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If you’re reading this, take a breath. You made it.
Every year being an MSP is “busy,” but 2025 just felt different.
It wasn’t just the volume of tickets, it was the weight of them. We started the year talking about efficiency, but by Q3, the conversation had shifted to survival. Survival of margins, of security perimeters, and of course our sanity.
Looking back, 2025 was the year the “break-fix” era officially died, replaced by a high-stakes environment where MSPs are expected to be bankers, lawyers, and bodyguards all at once.
As we close out this year, I wanted to look back, not at our feature releases, but at the seismic shifts that defined your reality in 2025 and what they mean for where we’re all going in 2026.
The Three Shocks of 2025
Three major storylines dominated the headlines this year. Each one forced MSPs to rethink a fundamental part of their business model.
1. The Threat: Qilin & The “Supply Chain” Wake-Up Call
We all saw the headlines, the “Korean Leaks” campaign by the Qilin ransomware group wasn’t just another hack; it was a supply chain nightmare. By compromising a single MSP to get to downstream financial firms, attackers proved once again that you are the high-value target.
Trusting a device just because it was “managed” stopped being enough. In 2025, we saw a massive psychological shift among our partners. You stopped looking at the firewall as your safety net and started looking at Identity. If a technician’s credential is the key to 50 client kingdoms, that credential needs to be guarded like the crown jewels. (Actually, better than the French crown jewels)
2. The Squeeze: The “SaaS Inflation” Reality
In April, we felt the Microsoft billing structure changes. Then came August, and the Salesforce price hikes hit. Across the board, the “cost of doing business” went up, but clients’ budgets remained flat.
“Tool Sprawl” went from being an annoyance to a margin-killer. We watched MSPs aggressively audit their stacks this year, not just for technical reasons, but for financial survival. The tolerance for paying for three different tools that do the same job finally hit zero.
3. The Mandate: The Regulation Wave
If you weren’t talking about compliance in January, you certainly were by November. The introduction of the UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and the confusing, patchwork enforcement of NIS2 across Europe changed the game.
Compliance stopped being a “nice-to-have” slide in a QBR. It became the entire QBR. MSPs were forced to become governance experts overnight, scrambling to find tools that could prove, with logs and data, that they were doing what they said they were doing.
How We Navigated It Together
At JumpCloud, our 2025 wasn’t about inventing new problems; it was about trying to keep up with yours.
When we saw the supply chain attacks ramping up, we accelerated the integration of VaultOne. We knew you needed a way to manage privileged access without buying yet another expensive standalone tool.
And as the “Identity Perimeter” became the only perimeter that mattered, we deepened our partnership with Google Workspace. We wanted to make sure that whether your clients were Microsoft or Google shops, you had a single, unified place to secure them.
2026 Outlook: The Era of “Agentic AI”
So, where do we go from here?
If 2025 was the year of Consolidation, 2026 will be the year of Agency.
Analysts like Canalys are already predicting the rise of “Agentic AI” . This isn’t just AI that writes emails, but takes action.
- The Risk: Bad actors will use AI agents to launch attacks faster than any human can type.
- The Opportunity: You will use AI agents to fix problems before a ticket is even created.
In 2026, the successful MSP won’t be the one who closes tickets the fastest. It will be the one who uses data, identity, and automation to prevent the ticket from ever happening.
Your Next Step
As you plan for 2026, we encourage you to look at your stack with fresh eyes.
- Are you still paying “SaaS tax” on redundant tools?
- Is your “Identity Perimeter” actually secure, or just a password manager?
- Are you ready to move from “Managing IT” to “Mastering Intelligence”?
We’re ready when you are – See you in 2026
PS: If you’ve not already registered, don’t forget to sign up now for our free virtual user conference JumpCloudLand on Feb 10th 2026 (It’ll be here before you know it)
