Last updated on January 13, 2022
It’s Been a Challenging Time for Managed Service Providers (Opportunity Alert!)
In 2021, Datto surveyed managed service providers (MSPs) across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Datto is a cloud-based software and technology solutions provider. The results show that 50% of MSP clients have shifted more than half of their workloads to the cloud. However, a modest amount of financial strain due to the pandemic and adjusting to different client needs are two challenges that have bubbled up.
How the Financials Stack Up
From a financial standpoint, it was often tricky for MSPs to maximize profits before the pandemic, mainly because they have always been expected to absorb administrative and operations costs for their customers. But now, customers’ financial strains are getting passed along, making margins even tighter. Reducing the complexity and cost of virtual application and desktop delivery is key to success (and financial gains) now and moving forward.
The microscope is, of course, on the not-so-subtle elephant in the room. Business, as usual, has come to a screeching halt. There are no in-person meetings to bolster relationship building, no rubbing shoulders at events, and no client dinners to cement verbal handshakes of “working together”. However, all things virtual have accelerated. And that is because most of the workforce is now working remotely and requires a cloud infrastructure to support cross-functional needs.
What Productivity Secrets Reveal
It isn’t a secret that organizations can increase employee productivity today by enabling unfettered access to workspaces from any device and any location. If nothing else, this pandemic has amplified the need for disparate workforces to access applications and data freely to boost productivity.
Although cloud infrastructure was certainly trending pre-pandemic, the enormous shift to remote work this year has triggered the need for new tools and security protocols. Why? Cloud migrations offer an opportunity to improve collaboration and business resiliency across a distributed workforce. They also open new security vulnerabilities.
Thus, the right MSP should be poised to provide added value to clients by delivering remote access solutions, cloud migrations, and added security. A streamlined remote working solution that provides secure access to both virtual desktops and applications will enable organizations to continue working smarter now and in the future.
How Parallels RAS Changes the Game
A solution like Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) is a game-changer. Various deployment options and load balancing capabilities reduce the risk of downtime, and Parallels RAS comes with multifactor authentication, single sign-on, REST API, clientless HTML5 web access (and more) out of the box. These features make Parallels RAS the perfect answer for managed service providers seeking to maximize profits without compromising the quality of service and service level agreements. Parallels RAS even has a unique program designed specifically for managed services providers.
Parallels RAS’s flexible and scalable architecture enables organizations to address business demands in real-time, adapt quickly to continuous workplace changes, and increase productivity. Parallels RAS makes it easy for organizations to auto-scale their IT infrastructure, mix and match different technologies (such as Windows Server OSs, hypervisors, and hyperconverged solutions) and centrally manage multi-cloud deployments. What’s more, the latest version of Parallels RAS integrates with Azure Virtual Desktop.
The financial pinch is being felt across industries, but with a spotlight on certain front lines (hospitality and retail, for instance) where headcount, pricing, and closure are at risk. The Parallels RAS solution can have the most significant impact on these struggling industries.
Parallels RAS streamlines the deployment and maintenance of IT infrastructures—it is easy to set up and manage, reducing IT workloads. As an all-in-one VDI solution, Parallels RAS saves resources, reduces the hardware footprint, and lowers overhead costs. A single licensing model incorporates all the product’s comprehensive features, and the learning curve for administrators is quick, with free training included.
In Conclusion
In summary, the long-term outlook for MSPs, generally speaking, will recognize a continuation and acceleration of trends already in place before the pandemic: increasing cloud migrations and a focus on security. And Parallels RAS empowers MSPs to offer native-like and full-featured desktops and applications to any device, OS, or platform that customers may use to ensure the greatest productivity and security during this pandemic and beyond.
Learn more about the Parallels Partner Program for Parallels RAS!
