The office network has been in a near-constant state of evolution since dumb terminals and token rings. MPLS unlocked the ability to connect LANs. VPNs allowed end-users to work remotely while still being behind the firewall. Wi-Fi made intra-office travel easy and lessened reliance on extensive cabling. The WAN is slowly giving way to SD-WAN. New software and cloud-based networking componentry are allowing vendors to reimagine firewalls and routing.

A new year can only mean one thing: it’s time to break out the lingo bingo cards and take a look at networking trends in the year to come! Tech is constantly changing, and staying up-to-date is essential to keep your skills relevant. For IT pros in the MSP space, we’ve already covered trends in managed services and some of the best MSP conferences that can help keep you ahead of the curve. Here, we’ll explore five networking trends for IT admins to know in 2023.

Like any business, management service provider firms are always looking for ways to reduce MSP costs and improve profits. MSPs provide critical services to their clients, so finding ways to cut costs without cutting corners is essential. You’ve probably heard all the standard advice on cutting costs: review your pricing, renegotiate contracts, cut unnecessary expenses, and so on. But what about MSPs who are already doing all those things and are still looking for ways to save?

It’s no secret that there is a lot of money involved in cybercrime. With McAfee estimating the annual global cost of cybercrime at just under $1 trillion, the dark side of tech is big business. Clearly, those losses have an impact on the global economy. It’s also become a pressing question to see if macroeconomic/geopolitical trends impact cybercrime.

Rolling out enterprise Wi-Fi to your organization—across an office, or across multiple campuses—has quickly become a standard practice for MSPs and on-staff IT teams. That said, it may be a process that’s relatively new to someone (or some team!) that’s spent years focusing on the wired world.

“All happy successful MSPs are alike—each MSP fail is a fail in its own way.” That IT spin on the Anna Karenina principle pretty much sums up what we’ll cover here (but keep reading, it’s good stuff!). To be a successful MSP, you have to nail the financial, marketing, customer service, and tech sides of the business. All successful MSPs are “alike” in that way. On paper, that sounds simple enough.

Everybody agrees network documentation is extremely important, but there tends not to be a lot of agreement on what that documentation should include. The short answer is that it should include everything that’s relevant—but what that means varies between networks. For example, in a really small network with one switch and a firewall, and perhaps a single wireless access point, there isn’t much to document. It might be enough to put everything in a single diagram.

Try Googling “Ways to up your sales game” and you’ll find thousands of articles from experts touting claims that their MSP sales process is best—with no shortage of buzzwords to hook you in. But in both selling to, and selling with, MSPs over the years, I’ve found that chasing buzzwords and buying into the latest craze both dilutes and compromises an authentic experience with a prospective customer, and the worst part is the customer can feel it the moment it happens.

According to Veeam’s 2022 Ransomware Trends Report, less than 69% of data stolen during ransomware attacks in 2021 was ever recovered. Ransomware is big business for bad actors. In 2021, the average ransom demand was $247,000, up 45% higher than the previous year. Considering that 76% of the victim organizations surveyed admitted to paying the ransom, it’s likely that the total cost of ransomware to businesses globally was in the billions.

IT assets are a crucial part of any organization, and IT asset lifecycle management of performance and efficacy throughout helps ensure smooth operations. Otherwise, you risk incurring significant costs from downtime, data breaches, and other issues.