Many prognosticators in the last 5 years have predicted a decline in the need for IT Managed Services as centralization and cloud have been adopted.  Offerings like Software as a Service (SAAS) presented organizations with options for consuming IT on their terms with self service management and support.  In reality, Managed Services has grown and thrived in the cloud era.  As organizations have developed their Private, Hybrid and Public Cloud strategies two different business drivers have driven this growth, and they aren't that different from traditional Managed Services motivators.
<ol>
	<li>Organization A wants to reduce cost of supporting the combination of cloud and on-premise based workloads and the complexity it brings.  Through augmenting their existing teams expertise with experts on specific workloads.</li>
	<li>Organization B realizes that one size doesn't fit all or better said one Cloud doesn't fit all and they see a need for the managed cloud where they can realize the operational benefits of cloud technology and still have the customization they need.</li>
</ol>
Both of these drivers allow the organization to scale in expertise and take advantage of the operational efficiencies that the managed cloud can provide.

eGroup launched the evolution of it's customer support solution in 2013 for managed services that work in both the on-premise world, the cloud world, or any level in between.  eGroup's Managed Services is focused on solutions management, and it's priced and consumed accordingly.  eGroup is leveraging expertise on Public and Private Cloud Services, Application Services and End User Computing to offer a variety of solutions based managed services offerings that manage your services whether they are on premise, in the eCloud, or in the Public Cloud.  These solutions are managed proactively and day to day, extending your IT team with experts where you need them the most, for one solution or for your entire IT organization.  Some examples of these solutions:
<ul>
	<li>Managed Virtual Desktops (Citrix, VMware, Microsoft)</li>
	<li>Managed Storage (SAN and Non-SAN)</li>
	<li>Managed Network Infrastructure</li>
	<li>Managed Collaboration (Email, CRM, SharePoint, Lync, etc...)</li>
	<li>Managed Virtualization (vSphere or Hyper-V)</li>
	<li>Managed Physical Desktops</li>
	<li>Many more...</li>
</ul>
As the migration towards cloud computing continues, expect to see a continued growth in solution complexity and need for high levels of service availability to push the need for on-premise and cloud management expertise.  This transformation will lead us to 100 percent IT as a Service where we can overcome the challenge of the 3 year release cycle, consume only services that drive value to our business and pay for it operationally.  Managing those solutions in a similar manner will require IT service providers to focus on the value to customers vs. the products they provide.