The managed services industry is on the cusp of a transformation. A market of more than 330,000 channel partners is projected to generate almost $600 billion in revenue by 2025, driven by demand for advanced cybersecurity solutions, compliance management and hybrid cloud.
We are seeing an increased focus on cybersecurity and compliance, with 90 per cent of managed service providers (MSPs) anticipating growth in this area over the next three years. Lee Robinson, co-founder and director at MSP Meta Eagle, said, “There's a clear and rising need for MSPs that combine strong security capabilities with cutting-edge technology”.
MSPs need to take advantage of this opportunity, but they can’t do it alone. They need to partner with like-minded vendors to be able to meet growing demand and get their cybersecurity offerings right.
Which means in today’s landscape, partnership between MSPs and vendors isn’t a luxury — it’s a survival strategy.
What defines a vendor partnership?
A true partnership goes far beyond the technology. Vendor partnerships can be broken down into three elements: Trust, enablement, and co-investment:
• Trust: Unfortunately, some vendors are out there just to sell, sell, sell, which often leads MSPs to lose trust — leading to scepticism around vendor intentions in general. But the best partnerships are built on transparency and mutual success. If the community can build trust and work together, everyone has the opportunity to grow.
• Enablement: Too many vendor-MSP relationships still work at arm’s length, being transactional and reactive in nature, as well as largely limited to procurement. But in today’s cybersecurity-first landscape, the stakes are higher, the threat vectors broader and the margin for error thinner. Successful vendor partnerships must focus on enablement — providing more than products and licensing — but also training, educational resources and one of the most important resources, face time.
• Co-investment: Co-investment is about committing time, resources and budget to help MSPs scale. When vendors co-invest, they signal that the partner’s success is their success. It fosters deeper alignment, speeds up growth and builds long-term loyalty. For some MSPs, especially those with limited in-house marketing ability, vendor-supplied assets can help to accelerate growth, reduce marketing costs and help them to position services more credibly and consistently in the market.
MSPs should lean on programs like our Head Nerds for skills development and ongoing peer learning. Thorough training for both sales and technical teams equips MSPs to confidently promote and implement solutions. For example, industry-specific programmes designed to boost customer engagement by meeting the unique needs of each vertical; or co-sales support for effective deal closure.
Collaboration over competition
Traditionally, MSPs often “go it alone”, but collaboration unlocks scale. Participating in peer groups, joint ventures, and security tabletop exercises can help to foster growth and understanding.
Knowledge sharing is especially valuable for mid-sized MSPs looking to elevate their security posture without building everything in-house. In a competitive UK MSP market, proactive security preparedness can become a differentiator. Activities such as security tabletop exercises simulate real-world breach scenarios, allowing MSPs and their vendor partners to stress-test incident response plans, identify and rectify process gaps, and build operational muscle memory. These elements could be the difference between fast containment and a client crisis, spiralling into financial loss and reputational damage.
Redefining the relationship
As cybersecurity threats grow more complex and customer expectations evolve, MSPs face a critical choice: continue operating in isolation or embrace the power of vendor partnerships to meet the moment. The most resilient and forward-thinking MSPs will be those who move beyond transactional relationships and actively seek out strategic vendor alliances. These are the partnerships that unlock scale, sharpen security posture and open the door to high-growth, high-value service models.
In the UK, where regulatory scrutiny and cyber risk are escalating in equal measure, working with the right vendor is crucial. To know if a vendor is a good fit for collaboration, MSPs should ask themselves:
1. Do they offer initiative-taking enablement and co-marketing?
2. Do they align with your growth goals?
3. Are they helping to reduce tool spread?
4. Are they happy to engage in open dialogue and feedback loops?
5. Are they invested in your technical and commercial teams?
To fully seize the cybersecurity opportunity, MSPs must stop thinking like customers and start acting like collaborators by trusting their vendors, enabling mutual growth and investing in true partnerships to thrive in this new era.