According to CRN, Acronis gathered more than 2,000 managed service providers at MSP Global 2025 in Salou, Spain for its TRU Security Summit, where CEO Ezequiel Steiner emphasized that productivity rather than raw revenue will define MSP success in 2026 and beyond. Steiner argued that in an industry where people account for nearly 80% of costs, doubling productivity could increase margins up to fivefold, marking a strategic shift from growth for growth’s sake to operational excellence. The company outlined its vision for AI-augmented technicians and announced Acronis Academy Boot Camps launching in 2026 to train MSPs on turning technology into revenue. Canadian MSP Alt-Tech CEO Daniel Mitchell provided a testimonial showing how his team now balances 30 employees with 87 digital agents to streamline workflows, while Chief Sales Officer Katya Ivanova highlighted regulatory compliance as a growing sales enabler for partners. This represents a fundamental rethinking of how MSPs should measure and achieve success in the coming years.
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The Productivity Paradox in Managed Services
The emphasis on productivity over revenue growth addresses a fundamental challenge in the managed services industry that many vendors have been reluctant to confront. While the channel ecosystem has traditionally measured success by revenue growth and customer acquisition, this approach often masks underlying inefficiencies that erode profitability. The reality is that many MSPs operate on razor-thin margins despite impressive top-line numbers, creating a treadmill effect where they must constantly acquire new customers just to maintain profitability. Acronis’s focus on productivity metrics like profit per technician represents a more sophisticated understanding of sustainable business models in an industry where scaling through headcount alone has proven increasingly unsustainable.
The Implementation Gap in AI Adoption
While Acronis’s vision of AI-augmented technicians is compelling, the practical implementation presents significant challenges that the summit likely didn’t fully address. Many MSPs struggle with the technical debt of legacy systems, inconsistent data quality, and skills gaps that can undermine AI integration efforts. The transition from traditional service delivery to AI-enhanced operations requires not just new tools but fundamental changes in workflow design, staff training, and client management. Smaller MSPs in particular may find the resource requirements for effective AI implementation prohibitive, potentially creating a two-tier system where only well-capitalized providers can leverage these productivity gains.
Compliance: Opportunity and Burden
The positioning of regulatory compliance as a sales enabler reflects an important industry trend, but it comes with hidden complexities. While bundling compliance offerings can indeed create new revenue streams, it also exposes MSPs to significant liability risks if implementations are incomplete or improperly maintained. The regulatory landscape is becoming increasingly fragmented across jurisdictions, with different requirements in Europe, North America, and emerging markets. This creates both opportunity and operational overhead that many smaller providers may underestimate. The challenge for Acronis and its partners will be developing compliance solutions that are both comprehensive enough to meet regulatory standards and flexible enough to adapt to changing requirements without constant costly revisions.
Implications for Channel Consolidation
This productivity-focused strategy will likely accelerate the ongoing consolidation within the MSP channel that we’ve been tracking for several years. Providers who successfully implement these automation and efficiency measures will gain significant competitive advantages, potentially forcing smaller, less automated competitors to either merge, specialize, or exit the market. The reference to Alt-Tech’s ratio of 30 employees to 87 digital agents suggests a future where the most successful MSPs operate with dramatically different staffing models than traditional IT services firms. This could reshape the entire productivity landscape of managed services, creating new leaders and potentially leaving behind providers who cannot make the transition to this new operational model.
The Path to Sustainable Growth
Ultimately, Acronis’s messaging represents a maturation of the managed services industry that has been a long time coming. The shift from growth-at-all-costs to sustainable, profitable operations reflects an industry that’s moving from adolescence to adulthood. However, the success of this vision depends heavily on execution—both by Acronis in delivering truly effective automation tools and by MSPs in fundamentally rethinking their business operations. The companies that navigate this transition successfully will likely emerge as the dominant players in the next phase of managed services, while those who cling to traditional growth metrics may find themselves on an increasingly unsustainable path.
