Topic starter
11/06/2026 11:29 pm
TL;DR: MSPs are being pushed away from commoditised patching and help desk work toward higher-value services such as Zero Trust, managed identity, and unified endpoint management, according to JumpCloud. The pricing pressure is real, but the strategic shift is less about adding tools than about owning the access and security outcomes clients will pay to retain.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by JumpCloud: “The Key to MSP Profitability: High-Margin Services Beyond Basic Help Desk”.
Key questions
Q: How can MSPs move from commodity support to higher-margin identity services?
A: MSPs should build recurring services around access governance, SSO administration, MFA policy, and privileged access oversight.
Q: Why does Zero Trust create a stronger managed service model than basic support?
A: Because Zero Trust is about repeated access verification, not a one-time deployment.
Q: What is the difference between managed identity and help desk support?
A: Help desk support reacts to user problems after they happen, while managed identity owns the controls that determine access in the first place.
Practitioner guidance
- Build a managed identity service line Package SSO, MFA, account lifecycle handling, and access policy administration as a recurring offering with clear service boundaries and review cadences.
- Operationalise Zero Trust as a service Define how every access request is verified, how exceptions are approved, and how identity and device signals feed access decisions across client environments.
- Tie endpoint state to access governance Use UEM to make device posture part of the access model so identity controls are not separated from the endpoint controls that support them.
Bottom line: MSPs are under pressure because patching and help desk work no longer create enough differentiation or margin.
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This topic was modified 4 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group
12/06/2026 8:09 am
Managed identity is the clearest example of how MSP value moves from labour to governance. When password resets and basic support are commoditised, the remaining margin sits in who owns access assurance, lifecycle discipline, and policy enforcement. That is why identity administration becomes a retained service rather than an ad hoc task, and why practitioners should treat it as a governance function.
A few things that frame the scale:
- According to Forrester Research, a single password reset can cost around $70.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should MSPs connect UEM with identity governance?
A: MSPs should treat endpoint administration and identity governance as a single service boundary. Local admin rights, device policy changes, and support exceptions should be governed alongside access approvals and privilege review. That reduces the chance that endpoint control is technically centralised but operationally unmanaged.
👉 Read our full editorial: Managed identity and zero trust are the new MSP margin levers
This post was modified 4 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group