What MSPs Can Expect in 2022 – Four Things To Prepare For

Backups are dead, Incidence Response Plans and Risk Assessments are critical, and security services will drive a large portion of MSP revenue

There are a handful of things that MSPs know to be constant challenges from this year into the next year:  remote work is here to stay, ransomware and phishing attacks will continue to increase in both frequency and sophistication, and simple human error is the leading cause of data loss. These things are constant, but there are some newer and ongoing trends that will impact the way you do business in 2022. At this year’s MSP Xperience, industry experts and channel leaders provided insights into what’s coming next. Overall, the theme of 2022 is security and these five truths about the future can help make this year your most profitable.

1. To Survive, MSPs Must Have An Incident Response Plan.

An incident response plan tells you exactly, step-by-step, what to do in the event of a cyber incident. It answers the question, ‘what now?’ with a detailed, practiced, accurate, and comprehensive roadmap from breach discovery, to complete restore, and through investigation, and policy updates. Having a sound IR plan is especially important in 2022 when it comes to cyber liability insurance. Vendors are significantly increasing premiums and security requirements because they understand the likelihood of data loss and they don’t want to pay claims.

Ben Nowacky, Senior VP of Product at Axcient explains a common scenario highlighting the intersection between incident response, business continuity, and your insurance carrier. “If you can’t get on your network, can’t get into your office, alarm systems are shut down, phone systems are offline – whatever it is – it carries over into business continuity, and that’s what people don’t think about. They’re like, ‘I have my backups. I can just restore my data,’ but it’s about good data forensics. Understanding how long your carriers is going to be on your network and what they need to do to conduct those forensics. And then, what are you doing from a business continuity perspective to make sure you can continue making money so the business isn’t completely dead in the water in the meantime.” So, if you or your client’s got hit with ransomware today, what would you do next?

Download Axcient’s Incident Response Checklist >>

2. Backups Are Dead. I Said What I Said.

As a backup provider, this is especially hard to swallow, but Axcient is facing the truth and you need to, too. Today’s cybersecurity landscape demands more than just backups. Yet again, the cybercriminals are one step ahead with new strategies targeting the defense we rely on most – our backups. The combination of escalating threats, work from anywhere employees, and novice users has created the ideal environment for data loss, and assuming it won’t happen to your or your clients is unrealistic.

To combat these cyberattacks and ensure quick and complete restores in 2022, MSPs need a security-first approach to building a multi-layer security infrastructure. Comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) is what keeps businesses running. Layers of security features like backup deletion protection and integrity checks, and near-instant virtualization could mean the difference between your clients staying in business or losing their livelihood.

3. Risk Assessment is Critical, As Regulations Will Continue to Expand.

States are continuing to adopt regulations that hold MSPs responsible for the data loss experienced by their clients. With consequences ranging from fines to public shaming, and looming legislation from the federal government, it’s up to MSPs to protect themselves. In the absence of a national standard of security in the IT industry, MSPs need to adopt specific principles and best practices that will keep their business and their clients safe.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity helps organizations understand the risks to their business so they can improve their infrastructure’s security and resilience. Using the NIST Framework, MSPs can unify security practices to offset more regulation in 2022. Only by governing our own industry can we avoid the costly, confusing, and complicated rules that typically come with government oversight.

Download the Risk Assessment Framework >>

4. Security Services Are Driving Up to 39% of Revenue.

Based on the reasons above, the main revenue source for MSPs in 2022 is security services. According to MSP Security Services Trends:

• 39% of MSP revenue will be driven by security services (up from 32% in 2021)
• 60% of MSP clients have had a sensitive data breach in the last 12 months and will increase spending by about 22% as a result.
• 84% of SaaS productivity resellers attach BCDR services to those offers.

With security taking center stage, MSPs need a BCDR solution that adds value rather than contributing to vendor sprawl. With the Axcient x360 Platform, MSPs can meet all business use cases with just one vendor for unified support, training, onboarding, and billing processes that lower total cost of ownership (TCO), while expanding security services. See how much you can save when you protect everything with Axcient. Start Your Free 14-day Trial Today!

---

About the Author: Carissa Johnson // Product Marketing Manager, Axcient

Carissa Kohn-Johnson has a background in behavioral and physical healthcare technology and information technology and currently works as the Product Marketing Manager for Axcient. She has a lot of MSP Channel experience from planning and attending hundreds of conferences and tradeshows, and found her passion in technology, and working with MSPs in particular. She serves on the Information Services Advisory Board for her community and feels most at home with other technology-forward people.

Carissa clearly loved attending college as she studied Sociology and Gerontology at Nazareth College and Biological Sciences at NC State University and has taken several courses since then. In pursuing her goal to be a bona fide polymath, she is a voracious reader who tries to consume a minimum of 300 pages per week.

Connect with her on LinkedIn – perhaps you can contribute to the Axcient blog?

More Great Stuff From Our Blog:

Check out some other interesting pieces from our blog: MSP-friendly resources and tools to help MSPs educate clients to combat phishing attacks and Fight the Phish!, we dove into how chain-based backup works and why chain-free is the way to be, we talked with Jason Phelps from Huntress Labs about planning for the next ransomware attack, our CEO David Bennett explains why the current cybersecurity landscape means traditional backup is dead, or learn how you can ditch pricey on-site appliances with Local Cache for Direct-to-Cloud BCDR.