The MSP Profit Shift: 5 Services Driving Partner Growth in 2026

MSP profitability is changing fast.

The old model of broad help desk support, basic infrastructure management and license resale is no longer enough. Buyers are more cautious, competition is tighter and average deal sizes are under pressure. Kaseya’s 2026 State of the MSP report found that 71% of MSPs say acquiring new customers is their biggest challenge, while the share of MSPs reporting customers spending more than $25,000 per year fell from 75% to 41%. At the same time, security and backup remain strong revenue anchors, with 71% of MSPs reporting year over year revenue growth in cybersecurity and 50% reporting growth in BCDR.

This does not mean the MSP market is slowing down. It means profit is moving.

The most successful MSPs and cloud partners are shifting from tool resale to packaged, outcome based services. The strongest profit areas are now AI adoption, managed cybersecurity, cyber resilience, cloud lifecycle services and co managed operational models.

Here are the five areas MSPs should build around now.

AI is the loudest trend in the market, but the profit is not in simply reselling AI licenses. The profit is in helping customers get ready for AI, use it safely and measure business value.

For Microsoft partners, the opportunity is already being quantified. A Forrester Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Microsoft found that AI now represents 14% of the expected revenue opportunity for Modern Work partners and drove 60% of overall year over year growth. The same study estimates an incremental AI revenue opportunity of $26.10 per user per month, or $12.45 per user per month after attach rates, across advisory, deployment, solution development and managed services.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is also producing real follow on work. Forrester found that the expected revenue opportunity around Microsoft 365 Copilot grew 36%, and that initial Copilot workshops lead to follow on work 90% of the time.

The MSP market is showing the same signal. Kaseya’s 2026 report found that 48% of MSPs say AI and automation will be the top IT or service need for clients in 2026, but only 13% currently identify AI and automation as a meaningful revenue source. That gap is the opportunity.

The profitable AI offer is not “we sell Copilot.” It is:

AI readiness assessment
Data security and governance review
Copilot or Gemini deployment
AI acceptable use policy
Prompt and workflow training
Custom agents for sales, operations, finance or support
Monthly adoption and ROI reporting

Google and AWS are also moving heavily in this direction. Google Cloud announced a $750 million partner fund to support agentic AI value identification, prototyping, deployment and upskilling across its partner ecosystem. AWS says 82% of partners are already delivering some form of AI as part of AWS transformation delivery.

The message is clear: AI is no longer a future service category. It is becoming the entry point for modern MSP consulting.

AI is getting attention, but cybersecurity is still the most reliable MSP profit engine.

Kaseya’s 2025 Global MSP Benchmark report found that 67% of MSPs ranked cybersecurity as one of their five fastest growing revenue categories, and MSPs with net profit margins of 15% or higher ranked cybersecurity among their top three revenue streams.

The 2026 data reinforces the trend. Kaseya found that 52% of MSPs rank security as one of their top revenue sources, making it second only to endpoint and network management.

Microsoft partner data supports the same conclusion. A Forrester study commissioned by Microsoft found that the Microsoft Security partner opportunity reached $54.35 per user per month in expected revenue opportunity, with 20% expected year over year growth. The study also found that data security, compliance, identity, XDR and managed security services are expanding as customers prepare for AI and face more complex attacks.

Acronis is another strong signal for MSPs. Canalys named Acronis a Champion in its 2025 Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix, citing its MSP first approach, ease of doing business and integrated portfolio across cybersecurity, data protection and operational management. Acronis MDR is positioned as a 24/7/365 managed detection, response and recovery service built specifically for MSPs.

The profitable security offer should include:

MDR or XDR
Endpoint detection and response
Microsoft Defender management
Microsoft Sentinel or SIEM monitoring
Email security
Identity and access management
Data loss prevention
Security awareness training
vCISO reviews
Compliance reporting

The opportunity is not just to protect customers. It is to turn cybersecurity into a board level business conversation.

Cybersecurity prevents, detects and responds. Cyber resilience proves the business can recover.

That distinction matters because customers are no longer asking only, “Are we protected?” They are asking, “Can we keep operating if something goes wrong?”

Kaseya’s 2026 report found that 50% of MSPs reported year over year revenue growth in BCDR, making it the second strongest growth area behind cybersecurity. Backup and recovery also ranked as a major revenue driver, with 41% of MSPs identifying it as one of their top revenue sources.

This is why backup, disaster recovery, SaaS backup and ransomware recovery should not be sold as technical add ons. They should be packaged as business continuity services.

A strong cyber resilience offer includes:

Microsoft 365 backup
Google Workspace backup
Endpoint and server backup
Entra ID backup
Immutable storage
Disaster recovery testing
Ransomware recovery planning
Recovery time objective reviews
Cyber insurance evidence packs
Executive continuity reporting

Acronis is also aligning MDR with recovery. Its MDR service includes threat detection, response, recovery and business continuity support in one MSP focused platform. Acronis also says its integrated platform can unlock up to 60% improvement in total cost of ownership by consolidating data protection, cybersecurity and endpoint management.

This is a major margin opportunity because recovery is measurable. Customers understand downtime, lost revenue and insurance risk. MSPs that can show recovery readiness with clear reports can defend premium pricing.

Cloud profitability is not coming from resale alone. It comes from owning the full lifecycle.

AWS says its 2025 Partner Ecosystem Multiplier study found that mature AWS partners can generate up to $7.13 in services revenue for every $1 of AWS technology sold. The biggest growth areas are build and manage services, driven by marketplace growth and generative or agentic AI.

Google Cloud reports a similar pattern. A Canalys study commissioned by Google Cloud found that partners delivering services across the full customer lifecycle can capture up to $7.05 in incremental revenue for every $1 invested in Google Cloud.

Marketplace is also becoming a major profitability lever. Microsoft says Marketplace represents a projected $300 billion partner revenue opportunity by 2030, and that partners selling through Marketplace report measurable impact: 88% report revenue growth, 75% close deals faster and 69% secure larger deals.

AWS Marketplace data points in the same direction. AWS cites Forrester research showing that channel partners who build and scale an AWS Marketplace practice can realize 234% ROI, 50% faster deal closure and 4 to 5 times richer deal sizes compared with traditional channels.

Google Cloud Marketplace is also improving channel economics. Google says qualifying software purchases through Marketplace Channel Private Offers receive 100% commit drawdown tied to the final private offer price, up to the allowable cap, and that third party gross transaction value resold through channel partners grew 170% from 2023 to 2024.

The profitable cloud offer should include:

Cloud assessment
Migration planning
Modernization
Cloud cost optimization
FinOps
Well Architected reviews
Managed AWS, Azure or Google Cloud operations
Marketplace private offer packaging
Cloud governance
Cloud security posture management

MSPs should stop treating cloud as a one time migration project. The better model is lifecycle ownership: advise, design, procure, build, adopt and manage.

The final profitability trend is operational. MSPs need to make delivery more scalable.

Kaseya’s 2025 benchmark found that 61% of executive respondents said co managed IT revenue was up year over year, and that two thirds of MSPs generate up to 50% of revenue from co managed services. It also found that 95% of MSPs say connecting RMM, PSA and IT documentation tools is essential for scalable operations.

The 2026 data shows why this matters. MSPs are dealing with tighter deal sizes, higher customer expectations and talent constraints. Kaseya found that the share of MSPs reporting difficulty hiring skilled technicians rose to 16% from 9%, while 83% say IT management tools significantly enhance operational efficiency.

This is where productization becomes critical.

Instead of selling generic managed services, MSPs should package narrower offers with clear outcomes:

Co managed help desk
Co managed security
Compliance as a service
vCIO services
vCISO services
Quarterly business reviews
Automated ticket triage
RMM and PSA integration
NOC or SOC augmentation
Vertical specific IT bundles

The goal is to make services easier to buy, easier to deliver and easier to renew.

Kaseya’s 2026 report shows that many MSPs are already using automation internally, especially for monitoring, alerts, ticketing, service delivery, security operations and backup. This points to the next wave of margin improvement: using AI and automation first to reduce delivery cost, then packaging those same capabilities as client facing services.

The next phase of MSP profitability will not be won by selling more tools. It will be won by packaging high value services around urgent business outcomes.

The five areas to prioritize are:

For Microsoft partners, the strongest opportunities are Copilot services, Microsoft Security, Purview, Defender, Entra, Sentinel, CSP bundles and Marketplace private offers.

For Acronis partners, the strongest opportunities are MDR, XDR, cyber protection, BCDR and ransomware recovery.

For AWS partners, the strongest opportunities are AI, migration, modernization, managed cloud, Marketplace and cloud operations.

For Google Cloud partners, the strongest opportunities are Gemini Enterprise, agentic AI, data modernization, security services, managed services and Marketplace Channel Private Offers.

The practical move is simple: stop positioning as a generic MSP. Build packaged offers around AI readiness, security maturity, resilience, cloud optimization and co managed outcomes.

That is where the profit is moving.

Want to identify which of these five profit areas fits your MSP business best? Start with a profitability assessment that maps your current services, margins, vendor stack and customer demand into a clear 90 day growth plan.

The figures above are drawn from current vendor, analyst and channel sources, including Kaseya’s 2025 and 2026 MSP reports, Forrester Total Economic Impact studies commissioned by Microsoft, AWS partner profitability research, Google Cloud partner ecosystem research, Microsoft Marketplace research and Acronis MSP cybersecurity material. Several studies are vendor commissioned, so the numbers should be treated as directional benchmarks, not guaranteed outcomes.