Consolidation across the managed services and cybersecurity markets is reshaping how MSPs evaluate the companies behind their technology stacks.
Investments in MSPs increased approximately 20% year over year in 2025, reaching 466 transactions and $4.3 billion in disclosed deal value, according to Drake Star. SecurityWeek separately tracked 426 cybersecurity acquisitions during the year, a 5% increase over 2024.
Those transactions can alter the support, security, pricing, and product strategies attached to tools MSPs depend on every day. Will Ominsky, vice president and general manager of MSP business at Nerdio, argues that partners need a repeatable vendor-governance process capable of anticipating—and responding to—those changes.
“A lot of times, channel partners out there, when they’re evaluating a new vendor, they’re not actually asking a lot of the questions that they should be upfront,” Ominsky told Channel Insider. “They’re very product-centric, ROI-driven, which are obviously incredibly important to the MSP, but I think part of that process … is actually taking a look at the company itself.”
MSP vendor evaluations must extend beyond the product
Traditional technology evaluations often prioritize functionality, price and immediate return on investment. Ominsky said MSPs should also examine a vendor’s financial position, product breadth and likelihood of becoming an acquisition target.
That should not automatically disqualify a smaller or specialized provider. It should influence decisions about contract length, data governance, integration dependencies and the MSP’s ability to change vendors if conditions deteriorate.
Why acquisitions should trigger renewed due diligence
Once an acquisition is announced, partners should revisit that due diligence because they are effectively doing business with a new organization.
“Does this other organization, this new organization that I’m doing business with, have all of the items that I looked at in my process?” Ominsky said.
That review should cover security reports, data access, code-review practices, patching schedules and procedures for communicating critical vulnerabilities. MSPs should also monitor support quality during the integration period and determine whether customer data will be accessed or serviced from new locations.
Platform convenience can increase vendor dependence
An acquisition can bring benefits, including more resources, broader product portfolios and better volume pricing. However, the buyer also has an incentive to move acquired customers toward additional products in its ecosystem.
“They’re going to make it the path of least resistance,” Ominsky said. “When you’re already doing business with me, you’re already locked into another 12 months, maybe in a contract or longer. So you might as well buy my other product.”
For MSPs, the key distinction is between intentionally consolidating around a platform and passively adopting products because purchasing them is easier. An adjacent tool offered by an existing vendor should still undergo the same evaluation as an independent alternative.
Integrations require similar scrutiny. They can streamline operations and connect information across tools, but they may also create attack vectors or strategic dependencies. Ominsky warned that larger vendors could eventually restrict outside integrations, increase access costs or favor products within their own portfolios.
READ MORE: Integrated solutions and technology company alliances are becoming more important in the cybersecurity market.
Vendor governance becomes an operating discipline
The answer is not to avoid acquisitions, startups or large technology ecosystems. It is to treat vendor oversight as a continuous business process rather than a questionnaire completed during procurement.
“Because you’ve asked these questions three years ago, when you first signed up with them, it doesn’t mean everything has stayed the same over three years,” Ominsky said. “You need to be evaluating them.”
As consolidation continues, MSPs will increasingly differentiate themselves not by the number of tools they deploy, but by how deliberately they manage the vendors behind them.
Continuous oversight can help protect service continuity, customer data and support quality while preserving the flexibility to change platforms when pricing, security practices or strategic priorities shift.