Top 10 MSP “Excitements” for 2026 (EP 952)

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast, the show for IT professionals and managed service providers. We help you run your business better, smarter and faster. Yes, this is another podcast being brought to you in the year 2025.

I did say that there were no more live shows and usually that would mean no more podcasts, but here we are doing another one and for a very simple reason. Usually between Christmas and New Year's, I like to try to take off that entire time, but as we all know, clients do not and they always want special projects done and all of the stuff that, you know, they wouldn't let you do during the year, all of a sudden if they're going to be off, well, maybe you can do that when we're off and normally I decline. I actually will only do it if it's a very special deal, for instance, a move that has to happen, but this year I had a situation where AJ, one of the juniors at my clients broke his line of business application.

So the Saturday after Christmas, here I am working on his station, trying to get that back up and the vendor, their only recommendation was to wipe and reload because they had tried everything that they had and it must be something wrong with Windows. So that was a project that I got to work on and then the rest of the year, I actually get to squeeze in two more projects because a client that wanted to do some budget reducing internet changes that started back in October, well, they finally got around to doing that and the ISP is going to be upgrading some SD-WAN appliances the week between Christmas and New Year, so I will be doing that. So I got to spend a little time in my email box.

I had been ignoring stuff and I was quite shocked at how many emails I had received this week and how many I received actually on Christmas Day from vendors, from other MSPs, from clients and stuff. I'm thinking, my goodness, people just don't stop. But amongst all those emails were things that I saw where people were getting ready for 2026 and they were already promising the 2026 blueprint to making more money, to protecting your business, to leveraging success, sell your business in 2026.

A lot of things, I was like, wow, very interesting. So I thought I would come up with my top 10 list of things that MSPs are totally excited for in 2026 and I want to see if you guys agree. Now spoiler alert, this is not going to be a real list of things we're excited for.

Well, to some of you it might be, but I just thought, you know, here's things that I'm already geared up for that I think is going to be interesting to see how they play out. So let's go ahead and dive right in and number 10, AI that fixes everything except itself. I suspect that just about every vendor slide that we see at a conference this year in 2026 or next year, depending on when you're listening to this, will swear that AI is going to close your tickets, patch your endpoints, triage your alerts, summarize your meetings, write your statements of work, and maybe even apologize to your clients when it breaks something.

Number nine, clients who finally get cybersecurity. So of course, this is the fantasy that MSPs keep chasing while implementing those phishing tests, business email compromise, and MFA fatigue keep proving why security is still a people problem because nothing says progress like a user clicking only two phishing emails this month instead of 12. Number eight, vendors promising fewer portals again.

So will 2026 be the year that we finally consolidate tools and fix our stack sprawl? Vendors are pushing consolidation, unified PSA, RMM security platforms, and single pane of glass dashboards. So what are they not telling us? That your single pane of glass also includes three companion portals for all the other tools that they themselves don't actually support, a separate billing portal, and a partner hub that only works in Microsoft Edge. Number seven, the cloud migration that never ends.

Moving to the cloud, as we know, isn't just a project anymore. It's a lifestyle subscription. Clients think it's a one-time event.

You lift, you shift, you send the invoice, and everybody lives happily ever after. Well, most of us as MSPs know the truth that every migration is just phase one of an endless trilogy. You wrap up the email, teams and the file server move, and then someone says, hey, what about that old line of business app on the 2012 box in the closet? We got to keep that running.

Number six, new acronyms to confuse everyone. So in 2026, I'm going to suspect that we're not really going to need to improve security. We're just going to add new acronyms each quarter.

So we've got EDR, XDR, MDR. Well, 2026 will bring you ZDR, zero decision response. You don't decide.

The AI just deploys and does the invoicing for you. So the number five thing that MSPs are totally excited about in 2026, compliance audits as a hobby. So the perfect way to describe where MSPs are going to be pushed in 2026, living in NIST, HIPAA, PCI, SOC 2, CMMC, and cyber insurance checklist instead of RMM dashboards.

Some people collect vinyl. Some people collect dolls. Whatever you collect, it will not be as profitable as collecting frameworks.

And if you complete the whole sex, and if you complete the whole set, your prize is another audit. Number four, the return of the small business IT budget unicorn. So small businesses are increasingly expecting that cyber security insurance will bail them out.

Yet they push back on the very things that it requires, MFA, EDR, backup, and policy requirements, all of these things that they should do to qualify or keep their coverage. They'll say, we understand the importance of cyber security right before asking for another discount because their nephew now offers free AI protection. Number three, the 37th AI-powered RMM solution.

So this is probably going to be another poster child for 2026. MSP hype. Every vendor will promise fewer tickets, less burnout, and a self-driving knock.

It will promise to end technician burnout through automation, which is why your techs will spend three weeks learning it, two weeks hating it, and then quietly uninstalling it by Easter. Number two, more MSP conferences and more buzzwords than beer. The 2026 calendar is already packed.

You'll be able to drive, fly, or virtually attend a different MSP event almost every day. More conferences will mean more sessions like unlocking AI-driven, Z-World Trust, multi-cloud compliance for MSP 3.0. And what does that translate to? Please visit our booth so we can scan your badge. And the number one thing that MSPs should be totally excited about in 2026, finally achieving 100% client compliance.

So 100% compliance is probably the MSP equivalent of Bigfoot. So 100% client compliance is probably the MSP equivalent of Bigfoot. Everybody talks about it.

Some swear they've seen it. But there's never, ever any usable proof. Someone in 2026 will claim that they are going to be 100% compliant.

For one glorious morning, every endpoint will be patched. Every user will have MFA. Backups are verified, and your compliance dashboard is solid green.

And then by lunch, someone will disable 2FA because it's annoying. The owner of a client will insist on the exception for his legacy app or device. And accounting will install a random PDF converter they found on Google.

We all know the people who believe in 100% compliance are auditors, vendors, and brand new account managers. So there you have it, folks. My list for going into 2026.

I hope this gives you something to kind of think about and enjoy this last week of 2026. There will not be a live show. As I said, that will come next week when we get into January.

But I just thought this was funny and wanted to get it off my chest. So if there's one takeaway, though, that I think you all should be looking forward to is that the MSPs who win in 2026, I believe, are going to be the ones who stop selling hours, start selling outcomes. And those outcomes would be better security, more uptime, more insights, and business continuity.

The tools are there. The demand is there. And the only real question is whether your processes, your stack, and your team are ready to lean into it.

So that's it, folks. Thank you very much for tuning in. Here is to 2026, the year of hope, hype, and maybe, just maybe, fewer Zoom calls that could have been tickets.

See you soon. Holler.