The finding lands in the context of mounting compliance pressure and increasingly complex security environments. Sophos released its 2026 MSP Perspectives Report on 15 September, drawing on responses from managed service providers across multiple markets.
Compliance is driving a significant portion of purchasing decisions: half of customer cybersecurity spending is influenced by regulatory requirements on average, with 33% heavily or decisively shaped by them. At the same time, only a third of MSPs said they were completely confident in their ability to monitor, manage and document compliance across multiple customers continuously.
"Organizations require more than technology management to stay secure. They need trusted cybersecurity leaders who can help them understand their risk, navigate compliance requirements and translate security investments into meaningful business outcomes," said Scott Barlow, vice president and chief evangelist at Sophos. "MSPs are already stepping into this role for nearly half of their customers, creating a significant opportunity to deepen relationships and develop new, higher-value services. The challenge now is delivering that leadership consistently and efficiently across a growing customer base."
The operational load of that expanded role is showing. MSPs estimate they would save 53% of their time if they could use a single unified platform for customer security posture and compliance management and reporting. Currently 81% believe a unified approach would cut the time they spend on these activities by more than 30%, yet most are still running fragmented processes.
"MSPs have an opportunity to become indispensable strategic partners to their customers, but scaling that role requires a more unified operating model," said Barlow. "Bringing security posture, compliance management and reporting together can help MSPs spend less time manually consolidating information and more time helping customers reduce risk, strengthen resilience and make informed cybersecurity decisions."
Sophos positioned the findings alongside its CISO Advantage offering. The full 2026 MSP Perspectives Report is available at sophos.com.
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