Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights
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Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights
In 10 minutes daily, The Business of Tech delivers the latest IT services and MSP-focused news and commentary. Curated to stories that matter with commentary answering 'Why Do We Care?', channel veteran Dave Sobel brings you up to speed and provides resources to go deeper. With insights and analysis...
Recent Episodes
1990 episodes
Certification Without Accountability: Adwait Nadkarni on the Liability Gaps Facing MSPs
The episode highlights a structural weakness in the current cybersecurity product ecosystem, where the process of certification and lab-based product...
Usage, Not Compliance: The New Benchmark for MSP Value in AI Tool Adoption
A structural shift is occurring as employees and customers increasingly bypass sanctioned IT systems in favor of faster, unsanctioned "shadow" tools t...
Microsoft Copilot and the Threat to MSP Margins: Ryan Morris on AI-Driven Channel Shifts
The dominant structural shift examined is the erosion of channel-driven value creation in AI offerings, marked by the rapid commoditization of resold...
AI Drives Small Business Buyers to Self-Serve as Most MSPs Stay Silent
The core structural shift affecting MSPs and IT service providers is a market bifurcation, where the traditional middle-ground offering—an undifferent...
AI Agents Undermine Seat-Based SaaS: Microsoft and OpenAI Pivot to Services
The episode identifies a structural decoupling of software value from licensing units, driven by the rise of agentic AI platforms that automate tasks...
Why Unmanaged Access Is Increasing MSP Liability: Access Governance Gaps with Kyle Bove
The dominant structural mechanism explored in this episode centers on governance gaps in access management and the resulting liability transfer to MSP...
Why PAX8’s Managed Intelligence Push Raises the Bar for MSPs — with Rich Freeman
The episode examines the ongoing shift in the IT services market from traditional managed services to “managed intelligence,” as vendors like PAX8 and...
Vendor AI Push Leaves MSPs Holding Liability as Courts Shift Responsibility
The dominant structural shift outlined is a transfer of liability and accountability for AI-generated errors from vendors to the entities deploying th...
MSP Risk: Continuing to Sell Predictable Execution as AI Removes Price Floor
The dominant structural shift underlined in this episode is the removal of the pricing floor for undifferentiated, repeatable IT work due to agentic A...
Hybrid Endpoint Management Is the New Normal: Jake Mosey on Visibility and Control
The dominant structural shift addressed is the increasing operational dependency on Microsoft Intune for endpoint management across organizations of a...
Navigating Shrinking Seat Counts: How AI Pressures MSP Revenue Streams and Security Operations
The dominant structural shift highlighted is margin pressure and business model viability for MSPs due to workforce reduction driven by AI automation....
Memory Inflation: Why All-Inclusive MSP Hardware Pricing Is No Longer Sustainable
A structural repricing of memory and silicon components is forcing a shift in the economics of hardware resale for managed service providers (MSPs) an...
MSPs Face New Risk: Customer Loyalty Drops When AI Replaces Human Interactio
The episode reveals a structural shift where “AI powered” has moved from a selling point to a source of liability and customer distrust. Surveys from...
Operational Maturity vs. Service Uniformity: Insights from Joshua Liberman’s Transition
Vendor channel consolidation, specifically through peer and family-owned acquisitions, is driving a fundamental shift in the operational landscape for...
AI Agents Outnumber IT Admins: Credential Sprawl and Network Risks with Chris Boehm
The episode highlights a structural shift in IT and security governance driven by the proliferation of autonomous AI agents inside enterprise environm...
AI Adoption Widens Operational Divide: Peter Kujawa on Service Leadership Index Data
The episode centers on persistent margin pressure and operational discipline as the dominant structural mechanisms in the managed services sector. Dat...
The Real AI Risk for MSPs: Who Verifies the Output When Clients Don’t Ask?
The core structural shift highlighted in this episode is the commoditization of AI model platforms and concurrent consolidation at the vendor and plat...
Government AI Shutdown Exposes Hidden Vendor Dependencies for MSPs
A pronounced infrastructure dependence on third-party AI models has emerged across the MSP ecosystem, largely due to the rapid adoption and integratio...
Atera’s AI Shift: Gil Pekelman on Accountability and Risk in Autonomous IT for MSPs
The episode highlights a structural shift from automation that suggests actions to automation that executes actions autonomously, thereby transferring...
New AI Governance Tools Are Table Stakes—Positioning, Not Stack, Drives MSP Growth
Vendors supplying AI-driven technologies are experiencing sustained margin pressure from high operational costs and underwhelming business-level retur...
Abraham Garver: Why Private Equity Rollups Push Smaller MSPs Into New Market Niches
Vendor channel consolidation continues to restructure the MSP landscape, with private equity-backed rollups driving both market concentration at the t...
Pressure to Adopt AI Forces MSPs to Absorb Risks Designed by Platform Vendors
Platform vendors are transferring liability and delivery responsibility for AI services onto MSPs by building structured AI practice frameworks, train...
ConnectWise Abandons ASIO: AI-Driven Platforms Shift Risk and Governance to MSPs
The episode identifies a growing governance gap as a central structural issue for MSPs and IT service providers, driven by rapid AI adoption through s...
Michael Privat: Data Weakness, Not AI Tools, Derails Enterprise AI Investments
A central structural mechanism highlighted in this episode is the exposure and amplification of technical and organizational weaknesses by enterprise...
Consumption-Based AI Billing Increases Financial Risk for Unprepared MSPs
The current structural shift centers on the transfer of accountability for AI risk from vendors and regulators to managed service providers (MSPs). Ve...
Jay McBain on How Microsoft’s AI Billing Passes Risk and Liability to MSPs
The episode examines a structural shift in the MSP business model driven by the introduction of AI-linked consumption-based pricing layered on top of...
Vendor Outcomes, Warranties, and the Shift from Risk Manager to Delivery Arm for MSPs
Outcome-based managed security and attached vendor warranties are driving a new form of coverage-based vendor lock-in for MSPs and IT service provider...
AI as Production Workload Makes Spend Limits and Logging Mandatory for MSPs
A fundamental structural shift underway is the movement of AI from isolated features to operationalized, production-level workloads in MSP tooling and...
Forced Arbitration in Tech Contracts: Brendan Ballou on Vendor Accountability Risks
Forced arbitration clauses have become embedded as a dominant mechanism in technology vendor contracts, shifting legal risk and accountability away fr...
Governance, Not Enablement: Why Agentic AI Demands New MSP Service Models
The structural shift highlighted in this episode is a move from simple AI enablement to a managed service model centered on agent governance, enforcem...
AI Liability and Data Risk Shifts: Veeam’s Platform Pivot and Rich Freeman on MSP Readiness
The episode reveals a growing governance gap as the central structural shift in the IT services sector, driven by accelerated AI adoption and increasi...
Structured Vendor Programs Increase Operational Load for MSPs
The dominant structural shift highlighted is the increasing systematization and formalization of vendor-to-MSP growth channels, where vendors now dict...
AI Governance Hurdles in Defense: Jason Tierney Examines CMMC Barriers for MSPs
The episode details a tightening regulatory environment driven by new enforcement timelines for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), alt...
Google Redesigns Search: Automation Control Emerges as Core MSP Responsibility
The structural shift outlined in this episode is the rapid evolution of search and productivity interfaces from static query tools to agentic platform...
Security Proof Becomes an MSP Service: Insurance, Trustmarks, and the Evidence Operating Model
Security operations for MSPs are undergoing a structural shift from simply deploying additional tools to establishing a liability-focused accountabili...
Vendor-Integrated AI Increases Liability Exposure for MSPs Managing Client Systems
The dominant structural shift highlighted in this episode is the migration of AI from experimental tools into directly embedded workflows within widel...
Chad Gaydos on AI Moving Procurement from Record-Keeping to Automated Decision Execution
The episode highlights a structural transition from software systems that record tasks to platforms that actively participate in business decisions, p...
AI Integration Into PSA and Security Platforms Forces New Governance Demands on MSPs
The core structural shift described in this episode is the integration of AI as an active workflow actor within managed service environments, not simp...
AI Accelerates Exploit Creation and Evidence Burden for MSPs, Says Google and Proofpoint
The central structural shift identified is the acceleration and scaling of cyber risks due to artificial intelligence, which turns formerly expert-dri...
AI Agents Create New Accountability Risks for MSPs Managing Cloud Environments
AI systems are increasingly embedded as non-human participants within managed environments, driving a structural shift in operational responsibility a...