Many midsize businesses have attempted to lessen the strain by purchasing network-management software from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Tivoli, BMC, and Microsoft. These tools may improve manageability, but they're complex and notoriously difficult to implement. And for smaller companies, they're simply out of financial reach.
These factors have given rise to a new breed of company called the management service provider (MSP). By MSP Association (Web site) definition, an MSP delivers "information technology infrastructure management services to multiple customers over a network on a subscription basis." Market-research firm Meta Group places the MSP market at US$75 million to $100 million. And The Gartner Group predicts the market will expand to $3.2 billion by 2005.
The MSP value proposition is simple. Instead of purchasing a management tool, training staff to use it, and upgrading or replacing hardware systems as necessary, a company can outsource the entire process to an MSP, and be up and running in a fraction of the time -- and at a fraction of the cost. MSPs can typically start managing systems within 15 to 90 days, compared with the six to 18 months required to implement an in-house management system. Contracts are generally for a year or less, placing the onus on MSPs to deliver value quickly.
This rapid delivery schedule offers strategic advantage to those companies for which fast time to market is crucial. And the MSP pay-as-you-go subscription model eliminates the initial infrastructure investments, lessening the strain on internal IT resources and taking potential failure of network-management software implementations out of the equation. In addition, MSPs are responsible for maintaining and upgrading their software offerings as appropriate, so customers don't need to concern themselves with software updating or licensing fees.
