CES is consuming a lot of tech bandwidth, and I’m still considering which stories matter – like how much do we really care about all the humanoid robots – and that leaves me a little time for the other stories that might get missed. Don’t worry, CES coverage is coming, I just want to be considered.
According to CompTIA’s IT Industry Outlook 2026 report, 77% of technology and business professionals express optimism about their organization’s prospects for the coming year. The survey, which included over 1,000 respondents, reveals that 51% expect to surpass 2025 revenue levels, while 29% aim to maintain current financial performance. Key trends identified for 2026 include a continued push for artificial intelligence adoption, an expansion in cybersecurity measures, and a focus on improving data practices. Seth Robinson, Vice President of Industry Research at CompTIA, emphasizes that operational improvements will be significantly influenced by advancements in these areas, with a particular focus on training and workforce development to bridge existing skills gaps.
ChannelDive covers how NinjaOne has reported a remarkable 70% year-over-year growth in its annualized recurring revenue, surpassing $500 million, and has expanded its customer base by 60% to over 35,000 users. This growth positions the company as a significant competitor to established remote monitoring and management platforms like Kaseya and ConnectWise, which hold market shares of 25.9% and 25.4%, respectively, according to Canalys estimates. NinjaOne has recently enhanced its offerings by acquiring Dropsuite for $270 million and launching an AI-driven solution for tracking Microsoft patches. Industry analysts note that the company’s focus on meeting the evolving needs of managed service providers has allowed it to gain market share rapidly, with many clients consolidating multiple tools into NinjaOne’s platform to reduce complexity and improve operational efficiency.
Why do we care?
Optimism right now is being used as a substitute for strategy.
When MSPs hear “77% optimistic,” they may assume demand will cover inefficiencies. It won’t. That optimism is about holding ground with fewer people and tighter stacks. And that’s exactly why NinjaOne’s growth resonates—because MSPs are trying to regain control by simplifying their environments.
But simplification isn’t free. When you collapse tools into a single control plane, you also collapse decision authority. AI-driven patching, automated remediation, integrated backup—these aren’t just features. They are delegated judgment. And when that judgment fails, the vendor points to configuration, and the customer points to you.
The concrete harm comes when MSPs standardize faster than they govern. They’ll onboard clients onto unified platforms, promise efficiency gains, and forget to reset expectations around outages, false positives, or missed patches. And almost none of that shows up in contracts, SLAs, or pricing—so MSPs absorb the risk without being paid for it. The result is client dissatisfaction, margin compression, and operational fire drills that wipe out the very efficiency they were chasing.
This matters now because consolidation is accelerating faster than accountability frameworks. CES noise makes this easy to miss, but the real shift is quieter: control is centralizing, and risk is sticking to MSPs. If you don’t price, govern, and communicate that reality, you inherit liabilities you never planned to own.