Blog

Shorter pieces, written as we go.

Notes on self-healing connectors, control planes and the MSP channel — the arguments we are having internally, published while they are still live rather than after they are settled.

Recent Newest first
Strategy MSP automation skills gap: can AI workflow builders actually close it?Rewst's CEO estimates about 1,000 automation engineers exist for roughly 80,000 MSPs, and the more automations MSPs ship, the more integrations they must keep correct as vendor APIs change… Perspective The demo always works. The ground doesn'tMIT found only about 1 in 20 enterprise AI pilots producing real revenue gains. The model didn't get dumber between the demo and the rollout. The ground just isn't there. Perspective Why MSP agentic AI stalls at 10%: the integration layer that unblocks it70% of MSPs use agentic AI internally, but only 10% run it in real IT workflows. Governance gets the blame; disconnected PSA, RMM, and security data is the barrier underneath. AI strategy Agentic AI orchestration for MSPs: why every vendor's agent layer stops at its own toolsHexnode, Shield, MSP Process and ConnectWise all shipped agentic orchestration for MSPs, and each runs deepest on its own tools. Only 6.6% of companies have fully orchestrated workflows end to end. For partners Copilot in 30: why SMB Copilot trials stall on the data outside Microsoft 365Microsoft's new partner-led offer gives SMBs under 300 employees 25 free seats of Microsoft 365 Copilot Business for 30 days, available through December 31, 2026. Strategy Why an AI agent built once still breaks differently at every clientGartner predicts 40%+ of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027, and MIT found 95% deliver no ROI — because multi-tenant isolation solves who can spend what, not whether an agent means the same thing in every client's data. Strategy MSP mergers and roll-ups: the integration debt nobody prices into the dealOmdia tracked 169 MSP-related M&A deals in 2025 with private equity in 69% of them, and August 2026 alone added ScanSource's $220.5M purchase of MicroAge and the TalkTalk Business–ARO merger to… Pricing Why AI is quietly becoming an MSP margin leak — and what actually closes itNone of that disappeared in 2026 — if anything, Level.io's breakdown of the eight most common MSP profit leaks makes clear it compounds quietly, a few minutes per ticket and a license nobody… AI strategy The MSP AI governance gap: 97% adopted AI, 20% can govern it — MCP is where those numbers reconcileNearly every IT service provider — 97% — reports having adopted AI. Strategy What happens to your integrations when your MSP vendor gets acquired?Drake Star tracked 466 MSP-related acquisitions in 2025 worth $4.3B, up ~20% YoY, with 120+ more already closed in Q1 2026 — here's what actually breaks when your vendor is next. For partners White-label iPaaS for MSPs: turning integrations into a recurring revenue lineHow to turn a self-healing control plane into a recurring managed service for your ERP-heavy clients — without a multi-year engineering build. Strategy MSP tool consolidation: why the fix isn't another all-in-one platform74% of MSPs now say they prefer using fewer vendors, up from 64% just two years ago, and nearly half call consolidation a top priority, according to Rev.io's analysis of 2026 MSP tech-stack data. Engineering What "self-healing" actually meansPlenty of platforms use the phrase to mean "we retry on a 500." That's not healing — that's a retry loop. Perspective Every integration platform is a pipe. That's the problemBuilding the connection was never the hard part. Keeping it alive is. Why every platform that only moves data is due for a rebuild as a control plane.

Longer form

Intelligence — the researched pieces: platform comparisons, cost breakdowns and the analyses that exist because a widely-repeated figure turned out to be unverifiable. Longer, sourced, and updated when the numbers move.

Who else this is for