Managed Services 2025 Review and 2026 Outlook

The managed services market demonstrated resilient growth throughout 2025, serving as a critical partner for enterprises navigating complex IT environments, escalating cybersecurity demands, and the rapid integration of AI technologies.

As internal IT teams faced persistent talent shortages and infrastructure challenges, organizations increasingly relied on managed providers to deliver scalable operations, strategic intelligence, and measurable business outcomes. Research Nester valued the global market at USD 380.33 billion in 2025, underscoring the sector's essential role in modern enterprise strategy.​

2025 Performance: Steady Growth Amid Complexity

Managed services expanded from USD 365.33 billion in 2024 to capture significant market share across key verticals, according to MarketsandMarkets analysis reporting a 6.9% CAGR. North America maintained its position as the largest regional market with 36.2% global share, driven by sophisticated IT ecosystems, stringent regulatory requirements, and accelerated cloud migration initiatives.​

Large enterprises dominated revenue generation at 60% of total market value, with strength in managed security services, hybrid cloud orchestration, and infrastructure-as-a-service offerings. Regulated industries including financial services, healthcare, and government showed strong preference for on-premises deployments, which accounted for over 67% of deployments in these sectors due to compliance and data sovereignty requirements.​

Several macro trends fuelled this performance

1. Cybersecurity incidents prompted 78% of surveyed enterprises to expand managed security operations, creating sustained demand for threat detection, incident response, and compliance monitoring services.
2. Meanwhile, the proliferation of multi-cloud environments and AI workloads overwhelmed traditional internal IT capacity, pushing organizations toward partners capable of managing distributed, data-intensive architectures.​
3. Cloud-native services emerged as the fastest-growing segment, with hyperscale providers partnering with managed service organizations to deliver integrated platform management. This convergence enabled enterprises to optimize costs while maintaining performance across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud environments simultaneously.

2026 Forecast: Acceleration Toward Trillion-Dollar Scale

Analysts project dramatic market expansion beginning in 2026. Research Nester forecasts a 12.8% CAGR through 2035, elevating the market toward USD 1.27 trillion as AI adoption and digital transformation initiatives mature. Market Research Future anticipates USD 209.76 billion in 2025 revenue alone, followed by steady 7.18% annual growth as enterprises standardize managed solutions for core operations.​

This trajectory reflects several structural shifts. Enterprises will increasingly view managed services not as tactical cost centers but as strategic orchestrators capable of integrating AI, security, and business intelligence into cohesive platforms. The convergence of AIOps, zero-trust security, and hybrid/multi-cloud management will become table stakes for competitive providers.

Demand will concentrate in three high-growth areas:

1. AI infrastructure management, where providers handle model deployment, monitoring, and optimization at scale.
2. embedded cybersecurity operations that proactively defend distributed environments;
3. And outcome-based service models that guarantee business results rather than billable hours.

Organizations prioritizing these capabilities will capture disproportionate market share as buyers consolidate vendor relationships around proven strategic partners.

Akraya's Strategic Positioning for Market Leadership

Akraya enters 2026 uniquely positioned to capitalize on these trends through managed solutions that combine deep technical expertise, flexible commercial constructs, and domain-specific delivery capabilities. The firm's AI-ready operations platform supports enterprise-scale model deployment while maintaining governance and compliance standards across hybrid environments.

Cross-functional delivery squads blend engineering, data science, security, and industry specialists to address complex transformation challenges holistically. Flexible pricing models tie provider success directly to client outcomes, creating true partnership alignment rather than transactional relationships.

As managed services evolve from infrastructure support to enterprise transformation engines, Akraya equips clients to extract maximum value from their technology investments. The combination of proven execution frameworks, specialized talent pools, and results-oriented commercial constructs positions the firm to thrive in a market projected to multiply more than threefold over the coming decade. Contact us today.