“Do I Even Need an MSP?”

The Cloud Changed Everything—But Not the Need for Strategy, Support, or Accountability

It’s one of the most common questions we hear from law firm executives and IT leaders: “If all my services are in the cloud, why do I need an MSP?”

It’s a fair question. The IT landscape has transformed dramatically in the past decade. Infrastructure that once lived in server rooms now runs in Azure or AWS. File servers have been replaced by SharePoint or NetDocuments. Email lives in Microsoft 365. And the promise of the cloud was always this: eliminate hardware headaches, reduce complexity, and lower your dependence on third parties.

So why are so many law firms still tethered to traditional MSPs?

Let’s unpack what’s really going on—and how Signal Consulting’s model is different.

What Traditional MSPs Sell vs. What Clients Actually Need

Traditional Managed Service Providers (MSPs) built their businesses around owning your infrastructure problems:

• They maintained your servers.
• They patched your desktops.
• They rolled trucks to your offices.
• And they charged monthly retainers for “unlimited support.”

In the pre-cloud era, this made sense. But today, when firms run entirely in the cloud, pay-as-you-go for compute, and can provision new users in minutes, the old model breaks down.

What law firms need today isn’t someone to babysit servers—they need someone to:

• Design smart architecture in cloud-native systems.
• Secure their environment against modern threats.
• Advise them on technology investments with ROI in mind.
• And drive outcomes, not just respond to tickets.

Unfortunately, many MSPs haven’t kept up. Their contracts are bloated. Their “support” is reactive. And their technical playbooks are outdated. They’re incentivized to keep you dependent—not make you self-sufficient.

Why the MSP Still Exists (But Shouldn’t in Its Current Form)

The MSP industry persists for three main reasons:

1. Firms don’t know there’s an alternative.
   MSPs position themselves as the only option for outsourced IT, even though most of their value props are now obsolete.
2. Legacy relationships and sunk costs.
   Many firms have been with the same provider for a decade and lack the bandwidth to reevaluate.
3. Fear of the unknown.
   Internal staff or firm leadership may not feel equipped to assess newer models, so they defer to the status quo.

But just because something persists doesn’t mean it’s still the right fit.

Signal’s Model: The “Anti-MSP”

At Signal Consulting, we intentionally don’t call ourselves an MSP—because we’re not. We built our model to solve the gaps the cloud era exposed:

1. Strategic, Not Reactive
   We provide Fractional CIO leadership, not just tech support. That means budgeting, vendor management, compliance, security planning, and aligning IT with the business. We speak the language of law firm leadership—not ticket counts.
2. Co-Managed IT, Not Co-Dependent IT
   We empower your internal team—or help build one from scratch—while handling the complex parts (security stack, cloud architecture, M365 governance, etc.). Our job is to make you stronger, not more reliant on us.
3. Modern Stack, Fully Delivered
   Most MSPs resell outdated tools or cheap RMM platforms. We bring industry-leading solutions—like ServiceNow, SentinelOne, Arctic Wolf, and Azure-native tech—and make sure they’re deployed right.
4. Outcome-Based Relationships
   We don’t sell retainers for “unlimited” tickets that rarely deliver value. We scope projects, provide transparency, and deliver measurable results. Our success is tied to yours—not to how many tickets you open.

Cloud Doesn’t Replace IT—It Changes What IT Should Be Doing

The cloud didn’t kill IT—it freed it.

Freed it from cable runs and RAID failures. Freed it to focus on strategy, experience, security, and innovation. But only if your IT partner evolves with you.

That’s the real difference between a legacy MSP and Signal Consulting.

You don’t need a server babysitter anymore. You need a business partner who understands your firm, your clients, and your goals—and delivers technology that gets you there.

Curious if your current MSP is holding you back? Let’s talk.