Canalys has launched the 2023 Channel Ecosystem Landscape, which includes 233 companies providing automation and digital capabilities for channel partner and alliance ecosystems. The report notes 14 companies driving over $100 million in channel software revenue, 25 companies founded in the past five years, and 80% of companies headquartered in the US. The full report is available on the Canalys website.
New research suggests that the growth of managed services may be exaggerated, with only 11% of channel partners being true MSPs. The term MSP is being used inaccurately, with vendors using it to target growth and increase recurring revenue. Canalys classifies MSPs as channel partners making over 50% of their revenue from IT-managed services. Managed services revenue reached $202 billion in the Americas in 2022, with the USA generating the largest revenue at nearly $181 billion.
Despite headwinds in the IoT market, IT Service Providers remain critical to successful deployments. While monetizing some segments of IoT has been difficult, vendors, operators, and IT Service Providers continue to launch new services, make acquisitions, and form alliances to improve their capabilities. The Global IoT market reached approximately $675bn in 2023 and will grow to $1.3trn by 2027, with an expected CAGR of 15% from 2022 to 2027. The largest verticals by revenue in 2027 will include the government/public sector, manufacturing, energy, transportation, and logistics.
I’m increasingly not a fan of using MSP as a term because it’s become so overloaded. It’s gone the route of cloud. That said, just like the cloud, the core value hasn’t changed – as seen in the markets we examine. The core value of helping customers with their technology needs is sticking around.