Security, compliance and AI services open up new revenue for managed service providers, but they also increase operating effort. According to Hornetsecurity and distributor ADN, profitable growth in the Microsoft 365 space increasingly depends on standardization, consolidation and targeted enablement.
The IT security market is shifting from individual products to services. For managed service providers (MSPs) that support companies around Microsoft 365, this creates business opportunities as well as new operational demands.
From Product to Service
According to market researcher CONTEXT, the MSP segment in Germany recently grew by 72 percent. Demand is therefore strongest for partners that cover security, backup, compliance, governance and, increasingly, AI topics from a single source. The focus is moving from individual technologies to long-term service relationships. That raises revenue potential, but also the demands on operations, administration and scaling.
AI as an Additional Service Area
Artificial intelligence adds momentum. According to Hornetsecurity, the pressure comes less from vendors than from companies themselves, which want to put applications such as Microsoft Copilot into productive use. Many of them already have the technical foundation in Microsoft 365 but need help with data structures, permission models, governance and security policies. Copilot, after all, accesses existing company data according to the user’s access rights. This extends the Microsoft 365 business to include consulting and managed-service offerings.
Growth Increases Complexity
The broader the service portfolio, the more demanding the operation. MSPs manage solutions from several vendors, use different administration portals and have to account for varying licensing and billing models. For many partners, what matters is therefore less which services they can offer than whether they can run them profitably.
Anyone who adds another platform for every new business area risks complexity growing faster than revenue. Torben Hochmayr, Distribution Manager at Hornetsecurity by Proofpoint, says many partners are running into the limits of their operational complexity rather than a limit in demand. New revenue potential can only be tapped, he says, if security, compliance and AI services are delivered on a common platform and largely automated.
Hornetsecurity names tenant management as one building block. It is meant to let MSPs manage multiple Microsoft 365 environments centrally rather than switching between customer portals. According to the vendor, this reduces manual effort, simplifies onboarding of new customers and makes operating models easier to scale. The growth potential, it adds, lies less in winning new customers than in extending existing customer environments with additional services.
Enablement for Partners
Technology alone is not enough, the companies say, because new services have to be sold, implemented, operated and scaled. That creates demands on distributors and vendors, who are expected to support partners in building new business models. ADN cites training, enablement and specialization programs around Microsoft 365, security and AI, including Copilot training, presales support and the “ADN on Air” format. The aim, it says, is to make it easier for partners to enter new business areas.
Assessment
From the perspective of ADN and Hornetsecurity, competition will depend less on how many services a provider has in its portfolio and more on how efficiently it delivers them. Standardization, consolidation and targeted enablement are therefore a prerequisite for sustainable growth. The challenge for MSPs is to seize new business opportunities without being undone by their own operating model.
Preview
Hornetsecurity and ADN will take up the topic on October 6, 2026, in episode #25 of “ADN on Air.” Partners can register on the ADN website.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de
When I look at my own infrastructure, I noticed that fragmented setups significantly delay the implementation of new security protocols.