How to choose the right MSP partner: A practical buyer’s guide

Companies of all sizes are spending more on managed IT services than ever before–and the numbers are only going higher.

According to Grandview research, the global managed IT market was valued at $401.15 billion in 2025 and it’s set to grow to $847.41billion by 2033—a whopping 9.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). If your company is looking to hire a new managed service provider (MSP) or up your yearly spend on IT services, you’re in good company. From new AI investments to cybersecurity and private cloud, businesses around the world are finding new ways to grow their business with technology—and they need the right partner to get them there.

So how do all these new opportunities for IT investment affect your experience hiring an MSP? In a word—significantly. To help you on your journey, this guide will walk you through some of our latest thought leadership on key discussion topics you’ll need to bring up in your MSP search.

MSP trends that should shape your decision 

MSPs are evolving fast—especially surrounding cloud strategy and AI-enabled operations. If you choose a partner based on yesterday’s service model, you may outgrow them quickly. Start by understanding where the market is going, because it changes what “good” looks like. Here are some of our featured resources that discuss how the market is changing for MSPs and why you shouldn’t settle for less than a digitally mature, future-forward IT strategy.

What are the factors driving private cloud adoption? A practical look at “cloud repatriation”—why organizations are moving workloads back to private/hybrid environments for cost control, data sovereignty, performance, and AI workload needs. 

What is the future of managed IT services? A forward-looking view of where managed services are headed (cloud migration, cybersecurity modernization, remote work enablement, edge computing, and AI integration). 

The 10 MSP trends to watch in 2026—and beyond Integris CIO Brian Luckey offers a trend map for buyers: from AIOps and how it’s creating productivity in IT service delivery. This blog discusses the importance of a “digital trust architecture” to ensure data security and trust to the importance of cloud optimization, and more.

What the latest trends mean for your MSP shortlist  

When you interview MSPs, don’t just ask what they do today—ask what they’re building toward. A future-ready MSP should be able to explain in plain language how they handle modern realities: hybrid infrastructure, cloud spend volatility, and the accelerating impact of AI. 

Consider cloud strategy. Many organizations are experiencing “sticker shock” in public cloud environments, which is one reason private cloud adoption and hybrid architectures are resurging.  The right MSP should be comfortable recommending the right placement for the right workload—not defaulting to a single architecture. 

Then pressure-test their AI story. AI in managed services is not the same as “we use AI.” You’re looking for measurable automation in areas like ticket routing, monitoring, and proactive remediation, along with a governance mindset that reduces risk.

Finally, evaluate whether they’re truly evolving past reactive support. IT leaders increasingly want cost control, resilient hybrid IT, and security maturity, delivered with reporting that ties IT to business outcomes.  If an MSP can’t articulate how they’re adapting to these trends, they may be a short-term vendor, not a long-term partner. 

Proving value: Building key performance indicators (KPIs) that move the needle for your business

If you want to choose the right MSP partner, ask for a value model, not just a price. A mature provider should be able to help you build a baseline (current downtime, ticket volume, tooling costs, staffing burden) and then define the metrics that will change over time.  Here are some of our latest resources that show you how to build metrics that will accurately track the effectiveness of your IT investment.

How can I measure the ROI in IT managed services?  Our Integris experts offer a laundry list of meaningful metrics you can easily track. You’ll get a framework for building an ROI narrative leadership will actually accept: baseline metrics, direct/indirect benefits, and business-aligned measurement. 

Do managed IT service providers save money? Yes, in fact, they do. A 2026 Global Growth Insights market analysis reported that organizations using MSPs saw IT overhead reduced by 47%, driven by potential reduced staffing, tooling, and infrastructure costs. That’s a powerful bottom line-incentive, but it’s not the only one. This blog outlines all the hard and soft costs MSPs can trim and shows you how to articulate the value of IT outsourcing.

Why system downtime is so costly—and how MSPs can help Sometimes, the most important metric for your IT are the outages you don’t have. If downtime can be deadly to your income, this story will show you how investments in proactive monitoring, resilience planning, and system standardization can keep your profit centers running smoothly.

How can managed IT help with asset management? Sometimes the greatest opportunities for budget performance are simply cutting out the waste in your current portfolio. Learn more about how modern, proactive asset management can be a big step towards savings—and digital maturity.

How to work with an MSP

It’s not enough to choose an MSP that checks all the boxes. The success of your relationship will rise and fall on setting the right expectations early, gathering the right data for a thorough assessment, and project managing properly. If you’re wondering what best practices look like for working with an AI-forward MSP, start here.

Outsourcing your IT ebook This comprehensive guide walks you through everything you need to know about working with a digitally mature MSP. It offers the latest industry statistics about where the IT outsourcing is headed, tips for onboarding/offboarding, and an outline for what a modern MSP can—and should—be doing to build your business.

If your MSP isn’t using AIOps, is it the right MSP for you? AI for IT operations (AIOps) is now a core differentiator for managed service providers (MSPs) that want to improve efficiency, reduce overhead, and deliver faster, higher-quality service. If you are working with or considering an MSP that hasn’t incorporated AIOps into its own service delivery, think again.

What to expect from an AI-driven MSP Artificial intelligence is set to revolutionize the way work is done, and the managed IT services provider (MSP) world is no exception. In fact, in a global survey of MSPs by Lansweeper, 76.4% of respondents said they expect AI-driven service offerings to contribute between 11% and 50% of their revenue over the next few years.

A client portal is a litmus test for client-centricity  MSPs can build customized client portals that provide actionable data insight for their customers. This blog shows why the next generation of client portals signals operational maturity for MSPs and their customers: including billing transparency, documentation access, support visibility, and self-service workflows, all viewable in real time. 

Why paid IT assessments are key to the future of your IT  This blog addresses one of the thorniest vetting questions during MSP comparison shopping: whether to pay for a full IT assessment at a contract’s outset or settle for the free tire-kicking while a new MSP learns on the job. This blog will show you the difference between the two and explain why a paid assessment should include a gap analysis, prioritized roadmap, and budgeting.

What are best practices for managing IT projects? This blog offers a checklist for project success (scope, planning, communication, risk, quality assurance)—and explains why many transformations fail without discipline. 

Cybersecurity, and what it means to your search for a new MSP

According to Mimecast’s “State of Human Risk, 2025” Report, 95% of data breaches involve the human element, and historically high levels of AI-assisted cyberattacks are enough to keep system users confused and vulnerable. These elevated risk levels are showing up in places you might not expect, such as third-party vendors that seem to have iron-clad security, but don’t. Yet the Verizon “2025 Data Breach Investigations Report” report showed it’s one of the biggest risk areas for global companies: doubling to 30% of all data breaches just last year.

All MSPs aren’t created equal, and cybersecurity capabilities may be the biggest differentiator between local break/fix MSPs and a mature, well-resourced one. These resources guide you through some of the biggest cybersecurity issues of the day, and the strategies modern MSPs are using to defeat the threats.

Ebook—How to implement robust cybersecurity: the 14 key areas This checklist-style overview of cybersecurity hygiene helps you categorize all the ways an MSP should help implement, manage, and monitor your cybersecurity defenses. From two-factor authentication to patch management to employee training, this ebook outlines how to achieve defense in depth.

Human risk management: How MSPs protect against a key threat Why “human behavior” is a central security vulnerability—and how a whole branch of cybersecurity expertise has emerged to manage it. This article outlines what human risk management programs look like (training + monitoring + policy enforcement), and how they’re changing in the age of AI. 

Top email phishing scams in 2026 and what to do about them From deepfakes to customized spear phishing, this blog details the emerging scams that might regale can your system this year, and how to protect against them.

Why we’re drawing the line at Responsible IT Architecture (RITA). In this column, Kris Laskarzewski, Integris chief transformation officer, describes our RITA program, which offers an integrated suite of cybersecurity tools to protect your business. He explains why these security controls are the baseline for today’s businesses, and why Integris works only with those companies that can maintain that standard.

Compliance: What to demand and how to measure it 

Compliance is no longer a periodic scramble. It’s becoming a continuous operating model—with metrics, evidence collection, and continuous readiness as its vanguard. The right MSP partner can help you build repeatable compliance workflows that stand up to audits, insurers, and customer security questionnaires.

When MSPs say they “do compliance,” your job is to ask, “How do you prove it and sustain it?” The key performance indicator (KPI) framework is a good litmus test, because real compliance programs are measurable, not rhetorical. 

In regulated environments, reporting and evidence are first-class deliverables. If an MSP can’t show how evidence is captured (and how quickly you can produce it for audits, insurers, and customer questionnaires), it isn’t not operating compliance as a system. 

These resources can help you understand how to judge compliance worthiness in your next MSP partner.

How to build KPIs for your compliance as a service program  Key performance indicators are a practical way to measure compliance progress with executive-ready metrics, especially when compliance is delivered as an MSP-managed program. Yet it can often be difficult to measure the noncompliance events that don’t happen. This article walks you through the challenge of creating meaningful compliance KPIs and discusses what to look for in an MSP that offers CaaS.

Why CMMC compliance may matter for your company in 2026 If your company is working with—or considering working with—the government for defense contracting, you can’t afford to miss this blog on Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). We’ll talk about the change in rules around CMMC Level 2, why it matters to Controlled Unclassified Information-handing government vendors, and how to handle ongoing evidence gathering for department of defense audits.

If you are looking for an MSP with consulting and service resources, Integris can help.

For more on choosing an MSP, cybersecurity, governance, risk, and compliance, check out our website. And our team would love to talk to you about the possibilities of applying our consulting expertise to your business challenges. If you’d like to learn more than these resources can provide, contact us for a free consultation.