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.

The industries driving managed services growth are changing

The industries driving managed services growth are changing

A report from Information Services Group (ISG) suggests that managed services growth remains steady year over year, but demand is shifting across industry sectors. ISG tracks new managed services contracts worth more than $5 million that are awarded each quarter....

/ October 15, 2026
AI investments are raising the stakes for MSPs

AI investments are raising the stakes for MSPs

The saying that two opposite things can both be true appears especially relevant for channel partners today. A survey of 400 decision-makers at IT solution providers in North America and Western Europe conducted by Futurum Group found that more than...

/ October 8, 2026
AI drives changes to MSP certification

AI drives changes to MSP certification

A certification many managed service providers (MSPs) use to validate their IT service practices now covers AI-enabled services, privileged identities, and third-party providers. The latest version of the Unified Certification Standard for Cloud and Managed Service Providers from MSPAlliance also...

/ October 1, 2026
AI is putting pressure on GSI contract renewals

AI is putting pressure on GSI contract renewals

A recent survey of 112 U.S.-based IT leaders at global enterprises suggests contract renewal discussions with global systems integrators (GSIs) may become more challenging. Market research firm UserEvidence conducted the survey on behalf of BigPanda, an AIOps platform provider. The...

/ September 24, 2026
Clients are rethinking what they want from their MSP

Clients are rethinking what they want from their MSP

A survey of 400 executives from Global 2000 companies conducted by the Information Services Group (ISG) found that more than three-quarters (77 percent) believe it is more important than ever for service providers to demonstrate productivity improvements and deliver measurable...

/ September 10, 2026
Survey: AI readiness and data integration shape MSP loyalty

Survey: AI readiness and data integration shape MSP loyalty

A recent survey of 600 IT and security decision-makers at organizations with 200 to 1,000 employees found that nearly two-thirds of respondents are considering switching to a new managed services provider (MSP) within the next 12 months. Conducted by market...

/ September 3, 2026
managed security
The MSSP advantage: Why demand for managed security services keeps growing

The MSSP advantage: Why demand for managed security services keeps growing

The global managed security services market is projected to reach $66.83 billion by 2030, representing an 11 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to a new report from the research firm MarketsandMarkets. The survey results are hard to ignore...

/ August 27, 2026
Managed AI inference becomes the next big services market

Managed AI inference becomes the next big services market

As more organizations deploy artificial intelligence (AI) applications, a growing number are relying on managed AI inference servers to run them in production environments. A report published by The Futurum Group notes that by the end of 2025, the managed...

/ August 20, 2026
MSPs have a new resource for managing AI costs

MSPs have a new resource for managing AI costs

Managed service providers (MSPs) looking to build a practice around optimizing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure should start paying closer attention to the Tokenomics Foundation, which has now been formally launched. As an arm of the Linux Foundation, the Tokenomics Foundation...

/ August 13, 2026
What rising AI costs mean for MSPs

What rising AI costs mean for MSPs

As more organizations successfully adopt artificial intelligence (AI), many are discovering that success comes with a growing challenge: managing costs. A recent survey of 700 engineering leaders and practitioners from organizations with more than 1,000 employees found that 26 percent...

/ August 6, 2026