
Increased open source software reliance creates MSP opportunities

Increased open source software reliance creates MSP opportunities

A survey of 712 IT professionals suggests that as organizations rely more on open source software, they are struggling with security updates and patches (39 percent), installations, upgrades, and configurations (30 percent), and technical support (29 percent). Nearly half (47...

/ April 9, 2026
What soaring cloud demand and supply constraints mean for MSPs

What soaring cloud demand and supply constraints mean for MSPs

A report from market research firm Omdia finds that global spending on cloud infrastructure continues to accelerate, with spending in the fourth quarter of 2025 reaching $110.9 billion—a 29 percent increase year over year. Cloud providers see strong growth momentum...

/ April 2, 2026
Beyond recovery: The new resilience mindset

Beyond recovery: The new resilience mindset

A global survey of 1,000 business and IT decision‑makers and senior developers shows that while organizations feel more resilient than they were a year ago, many still struggle with the cost of recovery and remediation when a real IT incident...

/ March 26, 2026
The talent strategy behind the most profitable IT service providers

The talent strategy behind the most profitable IT service providers

A global survey of IT services providers finds that the most profitable organizations tend to spend less on payroll by relying more heavily on junior staff to fulfill clearly defined roles. Conducted by Service Leadership, the survey also reveals that the...

/ March 19, 2026
Survey shows channel partners are seeking more vendor support

Survey shows channel partners are seeking more vendor support

A survey of 400 technology channel partners suggests that the level of support they expect from IT vendors is shifting in an era marked by rapid innovation and economic uncertainty. Rising expectations for vendor support Conducted by the Futurum Group,...

/ March 12, 2026
Why sovereign clouds are becoming a massive growth engine for MSPs

Why sovereign clouds are becoming a massive growth engine for MSPs

Early indicators suggest that MSPs guiding customers toward sovereign cloud solutions could be heading into a period of strong growth. Worldwide spending on sovereign cloud infrastructure‑as‑a‑service is expected to reach roughly $80 billion in 2026. This represents over 35 percent...

/ February 26, 2026
Survey: IT teams relying on third-party expertise for agentic AI

Survey: IT teams relying on third-party expertise for agentic AI

A survey of 625 IT professionals with cloud computing expertise finds that well over two thirds (69 percent) plan to source agentic artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities through IT or consulting service providers—second only to agentic AI platform vendors, which came...

/ February 19, 2026
Wave of AI agents creates major new opportunity for MSPs

Wave of AI agents creates major new opportunity for MSPs

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) agents is unlike any past technology shift. It creates a significant opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) to expand and enhance their offerings. AI agent adoption accelerates at unprecedented speed A survey of...

/ February 12, 2026
MSPs need to move beyond monitoring to embrace observability

MSPs need to move beyond monitoring to embrace observability

Monitoring has long been a foundational element of any managed services portfolio. But as IT environments grow more distributed and complex, organizations now expect service providers to go further—beyond simply tracking metrics to truly observing what’s happening across their systems...

/ February 5, 2026