Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights

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, this focused podcast focuses on the knowledge you need to be effective, profitable, and relevant.
Ben Morrell on How Unified Security Platforms Shift MSP Operational Risk and Staff Needs

Ben Morrell on How Unified Security Platforms Shift MSP Operational Risk and Staff Needs

The episode highlights the structural shift toward platform consolidation in security services, illustrated by Coro’s unified security platform and its positioning for lean IT teams and MSPs. The mechanism involves the bundling of diverse security tools—email protection, endpoint detection and respo...

Vendor Tiering Locks Out Small Partners: Anurag Agrawal on Allocation, Not Capability

Vendor Tiering Locks Out Small Partners: Anurag Agrawal on Allocation, Not Capability

The episode identifies a structural shift within the IT services market, highlighting a bifurcation between two distinct economic models in the channel: the advisory economy, paid upfront for transformation and integration, and the operational economy, paid on the backend for managed outcomes and re...

AI Watermarks and the End of Document Trust

AI Watermarks and the End of Document Trust

The dominant structural shift explored is the erosion of document-based differentiation for MSPs and IT service providers, driven by advances in generative AI, regulatory mandates, and automation of AI detection and content creation processes. Regulatory requirements such as the EU AI Act are compel...

AI-Driven Vulnerabilities and Bonded Licenses: Why Permission Is the Hidden Business Risk

AI-Driven Vulnerabilities and Bonded Licenses: Why Permission Is the Hidden Business Risk

The episode reveals a structural shift toward permission-based operational models, where access and capability are not determined by technical proficiency alone but by explicit, revocable permissions from state or corporate authorities. This model is illustrated by the recent U.S. federal initiative...

ConnectWise CEO Manny Rivelo: AI Agents Shift Ticket Resolution and Labor Costs for MSPs

ConnectWise CEO Manny Rivelo: AI Agents Shift Ticket Resolution and Labor Costs for MSPs

The episode details a structural shift within the managed services market toward increased operational automation and integration, framed by vendor-led consolidation of core service platforms with embedded AI-driven workflows. ConnectWise has combined previously separate systems—PSA, RMM, ScreenConn...

Automation's Cost Curve: Why AI Usage Is Squeezing Profits Across IT Services

Automation's Cost Curve: Why AI Usage Is Squeezing Profits Across IT Services

Margin pressure driven by AI adoption and automation is fundamentally altering the economic model for IT service delivery and software. Trend Micro’s disclosure that operating margins fell from 19% to 15% while cloud and AI token costs nearly doubled, despite strong AI security product sales, highli...

Lexful’s AI-Native Documentation: New Accountability and Risk for MSPs – With Pinar Ormeci

Lexful’s AI-Native Documentation: New Accountability and Risk for MSPs – With Pinar Ormeci

The episode highlights the shift toward AI-driven knowledge management within the MSP sector, revealing increased operational dependency on structured data and sophisticated integrations. Lexful, an AI-native documentation platform designed specifically for MSPs, represents this trend by positioning...

N-able’s Security Revenue Faces Decline as License Portability Undercuts MSP Margins

N-able’s Security Revenue Faces Decline as License Portability Undercuts MSP Margins

The episode details a structural shift for MSPs and IT service providers: the separation of security license resale from the value of human-led security services, and the resulting pricing and margin risks. Companies like N-able, SentinelOne, and SonicWall exemplify how technology offerings and deli...

Vendor License Loopholes Shift Breach Liability to MSPs

Vendor License Loopholes Shift Breach Liability to MSPs

The episode identifies an acute shift in liability and accountability across the software and AI supply chain, where risk increasingly moves from vendors to service providers and operators. This dynamic is illustrated through incomplete vendor patches, AI tool output, and changing regulatory structu...

Consortium for Responsible IT Services: Cole Knuth Outlines New Path for MSP Accountability

Consortium for Responsible IT Services: Cole Knuth Outlines New Path for MSP Accountability

The dominant mechanism addressed is the development of a self-regulatory framework for IT service providers, specifically as Texas A&M University's Global Cyber Research Institute (GTIA) launches the Consortium for Responsible IT Services (CRITS). This signals a move toward organized self-governance...

CMMC Pause Exposes High Compliance Costs for Small Defense Contractors — Jeremiah Jensen

CMMC Pause Exposes High Compliance Costs for Small Defense Contractors — Jeremiah Jensen

The core mechanism discussed is the regulatory pressure and resulting operational risk created by the Department of Defense’s (DoD) abrupt suspension of the CMMC Level 2 third-party certification mandate. IntelliGenesis, led operationally by Jeremiah Jensen, illustrates how rapidly shifting complian...

Dave Bloom: Why Small MSPs Can Sustain High Margins by Limiting Tool Overhead

Dave Bloom: Why Small MSPs Can Sustain High Margins by Limiting Tool Overhead

The episode examines margin disparity and operational strategy for MSPs serving regulated industries, spotlighting how compliance-driven overhead can become a structural moat for providers targeting underserved segments. The discussion centers on Trumbull Tech’s model, which leverages a minimal-staf...

How Blue Mantis Navigates AI and Security Demand Without Enterprise Budgets – Josh Dinneen

How Blue Mantis Navigates AI and Security Demand Without Enterprise Budgets – Josh Dinneen

The episode reveals a structural shift toward operational complexity and heightened accountability in the MSP sector, as service providers are increasingly required to integrate AI capabilities, consolidate security offerings, and deliver enterprise-grade outcomes for mid-market clients without matc...

Losing Your Ticket Data: How Atera’s Automation Shifts Baseline Control to Vendors

Losing Your Ticket Data: How Atera’s Automation Shifts Baseline Control to Vendors

The episode identifies a core structural shift in the managed services industry: the decoupling of service measurement from observable work due to the adoption of autonomous service desk technologies. This shift is driven by the introduction of automation platforms—such as Atera’s Robin, Acronis AI ...

Jessica Davis: How AI Usage Models Are Disrupting MSP Revenue Predictability

Jessica Davis: How AI Usage Models Are Disrupting MSP Revenue Predictability

The central structural shift addressed is the fracture of the longstanding per-user, per-month MSP pricing model due to AI-enabled consumption-based (tokenized) billing, which introduces variable costs previously absent from MSP contracts. This shift is being reinforced by vendor strategies from fir...

Platform Vendors Now Dictate Which AI Agents Can Buy from Your Clients’ Sites

Platform Vendors Now Dictate Which AI Agents Can Buy from Your Clients’ Sites

The episode highlights a structural shift in web traffic patterns: machine-driven activity, particularly from AI agents, now makes up the majority of website visits and increasingly determines how businesses are discovered and engaged online. Companies such as Cloudflare, Human Security, and Similar...

Microsoft Patch Volumes and AI Shifts Deliver More Work, Less Margin for MSPs

Microsoft Patch Volumes and AI Shifts Deliver More Work, Less Margin for MSPs

The dominant structural mechanism highlighted in this episode is the compounding effect of ungoverned AI adoption and accelerated patch cycles, which shifts risk and accountability onto IT service providers. Microsoft’s increased reliance on AI to identify vulnerabilities, changes in authentication ...

Justin Fox on How ValorC3 Adapted to Broadcom’s VMware Licensing Deadline

Justin Fox on How ValorC3 Adapted to Broadcom’s VMware Licensing Deadline

The episode reveals infrastructure dependence and vendor consolidation risks in the IT channel, illustrated by Broadcom’s abrupt closure of the VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program. This move eliminated license access for numerous MSPs, disrupting established practices reliant on VMware plat...

Operator Implications of Cloud Scarcity: Why AI Spending Now Demands Active Monitoring

Operator Implications of Cloud Scarcity: Why AI Spending Now Demands Active Monitoring

The dominant structural shift highlighted is the migration from flat-rate software subscriptions to usage-based billing models within AI and cloud services. Notably, vendors such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and GitHub have transitioned services off fixed-rate subscriptions toward consumption-based pricing...

AI Adoption Shifts Costs to Individual Level: Seth Robinson

AI Adoption Shifts Costs to Individual Level: Seth Robinson

The episode identifies a significant structural shift in the technology sector where the adoption of AI is increasingly shifting costs and accountability from technology providers to individual users and their employing organizations, creating new governance and operational complexities. This shift ...