The global market for IT and business services grew at its fastest rate ever in 2021, according to Information Services Group. So, what’s driving the market?

A key takeaway from the study is that Managed Service Providers (MSPs) face a market of bountiful opportunities, but must prepare for this growth by embracing complex technologies like hybrid cloud management, root cause analysis and automation.

For example, survey respondents said that faster root cause analysis was both the top IT monitoring challenge they face (cited by 46% of respondents) as well as the top AIOps capability critical to winning deals (48% of respondents).

Fifty-five percent of managed service providers said IT infrastructure monitoring is the most important technology they have for delivering cloud and network services.

OpsRamp also asked MSPs to name just one technology that would get the most traction in 2022. Managed cloud services and managed network services tied for the top spot, each garnering 20% of responses, outpacing managed security services at 16%. IT infrastructure monitoring was the clear winner for the most critical technology needed to manage delivery of those services, selected by 55% of respondents, followed by network performance monitoring at 47%.

While monitoring is critical for service delivery management, MSPs are looking to do more than just keep an eye on service performance. More than half of all respondents cited the ability to automate routine tasks as the monitoring capability that was most critical to winning deals.

“The study shows that MSPs are dealing with some of the most complex challenges in IT management today,” said Varma Kunaparaju, OpsRamp’s CEO. “As digital transformation accelerates and the hybrid estate grows, MSPs need to be able to consolidate their monitoring tools, apply machine learning to their monitoring data to get to the root cause of performance issues faster, and automate their responses to those performance issues in order to lower mean time to remediation and improve the service levels they deliver to their clients.”

For this report, OpsRamp surveyed 211 IT general managers, directors and vice presidents at MSP companies in North America and Europe. All are involved in selecting or recommending IT monitoring and management tools, and work at firms with at least $25 million in annual revenue.

Read the full report by OpsRamp.