Gartner: Worldwide IT Outsourcing Market to Hit $288B in 2013

Many smart managed services providers (MSPs) may be able to take advantage of a worldwide IT outsourcing (ITO) market projected to be worth $288 billion in 2013 by leveraging bring your own device (BYOD) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings.

IT research firm Gartner, Inc. (IT) is forecasting a 2.8 percent increase in U.S. dollars from 2012, and a 5.1 percent increase in constant currency

Gartner Research Vice President Bryan Britz said in his prepared remarks that adoption of IT outsourcing remains positive across the board, however, “constrained IT budgets, an evolving ITO delivery model, economic conditions and cost-focused buyers are limiting the growth potential of the ITO market.”

“Enterprise buyers pursuing hybrid IT strategies and small and midsize business buyers adopting infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are key drivers in cloud and data center service segment growth rates,” he said.

Mailprotector Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing Amy Luby, a veteran in the industry, said via email that Brtiz’s analysis describes the chaos the channel as been feeling for the past year, using an identity crisis in the channel formed from the new era of hybrid cloud computing as an example.

“Gartner points out that IaaS and infrastructure utility service (IUS) are key going forward and this is great news for MSPs and IaaS vendors, and I would encourage MSPs to engage IaaS vendors early to leverage the ITO trends going forward over the next year or two,” Luby said. “This is a great indicator of how MSPs can begin to carve out their new identity, evolve their ITO models and build a solid business around managed infrastructure engagement opportunities.”

The report also stated that outsourced support for mobile end user devices will see strong growth through 2017, pointing to increased enterprise adoption of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices.

MSPs falling behind this growing trend could miss the opportunity to take money off the table, leaving the rest for fast moving MSPs.

TruMethods CEO and owner Gary Pica, an MSP consultant, told MSPmentor that this Gartner report confirms a growing MSP market, and MSPs need to take advantage early.

“Top MSPs that continue to enhance their service delivery model to adapt to the changing market will continue to thrive,” he said. “This data also serves as a warning to IT providers who have been slow to change. Although there will be more MSPs in the market place, only the top players will benefit from the growth in outsource spending.”