Midsized MSPs (between $5-$20 million annual recurring revenue)1 have quite a conundrum to tackle. Due to their growing size, they have to remain flexible and adaptable, and above all else, be ready to tackle challenges beyond the confines that their current size might not support.

On account of these challenges, these MSPs’ resources are often under strain as they adjust to cope with growth. With their attention span, reaction time, and solutions know-how put to test, IT professionals could find themselves heading down the road to burnout. However, with the right partner, burnout can remain just a spooky tale to tell the kids before sleep.

Key points of this article:

  • Midsized MSPs have ample room for further growth; however, while that growth might be impeded by threat actors, what’s more likely are bottlenecks created by the complex solutions they use to support their growing clientele 
  • Midsized MSPs use at least a handful of client management tools such as RMMs, automation tooling, cybersecurity platforms, and more, which make for complicated workflows and demand specific skills and resources to manage — calling for significant expenditure and possibly resulting in the burnout of existing employees along with growth potential
  • To manage client expectations and internal capacities, systemic changes need to happen to maintain an MSP’s future prospects
  • Doing so requires a look at flexible solutions, simpler management, ample automation, and support in the right spaces

Getting over the crest of the growth hill

Let’s be honest, midsized MSPs have a tremendous amount of potential. How so? As a company in the middle, there’s a lot of flexibility to be found therein. They’ve made the staff and technical investments and built the systems processes to handle most of the tasks their business faces, from client onboarding to account management and review, and they’re in a position where they can grow to the next stage. The team, the tech, and the organization are poised for explosive growth. 

Hold on for a second, though: This scale-up will put pressure on people, processes, and technology, often all at the same time.

Middle of the pack

A growing midsize MSP must juggle combined opportunities and weaknesses: It has talented experts to hand, but can they handle change? It has tamed the Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) beast — but that also offers attackers easy routes into multiple customers.

Unlike small MSPs that might struggle finding the right talent, becoming more professional, or finding the right opportunities, midsized businesses often already have tried, tested, and experienced teams that can grow with the right support and investment.

Related reading: How to secure MSP success brick by brick

This gives them a leg up; however, it’s also their greatest weakness. Who’s to say that their retained internal talent has the right amount of experience to support larger, more demanding clients? Likewise, with the cyber employee shortage, procuring new hires might pose trouble, or doubts could arise regarding business direction… all in all, there’s lots to decide.

Collectively, these headaches can diminish an MSP’s appetite, reducing the allowance of its potential. Beyond this, however, are also the daily business-imposed limits that can prove to create even bigger hurdles.

Swivel chairs and sweaty offices 

A prime issue for MSPs is that unlike their more security-focused MSSP cousins, they must have a broader set of tools and skills at their disposal. Inevitably, this creates an environment that could quickly turn a simple ticket into a large-scale incident.

Typically, a midsize MSP would use at least a few different client management tools, such as the above-mentioned RMM, service automation tooling, ticketing systems, cybersecurity platforms, identity and access management (IAM), backup and recovery tools, and more. That’s a lot of software! What’s more, that’s a lot of notifications for tickets, updates, incidents, etc.

Tools to be abused

Meanwhile, threat actors are also on the lookout for moderately sized MSPs, as while they often like to abuse their tooling such as remote monitoring and management solutions, they’d also be happy by gaining access to MSPs’ sensitive client data. This goes a bit back to business direction, as the more lucrative the clientele is, the more likely an MSP is to attract bad actors looking to make a quick buck.

Can an MSP deal with all this? Sure. Can an MSP that’s constantly growing their clientele while not securing internal resources at pace to handle them do the same? Perhaps. Inevitably, we arrive at a point where two issues arise:

  1. The needs of your MSP’s clients
  2. The needs of your MSP

Handling both at the same time might be difficult. With the increasing pressure to retain old clients while scoring new ones, adding more seats and issues to the table, your technical team may start falling behind in their tasks. There’s no way for an MSP to sustain tackling both issues with enough speed and precision without having the employees burn out from the constant churn. That is, unless the MSP makes its operations more efficient — and with the right partner.

While the article strictly tackles MSPs, the symptoms of burnout are the same across the board. Read our blog on alert fatigue for more details.

All hands-on deck

Issues introduced at a systemic level can be the bane of a good MSP. Putting your IT specialists to the grind without taking care of their well-being might increase your billings in the short term but have devastating effects in the long term. 

Price leaders might think that having one employee per 500 seats 2,  for example, is a great way to save money while gaining more clients due to the lower service costs. What these “leaders” or “rising champions” forget though is that these minor payouts translate to significant costs down the line, especially when new hires will be needed. In the end, the MSP will have to increase its service rates…but how many of their clients will remain when said rise happens?

At the same time, the now low-paid employees may elect to leave as well or start to fumble their tasks due to being overloaded. You can’t have that when you’re dealing with clients that expect top services year-round.

Say no to burning out, and yes to growth

Systemic issues must be addressed in a systematic fashion. To unlock more MSP potential, think far ahead, beyond your current needs. What does a forward-thinking midsized MSP need to grow?

  1. Profitability: The key to profitability is flexibility. The more you sell your services, the more you earn, right? This requires scalability though. Focus on procuring software that can serve your changing needs by adapting to your business’ size and scope, such as by asking you to pay only or what you use: no flat rates and daily billing.
  2. Simple management: To reduce stress from having to operate in chaotic swivel-chair environments, use solutions that offer simple yet holistic overviews of all your clients from a single platform. This way you can ensure that nothing significant will be missed by your IT specialists.
  3. Automation: To improve your MSP’s chances at success and survival, automation can help fill the gaps left by limited or missing resources. In the context of security, for example, automation can save a lot of time while managing multiple protected devices.
  4. The right integrations: As already noted, MSPs use multiple solutions. This can be largely sidestepped by purchasing software that can be easily interlinked with another through an existing integration, also potentially enabling simpler management and automation at the same time.
  5. Support: What is an MSP without a supporting partner? Addressing some of the underlying systemic issues by tailoring your purchased solutions/services with their provider can lead to growth without compromise.

Flourish with ESET

Let’s face it, in digital terms MSPs have become as integral to business as parcel delivery services, building management, or security. But pursuing success via the MSP business model shouldn’t be taken lightly. Increasing client-side demands, especially around security and more visible malicious campaigns, mean that MSPs are being pushed to their limits more than ever.

While ESET can’t solve all your problems, as the partner of more than 10,000 MSPs worldwide, we know your needs and how to meet them — especially when it comes to flexible security. With the ESET MSP Program, we can deliver a partnership that extends your limits without straining your specialists. While the risk of burnout may linger as you scale, partnering with ESET and smart use of integrations will leave you time and attention to face the future with clear-eyed planning.

1) Kendall, Miles. (2025 July 24). MSP, ITSP, VAR, Systemhaus, IT consultant: what’s the difference? MSPBLOBAL. https://mspglobal.com/blog/msp-itsp-var-systemhaus-it-consultant-whats-the-difference/

2) [Sliffer21]. (2020). I have seen MSPs with 150 seats and 3 employees vs 500 seats and 1 employee. [Comment on the online forum post: Starting MSP, how many seats until second employee?]. Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/msp/comments/kvftuy/starting_msp_how_many_seats_until_second_employee/, Accessed: June 26, 2025

MSP scaling banner