Providers of managed services (MSPS) turn to automation not only for saving money, but also to remain competition, face growing customers and saving money.
In the Nerdiocon 2025 in La Quinta, California, we caught up with Jeremy Wallace, the main cloud architect at IT Services Company Safari Micro to bother about how the MSP landscape develops. It explains how Microsoft Cloud Management, Nerdio, helps SMEs to simplify the Azure environment, on board customers faster and release higher engineers for more strategic work.
But while automation offers clear benefits, Wallace emphasizes that without proper planning and architecture it can create costly problems in a row. From the growing role of artificial intelligence to the rise of the Wallace hybrid cloud, it shares its view of where the MSPS should further focus, what mistakes they have, and that adaptability will be the key to success in the coming years.
How would you describe the current economic pressures faced by the SMP, and how is the change of automation and the efficiency of conversations?
In general, you are dealing with customers themselves, who are very affordable at all levels. So for us, one, it creates a little ride in the competition against other SMEs, about the prices and services that are involved in it, and then how you differ from OneTher.
It looks like every customer always looks for a SMP that can provide better services at a better price. Therefore, they always buy different companies in this area. For us we really had to define what the differentiator is. How do we differ from other SMEs? It happened just about quality. For our society, in particular, we want to make sure that we are real experts in areas and providing services to them, and justifies the prices we give them.
But no matter how an expert you are, people will not walk with you at certain prices. So we are looking for ways to automate. We are looking for ways to reduce our costs when we worked with them. Although we have experts, we try to find ways where AI, where automation platforms, reduce our costs to hand it over to the client.
Are there any specific tasks that the SMEs want to automate the most at the moment, and that would be?
It really depends on what their niche is. For us, the initial deck of the client and their introduction on our standard is usually the most time -consuming piece. Finding a way to automate this process to start faster, our higher engineers have to spend less time in this process, then it helps to decompose our costs, and that the theory on board can be extended for a very long time depending on what we can automate, the more we can throw it, we have already designed saffron and things for us.
Nerdio seems to think that it has changed the game for the SMEs administering Microsoft Azure around. Do you agree? And how was it done?
Yes. We started with Azure Virtual Desktop. I’ll start there and then the type of address as it grew. We tried to carry out Azure Virtual Desktop and Azure Management before Nerdio, and this took a high degree of engineers who had to constantly join the process. If you have this kind of engineers with this process, it will be much more expensive for us and as a result.
When we are at the end of 2020 at the end of 2020, we are already looking for ways to automate some of these processes, and we try to build it ourselves. It is also expensive to create these deposits. We found that Nerdio has already excelled in these areas, so when we are in the keen, they cut a lot of time at an architect where I try to design processes and make sure everything is coherent, to a certain standard we have. Nerdio really solved it. And for us, especially on the side of the virtual area, it was a change in the game as we with any other company that really did not see, became a modern work.
Now we see how we see a lot of other things that we deal with customers on the Microsoft 365 side, managing mailboxes, SharePoint, teams, etc. – Nerdio has a bush. We are also beginning to see them how they revolutionize it. So we could bring customers and have automatic deployment to all our customers at the same time, instead of managing each of them individually.
For the MSPS at the beginning of their Nerdio Journey, where do you see the fastest winnings or EASST areas to drive automation and cost savings?
Probably the Easst is on Azure. This is the party they start with. In the end it is the highest in their environment. So if they try to bring their customers to the cloud in the Azure environment, Nerdio makes it very fast with a very easy deck.
If it is an absolutely new environment for the customer, this is the first time that cloud users build something new. Nerdio only has a quick pass that helps them set up the environment. If you are too much interested in the environment, it is also a quick passage just to take it. The heavier part is when they pass from the local environment to the cloud environment. You still have to have people like me, engage migration architecture sideways, but once you get through this initial move to the cloud, Nerdio makes it easier to stay in the cloud.
How do the roles develop the roles of MSPS because automation tools such as Nerdio? What skills or thinking become more valuable?
The automation side of the thing brings everyday work tasks involved in the management of the environment. So there can be a lot of skill for these people. I think you still need their high -level architectural people to supervise. But I think it decreases many center, so you can have green housings into this environment. Nerdio has a very good training program to reach speed. We had engineers where we were a bitch who had no virtual area, no cyan background. We are for new training and then are able to support reflective, Becuse Nerdio has a busht that thresholds down.
Where do you see how Microsoft Cloud Ecosystem is directed in terms of partner opportunities?
I’m Microsoft MVP and about two weeks ago I was just on the Redmond campus. It is very obvious that AI has become a topic that focuses on many organizations. Even Nerdio led these conversations about how to integrate AI into our program?
I think you are going to see Microsoft is constantly evolving what AI looks like at a modern workplace. It is done with co-founders and continues to evolve co-pilot and ko-pilot agents and make AI everyday regular part of our lives.
So what is the next step from there? What is the further development of AI? And how does our partner community participate in this process? A lot of it still looks like how we secure each other? How do we take data and make something that can be used in AI? But I really think that we still did not scratch the surface where the final value of AI is. Where AI eventually begins to make money and similar things.
Are there specific services or Azure capabilities that do not still use SMEs – but should they lean a little?
Yeah. And this is actually a different direction that Microsoft is heading with what they call an adaptable cloud. In the cloud we have not only azure and there was an initiative to move everyone to the cloud, but now there is an initiative that will bring customers cloud.
So now we have something called Azure Local, Azure Stack HCI. It is not required to be all cloud or customers. Now we can look at the possibility of moving 80% of your environment to the cloud. Let’s keep some of this on the assumption. What do this workload look like? Can they move back and Fortth? Are they customizable? The type of things.
I think we will continue to see a hybrid cloud that focuses on Azure, because people are beginning to realize that if they have a good cloud handle, it is too unstable for them, which is like a nerdio automation tool. Part of the appeal is that they help reduce automation costs. But I think you also have customers who accept it, make no sense to be in the cloud. So Microsoft corresponds to the local Azure solutions.
What mistakes do you see, how do you normally do, especially when automation is approaching – and how can they have?
I think that because of how well the automation tools work, people tend to jump in and just start building things. This is a kind of trip in the cloud, in general, Azure makes Almotte easier to start building and generating costs.
People forget architecture, they must be involved, proper planning and architecture, look at it holistically. You can start building a house and you may be able to build a shack, but you will probably fall apart at some point if you don’t think of real architecture. It is the same with these automation tools. If you do not have this basic architecture in place when you go to start these things, at some point it will be too big, too messy and disintegrate.
What makes you most excited about the future of the SME and how do you think the landscape of the SME will look in a few years?
I absolutely love changing the technological environment. I loved when it was introduced AI. I love an element of the unknown there because it looks like any new thing that is almost like Christmas morning again. There’s something new to play with.
It also scares the hell of many people and sees all the new things and the unknown. But I really think it forces us to promote. We need to find out how we use these technologies, where AI and Co-Co-Pilot, where other automation platforms and how we can use it to make money as a business and then continue to innovate and help our customers.
This can also change our work when we move forward. There may be certain roles that will not exist in the future. Even technological wise, we would not require an engineer. Perhaps it is replaced by AI at some point, but for the assumed future people will still participate. It just depends. They may have to adapt their roles. I think she has adapted to me is fun for me, but it’s also scary for many people.
Photo RedCharlie on Unsplash
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