The job of a Managed Service Provider is to deliver value to its customers. Often, that value is delivered through the provision, installation, and maintenance of IT infrastructure, from networks to servers to endpoints. Server installation and maintenance particularly, is a big source of revenue for a lot of MSPs.
But recently, something called “serverless computing” has come along: a software architecture in which software is executed on demand, and without any reliance on on-premise server hardware.
Instead, serverless computing relies on servers hosted in the cloud, which means companies don’t need to maintain any physical hardware, and only pay when their software makes use of those resources.
In that situation, MSPs have no physical hardware to look after on those companies’ behalf, and thus their ability to deliver value by managing infrastructure is thus undermined. But even so, it’s still possible for them to deliver value.
This is all according to a post on Channel Futures by Christopher Tozzi, in which Tozzi explores this phenomenon and what MSPs can do to adjust.
The answer, he writes, is for MSPs to offer new services, as they did when the cloud came in in such a big way. That was when they added the ability to help with virtual server management and infrastructure monitoring, and today, MSPs need to once again adapt by including the option to help customers with their move to serverless.
Tozzi says they can do that by offering guidance and planning support. They can help organisations sift through the large number of cloud vendor options, or even to provide advice about whether to go with an established cloud vendor or to rather choose an open source serverless platform.
Once an organisation has decided to go serverless, there’s still plenty of work for an MSP to do, since Tozzi says, “…most existing application release automation platforms don’t yet integrate with serverless services”.
So while the role of the MSP in today’s IT world is changing, there’s no cause for alarm.
To read the full article on Channel Futures, click here.
[Source: Channel Futures]
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