What The Heck is a TSP?

We also have this information in video format. 

I’m glad to hear that other industries are getting into the three-letter acronym (aka TLA) world. A TSP can be a teaspoon. Or it can be a Thrift Savings Plan. Or Trisodium Phosphate. Or Travel Service Provider.

But for this blog, we’re sticking with IT. The term stands for “Technology Service Provider”.

Whoops, I mean “Technology Success Partner”.

As we’ve mentioned many times before, Simplex-IT is a Managed Service Provider. And we’ve got a video explaining what that means. The MSP model (and name) started popping up in the early 2000’s, and really hit the mainstream in the 2010’s. So the MSP term really pre-dates a lot of virtualization, cloud, big data, security, the entire “as a service” concept, Business Intelligence.

So, the questions or concepts about how do we demonstrate and/or communicate the value we’re going to bring to clients has become critical, both from an industry perspective and the perspective of my organization in particular. And I’ve seen the term CSP (Cloud Service Provider), MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider) pop up here and there.

Now there's…<sigh>…TSP.

Some will argue that this is necessary. That a TSP encompasses support for all of your IT. Including your Cloud, security, and…umm…IT. I think the concept is that an TSP has a more sophisticated view of IT than an MSP. Somehow. By some arbitrary measure. An All-in-one IT solution.

Which apparently…an MSP…wasn’t?

If I sound confused, it’s because, honestly, I am. Look, the truth is, the terms MSP, MSSP, CSP, TSP…aren’t completely or consistently defined. They’re concepts that, for the most part, are left for the individual participants to decide for themselves. You know what it takes to call your organization an MSP, or TSP? Nothing. There’s no defined standard. No minimum requirements. You could probably create some set of minimal guidelines, but they’d be very arbitrary.

And don’t get me started about creating legal requirements specifically for MSPs. I find that talk adorable. There’s no specific definition about what an MSP is.

So, what is Simplex-IT? We take cloud computing seriously, so I guess we’re kind of a CSP. And we take security seriously, so that makes us a bit of an MSSP, right? And we try to be an all-in-one resource for IT with our clients, so we’re a TSP?

Then I think about our name. Simplex-IT. Simplify the Complex.

We’re an MSP. Plus, whatever other name you want to call us.