Driver: Increasing trend of cloud analytics and big data As the business requirements are dynamic, customers are looking for new solutions and services that can be implemented in today’s continuous changing technology. As solutions are increasing in different markets, the requirement for services has equally become important. It can be anticipated that gen-next integrated ICT services that include a vast range of professional and integrated services, is expected to grow to meet the increasing demand from businesses operating in analytics, big data, IoT, and infrastructure management. Now, with the upcoming technologies available for analyzing resources stored in the cloud, companies are taking advantage of the increased scalability and lower overhead, directing the shift from physical machines to cloud-based big data solutions. Moreover, the rising global trends in big data and analytics have distinctly become visible. Restraint: Concern over cloud security and privacy Organizations feel that using cloud managed services would result in loss of control over their organization and providing third parties access to their processes would hamper their privacy. Cloud managed services involve a number of third parties outsourcing their abilities, which can cause security and confidentiality concerns for infrastructures in mobility, networks, database, cloud and web applications, and virtualization. Thus, for the companies, the concerns for security and privacy remain the top restraint in the adoption of cloud managed services.

Cloud Managed Services Market ofeers: Managed infrastructure services Managed print services Managed desktop services Managed backup and recovery services Others Managed network services Virtual private network services Network monitoring and maintenance services Others Managed security services Threat management services Vulnerability management services Incident management services Others Managed data center services Hosting services Storage services Others Managed mobility services Managed communication services Unified communications services Email communications services

IBM Corporation (US), Cisco Systems (US), Ericsson (Sweden), Accenture PLC (Republic of Ireland), NTT DATA Corporation (Japan), Huawei Technologies (China), NEC Corporation (Japan), DXC Technology (US), Fujitsu Ltd (Japan), Centurylink (US), and Civica (UK). Ericsson offers managed cloud enablement services, managed mobile virtual network enabler services, network managed services, IT managed services, and broadcast managed services and network sharing, globally. These products help meet the rapidly changing and competitive cloud managed services market, as they offer fast services to the customers. Ericsson’s cloud offerings help capture malicious activities and maximize network efficiency of the customers. Furthermore, managed enterprise cloud provided by the organization gives a fully automated platform to monitor and maintain every activity on enterprise applications. The cloud services offer flexibility, thus enabling businesses to strengthen their competitive positions in the cloud managed services market. Ericsson offers the above-mentioned cloud services to speed up new services in the market, reduce TCO, and enhance customer experience.

Challenge: Limited availability of IT experts in cloud The problem involved in delivering cloud managed services is one of the major challenges in the cloud managed services market. In order to meet the desired smooth performance expected of an optimal managed IT services, MSPs must focus on empowering their staff with the highest level of expertise. MSPs need to provide their workforces with superior technical competence, administrative, and managerial skills to ensure the efficient management of cloud managed services. Efficient workforce provides optimization and technical reliability of the IT systems. In the current scenario, MSPs are providing a number of technical training for enhancing as well as changing technology to their employees. Many courses and certifications related to cloud and analytics are conducted for the students willing to take up a cloud or managed services as a career. Furthermore, various universities across the world are providing managed service training that help experts to understand the changing needs of customers and the relevant issues that companies face. Opportunity: Rise in adoption of cloud Cloud technologies are one of the mandatory implementations for growing organizations. Cloud computing increases the efficiency of the infrastructure by reducing TCO by providing business agility, faster innovations, and mobility. With the help of cloud managed services such as mobility services, network services, and security services, organizations can handle their mobile devices, manage network security, and can also focus on providing better services and gain customer loyalty. Due to the increasing trend in cloud managed services, the leading vendors across the world are strategically expanding by partnering with or acquiring companies, which can provide the right solutions to overcome the challenges of cloud managed services. For example, APAC with its commercially diverse region has some of the advanced economies in the world such as Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore with China and India as the fastest growing economy. The organizations in this region are witnessing a rise in new ways of working and an increase in cloud computing trends. This leads to increase in demand for cloud managed services to help organizations manage the changes.

Some of the recent developments made are: In March 2017, Cisco acquired AppDynamics, a leader in application and business monitoring. This is expected to help Cisco and AppDynamics deliver visibility across the network and drive digital transformation to enhance customer experience. In February 2017, Ericsson partnered with Verizon, a CSP, to meet the customer demands. Through this partnership, Ericsson offered its software and services to Verizon. Ericsson also managed to strengthen its business portfolio of virtual network services globally, as it is widely adopted by the CSPs. In April 2017, IBM launched IBM Customer Insights CSP V1.5, which offers CSPs the ability to improve customer retention. It also enhances the existing analytic capabilities by delivering high values through refined retention analytics. In February 2017, NTT DATA collaborated with Oracle to bring healthcare Big Data to the Cloud. This collaboration would help both the companies in predictive modelling of resources. In March 2017, Huawei launched a cloud-based high performance unified CDN solution that enables flexible distribution and an enhanced scheduling capability. It supports fixed and mobile networks, such as IPTV, OTT content, online streaming video, internet cache, and B2B CDN In April 2016, Accenture partnered with Nokia to help companies build and monetize modern networks. The partnership helped deliver new industry solutions in customer experience and analytics, and network and business transformations

The cloud managed services market to grow from USD 27.1 billion in 2017 to USD 53.8 billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.6% during the forecast period. The major factors that are expected to be driving the cloud managed services market are increasing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) spending, growing trend of big-data and analytics, and the need to focus more on core business activities.