Podcasts about kaseya

Send us Fan MailWhat happens when a former elementary school teacher steps into the fast-paced world of tech sales and MSP project management?In this episode of Joey Pinz Conversations, Andrea McGlothin shares a powerful journey from teaching first graders how to read to helping MSPs structure projects for real profitability and success.

Send us Fan MailWhat does it really take to perform at the highest level—on the field and in business?

Send us Fan MailWhat separates a strong operator from a true leader—and how do you scale success across multiple companies?In this episode of Joey Pinz Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with seasoned tech executive Jim Lippie to break down decades of experience across MSPs, SaaS companies, and multiple successful exits. From early days in the MSP space to leading SaaS growth and navigating acquisitions, Jim shares practical insights on leadership, metrics that matter, and what most operators overlook.

Eén op de drie kinderen praat online met vreemden. Op straat zou je in paniek raken, online haalt iedereen z’n schouders op. Astrid Oosenbrug zit aan tafel, en ze draagt een complete garderobe aan petten: medeoprichter van DIVD, CEO van DIVD Academy, interim-directeur bij HackShield en Public Affairs & CSR Officer bij ESET. We beginnen bij HackShield, de gratis game die kinderen van 8 tot 12 tot Cyber Hero opleidt, en belanden al snel bij Roblox. Randal bekent dat hij zichzelf binnen een half uur betrapte terwijl hij stiekem naar zolder liep om zijn eigen poppetje op de loopband te laten farmen. Hoe houd je jong hackerstalent op het goede pad? Bij de DIVD Academy gaat dat over ethiek: je kunt aantonen dat je in een systeem zit, maar je past geen cijfers aan. Astrid legt uit waarom Victor met maga2020! wel mocht inloggen maar verder niets aanraakte, hoe moneymuling werkt, en waarom het datalek bij Clinical Diagnostics voor sommige vrouwen letterlijk levensbedreigend is. Plus: meidenhuizen, dark patterns en het eindeloze kat-en-muis-spel om schermtijd. Over Astrid Oosenbrug Astrid Oosenbrug is medeoprichter van DIVD (Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure, bekend van onder meer de Kaseya-zaak in 2021) en medeoprichter en CEO van DIVD Academy. Ze is interim-directeur bij HackShield en doet Public Affairs & CSR bij antivirusbedrijf ESET. Van 2012 tot 2017 was ze Tweede Kamerlid voor de PvdA en gold ze als het meest digitale Kamerlid; tot juni 2025 was ze bijna zeven jaar voorzitter van COC Nederland. Ze keert in deze aflevering terug om twee lijnen te verbinden: kinderen veilig en ethisch leren omgaan met internet, en de strijd voor een veiliger en eerlijker net. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astridoosenbrug/ Website: https://www.divd.nl/who-we-are/team/people/astrid-oosenbrug/ Sponsor: Red de AI Wet Kim van Sparrentak neemt het op tegen de techbro’s om duidelijke regels te maken voor kunstmatige intelligentie. Red de AI Wet besluiter je hier.In deze aflevering 0:00:00 Het meest digitale Kamerlid en een waslijst aan petten0:02:18 HackShield uitgelegd: gamen om Cyber Hero te worden (8-12 jaar)0:05:48 Roblox als verslavingsmachine, en Randal die zichzelf betrapt0:09:06 Dark patterns: waarom zelfs het klikgeluid is uitgedacht0:11:14 Meidenhuizen: gezellig, met een zieke wereld eronder0:13:39 Eén op de drie kinderen praat online met vreemden0:17:26 Kat-en-muis met schermtijd: de Word-truc en de Unix-computer0:25:32 Interim-directeur bij HackShield: governance en de stekker eruit0:28:46 Een onbetrouwbare overheid en de preventieparadox0:32:13 Gedrogeerd en gefilmd: 80.000 Nederlandse IP-adressen0:35:21 Waar meld je het als je per ongeluk klikt?0:46:31 DIVD Academy: van digitaal belletje trekken tot ethisch hacken0:58:39 Rebootcamp met de politie en ronselen via Discord0:59:55 Werkt een social-mediaverbod voor jongeren?1:06:33 Trumps wachtwoord en de grens van responsible disclosure1:08:09 Vraag Arnoud Wokker: moet programmeren en AI een schoolvak worden?1:13:28 Moneymuling: hoe kinderen ongemerkt witwassers worden1:21:02 Clinical Diagnostics: als een datalek levensbedreigend wordt Genoemd in deze aflevering HackShield Future Cyber Heroes, gratis game cyberweerbaarheid voor 8-12 jaar DIVD, vrijwilligers die kwetsbaarheden opsporen en melden DIVD Academy: The Ethical Hacker, gratis online hackcursus Offlimits, meldpunt online misbruik (voorheen Helpwanted) ATKM, autoriteit om kinderporno en terreurmateriaal te melden Stichting Cyberbrein, Henk van Ee begeleidt jonge cyberbreinen Effectevaluatie HackShield (Saxion), onafhankelijk onderzoek naar het lespakket Datalek Clinical Diagnostics, achtergrond bij het bevolkingsonderzoek-lek Tips van de tafel Astrid Oosenbrug: zet bij games als Roblox de chatfunctie uit; kies waar mogelijk voor “alleen mensen die je kent”. Astrid Oosenbrug: per ongeluk op iets verkeerds geklikt? Meld het laagdrempelig bij Offlimits of de ATKM in plaats van het weg te klikken. Randal Peelen: maak schermtijdafspraken samen mét je kind en leg uit waaróm, in plaats van alleen te verbieden, want een verbod lossen ze creatief op. Jurian Ubachs: spreek elkaar aan op gedrag dat niet oké is, ook bij een grap; wacht niet tot het slachtoffer dat zelf moet doen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Kaseya MSP Success ecosystem: Kaseya has launched MSP Success, a unified growth initiative led by EVP of Channel Dan Tomaszewski and backed by a 140-person global team. The ecosystem consolidates three programs: MSP Success Digital Marketing (AI-powered lead generation, website, and SEO/AEO tools in Express and Pro tiers), MSP Success Peer (combining TruMethods Peer and Technology Marketing Toolkit into a single accountability network), and the Kaseya Community hub at MSPsuccess.com. The launch is framed around a finding from Kaseya’s own 2026 State of the MSP Report: 71% of MSPs say acquiring new customers is their single biggest challenge. Zscaler agentic AI security: Zscaler has announced major innovations to its Zero Trust Exchange platform at Zenith Live 2026, including three new capabilities for securing agentic AI: Zscaler AI Broker (securing MCP and A2A agent communications via an integrated Agent Registry), Zscaler Endpoint AI Security (detecting AI-related threats in browsers, plugins, and local tools), and Zscaler AI Access Graph (mapping identities, apps, and data sources in real time, powered by the Symmetry Systems acquisition). The company is positioning this as the industry’s first complete Zero Trust platform for Agentic AI. FlexPoint AI agents for MSPs: FlexPoint launched what it describes as the first AI-powered agents purpose-built for the MSP back-office, built into its AI-native accounts receivable platform. According to FlexPoint, the agents automate billing, collections, payment reconciliation, and client follow-up workflows, and are designed to integrate into existing MSP toolstacks without requiring additional administrative headcount. Kaseya State of the MSP Report context: The 2026 Kaseya State of the MSP Report finds 48% of MSPs rank AI as their top client need, while difficulty hiring skilled technicians has risen from 9% to 16% year over year, compounding the business development challenges MSP Success is designed to address. DTEX behavior intelligence: DTEX Systems has announced a new behavior intelligence tool built specifically for its partner ecosystem, using behavioral science and machine learning to flag anomalies that indicate potential insider risk or accidental data loss events. ConnectSecure Patch 360: ConnectSecure launched Patch 360, a centralized patch management platform purpose-built for MSPs, offering consolidated visibility across endpoints and third-party applications to streamline remediation workflows. Tumeryk and CSA AI Trust Score: Tumeryk has announced a collaboration with the Cloud Security Alliance on the RiskRubric v2 AI risk framework, now covering agentic AI and MCP servers, and has launched its AI Trust Score assessment service in beta. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Wednesday, June 10, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Kaseya yesterday launched MSP Success, a unified growth ecosystem designed to tackle what its own research identifies as the managed service provider community’s single biggest problem. According to Kaseya’s 2026 State of the MSP Report, 71% of MSPs say acquiring new customers is their primary challenge. MSP Success is Kaseya’s answer – a three-pillar initiative that consolidates the company’s existing growth programs under one roof. The first pillar, MSP Success Digital Marketing, is a new platform offering conversion-focused websites, AI-powered search and answer engine optimization, local search visibility, automated lead generation, and access to a dedicated marketing specialist. The platform comes in Express and Pro tiers depending on scale. The second pillar, MSP Success Peer, unifies two programs Kaseya has operated separately until now – TruMethods Peer and Technology Marketing Toolkit – into a single global accountability network with quarterly in-person meetings across North America, EMEA, and APAC. The third pillar is the Kaseya Community hub at MSPsuccess.com, a centralized resource and learning portal. The initiative is led by Dan Tomaszewski, EVP of Channel, supported by a 140-person global team. In a sector where technical excellence is table stakes, this is a signal that Kaseya is investing meaningfully in the business side of running an MSP, not just the tooling. Zscaler yesterday used its Zenith Live 2026 conference in Las Vegas to announce what it describes as the industry’s first complete Zero Trust platform for Agentic AI. The announcement extends Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange to address a challenge traditional security tools were not designed to handle: autonomous AI agents that operate at machine speed, create ephemeral identities, and access sensitive data in ways that conventional perimeter and identity-based tools cannot fully see or control. The centerpiece of the announcement is Zscaler AI Broker, which secures agent-to-agent and MCP-based communications through an integrated Agent Registry that governs what each AI agent is permitted to access. Alongside that, Zscaler introduced Endpoint AI Security, targeting threats hidden in browsers, plugins, extensions, and local AI tools that many legacy endpoint products miss. A third new capability, AI Access Graph, powered by Zscaler’s earlier acquisition of Symmetry Systems, maps how identities, applications, and data sources connect across an enterprise to enable real-time policy enforcement and data lineage tracking. For MSSPs building managed AI security practices, this is a significant platform update from one of the key SASE and zero trust providers in the market. FlexPoint yesterday launched what it is positioning as the first AI-powered agents purpose-built for the MSP back-office. The company, which operates an AI-native accounts receivable platform for service providers, says the new agents are designed to automate the financial workflows that consume significant administrative time inside MSP operations – billing, collections, payment reconciliation, and client follow-up. According to FlexPoint, the agents integrate directly into existing MSP toolstacks and are designed to work without requiring dedicated back-office headcount. The core argument from FlexPoint is that MSP revenue growth often stalls not because of a shortage of clients, but because back-office operations don’t scale proportionally. That framing aligns with the theme emerging from Kaseya’s research and this morning’s news – that the constraint on MSP growth is increasingly on the business operations side, not the technical side. In Brief – Kaseya’s announcement follows its own 2026 State of the MSP Report, which also finds that 48% of MSPs rank AI as their top client need and that difficulty hiring skilled technicians has nearly doubled year-over-year. DTEX Systems announces a new behavior intelligence tool built for its partner ecosystem, designed to detect insider risk through behavioral analytics and machine learning anomaly detection. ConnectSecure launches Patch 360, a new patch management platform purpose-built for MSPs, offering a centralized view across endpoints and third-party applications. Tumeryk and the Cloud Security Alliance announce a collaboration on RiskRubric v2, an AI risk assessment framework that now covers agentic AI and MCP servers, with Tumeryk launching its AI Trust Score assessment service as part of the ecosystem. Later today on In The Channel, ESTI Consulting Services‘ Earl Gosick brings a Prairie data center perspective to a conversation about AI infrastructure, cyber resilience, and why the storage conversation is the one Canadian partners should be having right now. And if you haven’t heard it yet, yesterday’s episode features AWS Canada’s Martin Brazonet and CGI’s Dinesh Bhavsar on the launch of the AWS Partner Innovation Hub in Toronto – and why the gap between AI prototype and production is where the real partner opportunity sits. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

Une nouvelle épidémie d'Ebola déclarée en République démocratique du Congo, dans la province de l'Ituri, ainsi que dans deux pays voisins, l'Ouganda et le Soudan du Sud. L'information a été confirmée par l'OMS et l'agence sanitaire de l'Union africaine, Africa CDC. Plusieurs dizaines de cas ont déjà été recensés et de nombreux décès enregistrés. La RDC reste le foyer principal de cette épidémie, et une nouvelle souche de contamination y a été découverte. Cette dernière, explique le Dr Jean Kaseya, épidémiologiste et directeur général du Centre africain de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (Africa CDC), ne dispose pour le moment ni de vaccin, ni de traitement. RFI : Le 5 mai 2026, l'Organisation mondiale de la santé a reçu un signal de cas suspects et a envoyé une équipe sur le terrain. Les premiers échantillons testés à Mungbwalu étaient négatifs. Ce n'est que le 15 mai que l'Institut national de recherche biomédicale a confirmé les cas positifs. Deux jours se sont écoulés. Ce délai a-t-il aggravé la situation ? Dr Jean Kaseya : On peut dire que tout délai dans une flambée d'Ebola est préoccupant, mais que les premiers échantillons négatifs ne suffisent pas à exclure une flambée. Cela peut dépendre du moment du prélèvement, de la qualité de l'échantillon, du choix des cas testés, du transport ou de la dynamique de transmission. Nous devons examiner la chronologie complète avant de conclure que ce délai a aggravé la situation. Ce que nous savons, c'est qu'Ebola exige une réponse immédiate dès le signal et cela signifie l'investigation, l'isolement, la recherche des contacts, le contrôle des infections et la communication communautaire. Voilà pourquoi Africa CDC travaille avec les gouvernements à accélérer la confirmation, à renforcer les laboratoires, à reconstituer les chaînes de transmission et à réduire tout nouveau délai opérationnel. Le patient zéro a-t-il été identifié ? Le patient zéro n'a pas été publiquement confirmé. À ce stade, les enquêtes épidémiologiques sont en cours pour établir la chronologie des premiers cas, les expositions possibles, les événements communautaires, les soins reçus. Vous savez, les funérailles et les déplacements sont aussi d'autres facteurs. Les informations venant de la communauté sont importantes et doivent être écoutées. Nos équipes travaillent avec le gouvernement et d'autres partenaires pour que nous puissions vérifier scientifiquement avant de parler du patient zéro. On parle de la RDC, mais d'autres pays seront également impactés, l'Ouganda et le Soudan du Sud notamment. Vous confirmez ? Effectivement, la situation est confirmée en Ouganda. On parle de la même souche qui vient d'être confirmée en RDC. Il s'agit de la souche « Bundibugyo » et on parle de cas importés en Ouganda venant de la RDC, dont une personne est déjà morte. Actuellement, nous sommes en train de travailler sur la détection rapide pour renforcer la surveillance. On est en train de rechercher les contacts, de faire de la prévention et le contrôle des infections. Nous avons aussi la communication avec les communautés, bien sûr, les enterrements sûrs et dignes au niveau du Soudan du Sud. Nous activons la pression maximale en termes de prévention et surtout de détection accélérée s'il y avait un cas. Pour revenir à la RDC, c'est la 17e épidémie que connaît le pays depuis 1976. Mais cette fois, ce n'est pas la souche Zaïre. Le séquençage est en cours. Vous avez évoqué tout à l'heure le nom de la nouvelle souche. Pouvez-vous nous rappeler de quelle souche il s'agit ? Généralement, nous parlons des trois souches. Il y en a une vingtaine, mais généralement on parle de trois souches pour Ebola : la souche « Zaïre », que l'on connaît, la souche « Soudan », et la souche « Bundibugyo ». C'est de celle-là dont on parle. Cette souche n'a pour le moment aucun vaccin disponible, aucun médicament disponible. Nous avons des vaccins candidats, des médicaments candidats sur lesquels nous sommes en train de travailler. Aujourd'hui (vendredi 15 mai, NDLR), mon équipe a eu une réunion avec tous les partenaires et les industriels pharmaceutiques qui ont des produits sur lesquels on fait des études, et donc nous saurons vous informer un peu plus dans les prochains jours. Dernière question, quelle est votre plus grande crainte dans les prochaines 72 heures ? La crainte des chaînes de transmission invisibles, des contacts qui ne sont pas listés, des personnes exposées qui se déplacent vers Bunia, vers l'Ouganda, vers le Soudan du Sud, des soignants qui sont exposés sans protection suffisante et surtout des décès communautaires sans enterrements. Les prochaines 72 heures doivent servir à passer d'un signal inquiétant à une réponse structurée, où nous allons lister les contacts. On va prendre des soins sécurisés, on va renforcer les laboratoires et on va avoir des communautés informées. À ce moment-là, je peux commencer à dire que nous pourrions contrôler cette épidémie dans les semaines qui viennent. À lire aussiRDC: nouvelle épidémie d'Ebola en cours en Ituri, la société civile appelle à éviter le pire

Joel Abramson, managing partner at Top Down Ventures Today’s In The Channel episode lands on the same morning that Vancouver-based Top Down Ventures announces the close of Founders Fund I at C$38 million – oversubscribed against an original target of US$25 million, and positioned as the first institutional venture fund focused exclusively on early-stage software and AI for the managed service provider ecosystem. Managing partner Joel Abramson joined the show to walk through the fund’s thesis and what it means for the channel. Abramson co-founded and led Fully Managed through more than a dozen acquisitions before its $137 million acquisition by Telus Business Solutions in 2021. He joins general partners Chris Day (founder of IT Glue and ScalePad) and Mark Scott (founder of N-able) at Top Down – three operators who between them have spent about 75 years building and scaling companies inside the MSP ecosystem. The fund’s first exit – zofiQ to ConnectWise, which closed in January 2026 – returned 5.3 times the invested capital in roughly six months. Abramson describes it as a case study in what Top Down looks for: founders solving singular problems with exceptional depth, validated by real MSP operators rather than generalist investors. The macro thesis is equally compelling. The global IT services market is projected to grow from $600 billion to over $1 trillion by 2030. And in 2026, SMB IT spend is on track to outpace enterprise IT spend for the first time ever – a shift Abramson contrasts with what he calls the “SaaSpocalypse” in enterprise, where headcount reductions are translating directly into fewer SaaS licenses. The fund’s LP base of more than 100 MSP operators – including Pax8 – acts as a flywheel for validating investments, sourcing design partners, and connecting portfolio companies with the customers best positioned to stress-test what they’re building. Find Top Down Ventures, including their newsletter and annual research report, at topdown.com. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last sixteen years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. If you caught The Buzz this morning – and you really should have – you already know the headline. Vancouver-based Top Down Ventures has closed Founders Fund I at $38 million Canadian, oversubscribed, as the first institutional venture fund focused exclusively on early-stage software and AI for the managed service provider ecosystem. The story behind it, though, is rich. Top Down was founded with three partners with deep roots in the Canadian channel community: Chris Day of IT Glue and ScalePad, Mark Scott who founded N-able, and today’s guest, Joel Abramson, who ran Fully Managed through more than a dozen acquisitions before its $137 million sale to Telus Business Solutions in 2021. The fund already has its first exit in the books. zofiQ, an agentic AI platform for MSP service desks that ConnectWise acquired just six months after Top Down’s investment, at 5.3 times the invested capital. Joel joined me this morning to talk about why MSP software needs its own dedicated venture fund, what the first exit tells us about where agentic AI is headed, and one market shift that has the team genuinely excited about the decade ahead. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Joel Abramson. Joel, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Joel Abramson: Great to be here, Rob. Robert Dutt: I wanted to start with the origin story here. I think it’s an interesting one in that you had a big role in building and running Fully Managed through a dozen or so acquisitions, then sold – instead of going off and retiring on a boat somewhere or that sort of thing, you ended up in venture investing in specifically MSP software. Can you walk me through how that happened? How did Top Down come together? Was this something that you sought out or something that Chris Day pulled you into? How did that happen? Joel Abramson: Yeah, well, let’s be clear – I do love being on boats. To tell the origin story, you get to go through a 25-year journey of the MSP ecosystem itself, because there are three general partners: Mark Scott, Chris Day, and myself, Joel Abramson. Our journey dates back to the early 2000s when Mark Scott started N-able, and he was one of the pioneers that really helped value-added resellers and break-fix IT service providers become MSPs. I meet people every time I’m out on the road who have a story about working with N-able – transitioning their revenue model from break-fix to recurring. N-able is a phenomenal company today and I think Mark’s legacy lives on there. Mark started that company and then exited just before the SolarWinds acquisition. Then he went on to start a service provider called CareWorks – an MSP focused on senior care facilities. A really interesting vertical, as well as broad SMB. But I’ll pause his story and focus on Chris, because Chris is founder and chairman and really sets the vision for Top Down. Chris had an MSP as well back in the early 2000s. Eventually that was Fully Managed, and that’s where I joined him. I had a small – much less successful – MSP called Packetsafe Networks, and I rolled my little MSP into Chris’s marquee MSP, Fully Managed, and together we set on this journey. We wanted to bring that company to ten cities with $10 million in revenue in each city and then sell it to a Canadian telco – and it’s not revisionist history, it was actually the goal. But then a couple of years into our shared journey at Fully Managed, Chris got pulled into building software. It was because I’d built a bunch of software for Fully Managed to run on, and he made the mistake – or the fortuitous opportunity – of showing it to his peer group. His peer group was like, “I want to use that.” So he said, “Okay, well, I’ll build it for you.” He started building a documentation platform from the ground up and called it IT Glue, and that was a phenomenal ride for him – taking it from a couple of peer group mates trying it out to selling to Kaseya in 2018 and building a very large company in a relatively short amount of time. Not without a tremendous amount of hard work and grind. He was on the road with pop-up banners signing up logo by logo by logo in the early days, but eventually the movement just took shape and every MSP realized that they needed a documentation platform, and IT Glue took off. So IT Glue exits to Kaseya in 2018. Chris has to make that decision: do I want to golf and travel for the rest of my life, or what brings me joy? And so he actually started Top Down as a way to re-engage back with the MSP community. He had an early portfolio of three companies: Warranty Master, a company he had started with his brother; Backup Radar; and Quoter. Together those three early companies started to grow at their own individual pace. Keep in mind, we’re still running Fully Managed over here – I’m running it for him. Then we ended up putting Fully Managed together with Mark Scott’s MSP, and that’s how the three of us came together. Then yes, we did a number of acquisitions. We grew Fully Managed to be $100 million in revenue. It wasn’t the straight line Chris and I had talked about – ten cities in ten years – but it was maybe seven cities. The bridge version: Telus came in and said they wanted to acquire Canada’s largest MSP, which was Fully Managed at the time. They had done a bunch of research and nine months later we consummated that transaction, at the end of 2021. I’d been working with Chris for a number of years on the early-stage portfolio, because we’d get a couple of calls every month with people saying, “Hey, I’m starting this project, Chris, are you interested in taking a look?” So we started to build this reputation as investors in early-stage MSP software companies. We tried some other stuff – everything from consumer packaged goods (we still have a couple of investments) to starting a country music label, which we’ll save for another time. But we always knew our home, I think, was in the MSP space. After the Fully Managed exit, we decided we wanted to really compound our impact. We had this idea of a venture fund – and maybe I’ll pause there, because I can continue the journey, but we’ll wait and see if you have any questions up to that point. Robert Dutt: Understandable. It’s a wild journey, and it really is back to the heart of the early days of the MSP movement – as you say, from break-fix and VAR models. I guess tell me a little bit about where you’re at now. The fund is positioned as the first institutional VC targeting early-stage software and AI for this ecosystem. Why do you think this space needs a dedicated fund? What does a generalist venture fund miss or get wrong when they’re looking at the space? Joel Abramson: We’ve been doing early-stage investing for a few years – five years. At the same time, Warranty Master became ScalePad, and ScalePad started to gain really, really great momentum. ScalePad brought in a growth equity partner, Integrity Growth Partners, who are just phenomenal folks. They capitalized the business and that grew ScalePad from $10 million to $50 million. They were great partners, great board members, and we watched these guys – we were like, wow, we’ve been through this journey a couple of times. They add a lot of value, and we’re really excited about that relationship. We were doing our thing with the early-stage companies, and so we looked across the ecosystem. We said, there is a ton of capital that’s ready to invest in companies in the MSP ecosystem when they get to a certain scale – that was kind of the scale that ScalePad had gotten to. Then we looked down and said, well, what about the guys that are just starting out? There’s not a ton of support. There’s a ConnectWise pitch contest that grants $60,000 or $70,000 to early-stage companies. And there are early-stage investors – we’ve seen companies like Pax8 and Huntress go through many rounds of financing and they started somewhere. But we saw that the strongest source of capital in the MSP ecosystem was actually coming from angel investors. It was Joe Paniterri and Kevin Blake and Channel Angels, and they had done a number of deals, bringing together really early-stage capital and putting $100,000 into a business fueled from a number of different folks. That’s really, really cool. But where’s all the venture? You look across horizontal software and there are funds of venture that just pour in. In the big markets – the Valley and New York – and then in secondary markets, there are funds focused on those areas. But we saw early-stage MSP software companies as vastly overlooked. So we said, what if we could bring together capital from the MSP ecosystem? Because we’ve made plenty of millionaires just by acquiring them with Fully Managed. You look at how that scales out across the ecosystem: you’ve got Evergreen and Integris and Thrive and all these folks buying up MSPs. The stats are over 200 search funds, family offices, and MSP aggregators buying MSPs right now. That’s generating a lot of wealth for a lot of people. Then you have MSPs that are super profitable and people are making good cash flow. Then you have all the software companies that have exited with similar stories to Chris’s. There’s actually quite a bit of capital that could be put to work back into the ecosystem if we just found a way to harness it and focus it on innovation. We said, instead of doing a couple of deals a year, what if we could make 8 to 10 investments a year by bringing capital together? And then what if we could build a system around that to take everything we’ve learned working with early-stage companies – applying those practices, bringing folks together for design partners, early customers, advice, and partnerships in the MSP ecosystem? So we set out to raise a $25 million venture fund, and we said we were going to focus on educating the MSP ecosystem on what investing in a venture fund looks like, because it’s really just going to fuel innovation for MSPs themselves. Our goal was to have half the fund raised from the MSP community and half from outside – similar to what it was at Fully Managed: let’s tell the world about what a great opportunity exists in MSP. We were super successful in the first bucket. We got really well received by the MSP community. We have over 100 LPs in the fund and we exceeded our target of $25 million. In the second bucket, we still have a lot of work to do. We’re one year into our Outliers podcast, we’ve produced one white paper, and we’ve had hundreds and hundreds of conversations in the institutional community, educating funds of funds and family offices on the opportunity for early-stage MSP software investing. We only got a couple of participants in this fund – which is all right, because it shows the strength of the MSP ecosystem. We still oversubscribed our target. But we’re excited to continue that journey of educating institutional investors for our second fund and beyond. Robert Dutt: You mentioned you’re in at the early stage. Where in the lifecycle do you typically start looking, and what does a target portfolio company look like at the point you’re getting involved? Joel Abramson: I’ve only been doing this for a few years, so I’m still learning some of the language, Rob. But we talk about early stage being right at inception – which is called pre-seed, the first money into a company. Maybe they have an idea of what they want to build, a prototype, a business plan, some people, but they haven’t actually started that path to launch – all the way up to around that first million or million and a half of revenue, where they’d be called a late-seed investment or an early Series A. So maybe it’s the second money in, or in a Series A it could be the third. But really we’re focused on the early stage where we can leverage the strength of our LP base – a lot of strong MSPs – as well as the strength of the community that Top Down works to enable and bring together. That can be for design partners, early customers, folks to help with advice, and then partnerships in the MSP ecosystem. Maybe a company is working with ScalePad to solve a problem and ScalePad can help by bringing that product to its customer base. It’s really about building the things that matter most to MSPs. And that’s why I think we love this ecosystem so much – it’s a partnership of vendors and service providers. If we look forward to how AI is going to impact things, you have small and medium businesses at the frontline – all the enablement use cases there, all the cybersecurity use cases. Then you have the service provider layer, which is MSPs helping them with all those things. Then you have a middle layer of supply chain software like the companies we invest in. And on top of that, you have the hyperscalers, the cloud companies, the frontier companies. That four-tiered system really matters, because without the innovation from Microsoft and Anthropic, the macro doesn’t move forward. But very rarely is it going to go straight from there into frontline workers’ hands. The two layers in between – the layer we invest in, and the MSPs themselves – are really what’s helping bring the value from the top to the end market. We think it’s an incredibly resilient ecosystem. We think there’s nobody better positioned to help with AI transformation than MSPs. And that layer between the frontier companies and the hyperscalers and the MSPs is really important – that’s where innovation happens on their behalf, and that’s the kind of companies we’re investing in. Robert Dutt: One example of that would be zofiQ, which I think was your first exit – and some pretty startling numbers there: a six-month turnaround, selling to ConnectWise, bringing back more than 5x what you put in. What did you see in that company that made you say “we’re in,” and what did the ConnectWise acquisition tell you about the market for PSA and agentic AI and where that’s all headed? Joel Abramson: It starts with Lee and his team. We get the fortunate opportunity to look at a lot of things that are being built and we’re still learning, trying to keep pace. As the last couple of years have played out, we’ve been students of what people are building and how they’re looking at solving problems, armed with the knowledge of the last 25 years of the ecosystem. When we met Lee, we were really impressed with him as a founder. He had a strong track record of purpose-building solutions. When Chris and I sat down with him, it was obvious he was solving singular problems with a tremendous amount of depth, versus some of the other folks we’d seen building solutions who were really going an inch deep and a mile wide. Knowing how mission-critical these solutions are to MSPs – that for every time they mess up a service ticket, they put that customer relationship at risk – we knew that Lee’s approach was just bang on. He was obsessed with solving singular use cases. It showed in the team he put together, the technology he built, and what customers were saying about the product. It’s very atypical to make an investment and then six months later have it acquired. When it was all going down and we were talking to the ConnectWise folks, it was bittersweet. We’re so happy to see ConnectWise gain this incredible capability, but we were sad to know we weren’t going to have Lee in the Top Down portfolio anymore. Ultimately, thrilled – because what it means for ConnectWise is that they can get this really powerful technology into a lot of people’s hands. That has a tremendous impact for the ecosystem, the end market, the MSPs partnered with ConnectWise. They can get this great innovative technology out into the market much faster than Lee could on his own, just going out and telling the story and waiting for the momentum to build. Thrilled for ConnectWise, thrilled for Lee and the team to jump into an organization like ConnectWise. And proud that we were able to play a tiny part on that journey. Robert Dutt: zofiQ was automating the service desk with AI agents. From what you saw inside that experience with them, and looking across the portfolio now, I’m curious – especially given your background running an MSP – when you’re talking to MSPs about what some of these companies are doing, how ready are they to adopt and operationalize this kind of agentic tooling? Both in terms of willingness and interest, which I’m sure is high, and actual aptitude and ability to make the operational changes that come with it? Joel Abramson: It totally depends on the MSP’s maturity. I’ve been through the life cycle of MSP maturity many times – two steps forward, one step back, a bunch of times. Every MSP is on a similar treadmill of growing and maturing, then having to embrace new technology, then getting hit by outside factors: whether it’s COVID, the move to remote work, the push back to the office, or the change in technology. It’s not a static industry, but it is an industrial-strength ecosystem because it’s so mission-critical for the customers MSPs serve. Everybody is at their own part of the journey. Companies like zofiQ come around and they focus on building the right technology, then working with the ideal MSPs that are at a place where they can embrace it. I go back to an inspirational investor, Dave Lahn, who always talks about the different buckets of work: the hero work, all the work that supports the hero work, and then all the work that should be done but isn’t. I think about MSPs with that third bucket. As a 20-year MSP operator, there were all these things I knew I wanted to do but could never get around to because we were always fighting fires, then trying to do proactive work, then project work – it compounds and you never had enough hands for the work that should be done that isn’t. I think that’s one of the huge opportunities with AI – actually getting that work done, staying on top of it, and providing more stable, secure environments for MSP customers. If AI is the great enabler for MSPs themselves, then how exciting is it to be in a position where I can’t think of a service provider that supports small and medium businesses that’s better positioned to bring AI enablement down to that market than an MSP. I doubt it’s the accountant, I doubt it’s the janitor or the maintenance people. I think it’s the MSP, because you’re already talking technology. As MSPs continue to evolve from the server room to boardroom conversations, AI is an incredible hook to get into that conversation. That’s why the work ScalePad does around customer success and supporting the strategy conversations is so critical. But the next wave of companies we see are really around helping MSPs actually deliver AI use cases successfully to their customers. That transformation will take place for a long, long time. Robert Dutt: Your base of limited partners includes more than 100 MSP operators, including Pax8. That’s unusual for a VC fund. Was that a deliberate choice? And how does having operators as limited partners actually change how you source and evaluate deals? Joel Abramson: It just makes us so strong. We have the brainpower of over 100 people there for us to tap and leverage. At our Horizons event in November – where we bring all of our LPs together – I’ve never seen a more aligned group of individuals, focused on supporting the supply chain of an ecosystem, come together and have meaningful conversations without any real individual agenda. We think about it as a flywheel. We have a group of limited partners with all of our capital in this fund together. Of course we all want to make money – but I think what drives that outcome is supporting innovation and figuring out exactly where the best place to put capital is today that can have the largest impact tomorrow. zofiQ is a perfect example. Here’s a strong founder with a huge problem, solving it at the deepest level, that MSPs are going to be able to take forward and dramatically impact their businesses and their customer experience. That, to me, is the genesis of venture investing: aligning all those things and putting the right pieces together. We think about the strength of the mindshare of our LPs, figuring out ways to connect them with our portfolio companies, ways to validate our thesis and investments by harnessing that energy, and then making the right investments and providing the right support throughout a portfolio company’s lifecycle, thanks to that really, really strong LP base. Robert Dutt: So if I’m an MSP owner listening to this – not an investor per se, just someone running a managed services shop – why should I be paying attention to what you guys are doing and what you’re funding? What’s the typical practical downstream impact on my business? Joel Abramson: You could look at our portfolio with a degree of confidence that these companies are getting great support to build great products, that they’re talking to top MSP operators around the world to help shape what gets built. The average MSP is the benefactor of that, because it means they’re getting great product built that they can use in their MSP or deploy to their customers. We’re doing this to earn and keep the reputation that a Top Down-backed company means tier-one innovation, great people behind it, that it’s been validated and tested – and that MSPs themselves can be the benefactor of that by leveraging this technology. Robert Dutt: You closed this fund at about $38 million, oversubscribed, in what you called a slog of an environment – and I get that. What does that tell you about where institutional capital is actually flowing in 2026? And what does a successful Fund I set up for Fund II? Joel Abramson: A lot of institutional capital is flowing towards the frontier companies and the supply chain of AI. We think that’s great, because just like the Microsofts and Googles that have powered the ecosystem for the last ten years, we think heavily capitalized AI companies are fantastic for the downstream companies – the software companies we’re investing in, the AI companies we’re investing in, the MSPs themselves, and the SMB layer. Capital flows down as well. As vertical-focused funds like ours demonstrate a strong track record, more institutional capital will flow into vehicles like ours. Certainly a lot of capital is tied up at the top right now, but we see that as a great thing because we’re not super concerned about the capital cycles of the next three months. We’re much more concerned about the capital cycles of the next two decades. As we’ve mobilized a non-insignificant pool of capital to support early-stage MSP software companies, we strive to earn the right to have a second fund with a more diverse group of participants, and subsequent funds beyond that – as long as we continue to find the right companies to partner with and add value along the way. Robert Dutt: And that seems like – just with the names you’ve mentioned and the names I can think of off the top of my head – a target-rich environment. There are lots of companies building specifically for the MSP market for obvious reasons. But I’m curious: without necessarily naming names or tipping your hand, what problem or product category are you most excited about in the MSP software pipeline right now? Where’s the white space that’s still underbuilt? Joel Abramson: In our research paper, we talk about two big macro things happening in the market right now. One: we think this market – let’s broaden it to IT services, not just MSP – is going from a $600 billion addressable market to a $1.3 trillion addressable market, certainly $1 trillion by 2030. That’s a huge market. On the MSP side specifically, we have four or five scaled companies at or above a billion in revenue. Ninja is on its way up there. N-able, of course, is a big company. But you’re talking about a much larger addressable market – there’s still empty canvas where new companies can scale up to fill the middle and eventually be alongside some of those platforms. We expect those platforms to continue to grow and thrive, and we hope to build or invest in companies that can partner with them to take advantage of their distribution and ultimately make small and medium businesses better through MSPs. All that said, what are some of those categories? I don’t think it’s new MSPs starting up and buying PSA – that market is fairly saturated. Nor do I think it’s more EDR or XDR – those are pretty saturated markets too. There’s still market share that will trade, don’t get me wrong, and innovation will build on top of it. But doubling the market requires new products, new revenue streams, and obviously AI is a critical part of that. Whether it’s the evolution of agentic service work to do all the work that should be done but isn’t, or raising productivity levels so the service is that much better, or helping the average SMB with a sophisticated IT strategy that evolves into an AI strategy – we see the category of AI services enablement for MSPs as a huge, huge opportunity. In the enterprise, we’re living through what I call the SaaSpocalypse – the idea that big SaaS companies are going to see fewer licenses because people are going to downsize headcount and thus take an impact on their top line. But we see the SMB market as more resilient, because my accountant with 60 people and one person in marketing – they’re not going to downsize that one-person marketing department. That person is actually just going to get that much better thanks to all the tools they’re using. SMB IT spend is expected to outpace enterprise IT spend for the first time ever in 2026. We believe that’s because of the resiliency of the SMB market – the idea that when a big tech company lays off 5,000 people, those people don’t all sail off into the sunset. A lot of them move into the SMB economy and start small businesses. Maybe the IT folks start an MSP. So we see the SMB part of the economy continuing to thrive, and it’s showing itself this year – thanks to this crazy stat that SMB IT spend will outpace enterprise IT spend for the first time ever. For all those reasons, we’re very excited about the opportunities it creates in the companies that we’re invested in. Robert Dutt: That is a crazy stat, and it’s worth underlining – because of where you and your peers and so much of this community is focused, right in that SMB space. And closer to home, as a Canadian podcast, we’re very much a nation of SMBs. So it really is super impactful here. Joel Abramson: Yeah, I would agree. Robert Dutt: For people who want to follow what you guys are doing – whether they’re founders, MSPs, or just interested in what’s coming in terms of new AI-first MSP software – where do they find you? How can they find out more? Joel Abramson: TopDown.com. We publish a newsletter and try to share all the learnings we’re gaining each quarter. We publish a white paper annually. We have a conference in November called Horizons – if you’re interested in investing in the MSP ecosystem, our goal is to bring everybody together as peers. We do a lot of dinners and events around the big MSP events. Our goal is always to bring everyone together as peers, not in a supplier relationship where you’re being sold to – just everybody trying to solve this thing together. The community aspect of the MSP ecosystem is so strong, and that’s how you engage. I’m pretty easy to find and always interested in a conversation with anybody from inside the ecosystem or outside, as we try to build this thing one brick at a time toward 1.3 trillion of addressable market. Robert Dutt: Brilliant. Go get that. Go build that. I appreciate you taking the time, Joel. Joel Abramson: Thank you so much for having me. Robert Dutt: There you have it – Joel Abramson from Top Down Ventures. I’d like to thank Joel for his time this morning. Thank you as always for listening to In The Channel. A few things stuck with me from this conversation. First, the framework Joel described: frontier AI companies at the top, then the supply chain software layer that Top Down invests in, then MSPs, then SMBs at the front line. It’s a clean way to think about how AI value actually gets delivered to small and medium businesses. And the point that MSPs are the most natural vehicle for that delivery is hard to argue with – from where I sit, and probably from where you sit too. Second, that stat about SMB IT spend outpacing enterprise IT for the first time ever this year. If we’re in what Joel calls the SaaSpocalypse for the enterprise, we’re in a resilience story for SMB. For an audience of MSPs, that’s your market, and that’s your moment. And the zofiQ story. A six-month hold, 5.3 times the invested capital to ConnectWise. What Joel said about what made it work – going deep into a singular problem rather than an inch deep and a mile wide – is as much a product philosophy lesson as it is a venture capital story. If you want to follow what Top Down is doing, find them at TopDown.com, where they publish a regular newsletter and annual white paper on the state of MSP capital. Their Horizons conference runs every November if you’re engaged in this ecosystem as a founder, an operator, or an investor. If you’re enjoying the show, please give the podcast a follow or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or most of the major podcast directories. Ratings and reviews are always encouraged. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: inforcer launches Copilot Manager: inforcer has released its new Copilot Manager feature, giving MSPs in-depth visibility into Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption and shadow AI usage across customer tenants. According to the company, as many as 80% of SMB employees are using unauthorized AI tools at work, and IBM research cited by inforcer suggests organizations with high shadow AI exposure average $670,000 more in breach costs. The tool builds on the company’s earlier Copilot Readiness Assessment and has already been trialed in beta by more than 200 MSPs globally. SUSE launches Sovereign Partners Specialization: SUSE has announced a new Sovereign Partners Specialization at its SUSECON 2026 conference in Prague, designed for MSPs and channel partners operating in sovereign cloud environments. The specialization is structured as an agile layer on top of SUSE’s existing partner program, targeting partners who already hold sovereign field certifications and know the SUSE technology stack. For Canadian solution providers, the timing aligns with accelerating data sovereignty requirements under OSFI E-21 and Quebec’s Law 25. Cayosoft launches Microsoft Migration Services: Cayosoft has launched a full-cycle Microsoft identity migration service delivered in partnership with XMS Solutions, covering Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams. According to the company, the offering addresses the security exposure that persists after migrations that close on schedule but leave behind broken permissions and unmanaged identity drift. The service spans pre-migration assessment through post-migration monitoring and governance. Kaseya unveils Agentic IT Management Platform: Kaseya has announced what it is calling the first Agentic IT Management Platform, powered by a proprietary dataset the company calls Kaseya Intelligence, combining real-world IT data with an execution layer designed to act autonomously on behalf of MSPs. GuidePoint Security wins CrowdStrike Americas Partner of the Year: GuidePoint Security has been named CrowdStrike’s 2026 Americas Partner of the Year after the two companies surpassed $1 billion in cumulative joint sales, a milestone the company is positioning as validation of its managed security practice. Dyna Software showcases Platform Copilot at Knowledge 2026: Dyna Software is demonstrating Platform Copilot at ServiceNow Knowledge 2026, positioning the tool as a way to generate ServiceNow environment configurations from natural language inputs and images, reducing prototyping time for implementation partners. Kyndryl pushes AI deeper into IT operations: Kyndryl has announced updates expanding autonomous AI capabilities across its global IT operations practice, extending AI-assisted resolution workflows for its managed services engagements. Upwind adds Windows Server runtime visibility: Upwind has launched runtime visibility support for Windows Server virtual machines running across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, closing a cross-platform gap in its cloud-native security coverage. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Friday, May 8, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Managing Microsoft 365 Copilot is becoming a genuine operational challenge for MSPs, and a company called inforcer is positioning itself as the answer with the launch of its new Copilot Manager feature. The company, which makes Microsoft 365 multi-tenant management software for managed service providers, says Copilot Manager gives partners in-depth visibility into Copilot adoption trends across all client tenants, and – critically – the ability to monitor shadow AI usage. According to inforcer, as many as eighty percent of SMB employees are bringing their own AI tools to work, using unauthorized or open-source applications that increase the risk of data leakage. The company cites IBM research suggesting one in five organizations have experienced a breach due to shadow AI, with those carrying high shadow AI exposure averaging six hundred and seventy thousand dollars more in breach costs. The business case here is straightforward for solution providers. Copilot has crossed twenty million paid seats. The licensing is in motion. What most MSPs lack is the infrastructure to make Copilot governance a repeatable, billable service rather than a one-time check-in conversation. Copilot Manager has already been trialed in beta by more than two hundred MSPs globally, and the company says it builds directly on a Copilot Readiness Assessment tool released last year, giving partners a documented progression from pre-sales evaluation through ongoing managed AI services. SUSE has launched a new Sovereign Partners Specialization as part of its channel program, a move that carries meaningful implications for the Canadian market. The announcement came at the company’s annual SUSECON conference in Prague last month, with details emerging publicly this week. SUSE is positioning the specialization as an agile layer on top of its existing partner program, designed specifically for early-mover partners who already hold sovereign field certifications and are invested in the sovereign technology market. According to Hayley Wienszczak, SUSE’s head of global partner programs and success, the initial go-to-market will focus on existing SUSE MSPs who know the technology stack, working jointly to onboard the first reference customers onto a full SUSE sovereign stack. More than ninety-eight percent of SUSE’s business runs through partners, and the company is framing the sovereign play as an opportunity to lock in that partner ecosystem around an emerging but fast-growing requirement. For Canadian MSPs, the timing aligns with accelerating regulatory pressure around data sovereignty – OSFI’s E-21 guideline on technology and third-party risk, Quebec’s Law 25, and federal Protected B requirements are all pushing enterprise buyers toward environments where data residency is a verifiable, contractual commitment rather than a vendor promise. SUSE is also opening co-sell registration to ISVs and system integrators alongside MSPs as part of the same program update. Earlier this week, Cayosoft launched a full-cycle Microsoft identity migration service that it says is designed to address the ongoing risk that sits inside most Active Directory and Entra ID environments. The offering, called Cayosoft Microsoft Migration Services, is being delivered in partnership with XMS Solutions, a long-time provider of migration and cybersecurity services. According to the company, the service covers Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and related identity infrastructure, and spans the complete lifecycle from pre-migration assessment through phased execution, data integrity validation, and post-migration monitoring, governance, and recovery. The launch targets a specific and frequently mismanaged problem: migrations that declare success on go-live day while leaving behind broken permissions, duplicated identities, and poorly governed access that creates security exposure for months afterward. Cayosoft is specifically calling out M&A, divestitures, and consolidation scenarios as high-risk contexts. For Microsoft-focused channel partners, the model Cayosoft is describing – migration as the front door into a longer-term identity management and recovery engagement – represents a services motion that can extend well beyond the initial project. Partners who have historically treated Active Directory migrations as one-time engagements may find this a useful framework for repackaging that work as an ongoing managed practice. In Brief Kaseya has unveiled what it is calling the first Agentic IT Management Platform, powered by a proprietary dataset the company calls Kaseya Intelligence.  GuidePoint Security has been named CrowdStrike’s 2026 Americas Partner of the Year after the two companies surpassed one billion dollars in cumulative joint sales.  Dyna Software is showcasing its Platform Copilot at ServiceNow Knowledge 2026, positioning the tool as a way to generate ServiceNow configurations from natural language and images.  Kyndryl has announced updates pushing AI deeper into its IT operations practice, expanding autonomous resolution capabilities across its global managed services engagements.  Upwind has launched new runtime visibility support for Windows Server virtual machines across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, addressing a gap in cross-platform endpoint coverage.  Full details and links in the show notes or the blog post. Later today on In The Channel, we continue our Knowledge 2026 series with Cristin Gooderham, area vice president of Canada enterprise sales at ServiceNow, on what the shift to agentic business looks like from a Canadian market perspective. And if you haven’t heard it yet, yesterday on In The Channel we published my conversation with Michael Park, ServiceNow’s global channel chief, on why the company put its AI product leader in charge of the channel – and what that means for how partners get built and compensated going forward.  That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

The dominant structural shift addressed is the move of platform vendors away from competing on feature sets toward controlling the governance and billing layer that underpins managed services. This is evident in moves by Microsoft, AWS, and Kaseya, specifically with Microsoft's new licensing tier combining per-seat fees with consumption-based AI add-ons, AWS redefining managed services around agents, and Kaseya introducing action-based pricing for IT management. Analysts noted that these developments collectively place a consumption meter on previously flat-rate services, reconfiguring how MSPs and IT providers will be billed and held accountable. Primary evidence for this shift includes data from Omdia's channel media report and tracked M&A activity within the MSP sector. The report counted 169 MSP acquisitions in 2025, mirroring prior years' activity, yet identified that one acquirer—Evergreen Services Group—accounted for 47 deals, illustrating a concentration in acquisition strategies. Notably, 69% of publicly announced deals involved private equity, with the remainder pursued by independent operators. The North American channel media landscape saw significant contraction, with titles dropping from 29 to 18, despite stability in the global outlet count—attributed to both industry consolidation and AI-driven changes in content discovery. Supporting developments include growing use of AI in content production, leading to declining traffic for B2B publications as audiences increasingly access information through automated tools rather than direct visits. The rise of engagement-focused business models and shifts in acquisition criteria—such as Evergreen targeting founder-led MSPs—underscore evolving buyer strategies. Additionally, platform vendors are restructuring their product and pricing models around agent-driven and action-based billing, while shifting their external positioning to emphasize AI, intelligence, and cyber resilience. Operationally, MSPs and IT leaders face increased pricing and margin variability driven by emerging consumption-based licensing and AI service models. The historical per-user, per-month bundle is at risk as vendors experiment with new billing constructs, exposing providers to cost unpredictability and complicating client contracts. Providers lacking internal engineering or acquisition frameworks may be especially exposed, while consolidation and vendor dependency raise governance and accountability stakes. MSPs pursuing higher margin services, such as compliance or cyber resilience offerings, must prepare for new cost structures and intensifying pressure from both customers and vendors regarding efficiency, pricing, and service outcomes.Supported by:  Zero Networks Moovila   Upcoming event:  The Pivotal Point of IT: Building Services for the AI-First Era Date: May 13 at 1p.m. EDT Register: https://go.acronis.com/davesobelaiera

Jennifer Bleam is an award-winning speaker, best-selling author, and one of the most recognizable voices in the MSP world when it comes to sales, marketing, cybersecurity, and now AI. Her book, Simplified Cybersecurity Sales for MSPs, has earned nearly 200 reviews, and her work today is centered on helping MSPs understand the AI opportunity, package it correctly, and lead better business conversations with clients. She's spoken at a long list of industry events hosted by organizations like ConnectWise, Continuum, Kaseya, Auvik, Technology Marketing Toolkit, CharTec, ASCII, and ChannelPro, and she's built a reputation for making complex growth topics easier to understand—and easier to act on. What makes Jennifer especially compelling is that she's not coming at this from theory alone. She owned an MSP, coached more than 2,000 MSPs on sales and marketing best practices, and helped grow a channel-focused cybersecurity company from startup to acquisition in less than two years. Through MSP Sales Revolution, she now helps MSPs design more human-centered sales and marketing systems, with a strong focus on practical execution, stronger positioning, and real revenue growth. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Links:  https://mspsalesrevolution.com/about/ https://www.youtube.com/c/JenniferBleam facebook.com/groups/mspsalesrevolution linkedin.com/in/bleamjennifer

Tim Coach, chief evangelist at Cynomi For most managed service providers, the security services story has followed a familiar arc: endpoint protection, email security, security awareness training. Each category added value, then became table stakes. Third-party risk management – TPRM – is what comes next, and according to Cynomi Chief Evangelist Tim Coach, it may be the stickiest revenue category yet. The case is straightforward. Every business relies on a web of vendors, software providers, and service partners. Each one is a potential vulnerability. And most SMBs have no formal process for knowing how well those third parties are managing their own security – or what happens to them downstream if one of those vendors gets breached. Research from Cynomi suggests 45 percent of organizations will face supply chain attacks, and 30 percent of data breaches already involve a third party. The attack surface has shifted to the things organizations trust most. For Canadian MSPs, the regulatory pressure is specific and near-term. OSFI’s Guideline E-21, with a September 2026 compliance deadline for federally regulated financial institutions, puts third-party oversight explicitly on the agenda. The cascade effect on their vendors – and the MSPs serving those vendors – is already in motion. Perhaps the sharpest signal in this conversation: cyber underwriters are now denying SMB coverage not because of anything the SMB did, but because they are connected to an MSP. The managed service provider, long positioned as the path to better insurance outcomes, has become a risk factor in its own right. Coach’s recommended first move for any MSP building into TPRM isn’t a vendor questionnaire – it’s a Business Impact Analysis. Understand how the client actually makes money, which vendors are critical to those revenue processes, and what an hour of downtime costs. That reframes the conversation from technical widgets to revenue, cost, and risk – the language every business owner speaks. – UPLOAD AUDIO Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, your host for the show. My guest today is Tim Coach, Chief Evangelist at Cynomi, a vCISO platform purpose-built for MSPs and MSSPs. Tim brings an unusually grounded perspective to the space. He’s an engineer by training who spent nearly two decades building, running, and consulting on managed service practices before landing at Cynomi after seeing the platform first-hand and recognizing it could have solved one of his biggest operational headaches as an MSP owner – the CISO bottleneck, the point at which growth stalls because the security function can’t scale without adding expensive headcount. That personal history shapes everything he thinks about TPRM, third-party risk management, which is increasingly being talked about as the next major revenue category for MSPs after human cyber risk. Today we’re talking about what building a TPRM practice actually looks like, why cyber insurance has quietly flipped the MSP value equation, and why the right starting point isn’t a vendor questionnaire at all. Let’s get right into it, my chat with Tim Coach. Tim, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Tim Coach: I absolutely love to be on. Thanks so much for having me, and for having Cynomi on your webinars. We’re always happy to do these things and educate the community. Robert Dutt: You’ve spent a long time in and around the MSP community. How did you end up at Cynomi specifically, and what was it about the opportunity around TPRM that pulled you in? Tim Coach: TPRM was eventually in the process – let me back up. What got me into the community was my engineering background. I went to college for what was called network communications back in those days. Basically I’m a network guy – I always point at the front-end programming guy and say, “It’s your fault,” and the programming guy says, “No, no, it’s the network’s fault.” So I did that for a large-scale nationwide company for many years, and then I fired my MSP. The owner was like, “Well, if you’re so good, why don’t you come over here and run this?” And I said okay. It took me about 24 hours to realize I didn’t have a clue what was going on – the place was chaos. But through process and procedure, and a military background, I knew I could get it under control. I ended up with a business partner from that experience, and we spent about 20 years rebuilding and consulting with MSPs. About five years ago, I just needed something different. The kids were a little older. I started looking at what else was out there, talked to a couple of mentors in the space – I’m sure if I mentioned their names everyone would know them – and they said, “You should come over and do this.” So I jumped. I went to work for a Canadian company, grew them quite a bit in the first year, then moved to an Australian company, grew them, and then went back to consulting for a short time. David from Cynomi was recommended to me as a consulting connection. We were going back and forth and he said, “Why don’t you come on board?” And I said, “I’m not really interested in selling a widget” – and it’s a security widget, right? There are so many great widgets and great personalities in the security space already. Probably not my jam. But he said, “No, no – let’s look at it.” And he showed me what Cynomi did, and I was blown away. The reason I was blown away is that at my most successful MSP, we hit a stopping point in our growth. The reason was our CISO – and this was before CISO was even a cool term. He was our bottleneck. Not because he was inefficient as a person, but because of the way he had to work: 80 pages of Excel spreadsheets and hours and hours of questionnaires. When I first saw Cynomi, I thought, “Here’s a way I could have doubled the size of my company with the same staff, the same CISO.” That’s what really inspired me to come on board – seeing that dashboard and connecting it to the personal pain I’d experienced around the security bottleneck. Now with the addition of TPRM, that excites me even more, because back in my MSP days I had a lot of bank clients, and banks are SOC 2 all over the place. Part of SOC 2 is that you have to have TPRM – you have to be responsible for everybody in the chain. So now we’ve built out a platform that lets the MSP, MSSP, ITSP, or whatever SP you want to put in front of those letters, easily manage vendor relationships and understand where clients are in their security posture. Robert Dutt: You may not feel it’s cool, but it’s certainly foundational security. Tim Coach: And that’s the problem, right? That’s why we’re still talking about security – because nobody knows how to talk business. They all talk widgets, bits and bobs: here’s this cool firewall, MDR, XDR. But you know what your clients don’t care about? The widgets. They care about being secure. Until we can bridge that gap – until Cynomi brings something that says, here’s an easy way to get to the data and details you need, here’s CISO-level intelligence so the MSP can translate it into business terms for the doctor’s office, the manufacturing company, whatever vertical you want – we’re going to keep having this same conversation. Robert Dutt: Let’s do a little bit of that with TPRM itself. Let’s take a step back and look at it from the viewpoint of an MSP who’s heard the acronym but hasn’t really dug in yet. Third-party risk management – what are we actually talking about, and what problem does it solve? Tim Coach: What a lot of people need to understand – and I try to say this in a way that’s easy to grasp – is: manage security first, and compliance becomes a default. What I mean is that you need a baseline, whether it’s CIS Controls, Cyber Essentials Plus, CMMC 2.0, one of the financial frameworks, HIPAA, whatever applies. You need a baseline you’re actively managing your security against. In the process of meeting that baseline, compliance follows. What we’re increasingly seeing is that certification bodies, auditors, and insurance underwriters all want to see that your solutions and partners are just as secure as you are. I was at Canalys Barcelona last year and someone made a statement that blew me away: for the first time ever, we’re seeing insurance underwriters deny coverage to an SMB because they’re connected to an MSP – and the MSP is what they consider the risk. We went from being the most important people in the room, essential workers, to being the risk factor. And on top of that, helping clients with their insurance has been one of our foot-in-the-door conversations for the last decade. That’s where TPRM comes in. The frameworks and insurance underwriters now want to see not just that you’re secure, but that everyone you’re working with is secure. The problem has always been how you manage that. Back in my day, you had to call the vendor, find the right person, ask for evidence of their SOC 2 compliance, get bounced around, end up with legal, sign an NDA, and eventually get the report. Now people share that information a bit more freely, but you still need a central place to manage it – so when an auditor or insurance broker asks, you can point to it and say, “Here it is.” We do a community call every Wednesday at noon Eastern, and we’ve had a gentleman on a couple of times who has written books specifically on TPRM. He’s sounding the alarms – not bad alarms, just “it’s coming.” But like a lot of SMBs, MSPs are having to drag their clients toward where they need to be. Once you make it easy for the MSP, you make it easy for the SMB, and you finally have a way to prove you’re taking those measures. Robert Dutt: Supply chain attacks have certainly been a theme in the channel for a while – Kaseya, SolarWinds, MOVEit. But TPRM as a formal managed service element feels newer. The insurance side sounds like a big driver. What else changed to make it go from a theoretical concern to something MSPs can actually build a practice around? Tim Coach: I firmly believe you cannot be a business partner without knowing how your partner makes money and how you need to protect them. I can’t protect them if I don’t know what they’re using. It’s the old adage: if two people are managing something, nobody’s managing it. TPRM is really the next step for the ITSP to move from a transactional relationship to a true business partnership – ensuring that everyone your clients are using is also protected. Because what happens is what always happens: it doesn’t matter what you have hard-coded in the contract about not being responsible for X. When something goes wrong, the SMB comes back and says, “But I thought you were managing this.” We go over it in the contract reviews, sure, but the conversation still happens. When you’re genuinely talking business – saying, “I’m going to protect how you operate quarter after quarter, year after year” – you’re protecting their entire environment, not just your piece of it. That’s when you move to a real business relationship instead of a sales relationship where every conversation is an upsell or a cross-sell. We’ve done it to ourselves a little bit, honestly. It’s like an insurance agent in Oklahoma trying to sell hurricane insurance. That’s not what we should be doing as business partners. TPRM allows us to have a full understanding of the client’s environment and make sure everything is protected – or at minimum, that the gaps are known by everyone. Robert Dutt: Cynomi has described TPRM as the next major revenue category after human cyber risk. Can you walk me through what the recurring revenue model actually looks like, and what makes it sticky? Tim Coach: Everything leads to MRR – that’s business. But you have to start with a project. You need to understand where the client is in their security journey before you can manage them ongoing. SMBs don’t do things for free, and neither do our partners. This is a revenue generator. But it’s a revenue generator because it actively has to be managed. I always say: I can’t throw a server at security. I can’t throw a firewall at it and declare myself secure. The best analogy I’ve heard for security is a block of Swiss cheese. There are holes, and you can stick a fork through those holes quite a way. But if you slice that block and turn every slice 90 degrees, the holes are still there – they’re just not as deep or vulnerable. That’s TPRM. There is no set-it-and-forget-it. It has to be actively managed, and that active management is where the recurring revenue lives. Robert Dutt: What does a typical engagement look like early on, for an MSP starting from zero with a client? Where does the work begin, and what surprises people about the scope as they go deeper? Tim Coach: Everything begins with an assessment. With Cynomi’s tools, we can use Cyber Essentials Plus or CIS Controls as a self-regulating baseline and add a couple of hours to the initial assessment to incorporate the security piece. We all do assessments upfront to understand what we’re getting into – or what needs to be fixed before we really dig in. Once you’re in the security layer, the next step is TPRM. And TPRM brings with it something I think is critically important: the Business Impact Analysis. It’s not enough to ask, “What does your client do?” They make dog food – do they? Or is that just the end product? When I was an MSP, I had a metal manufacturer that cut and stamped metal. But if you asked their CFO what the business was, he’d say, “Making pallets – I make more on pallets than on the stamping work.” I used this example in a presentation just yesterday. Years ago I was walking through a manufacturer’s facility and asked about a machine: “What does that one do?” “That runs the software that completes our product.” “Why isn’t it plugged into the network?” “It’s a Windows 98 machine.” “Why are you still running that?” “Because it runs decade-old German software that costs ten million dollars to replace. And we only have that one machine.” If you’re not walking through and genuinely understanding how they make money, you don’t know where the risks are. And that’s what TPRM forces you to do. Ideally, I’d love to sell a project that includes a full security assessment, a BIA, TPRM, BCP, IR planning, all of it from day one. But it doesn’t happen that way. You have to phase it. Once you understand the BIA and what they’re actually doing, you understand where the software and systems that carry real business risk are, and you can start building that into their security posture. It’s the same principle: why hack an individual when you can hack the software that manages all the individuals? Why try to crack one account when you can compromise an MSP’s RMM tool and get access to everybody? If you go into a business without understanding their software environment and vendor posture, you at minimum need to be able to tell them where the risks are. Because the language they speak is revenue, cost, and risk. TPRM is a risk if it’s not being managed – and that’s why we’re seeing so much attention on it lately, even though some of us have been doing this for decades. We just used to call it vendor management. Robert Dutt: We’ve talked a lot on the show about MSP tools as an attack surface – RMM agents, remote access tools, backup platforms. The MSP is supposed to be managing the client’s vendor risk, but the MSP’s own toolchain is also someone else’s third-party risk. How should MSPs be thinking about that? Tim Coach: It comes back to the BIA again. What are they using? What’s creating the security gaps, and how do you build better overall management around it? There’s a project in there, but every project should lead to MRR – period. It still has to be managed. Remember when Exchange servers went away and everyone panicked about where the revenue was going to go? There was still an entire environment to manage. We always made some revenue on hardware, though that’s gotten harder – the real money is in managing the ongoing environment. TPRM is the same thing: it’s a significant security gap in the overall posture of your clients, and that gap has to be actively managed. Robert Dutt: Pushing on that a little further – TPRM platforms are pulling in a pretty comprehensive map of an organization’s vendor ecosystem: the gaps, what’s been remediated, basically a full picture of the landscape. If one of those platforms gets compromised, that’s not just a breach – that’s a pretty rich target list for an attacker. How do you think about that? Tim Coach: Think about a CNC factory. Their job is building molds to produce a specific part, and the software on their server has all the schematics fully built out. What happens if that software gets hacked? You lose all the schematics for the CNC machine – so suddenly you can’t produce anything. And if the attacker gets in early enough in the process, the downstream supply chain impact goes way beyond that one facility. That’s the risk. If you’ve got $200,000 five-axis CNC machines – and I may have a little experience with this – and you’re not protecting the software running them, and you don’t understand from a TPRM perspective what the vulnerabilities look like, that’s an ongoing, persistent risk. You always have to be managing it. Robert Dutt: Sitting where Cynomi is, how do you think about the security side of running a TPRM solution, and what should MSPs be asking vendors in this space about that? Tim Coach: Efficiency. How efficient can you make it? I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but we’ve essentially stupid-proofed the first few levels. We’ve built it out for you. And look – I know AI is a word we’ve managed to avoid for about the last half hour, but AI is meant to enhance the human. It’s a tool. What we’ve done at Cynomi is build AI agents and intelligence into the platform to make this work manageable at a lower labor level. If I can take work that previously required a CISO – an expensive asset – and bring it down to a tier-two technician, my margins go up because my labor costs go down. That said, we’re not replacing the CISO. I used to work with a company that built a component for Apache helicopters – no public-facing anything. If a tier-two tech runs a report showing no web security for that client and flags it as a critical gap, the CISO might be the only person who knows that client has no public-facing presence by design. That context matters. The CISO still needs to be the final approval layer. What Cynomi has done is open up bandwidth for other people to do the groundwork, so you can grow your company without adding another six-figure salary. When your staff becomes more efficient, the CISO is less of a bottleneck – which was the original problem we started with. Robert Dutt: For the Canadians listening, there are some very specific regulatory drivers on the table right now. OSFI’s Guideline E-21 has a September 2026 compliance deadline for federally regulated financial institutions. Can you talk about the role you see TPRM playing in responding to that kind of regulation? Tim Coach: What we’re seeing is that the insurance underwriters, auditors, and regulators are the ones setting the standard, and the industry has to meet it – but the industry isn’t yet at a point where it can easily meet a TPRM standard. So what will probably happen, whether it’s Canada, the US, the UK, or EMEA, is a pattern we’ve seen before: they’ll release a guideline, there’ll be a period of voluntary adoption, and then they’ll give it teeth. Like HIPAA – they threw it out there, and eventually it got enforcement. The thing I’ve always loved is watching the auditors, because they’re typically running a couple of years ahead of the regulation. If you stop treating auditors like your mortal enemy – “they’re here to expose everything I’m doing wrong” – and start paying attention to what they’re flagging, you can get ahead of the game. Auditors are a leading indicator. It’ll always come down to government forcing the policy, and then insurance trying to find a way out of paying claims when it’s not followed. But if you’re watching the auditors and TPRM is showing up in their reviews, you already know what’s coming. Robert Dutt: For an MSP listening to this and thinking, “I should be doing this” – what’s the realistic first move? Not the ideal end state, but the practical starting point? Tim Coach: Start with the BIA – the Business Impact Analysis. Research suggests every SMB has three to five critical processes that drive about 80% of their revenue. Do they actually know what those are? Probably not. They make dog food. They take care of kids. Whatever it is – they don’t actually know how they make money. I have an old client who’s also a friend – he works in retirement planning. If you asked how he makes money, you’d assume it’s from managing portfolios. It’s not. He makes money by selling the policy, and the insurance company pays him a commission on that. If you don’t start by understanding the BIA, you don’t really know what solutions your clients are dependent on. Start with: who is your critical software outside of us? Who maintains it? Do we have a relationship with them? Does it connect directly to how you make money? And tie it to cost of downtime. If a doctor’s office goes down for four hours – and in a medical practice you call them providers, not doctors, right? Speaking their language, not ours – what does that cost? If the pallet machine on an assembly line goes down, and that pallet machine is the only thing holding product so the rest of the line can keep moving, what’s the cost per hour? If you don’t know that, you don’t actually understand how to service your client. You’re still talking bits and bobs instead of revenue, cost, and risk. Robert Dutt: Future-looking question to wrap up: where do you see this category going over the next couple of years? Is TPRM a standalone practice, or does it fold into a broader vCISO or governance offering? Tim Coach: I think it’s going to be both. For more mature MSPs, it’ll be baked right into their silver, gold, and platinum packages – TPRM is just part of what you get at a certain tier. For others, especially those that aren’t at a full vCISO-as-a-service level yet, it’ll be available as a standalone – a meaningful piece of the security posture they can deliver to clients without committing to the full stack. Growth and maturity, right? As people build their practices, the more advanced will have it embedded. But there’s also a real path for someone starting out to say, “I need to at least get this piece right, because it’s critical to the overall security posture of my clients.” Robert Dutt: Fascinating. It’s an interesting area of technology and – to your greater point – business. I appreciate you taking the time to share some thoughts on how service providers can get involved. Tim Coach: Thanks for having me on. I always appreciate it. Robert Dutt: There you have it – Tim Coach from Cynomi. I’d like to thank Tim for taking the time today. He’s been around the MSP space long enough that when he points at something and says it’s the next thing, it’s worth listening. A few things I want to make sure land from this conversation. The first is the Business Impact Analysis as the true starting point. Before you think about vendor questionnaires or risk scoring tools, you need to understand how your client actually generates revenue – which processes drive the majority of the business, and which vendors are load-bearing in that equation. That’s not a security conversation. That’s a business conversation. And that’s the shift that moves an MSP from tool vendor to genuine business partner. The second is the insurance signal. When underwriters start denying SMB coverage not because of something the SMB did, but because they’re connected to an MSP – that’s a warning and an opportunity in the same breath. MSPs who can demonstrate they’re actively managing their clients’ third-party risk have a new and better story to tell. And the frame to carry with you: security first, compliance becomes a default. Build the practice to the right security baseline and the compliance checkboxes largely take care of themselves. In The Channel is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most major podcast directories. If you’re finding value here, ratings and reviews are always appreciated – they help other people in the Canadian IT channel find the show. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

The dominant structural shift outlined in the episode is the destabilization of the classic per-seat MSP bundle caused by the rise of agentic AI and token-based, metered automation platforms. Vendors such as Kaseya, Google, and OpenAI are embedding persistent AI agents within core business applications, moving beyond traditional licensing models to charges based on actions, tokens, and workflow usage. This introduces margin instability, as MSPs cannot reliably predict costs or maintain flat-rate contracts in an environment where AI consumption is dynamic and externalized. The most consequential evidence presented is the quantification of AI-driven inefficiencies and costs in operational terms. According to a Gallup poll, cited by ZDNet, half of US employees are now using AI at work, but those users waste up to eight hours weekly managing AI-related tasks—amounting to approximately $1.25 million drag per year for a 100-person firm. This data underlines how the proliferation of automation does not equate directly to labor savings and can introduce significant, unanticipated costs that are difficult to contain under legacy MSP pricing models. Supporting developments further highlight the governance gap and operational risk. Reports from PRWeb and Ruist find that 97% of MSPs intend to automate more in 2024, but only 4% are “highly mature.” Vendor announcements—as with Kaseya's agentic IT management platform, Auvik's Aurora AI agents, and Liongard's data control enhancements—are paired with warnings from Information Week and The Register about the risk of overspending, audit failures, and accountability gaps tied to AI-driven automation. Most IT managers lack full control over AI agents, and as agents proliferate, the difficulty of tracking, governing, and assigning accountability rises. For MSPs and IT service providers, these changes demand immediate attention to contract structure, governance, and pricing. Flat-rate, all-you-can-eat support models expose providers to untracked vendor consumption and hidden overages, making traditional agreements economically unstable. Practical safeguards require shifting toward consumption-based or outcome-based billing, enforcing explicit usage caps, audit controls, and vendor SLAs that clearly define liability and accountability. Failing to adapt risks absorbing uncontrolled automation costs and shouldering client disputes over AI-driven actions and expenses. 00:00 AI Overhead Crisis  04:48 Agent Control Gap 07:17 MSP Margin Squeeze 12:00 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  Acronis Zero Networks Nerdio  Upcoming event:  The Pivotal Point of IT: Building Services for the AI-First EraDate: May 13 at 1p.m. EDTRegister: https://go.acronis.com/davesobelaiera

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Salesforce launches FDE Partner Network: Salesforce is dedicating 50 million dollars to its new Forward Deployed Engineering Partner Network, providing partners with the same training and direct product team access as internal staff. According to Nick Johnston, senior vice president of partner sales, the program is designed to help partners build and monetize their own agentic AI practices on the Agentforce platform. For Canadian MSPs and consultants, the initiative presents an opportunity to transition from selling software licenses to delivering higher-margin advisory and managed services. Cisco reinstates compute deal registration: Reversing a decision from late February, Cisco has officially reinstated its compute deal registration differential. The initial elimination, driven by rising memory prices, effectively removed roughly eight points of margin on server deals, causing friction within the channel. In a communication to partners, Cisco’s Tim Coogan confirmed the discount restoration, though the tightened seven-day quote protection window remains. The move restores critical profitability and margin predictability for Canadian partners navigating ongoing supply chain volatility. CloudCapsule debuts Manage module: CloudCapsule, a security platform launched by former Pax8 leaders and MSP owner Nick Ross, has introduced its Manage module. The solution extends Microsoft 365 security management into a unified workflow, bringing assessment, remediation, and reporting into a single pane of glass. For Canadian MSPs struggling with fragmented toolsets, the platform reduces administrative overhead and automates the reporting process, providing tangible proof of security outcomes to justify recurring revenue. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Wednesday, April 22, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Salesforce has launched a new Forward Deployed Engineering Partner Network for Agentforce, backing the initiative with a 50 million dollar investment in agent-building incentives. According to Nick Johnston, senior vice president of partner sales, the software vendor is committing to provide channel partners with the same training, tools, and direct product team access that its internal staff receives. The program is designed to help partners build their own agentic AI practices and push beyond basic implementation. For Canadian MSPs and consulting partners, the initiative signals a continued shift away from selling software seats toward delivering measurable business outcomes. As AI deployments become more complex, partners who can demonstrate real-world results will be positioned to capture higher-margin advisory and managed services revenue. Cisco has officially reinstated its compute deal registration differential, reversing a controversial decision made in late February. The networking giant had originally eliminated the discount in response to rising memory prices and supply chain volatility. According to partners, that move effectively erased roughly eight points of margin on server deals, causing friction and prompting some to look at competing infrastructure vendors. In a recent communication, Cisco senior vice president of global partner sales Tim Coogan confirmed the discount restoration for registered compute hardware deals, though the tightened seven-day quote protection window remains in place. For Canadian IT solution providers, the reversal is a necessary correction that restores critical margin predictability, allowing partners to confidently quote hardware projects in an unpredictable supply chain environment. A new security platform built by former Pax8 leaders and an experienced MSP owner is making its official debut this week at the Kaseya event. CloudCapsule, led by CEO Nick Ross, is launching its Manage module, which is designed to help managed service providers assess, remediate, and demonstrate security outcomes within a single workflow. The solution extends Microsoft 365 security management into a unified system, addressing the ongoing problem of fragmented tools and manual reporting. For Canadian MSPs, operational consolidation is becoming increasingly essential. Proving the value of security services to clients is a persistent challenge, and a platform that automates the reporting process can help reduce administrative overhead while providing tangible proof of security posture improvements to justify recurring revenue. Later today on In The Channel, we have a conversation with Rewst founder Aharon Chernin. We will be talking about building the automated MSP, and how AI thinks while automation acts. It is a deep dive into where the service delivery model is headed. And if you haven’t heard it yet, make sure you check out yesterday’s episode featuring Jennifer Roy, CEO of Nucleus Networks. We had a great discussion on maintaining culture while scaling a national presence, and what private equity really looks like from inside a Canadian MSP. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening.

NinjaOne's reported growth and positioning within the MSP software landscape presents a notable development for service providers evaluating vendor ecosystems. According to statements reviewed by Ryan Morris and Dave Sobel, NinjaOne claims an annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeding $500 million, a valuation above $5 billion, and a customer base of more than 35,000. This self-reported data, while not independently verified due to NinjaOne's private ownership, places the company within the top tier of platform providers for endpoint management, alongside ConnectWise and Kaseya. The expansion and platform focus suggest material choices ahead for MSPs considering stack consolidation, endpoint management, and integration requirements. Supporting analysis from Dave highlights trends in the categorization of platform players, noting shifts among vendors such as Enable, which is repositioning from the MSP infrastructure platform to the security domain. The discussion raises a technical consideration: the evolution from API-driven integration toward emerging orchestration standards such as MCP servers, though details from vendors remain limited. MSPs are advised to understand tier distinctions among platform providers and carefully assess how these shifts may affect integration, security posture, and operational alignment. Adjacent topics explored by the speakers include the risk and tradeoffs involved in vendor onboarding, M&A (mergers and acquisitions) processes, and the relevance of business continuity strategies. Ryan Morris and Dave Sobel critique extended, six-month vendor evaluation pipelines as potentially eroding competitive positioning in a landscape characterized by rapidly evolving technologies, especially AI-driven tools. Additionally, the episode revisits the skill set of the IT generalist, acknowledging that while specialist expertise remains essential in domains such as security, contemporary AI adoption demands generalist capabilities for validation, interpretation, and curation of technology outputs. The podcast asserts several operational takeaways for MSPs and IT leaders. Prioritizing process documentation and standardization enables scalability and business value beyond the presence of individual owners, as financial professionals weigh factors such as repeatability and owner-independence in valuation. Businesses should balance rigorous stack control with responsive, customer-centric experimentation, managing the pace of change in vendor portfolios and technologies. In M&A scenarios, the speakers caution against overly formulaic approaches, emphasizing contextual evaluation of fit and motivation to mitigate post-transaction dissatisfaction. Collectively, these themes stress the need for ongoing adaptation, systematized governance, and objective risk management in MSP operations. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Automation and AI are shifting the pricing and accountability models for managed service providers, with risk increasingly centered on governance, workflow coherence, and outcome measurement rather than tool deployment. Evidence from studies like Fixify, reports from ChannelLive, and real-world cases such as the City of Seattle's pause on Microsoft Copilot rollout highlight that technology adoption is now gated less by access to solutions and more by readiness to govern, coordinate, and prove outcomes across fragmented processes. Automation exposes underlying coordination debt, moving the client focus from paying for labor time to demanding measurable outcomes and managed exceptions. Fixify's analysis of more than 50,000 support tickets from 30+ organizations showed tickets with at least 75% automation saw average resolution in 4.4 hours versus roughly three days for non-automated tickets. Data cited from OpenAI found that 93% of London SMBs use AI tools, but readiness and uptake are highly uneven within the UK. In Seattle, more than 450 labor hours per week were reported saved during the Copilot pilot, yet adoption was paused due to concerns over data governance and accountability for errors, not tool capability. According to coverage in GeekWire and IT Pro, these dynamics are shifting buyer expectations and vendor liabilities. Supporting developments include security concerns outlined by Kaseya's INKY report, which highlights the normalization of AI-generated phishing and changes in attack formats, forcing defenders to rethink detection and response. The operational surface of automation—where AI reshapes data, not just moves it—means standard controls and classic alerts are increasingly bypassed. Reports from Information Week and experts such as Dan Lorman emphasize that accountability for exceptions, shadow AI usage, and data exposure is shifting by default onto providers, whether or not contracts address these risks. These trends mean MSPs face direct operational and contract exposure: clients and auditors are demanding proof of how AI touches data, how exceptions are handled, and where logs and controls exist. Pricing based on seats or tickets is becoming harder to defend as automation compresses labor and raises expectations for accountability. Providers must reconsider SLAs, explicitly define automation boundaries, charge for governance activities, and move toward outcome-based pricing models if they want to avoid absorbing unpriced liability and operational complexity. 00:00 Automation Divide 04:27 Coordination Debt 06:01 Automation Liability 09:18 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  JumpCloud HaloPSA   

Joe Smolarski, CEO of WatchGuard Technologies, joins the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about why the company believes 2026 is “the year of the cybersecurity-focused MSP” – and what that actually means beyond the tagline. Smolarski came to WatchGuard in November after nearly a decade at Kaseya, where he served as president and COO. He’s been open about applying what he calls the “Kaseya playbook” to WatchGuard – driving down platform costs and consolidating tools to improve partner margins. In this conversation, we dig into what parts of that playbook he’s bringing, what he’s leaving behind, and why he believes WatchGuard can double MSP margins on cybersecurity. We also explore WatchGuard’s latest threat research, which showed a 1,500% spike in unique endpoint malware, and what the company’s 2026 predictions – including the first fully autonomous AI-executed cyberattack and the extinction of crypto-ransomware – mean practically for MSPs and the customers they protect. The conversation takes a Canadian lens as well. Smolarski discusses WatchGuard’s new partnership with Bell Cyber, the data sovereignty investments required to win that deal, and why he sees the Canadian market as ripe for its next level of MSP maturity – driven by regulation like Bill C-26 and the consolidation wave now reaching this side of the border. We also touch on WatchGuard’s 30th anniversary, what longevity means in a market full of startups and PE roll-ups, and how Vector Capital’s decades-long involvement shapes the company’s outlook. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. My guest this week is Joe Smolarski, the CEO of WatchGuard Technologies. Joe took the helm at WatchGuard back in November after spending nearly a decade at Kaseya, where he served as president and COO. He’s now leading a company that just celebrated its 30th anniversary, has been 100% channel-focused since day one, and is making a pretty bold claim that 2026 is the year of the cybersecurity-focused MSP. Now, that’s the kind of line that can sound like vendor marketing if you’re not careful, so I wanted to dig into what’s actually behind it. We talked about the explosion in endpoint malware, why the shift from ransomware to pure data extortion changes the game for MSPs, what Joe is bringing from his Kaseya experience and what he’s leaving behind, and why he thinks Canadian MSPs are at a tipping point. We also get into the economics of it all – his promise to double MSP margins on cybersecurity, and how WatchGuard’s platform play is supposed to make that math work. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Joe Smolarski. Thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it. Joe Smolarski: My pleasure, Rob. Robert Dutt: Security has been one of the biggest, maybe the biggest, growth driver for MSPs for years, and your company is saying that 2026 is the year of the cybersecurity-focused MSP. Help me understand what makes this year different from the last three or four, where people have been seeing the same kind of momentum in security in the MSP space. Joe Smolarski: Yeah, sure, Rob. I think ultimately many of the stats are clear, and they’re really eye-opening. I think no longer are MSPs having to educate and evangelize why it’s needed, because when you see eye-popping stats like the fact that cybercrime is the third largest GDP in the world behind the US and China, it’s like, holy cow, how the heck is that possible? But it’s escalated very, very quickly. And unfortunately for SMBs, SMBs have become the focus of those attacks, and I think that’s becoming clearer and clearer every day. SMBs used to feel as though they’re not the focus, that the big guys will be the focus. But what we’ve seen – and unfortunately I have some firsthand experience – is that when cybercriminals attack the big guys, they have people come after them. If you know my past, I served as president and COO of Kaseya for nearly a decade prior to becoming CEO at WatchGuard. And there, on July 2nd of 2021, we got attacked by Russian cybercriminals. When that occurred, within four hours I had the FBI and the White House and Department of Homeland Security and everybody else in my office, which was not very pleasant. So you get the attention when you’re a major provider, a big company. Look at Stryker right now, what they’re going through. In that situation, within four hours, they’re all in my office. Within three weeks, we got the bad guys, and those bad guys are sitting in a federal prison right now. But that’s not the case when it comes to SMBs, and it’s a shame. I had access to a bunch of inside information within the government when we went through that, because we also hired the FBI lead as our CISO at that time. And what they say is they’re just overwhelmed. There’s no way that they could get to all of the attacks that are occurring. The big guys get attention and the small guys don’t, and that’s become prevalent. So I think ultimately, this is the year for cybersecurity to get to that next level because the pace of attacks is picking up so much, in particular in the SMB market. We posted our bi-annual security report and showed a 1,500% increase over the last year, just in the velocity of attacks, which is scary. It’s scary for SMBs. And quite frankly, even if they have some of their own internal IT staff, they’re not going to be at the level that they require to stay protected. So they’re relying on the fantastic MSPs that are out there to get them to that next level. I will say, I caught up with three or four large MSPs in Canada over the last week, just to prepare for this a little bit, just to get some of the latest trends directly from the MSPs themselves. And they said they still feel like Canada is a little bit behind when it comes to the US, just a little bit behind in terms of education and things like that. And certainly, small business is so prevalent in Canada, given how dispersed it is. So they’re working on that. I know your government in Canada is working to increase regulation. I think some of the fighting back and forth with Trump and Carney has been interesting and ultimately fueling the Buy Canadian campaigns and some of that stuff. But you’ve got a lot going on. I know you’ve got a C-26 bill from an infrastructure perspective trying to be passed, just to make sure that the awareness is there for all businesses on what needs to be protected – supply chain and everything else. But it’s a huge opportunity for the MSP market to take it to that next level, because from my perspective, Rob, you have to. What I’ve seen – and this is very, very unfair – is that when a small business even declines that next level of, say, platinum service from an MSP, they’re like, “I don’t need that. We don’t need that level of protection. We’re not willing to pay that amount.” If something negative happens, then unfortunately the MSP still gets blamed. And that’s ridiculous, but it’s the reality of the situation. So this is the year to capitalize on it. There’s enough news and information out there that supports everything. It’s an exciting year and, of course, a nervous year, because you’ve got to protect your clients and use the best technology and services to get there. Robert Dutt: You touch on the 1,500% spike in endpoint malware in the second half. A quarter of those attacks are evading signature-based detection. At the same time, though, your team is predicting that crypto-ransomware is essentially going extinct this year as attackers say, “You know what? We’d rather just steal the data and extort you.” What does that shift mean practically for how MSPs need to think about protection and what they’ve been offering, given that ransomware has been such a driver for the last half decade or so? Joe Smolarski: Yeah, I think ultimately you just have to make sure that you have layers of protection. To your point, lots of things get through. You could have the very best technology in the world, whether that’s WatchGuard or some of the other leading providers, and things can get through. Ultimately, that’s why you need the layers. One of the things that you should also consider is the platform approach. There are many providers, WatchGuard being one of the leading providers in the MSP space. When you have a platform that gives you multiple layers and those layers get to be correlated together, it just increases your chances of detecting those things. You may see something on the firewall that’s not definitive evidence of something happening, but when you piece that together with what’s happening on the endpoint and you’ve got those two data points, you piece it together faster than point solutions can. I think ultimately you need to make sure you have 24/7 SOC monitoring. Things that you didn’t think were possible – you thought you put in the best products to protect you, why do I need that, nothing should get through. You just threw the stats out there that things do get through. The only way to stop that is to catch those anomalies at one of the respective layers. If you’re at 99.9999%, you’ll get it at the product level. But what gets through – and with the velocity of attacks that is there – you’ve got to make sure you’ve got AI-based SOC solutions and MDR solutions backed up by great security professionals to ensure you’re protected. Robert Dutt: On the AI tip, you guys have predicted the first fully autonomous, end-to-end executed-by-AI cyberattack this year. That’s a big call. What would that look like? And how do I, as a mid-market MSP, even begin to prepare for something like that? Joe Smolarski: Number one, it should scare the heck out of us. It scares me. It certainly scares me, Rob. It’s a world that is evolving very quickly. I think AI in and of itself – there are some anomalies. I’ve done a few interviews where I’ve said half of AI is bullcrap. Because so many people claim AI and everybody’s taking credit for it. Some of it’s real, some of it’s not. But what’s very real is the rate of acceleration of technological advancement, both for the good guys and unfortunately for the bad guys. So I think you can’t fight AI attacks with human-based people. You need to fight AI with AI. There’s no way, from a rate of defense, pace of defense, that you can fight that with just good security professionals. You want to make sure, as the complexities of these attacks, the velocity of these attacks – because it is AI-based – continues to accelerate at an unprecedented pace, that you’re fighting that with AI-based solutions. Because it can match the speed and complexity of the response. We’re seeing it. While we haven’t seen a complete 100% autonomous end-to-end, we’re seeing pieces that are getting very, very close. We have so many millions and billions of data points coming through and it’s getting scarier by the day. Our job is to stay ahead of that. We stopped billions and billions of attacks last year and we had seven reports come through of malware that maybe got through. So the success rate is phenomenal, but the only way that will stay phenomenal is if we just stay on top of that 24/7, 365 and read all the indicators of what the bad guys are doing and how we need to stay ahead of that to protect our MSPs and protect our end customers. Robert Dutt: We talked about platformization a little bit off the top. I wanted to circle back to that. First, you’ve been pretty open about bringing the Kaseya playbook to WatchGuard – driving down platform costs, consolidating tools, increasing margins. But Kaseya can be a complicated word in the MSP space. Some partners hear it and think great economics. Others hear it and think about aggressive bundling or the friction of integrating acquisitions. Which parts of the playbook are you looking to bring to WatchGuard, and which parts are you consciously choosing to leave behind? Joe Smolarski: Yeah, definitely. And listen, every company has its pros and cons. And certainly over there, I was the number two, not the number one, which is a difference, because you’ve got to abide by certain things. It had a fantastic leader with Fred and a great leader with Rania in the current leadership. But I think ultimately what always resonated – no matter, I say time and time again, even if somebody didn’t like certain practices at Kaseya – what always resonated was, “I need to lower my operating costs because my margins are too tight and I can’t scale efficiently.” It’ll be tough to get liquidity as an MSP if I’m not getting the proper margins and profitability. And we know that there’s a great opportunity for MSPs to get liquidity and have an event, because there’s a great rollup occurring in the industry. So just making sure that the unit economics continue to get better. And the second component is just an integrated platform. It makes all the difference in the world. Imagine you hiring your next technician, your next engineer, and then you’ve got to reach out to seven different vendors to get that person set up. That engineer has to learn seven different platforms and seven different logins and swivel chair through all of it. So those two components, no matter what, always resonated with the base, whether they were Kaseya lovers or Kaseya haters, those two things always resonated. And those are some of the common components. I think the benefit for me, and the reason why I left a very successful career at Kaseya – we did a lot of great things from a financial perspective, growing it tenfold in my tenure there – the reason why I left and the reason why I took that call is because WatchGuard just has a tremendous partner focus and is well respected in the industry. So you take that, you take the great products that we have, and then you have the focus on the unit economics that I’m certainly bringing to the table. It’s just very, very important. Sometimes an MSP needs some bells and whistles and sometimes they just need it to work and be a world-class security solution that gets to lower their costs in parallel. And that’s what we’ve done. It’s just a great combination of a company that is 1,000% focused on the partner community. That’s all we do. If you look at us compared to very amazing firms like a CrowdStrike – just phenomenal firms – but they’re not solely focused on MSPs. Prior to a decade ago when I joined Kaseya, I spent my life in the enterprise. And when you’re a firm dealing with enterprises and MSPs, I’m sorry, but it’s only natural that the enterprise gets the attention. They just do because, number one, if you look at how they segment their customer base, the Bank of America and the General Electric – when they call in, they’re going to get prioritized, let alone the human element. When you’re on support and you’re dealing with the big guy versus the little guy, it’s just different. You go above and beyond. That’s why for us, we never try to mix the two. We want to make sure that we’re dedicated to the MSP community. It makes a massive difference in terms of focus. We understand that if we let an MSP down, this is their livelihood. You let an IT director down at Bank of America, his life keeps on going. But you let an MSP down and this is their absolute livelihood, and we just can’t let that happen. That’s embedded throughout the culture of WatchGuard, which we’re super proud of. You put great products on top of that and the focus on unit economics, and it’s getting that cost down so that we allow them to be more aggressive. You and I talked earlier in the call about the fact that if an MSP offers a cybersecurity package and it gets declined, they’re still going to get blamed. So if we can keep getting that cost down to allow them to make sure all of their end customers are protected, it’s just a great thing for all. And that’s our genuine focus and we’re super excited about it. Robert Dutt: You’ve said that you want to double MSP margins on cybersecurity, and that’s a very specific promise, one that I have to imagine gets a lot of MSPs’ ears perked up. Can you walk me through the mechanics of how that actually works? Is this pricing, is it operational efficiency through the platform? And what does that transition to higher margins look like for a Canadian MSP with, say, 500 managed endpoints? Joe Smolarski: Yeah, listen, I think it’s all of the above, Rob. If you look at it, you can buy a dirt cheap solution and think that you’re saving money. But when it comes to cybersecurity, you buy a dirt cheap solution and then you get bombarded with alerts and noise and everything else. All you’re doing is increasing your operational headcount, your human capital. And you’re getting an absolutely nasty math equation that you just didn’t realize when you signed on the dotted line up front for the rock bottom price. So it’s not solely based on price. This is a world where there is a ton of noise. And if you’re not efficient with what we’re providing to the MSP in terms of threat indicators and things like that, they just get overwhelmed and either have to overstaff to accommodate for it, or they miss important things and ultimately allow bad stuff to occur within their environments. For us, we really focus on simplicity of the platform and making sure that we can give you absolute world-class solutions. You do the research on WatchGuard – we have world-class solutions across the board with tremendous success rates. So give world-class solutions, limit the noise that an MSP has to deal with, and always be there for that MSP when something occurs. We have a six-minute response time on our SOC, which is best in the industry. All of those things combined, along with very aggressive commercials. We have to be. We’re getting more and more aggressive when it comes to commercials and have a lot of great stuff planned for this year. I’ve been here four months, so give me a little bit of time, just a little bit. But we’re making progress every single day to continue to meet the needs of our MSP community. Get that price further down, improve the unit economics, and more importantly just provide a great simplified platform that simply works, and always show up when our customers need us. Robert Dutt: You’ve shipped a lot of product in a short time. The Zero Trust Bundle, FireCloud, Open MDR with third-party support, the unified agent. For an MSP that’s currently running your firewalls, maybe another piece of the stack, what’s the realistic path, the realistic starting point to adopting the full platform, and how do you avoid the rip-and-replace fatigue that you can feel from vendors who are in the platform play? Joe Smolarski: Yeah, we’re doing everything we can to avoid the fatigue. Not to kick anybody when they’re down, but we’ve had a flurry of major activity from SonicWall customers looking for relief from some of the challenges they’ve had. Our team has worked around the clock to put together fast, easy, white-glove migration using AI that can carry across profiles and configs to make it as easy as possible to reduce that fatigue when you do decide to move. We definitely concentrate on reducing that fatigue through automated migrations using AI tools to make sure that some of those things happen. But fatigue aside, in terms of next logical steps – we’re blessed, we have 25,000 MSP partners, most of which are using our firewall solution, which we’re famous for. The red boxes. It’s world-class and extremely well respected. If they’re just using the traditional firewall, the next easy logical step is to get the endpoint protection with fully managed SOC, because you need it and it just works so tightly together. Our goal when we work with our partners is just to show that one plus one truly does equal three. We work on that every day through additional integrations and ease of migration tools. We’re super excited about it, and we think it’s going to be a banner year for us. We had a record-breaking 2025 and think we’re just getting started at this stage. Robert Dutt: Vector Capital has been involved with you guys for decades, which is pretty unusual for private equity. Your partners are making long-term bets on the platform – obviously, that’s the nature of the beast. What are you giving them in terms of assurance that there’s continuity of investment there, that this structure keeps going, that it doesn’t become a growth-for-exit kind of play? Joe Smolarski: Yeah, well, I think you just answered it for me. You just said Vector’s been involved for decades. That is very rare, Rob. Very, very rare. Number one, Vector’s just a fantastic partner. I’ve dealt with many different private equity firms. I’ve been in private equity my entire life – very prestigious ones. Insight was fantastic at Kaseya. But ultimately, Vector has been in this for the long run. Some of the principals at Vector have personal financial interest in this company, which just creates a loyalty and a common vision for us to build a great company. And they tell me that every single day. We don’t build for an exit. We want to build a great company. We believe we have a great image and perception and brand in the market today, and we’ll never do anything to compromise that. Our focus is to build a great company, protect our partners, continue to build with our partners. Both myself, the WatchGuard team, and Vector – that’s the sole focus here. Because they’ve been involved for decades, it’s a little bit different than many other firms that are going through change of ownership every couple of years. And then they’ve got to cut costs and go through all that. We’ve had stability from that perspective, which is great. We’re still a business. We’re a for-profit business. We’re not a charity. So of course we always have to make business decisions in an ever-changing business world. But I think that continuity has really made a big difference. Having a private equity firm that has a personal interest in this company has made a big difference for us, and I think our partners see that with the level of focus and dedication to the partner community. Robert Dutt: Earlier in the conversation you mentioned data sovereignty. You mentioned some of the moves being made on the government side in terms of legislation. As you’re pushing a cloud-delivered security platform, how do you see data sovereignty factoring into that? Joe Smolarski: Yeah, it always has to, because otherwise it’ll preclude you from being able to penetrate certain markets. Ultimately, that started decades ago in Europe, in terms of having to make sure that data is stored locally. Any major vendor needs to make sure that focus is there. Canada is catching up quickly in terms of many of those requirements. Sure, it requires extra capital and build-out in terms of making sure we have local data centers and all of that. But at this stage of the world, unfortunately it’s getting more complex with all the wars and the turbulence that’s in the world now, which is unprecedented. So you’re going to get more of that – “No, it can’t leave the country, it’s got to be here” – more and more. All of us in the SaaS space need to be prepared for additional investments to accommodate for that. You’re not going to win and be able to get that business at a large scale without it. Our business has quickly taken off in many key areas. You may have seen we just announced the Bell Cyber partnership this week. Bell is the largest telco in Canada, as you know better than me, and Bell Cyber is their cyber arm. They’re embedding WatchGuard to make sure their customers are protected. As part of that, we had to make sure that there are no data sovereignty issues when you’re going to the largest telco to get to their millions and millions of customers. We’re super proud of that. WatchGuard – we’re not at the level of a gazillion-dollar firm, but we’re big, we’re serious, we have great technology. And to go and get the number one telco in Canada to use our solution for their cybersecurity offering is just evidence of how we’re attacking problems like that. Robert Dutt: I’m curious, as you’ve looked over the landscape, do you see the Canadian market differently than the US in terms of MSP maturity, cybersecurity adoption, those kinds of market condition issues? Joe Smolarski: I think the Canadian market is a fantastic market in this space that is ripe for the next level of maturity. As I mentioned, and this is not coming from my speculation, this is coming directly from some of the larger MSPs. I think F12 and Calvin caught up with them and a bunch of others earlier this week. Large, prestigious MSPs that are doing great things and growing significantly. Canada is just a little bit further behind, needs a little bit more education from an end-customer perspective. As regulation comes up, that’s going to solve some of that. As some of the geopolitical stuff continues to occur, that’s going to happen. The consolidation that we saw in the US on the MSP side, starting maybe five, six, seven years ago, is starting to pick up in the Canadian market as well. And that’s a great opportunity. To me, MSPs should be excited. When you see consolidation occurring and rollups occurring, that’s a chance for you to get a nest egg. What we’ve seen is MSPs can get some liquidity, either stay invested or exit, and then they go do it again because they’ve got the playbook. The MSP world’s not that complicated in the sense that there are playbooks on how you win. We certainly work with a lot of MSPs to share those playbooks. The Canadian market is ripe for that next level of maturity. I am super confident that it’s going to accelerate, because you have a lot of great MSPs and technology providers taking advantage of that now, and it’s going to continue. Robert Dutt: You guys just turned 30. In a market where a lot of security vendors either get acquired, completely change what they’re doing, or flame out, what does that longevity actually mean? What do you see as the selling points of it, and what do you see as the baggage of having that long of a history? Joe Smolarski: Listen, the selling points are we’re not going anywhere. We’ve been doing this for 30 years. We haven’t done it for 30 years at a small level, Rob. We’ll approach a half a billion dollars in revenue by the end of this year, well over $120, $130 million profit. We’re doing great things. We’re big, we’re stable, and that longevity gives customers and partners the assurance that we’re not going anywhere. Because I think you know it – there are many firms out there that look sexy. They’ve got the sizzle. They’ve been around for three years and everybody’s talking about them. And then I meet with many of these CEOs from an acquisition perspective, and you talk to them and you realize, “Oh, they’ve never made any money.” And when you’ve never made any money, sometimes you can get away with that because you sell and do your thing. But many other times, there’s a reckoning from a macroeconomic perspective, where money’s not free anymore and ultimately either make money or there’s going to be a problem. In those situations, when you change hands and you get swallowed up by a bigger company at some minimal value because of economic challenges, you invested in something that’s not going to be there for very long. Customers love knowing, “I can go with WatchGuard. I know you’re going to be around forever, quite frankly.” And they see how we’ve evolved. We have not been stagnant. On the positive front, we went from being the leading provider of firewall solutions, which are still very critical from a perimeter security perspective, in the MSP and SMB space. We protect many of the agencies that are protecting the world. Our firewalls are in government agencies throughout the United States and throughout Canada that are actually protecting our soldiers. Our solutions are in fighter jets. So we’ve got a lot to be proud of just in terms of that level of security that our government relies on us for, which is amazing. What you need to fight against, just to make it a balanced conversation, is being stagnant. This is a fast-changing world. If you’ve been here for decades, you have to make sure that you’re staying up with technology, understanding how AI can help you do your job three times more efficiently. Many people can, some can’t, but many people can because they have great roots in technology and innovation. So you just have to keep pushing the team to be aggressive, not stagnant. And that’s what you get with me, certainly. I know how to push people. I’m a little bit over-energetic, probably a few too many Celsius on a daily basis. My goal is to get the most out of people, but when you have a great team and a great foundation like we do, it’s not that tough. Robert Dutt: Just to wrap it up, let’s go back, if we can, to that Canadian MSP that we were talking about – that SMB-focused MSP who’s been focused on the firewall side of the business but hasn’t really gone too much deeper. What’s the single biggest reason that you see for them to take another look at what you guys are doing right now? Joe Smolarski: I think the progression of our platform is well beyond what people understand. The level of embedded AI throughout the platform is beyond what they would expect – if they looked at us three, four years ago, they just don’t understand where we’re at today. Ultimately, we have an AI-enabled platform that’s dedicated to the MSP and SMB market. Sure, firms like CrowdStrike are fantastic. They’re not dedicated to this. For us to have technology on par with anybody that’s out there throughout the entire cybersecurity stack and to solely dedicate that to the MSP and SMB market – so when you have a problem and you go through a breach or anything else and you call in, you’re not competing with Bank of America, you’re not competing with these other massive companies. You’re our sole focus. We understand your business is your lifeline. You get all of that sophistication and then a level of simplicity provided within the platform that is second to none, to just make your job way more efficient. That’s the ultimate selling point for us – that you can get everything you need throughout the cybersecurity stack from WatchGuard, plus that friendliness of just the pure partner focus and commitment. We truly believe the next few years are going to define which MSPs become security leaders and which stay as commodity IT providers. The opportunity is enormous. The demand is structural. And the partners who build disciplined, automated, security-first practices are really going to thrive. We’d love to be their partner. Robert Dutt: It’s a great point to leave it on. Joe, I appreciate your taking the time. This has been a great conversation. I think you’ve given partners lots to think about. Joe Smolarski: Thank you so much, Rob. Take care. Robert Dutt: There you have it. Joe Smolarski from WatchGuard Technologies. I’d like to thank Joe for his time. This was actually one of his first podcast appearances, and I thought he was remarkably candid throughout. I appreciate that. And of course, thank you for listening. A few things that stuck with me from this conversation. First, the honesty about AI. When a CEO tells you that half of what’s being called AI out there is, in his words, bullcrap, but then makes a clear case for where it genuinely matters – fighting the velocity of AI-driven attacks with AI-driven defense – that’s the kind of nuance I think partners need to hear more of. Second, the Kaseya question. Joe didn’t dodge it. He acknowledged the baggage, drew a line between what he’s bringing forward – the unit economics focus, the platform consolidation – and what belongs in a different chapter. Whether that distinction holds up over time is something we’ll all be watching, but I thought that was a fair answer. And third, the Canadian angle. WatchGuard’s partnership with Bell Cyber is a significant validation of their platform in this market. And Joe’s observation that Canada is ripe for the next level of MSP maturity, driven by regulation like C-26 and the consolidation wave that’s hitting us now, is worth paying attention to. If you found this conversation useful, I’d love it if you’d follow or subscribe to the ChannelBuzz.ca podcast. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most other podcast directories. And if you’re feeling generous, a rating or review goes a long way towards helping other folks in the channel find us. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

This week we interview Christopher J. Millerick. Christopher is a revenue architect, go-to-market strategist, and expert in partner eco-systems leadership who has spent more than fifteen years engineering the systems that translate Private Equity and Venture Capital investment theses into predictable, capital-efficient revenue growth for enterprise SaaS and cybersecurity companies. As Global Vice President of Worldwide Partner Sales, Alliances & Hyperscalers at Infoblox—a Vista Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus portfolio company—Chris led the structural transformation of a stagnant $450M transactional channel into a strategic growth ecosystem that now executes 97% of total company revenue. Under his leadership, partner-sourced revenue grew from 38% to 73% of new customer bookings, new customer acquisition increased 43%, and the organization scaled steadily toward $1B in annual recurring revenue—all while meeting the board's rigorous "Rule of 60" profitability and growth mandates. Chris brought expertise that in collaboration with Infoblox's previous CRO led to the adoption of the "3 WHYs" qualifying framework — a buyer-centric methodology that aligns direct sales, marketing, and partner engagement around the three questions every enterprise buyer must answer before committing: Why now? (Urgency drivers) What happens if I do nothing? (Cost of inaction) Why this solution? (Value clarity) The framework has been deployed across global organizations to compress complex sales cycles and systematically improve capital efficiency. His operating experience spans the full PE value creation lifecycle. He built a greenfield enterprise region at Nutanix from zero to a top-producing region in North America within 24 months, led global revenue responsibility through the successful acquisition of Unitrends by Kaseya and co-led the Plexxi go-to-market turn-around through to acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Chris led global channel sales for EMC Corporation's flagship storage business and held a variety of sales and GTM roles with progressive financial impact across a twelve-year tenure. A 5-time CRN Channel Chief honoree, Executive Revenue Growth Advisor in the Hubble network, and Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital, Chris holds a BA from the College of the Holy Cross, an MBA from Babson College and Chief Revenue Officer Leadership Program Certificate from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He speaks on partner ecosystem transformation, PE/VC value creation through GTM architecture, leveraging AI in GTM and building revenue engines that deliver both growth and profitability at scale.

Roi Karo, chief strategy officer at Check Point Check Point Software has been on an acquisition tear. Under new CEO Nadav Zafrir, the company has picked up five startups since early 2025, with three announced simultaneously in February: Cyclops, Cyata, and Rotate. But these aren’t opportunistic bolt-ons. They map directly to a four-pillar strategy that Check Point says defines the future of its security platform: Hybrid Mesh Network Security, Workspace Security, Exposure Management, and AI Security. In this episode, we sit down with Roi Karo, Check Point’s Chief Strategy Officer, and Angelo Valentini, head of channel sales for Canada, to dig into the thinking behind the acquisitions and what they mean for the channel. Roi brings an unusual perspective to the table, shaped by 25 years in Israeli defense intelligence and a stint as Chief Risk and Strategy Officer at blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks before joining Check Point. Angelo Valentini, head of channel sales for Canada at Check Point The conversation covers how each acquisition fits into the broader strategy: Rotate brings MSP-native expertise to the Workspace Security pillar, where Check Point is consolidating endpoint, email, browser, and mobile security under a single management layer. Cyclops completes a full Continuous Threat Exposure Management cycle by adding internal asset scanning alongside CyberInt’s external scanning and Veriti’s automated remediation. And Cyata addresses the emerging challenge of governing autonomous AI agents operating on user endpoints, a category that barely existed a year ago but is evolving fast. We also explore what Check Point means by an “open garden” platform, including how its tools integrate with and remediate across competitors’ products, and how that philosophy plays out in practice for MSPs managing multi-vendor security stacks. Angelo adds a Canadian lens, touching on the opportunity in Canada’s SMB-dominant market and the compliance implications of Bill C-26. Check Point’s MSSP Partner Program offers consumption-based pricing and multi-tenant management for solution providers looking to explore the opportunity. Roi closes with a pointed message for partners: the assumption that there’s still time to learn and prepare is “terribly wrong.” The threat landscape is accelerating, and the window to adapt is narrower than most people think. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and as always your host for the show. Check Point Software has been making some big moves. Under new CEO Nadav Zafrir, the company has acquired five companies since early 2025, including three announced simultaneously in February: Cyclops, Cyata, and Rotate. And these aren’t random bolt-ons. They map to a deliberate four-pillar strategy that Check Point says defines the future of the platform. Those four pillars are: Hybrid Mesh Network Security, covering data centers, cloud, SASE, and SD-WAN. Workspace Security, protecting endpoints, email, browsers, and SaaS applications. Exposure Management, giving organizations visibility into their full attack surface. And AI Security, governing the new wave of autonomous AI agents operating inside enterprise environments. For solution providers, the most interesting piece here might be the Rotate acquisition. It’s an acqui-hire that brings in a team with deep roots in the MSP ecosystem, including veterans of Datto and Kaseya. Cyclops adds a data lake with over 150 integrations for attack surface management. And Cyata tackles a category that barely existed a year ago: identity management for AI agents. To unpack the strategy and what it means for the channel, I sat down with Roi Karo, Check Point’s chief strategy officer, and Angelo Valentini, who leads Check Point’s Canadian partner business. Roi brings an unusual perspective – 25 years in Israeli defense intelligence and a stint as chief risk and strategy officer at blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks before joining Check Point. Here’s our conversation. Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it. Roi Karo: Thank you very much. Angelo Valentini: Thanks for having us. Robert Dutt: Roi, before we dive into strategy itself, you come to Check Point from Fireblocks, and before that, 25 years in the IDF and on that side of the world. Pretty unique lens. I’m just curious, how does that shape how you think about security strategy versus someone who’s grown up and spent that kind of time inside the cybersecurity vendor world? Roi Karo: Yeah, that’s interesting. I think it gives a unique perspective, being part of the Israeli intelligence security, and it gives, I think, a wide view of how things are shaping. And it’s part of what we’re trying to answer today. The biggest hurdle I’m trying to uncover is what is going on. What’s going on in the world, what is going on in the market, and of course, how should we react as a security company. And I think my background gives an interesting perspective for that. And stating what is obvious, in Israel, many people in the cybersecurity industry are veterans of the Israeli defense forces. So it’s an interesting background and a very useful background to be part of the security ecosystem in Israel. Robert Dutt: You guys announced three acquisitions simultaneously, and that’s following last year, which saw Lakera and Veriti. That’s an aggressive pace. I guess, what do you see as the strategic urgency driving the acquisitions? Is it about AI creating new categories of risk, or is it about the competitive landscape forcing your hand? Is it a little bit of both? What’s driving this? Roi Karo: Yeah, I think both and maybe some more. Stating the obvious, things are changing faster than before. Everybody’s talking about how AI is changing the world. Something that everybody says in their first sentence: everything is faster. Things that before took years now take weeks and even days. So we can’t just wait. We need to move fast, faster than we moved before. So acquisition is a great way to move faster. When we find a very strong team that has a very good product that can help our portfolio and give us good products that we can suggest or offer to our customers, this is something that we’re very interested in. And I think, as you mentioned, the competitive landscape – competitors are also moving faster. So we need to keep pace. And the last thing I would add, Check Point as a large company offers a wide variety of solutions. We’re very known for our firewalls and network security, but if we’ll have more time, we can talk about the other pillars. And actually all three new acquisitions are supporting and accelerating our other product pillars. So offering a consolidated solution to our customers is one of our biggest strategic moves, and all of those acquisitions are helping us to get faster through this target. Robert Dutt: You kind of presage where I was going next, which is, in your blog post, you frame four pillars of where Check Point is going, what you want to be locking down. And as you rightly point out, Check Point has that history, that strength in network security. The newer bets, especially both exposure management and AI security, which is obviously nascent – it seems like they require different muscles, different skill sets, different approaches from Check Point and from partners alike. Where are the real capability gaps that needed filling? Roi Karo: Yeah, so I think when talking about gaps, there are different types of gaps. One type of gap is mostly on the AI front. Everything is new. So to be very honest, I think that the security industry is still learning how to secure AI. So we have gaps. Everybody has gaps because it’s so new. We’re inventing new things. We’re building new kinds of security solutions. And that’s one type of a gap. A different type of a gap is that we have products for many years and we want to have better solutions, acquiring features or products that can help us accelerate closing those types of gaps. But I think the first type is more interesting because those are purpose-built solutions that did not exist before. This is where the true innovation is happening. And without that, nobody will be able to secure the new types of attacks that we’re seeing in the wild. Angelo Valentini: Robert, if I could just add – on the partner side, I think some of the gaps and concerns are really about visibility, governance, and also about operational efficiency. I think that’s one of the things that we’re trying to help partners with in terms of what their concerns are relative to AI, relative to exposure management, all these areas. Robert Dutt: You describe this whole scenario as an open garden platform, which is a nice framing versus the walled garden approach. For MSPs who are running multi-vendor security stacks and representing multiple security vendors, which, let’s be honest, is the vast majority – what does that open garden mean in practice for them? Roi Karo: Yeah, so I think a couple of things. Our philosophy is openness. We’re not trying to create any kind of vendor lock. We play with all vendors. You mentioned the acquisition from last year of Veriti. That’s a great example because what Veriti offers is the ability to patch or virtually patch all of your security vendors. If you have a threat that you discovered, now you want to make sure that you’re actually being defended against it. So what Veriti does is go over all of those exposures and close them. And when they say close them, they close it using a Check Point security product, but also all other vendors. So we have integration even with our competitors, other types of vendors. So that’s one example of how we try to build our solutions in a way that supports all the other players, because we acknowledge what you said. Most vendors and even most companies, they don’t want vendor lock. They want to use several vendors. They want all of them to play together. So we design our solutions in an open way. It can be used with APIs, it can call to other types of solutions and help MSPs or customers, other types of customers, to build their full stack of solutions. Robert Dutt: That kind of maps, I think, with things that I’ve been hearing more and more from partners. Back in the day, you’d hear a lot of, “I want to work with fewer security vendors.” Still, no one’s saying, “Hey, I want to sign up 400 security vendors and try to understand the nuance of what all of them are doing.” That’s operationally impossible. What I hear more, I think, is the idea of, “I want to have a few strategic security vendors and I want them, where possible, to play nicely together in my environment.” Roi Karo: Absolutely, I can’t agree more. I think consolidation is important. Nobody wants 400. Nobody wants even 40 vendors. It’s hard. But nobody wants one vendor. I think that in a way, we’re trying to figure out this balancing, this sweet spot between having hundreds of vendors and having one vendor. And what we do is – the reason we picked those four pillars is because we truly believe that we’re leaders in each one of them and we have the best solution in each one of them. And anywhere that we don’t have a solution, we partner. So a good example is CNAPP. We have a strategic partnership with and other CNAPP vendors. So we don’t have our own CNAPP solution. We integrate it with another vendor. And everywhere we don’t have the best solution, we’ll integrate with the best vendors that are out there. Robert Dutt: Okay, let’s talk a little bit about the acquisitions that were made that start to build out this platform, or continue to build out this platform. And I wanted to start with Rotate specifically, because I think it’s really interesting for this audience. You acquired them, it seems, primarily for the team. And that team includes key people who come from a background in Datto, in Kaseya – companies that really built up the foundations of the MSP ecosystem of today. What does that signal about how you guys are looking at the MSP market and the MSP opportunity for Check Point? Roi Karo: Yeah, so I will zoom out a bit and then focus specifically. When we announced the workspace pillar, we realized among other things that companies want to manage the whole end user security through one vendor, through one unified management, and not point solutions. So we took our endpoint solution, our email solution, browser, mobile – all the solutions we have around the end user – bundled them together, and are offering a way to manage all of them from a unified management. That is something that is unique and I think is very compelling to all types of customers and mostly MSPs, for obvious reasons. They want to manage all of this end user security from one vendor, from one management. And doubling down on MSPs, we understand their needs. We have many MSPs as customers and we want to provide an easy way to manage all their tenants, all their end users in one single pane of glass. And that’s what we’re building, and this is what we want to accelerate with the team of experts coming from Rotate. Angelo Valentini: So Robert, in Canada, as you know, 90% of the businesses are SMB. So this is a huge opportunity for partners as we go and develop this and enhance that solution for our partners. It’s a huge opportunity. Robert Dutt: And speaking of huge opportunity, the email security business that’s already – I think I saw 160 million is the figure for Check Point’s revenue line there – as well as being one of the most foundational tools that MSPs bring to market and have fueled that business. I’m curious to get your thoughts on how you build from that beachhead that you’ve got established in email security and into that broader workspace security story that Rotate is facilitating. Roi Karo: I think email security, as you said, it’s so fundamental. And when we try to explain to people how AI is changing the hackers, this is the easiest example because it’s most common and easy to explain and imagine. Phishing attacks look different now with AI-based attacks. We all did this training that you need to find spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes to identify phishing. As you can imagine, there are no spelling and grammar mistakes anymore when phishing emails are being built or crafted with AI. So email security is being changed and being reinvented. And we are building new types of email security to make sure that we’re securing also for the most advanced AI-based phishing attacks. Our email security is something that we take a lot of pride in and we can prove that it is better than many others. So that’s, as you said, a great beach entry through many of what we’re doing with our customers. And adding the other capabilities on top of the email is super important. Because again, using a very simple example: someone got a link, they pressed it because it wasn’t blocked. And now they have malware on their computer. You want that endpoint security to be connected to the email security and have one platform that can see everything and can actually prevent attacks before they happen. So we integrated our endpoint solution, our browser extension, our mobile solution, and the email together into one threat intelligence layer that provides data to all of those solutions. Robert Dutt: Cyata is about governing AI agents, which as well as being the buzzword of the day is also a category that didn’t exist a few years ago, because AI agents themselves did not exist a few years ago. For an MSP today, is security around AI agents something that their customers are asking about? Or is this one of those things that’s in a “be ready for this now so you can sell it tomorrow” kind of space? Roi Karo: Yeah, I think that this will grow very fast because, as I’ve mentioned, AI is moving faster than we imagined. When we say agents, I think there are two separate use cases, and one of them is very relevant to the MSP. One that is less relevant is building AI applications that use agents. This is for bigger organizations and more sophisticated organizations that have engineers and are building their own software. But all of us are using agents. ChatGPT and Claude today, you just press a button and you’re running an agent from your endpoint. That is something that is happening. It’s the more advanced user today, but tomorrow it will be all of us using agents running on their endpoints. And one of the things that Cyata built, and we’re now adding to our products, is a capability running on the laptop of the end user, identifying agents that are running there on behalf of the users. It can identify and, first of all, give visibility into all the agents that are running from the end user’s computer, but also provide governance and policy that make sure that they’re doing only things that they’re allowed, that they’re using the right identities, that they have access only to things that they are supposed to have access to. And this is something that I believe will be very relevant to MSPs in the near future, sooner rather than later, because it’s related to all the end users, all the people that are using AI. Angelo Valentini: Robert, this also plays nicely with some of the government compliance developments with the Canadian government. So Bill C-26, for example, is all about governance and compliance. This is a great way in which this acquisition plays right into the government legislation. Insurance is another big thing where we’re seeing a lot of compliance requirements, and also financial institutions. So this is just another way that this plays into that compliance as well. Robert Dutt: Last but not least on the acquisitions, can you give me a bit of a feel for how Cyclops fits in, what they bring to the table, and the opportunity you see there for your partners? Roi Karo: Yeah, absolutely. And again, zooming out and zooming back into Cyclops. We just announced our Exposure Management pillar. We acquired, I think almost two years ago, CyberInt. They’re doing external risk management – they’re scanning the organization from the outside and providing all the data you can achieve from looking at the organization, the company, from the outside. Dark web and the organization itself. Six months ago, we acquired Veriti, that takes all of the data, all of the exposures, all of the threats, and mitigates them automatically. So you have automatic remediation. And now with Cyclops, we completed the full cycle, because they are scanning the organization internally. This is an asset management capability that actually connects to hundreds of vendors that provide data. And then you have the full picture of what’s going on inside your organization. So CyberInt’s capabilities are scanning from the outside, Cyclops’ capabilities are scanning from the inside, and Veriti’s capabilities take all of this intelligence – and all the intelligence we acquired in decades of building our capabilities – and make sure that all of this is being remediated. In this way, we accomplished the full cycle of what Gartner calls CTEM, Continuous Threat Exposure Management, and provide a very unique value proposition to our customers of having the full cycle of understanding what is happening across your attack surface, identifying the threats, and remediating the threats. Cyclops provided a very important piece of the puzzle that we were missing, and we’ll integrate them very quickly into our value proposition and offer a full cycle of CTEM. Robert Dutt: How quickly do these acquisitions – you mentioned the plan for Cyclops there – but how quickly do these become native Check Point experiences rather than adjacent tools that are also on the Check Point line card? Roi Karo: Very quickly in those three cases, because they’re part of a wider value proposition. It’s not a standalone – all of them started as a startup with a standalone capability, but the real magic and the real value will come when we integrate them. That will happen very quickly because all of those solutions are very modern in design, which makes it easier. And part of the due diligence we did around all of them is how quickly we can integrate. So this will be integrated very quickly. And of course, now – as I say, everything is happening faster – we are using AI to build products and integrate products. So that will happen very fast, and this will be offered to our customers immediately. Robert Dutt: Zooming back out to the strategy level, if I’m a Canadian MSP with managed seats numbered in the hundreds – typical SMB-focused MSP – today I’m running Check Point email security, maybe firewalls. When I look at this strategy, what is this going to change about what I sell and how I operate over the next 12 months? Roi Karo: I think CTEM and exposure management becomes even more important than before. Maybe we need to take one step back with your permission. I think that the threat landscape is changing, and that’s something that we all need to acknowledge. Just imagining how the attackers are using AI in order to accelerate their attacks – things that before took attackers months or years to build, to find new vulnerabilities, we’re seeing right now happening much faster. The scale, the sophistication of attacks is changing. And we all need to prepare. Vendors, MSPs, and other types of organizations need to make sure that they are prepared for a new wave of attacks. And for that, you need to have everything that can help you understand. We talked about my background – intelligence is super important to understand what is going on. And exposure management is exactly that: understanding what is going on. Are you attacked? Where are you exposed? Who is attacking you? You can’t fly blind. So the first thing I would add to my portfolio if I’m an MSP is offering threat intelligence, offering exposure management, scanning all of my customers and making sure that they’re not exposed, finding servers they have that are exposed, finding PII that is related to them on the dark web, and making sure that I’m warning them. Many kinds of solutions we have as part of our exposure management value proposition I think will be very interesting for MSPs. So that’s one thing I would explore with Check Point. The second thing is AI, of course. We talked about agents, but even the basic LLM use of end users, that’s something that needs to be governed. Angelo mentioned compliance, it will become part of it. Even if you’re a small law firm and you want to make sure that your lawyers are obeying the rules that you decided – can they use ChatGPT in order to write a legal document? If it’s a small medical company, can they consult ChatGPT on medical issues? What is the PII guidance you give them? Can they put PII in ChatGPT or not? All of this needs to be governed, and our products enable that. They run on the endpoints, they make sure that you’re aware of what all of your employees, all of the people in the company are doing with AI, and they can enforce governance on what you want to allow and what you want to block. Do you allow DeepSeek in your organization? Do you allow other types of LLMs or GPTs? All of this, as part of AI security, is something that MSPs will need to adopt and educate themselves on, and educate their end users very quickly. And what we’re building is a full suite of AI security. We’ll have offerings for small companies, offerings for large enterprises, and everything in between. Angelo Valentini: You touch on AI governance, we talked about exposure management. These are ideas that sound consultative and complex, which is great because channel 101: where there’s mystery, there’s margin, and there is ample mystery here. But again, through the lens of that SMB-focused MSP, how do I get to it? So I guess what I’m getting at is, how are you helping partners productize those conversations they need to have without requiring them to go super deep themselves as AI specialists? I think that’s the bread and butter of partners today, is the service offering. When they see acquisitions like this, we play in all their wheelhouse in terms of all the areas: visibility, governance, and also operational efficiency. So that’s the number one thing. It’s our job to enable our partners as well as part of it. Me in the partner community, we go and enable our partners to understand the technology and understand the opportunity. And there are consulting opportunities here, there’s increased revenue opportunity here. That’s one of the things that we focus on, is really to get awareness to the partners so they understand: hey, there’s an opportunity here for incremental revenue, for increased opportunity in consulting and implementation. And then from there, there’s ancillary AI solution revenue that follows. So it’s up to the partner to decide, but it’s really something that they should consider. Robert Dutt: Just to wrap things up before we go, do you have time to do two quick lightning round questions, quick answers? First of all, what’s one assumption about cybersecurity that you think partners need to stop making right now, or at least over the course of this year? Roi Karo: I think that the basic assumption is that we have time, that sophisticated attacks are not here yet, and we have time to learn, we have time to adjust, and everything will be okay. I think that’s terribly wrong. I think that the attackers, they don’t have the governance and legal obligations that we have as companies. So they’re running very fast. It’s happening now. So I think a wrong assumption that many people have, MSPs included, is: okay, it’s still early, we can learn, we can take our time. I think we need to move fast and we need to move faster than we’re moving. Robert Dutt: And taking that similar lens but turning it inside this time, what’s the hardest internal debate that you’re having at Check Point right now about AI and security, and why isn’t it settled yet? Roi Karo: We understand that we need to offer AI as a part of – we talked about many angles of AI, one that we did not mention, and I will use your question to address it – is using AI for security. We talked about AI for the attackers, we talked about AI that everybody’s using and we need to secure. Part of what we’re building in a very innovative way is autonomous security – AI agents that are running security. And this of course is the biggest promise. And many people feel that we need to move much faster on this front. It’s not easy. And we’re building it in many parallel lanes, because it’s hard to predict what will win. But we understand that the future of security – you need to fight AI with AI, you need to adopt AI. And this is maybe the biggest promise of our industry, when the industry will be able to adopt AI and leverage the power of AI in order to provide better security. And in many ways, in bigger organizations, the department that needs to adopt AI the fastest is the security department. Because for all the other departments, this is a force multiplier, it changes everything, but in a way it’s a nice to have. For security, because the attackers are using AI, if security people won’t adopt AI for themselves and use AI to secure their organization, they will lose. So we’re trying to do our best in offering our customers AI-based security. We have today in all of our pillars co-pilots and MCP servers and agentic capabilities. But we aspire much higher. We want to build real autonomous security, real AI employees – AI security employees that will be part of the team. We have very exciting, innovative teams that are building those kinds of things. And answering your question, the debate is: can we, or how can we, move faster on this front, offering our customers fully autonomous, fully AI-based security. Robert Dutt: That’s a pretty good overview and view of the strategy and of where you think things are at. Good luck with the acquisitions and rolling them in and continuing to broaden out the strategy. And thank you very much for taking the time for this conversation. Roi Karo: Thank you for hosting us. It was a pleasure. We’ll be in touch. Angelo Valentini: Great to be here. Robert Dutt: There you have it, a look at Check Point’s push to reshape its platform around AI security, exposure management, and the MSP workspace, with Roi Karo and Angelo Valentini. The takeaway I keep coming back to: Check Point isn’t just buying technology here. They’re making a deliberate bet on the MSP market, and hiring a team from Datto and Kaseya to build it out is the strongest signal of that intent. Whether you’re already in the Check Point ecosystem or not, the open garden approach they’re describing is worth paying attention to. And Roi’s point about urgency is one that I’d take seriously. The window to learn and prepare is shorter than a lot of people think. Thanks to Roi and Angelo for a great conversation. And thank you as always for listening. Also this week on ChannelBuzz.ca: on Wednesday, ESET’s Tony Anscombe joins me to walk through the security trends and threats solution providers should be watching this year. On Thursday, I sit down with Nutanix SVP Lee Caswell to dig into their latest Enterprise Cloud Index research, including what the data says about shadow AI, data sovereignty, and where infrastructure decisions are heading. And on Friday, a bonus episode – AWS Canada’s Eric Gales joins me for a look back at 20 years of AWS and what it means for partners going forward. If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to subscribe or follow in your podcast app of choice. And if you’re feeling generous, a rating or review goes a long way to helping other solution providers find us. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

The current wave of managed service provider (MSP) consolidation and rollups is being distinguished by the integration of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) expertise, particularly among entities such as SHIELD and Titan. As discussed by Rich Freeman and Jessica Davis, these newer rollups are acquiring not just MSPs but also Silicon Valley AI talent and developing proprietary AI-driven services, a marked shift from earlier private equity-backed consolidators. Rich Freeman highlighted SHIELD's recent leadership hires from Palantir and direct collaboration agreements with OpenAI, signaling an intent to embed AI at the operational core rather than simply as a tool for optimization.The structure and access to data is central to these developments. As Rich Freeman elaborated, large rollups possess a scale-driven “AI flywheel” advantage: broader customer bases provide larger datasets, which in turn drive better AI performance, operational efficiency, and profitability. This concentration creates risks for smaller MSPs that lack equivalent data pools and resources for internal AI development. Jessica Davis noted that while tool vendors and platform companies such as ConnectWise and Kaseya are enhancing AI within their offerings, their efforts are not yet matching the focused investments of the largest rollups, and are simultaneously being pressured to accelerate innovation.Commercial and operational pressures are increasing throughout the MSP ecosystem. Jessica Davis cited indications of slowing managed services revenue growth projections (potentially below 10%), alongside potential cost-cutting or workforce reductions within large rollups as private equity owners seek AI-driven returns. Divergent rollup models are also emerging—with distinctions between platform centralization (e.g., retiring acquired brands) and decentralized, founder-friendly approaches (e.g., preserving local brands and founder involvement). Decisions around acquisition, platform engagement, and specialization are increasingly nuanced as founders and owners evaluate their options under new market dynamics.For MSPs and IT service leaders, these trends necessitate a measured response. The competitive risk posed by the AI-fueled scale of consolidated rollups underscores the importance of specialization, operational focus, and alignment with platform partners committed to democratizing AI resources. Community collaboration, best-practice sharing, and strategic use of vendor tools are positioned as potential mitigants to the structural disadvantages faced by smaller organizations. Governance, due diligence, and clear assessment of vendor or acquirer incentives should be prioritized, especially as service models and influencer dynamics continue to fragment. Remaining adaptable, resource-aware, and critically informed about the changing power landscape will be vital for sustainable operations.

Overview: In this episode of the SMB Community Podcast, hosts Amy and James discuss their upcoming travel plans and the busy start to 2026. They tackle a key listener question about how much to invest in training for IT teams, emphasizing the importance of continuous education and proposing strategies for incorporating both free and paid training within organizations. Additionally, they cover recent news in the tech industry, including Walmart's drone delivery expansion, layoffs in Kaseya, and the latest updates from companies like Ninja One, CrowdStrike, and others. The episode also touches on future technological predictions and top job listings for 2026. --- Chapter Markers: 00:00 Introduction and Hosts' Greetings  01:18 Kicking Off 2026: Busy Times Ahead 01:47 MSP Question of the Week: Investing in Team Training  02:24 Strategies for Effective Employee Training 09:49 News Highlights: Industry Updates and Trends 15:47 AI and Future Technologies 20:27 Top Jobs and Opportunities in 2026 21:40 Closing Remarks and Call to Action --- New Book Release: I'm proud to announce the release of my new book, The Anthology of Cybersecurity Experts! This collection brings together 15 of the nation's top minds in cybersecurity, sharing real-world solutions to combat today's most pressing threats. Whether you're an MSP, IT leader, or simply passionate about protecting your data, this book is packed with expert advice to help you stay secure and ahead of the curve. Available now on Amazon! https://a.co/d/f2NKASI --- Sponsor Memo: Since 2006, Kernan Consulting has been through over 30 transactions in mergers & acquisitions - and just this past year, we have been involved in six (6). If you are interested in either buying, selling, or valuation information, please reach out. There is alot of activity and you can be a part of it. For more information, reach out at kernanconsulting.com

Sales team culture building is what turns sales strategy for B2B into real performance - not tools, not talk, and not one-off initiatives. This episode explores how leaders build organizational culture that actually executes. On the B2B Sales Trends Podcast, host Harry Kendlbacher sits down with Susana Klotz, VP of Global New Client Acquisition at Kaseya, to unpack how high-performing sales teams move from process to performance by obsessing over culture, habits, and the buyer journey. This is a standout conversation from our archive - resurfaced because its lessons remain highly relevant for today's B2B leaders.

Fred is a technology entrepreneur, philanthropist, and board director based in Miami, best known for building and leading hyper-growth technology companies in some of the most demanding markets in the world. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Simpro Group, and is the Co-Founder, Vice Chairman, and former CEO of Kaseya, where he helped scale the company into a global industry powerhouse. Beyond the boardroom, Fred serves on the Board of Florida International University and leads the Cooper Voccola Family Foundation, supporting causes focused on animal welfare, veterans, and children—because leadership, to him, extends beyond business. Internationally recognized for his expertise in AI, cybersecurity, hyper-growth at scale, business transformation, crisis leadership, and organizational culture, Fred brings a real-world perspective on what it actually takes to lead when the stakes are high and the pressure is real.   Resources:  Website: https://www.simprogroup.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SimproSoftware LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-voccola/ X: https://x.com/realFredVoccola

Slowing U.S. job growth alongside rising labor productivity highlights how organizations are replacing hiring with automation and AI-driven systems. Government labor data shows job growth in 2025 fell to roughly 584,000 positions, while productivity rose nearly five percent in the third quarter, allowing output to increase without additional staff. According to CompTIA, demand for AI-related skills rose more than 100 percent year over year, even as overall tech employment declined. For MSPs, this signals a shift where customers rely less on internal teams and more on external providers to absorb operational responsibility when automated systems fail.Survey data from TechAisle indicates that small and midmarket businesses are redirecting technology spending away from basic digitization toward autonomous, outcome-driven systems. The research, based on responses from 5,500 firms, shows profitable growth and cost control as top priorities for 2026, with increased adoption of generative AI, agentic automation, and managed security services. At the same time, rising RAM and storage prices—driven by AI data center demand, according to TrendForce—are delaying PC refresh cycles and pushing workloads into cloud environments, changing where performance, security, and cost risks surface.Vendor signals remain mixed. Kaseya reported layoffs affecting five percent of its workforce, following earlier reductions, while TD Synnex and Samsung reported strong revenue growth tied to AI infrastructure, memory, and server demand. Distributors cite continued hardware refresh activity, yet repeated workforce cuts at vendors suggest internal cost corrections rather than demand collapse. For MSPs, this combination increases environmental complexity, with longer device lifecycles, higher component costs, and more heterogeneous platforms to support.Operational AI announcements further extend decision-making authority into automated systems. New healthcare, printing, and service desk tools embed AI into intake, routing, authorization, and workflow execution, often acting before human review. For MSPs and IT service providers, the central issue is not efficiency gains but accountability: when AI-driven processes misroute work, generate compliance errors, or escalate incidents incorrectly, responsibility frequently defaults to the operator. The episode underscores the need for clearer governance, pricing, and contractual boundaries as AI assumes functional authority inside managed environments. Four things to know today 00:00 Slowing Job Growth, Rising Productivity, and AI Adoption Shift Operational Responsibility to Providers05:26 TechAisle Data Shows SMB Focus Moving From Digitization to Autonomous, Outcome-Driven Systems09:19 Kaseya Cuts Staff as Distributors and Chipmakers Report Strong AI-Driven Demand14:27 Operational AI Advances as Vendors Embed Automation Into Intake, Routing, and Authorization This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://cometbackup.com/?utm_source=mspradio&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sponsorship

Artificial intelligence adoption is accelerating without formal ownership as employees, customers, and patients integrate AI tools into daily decisions. Surveys from Gallup show 45% of U.S. employees use AI at work at least occasionally, while research cited by OpenAI indicates roughly 60% of American adults recently used AI for health-related questions. Zoho and Arion Research report that 41% of organizations have strengthened privacy measures after adopting AI, reflecting growing concern about data exposure and accountability. For MSPs, the shift places liability closer to the systems being used rather than the vendors supplying them.Trust in digital media is also eroding as AI-generated content becomes harder to distinguish from authentic material. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri states that assuming photos or videos reflect real events is no longer reliable and suggests verification at the point of capture rather than labeling generated content. This approach reframes trust as a technical system rather than a social assumption. For IT providers, the issue extends beyond social platforms to security footage, compliance evidence, training data, and any asset where authenticity must be demonstrated.At the same time, automation and AI training are converging on the same constraint: expert judgment. HireArt's 2025 AI Trainer Compensation Report shows subject-matter experts earning $60 to more than $180 per hour, compared with under $20 for generalist data labelers, reflecting the cost of errors in regulated or technical fields. Kaseya's 2025 EMEA MSP Benchmark Report finds that while nearly 75% of MSPs expect revenue growth, 45% face staffing and skills shortages, increasing reliance on automation built on accurate data and curated exceptions.Major vendors are embedding judgment directly into platforms. ServiceNow's planned $7.75 billion acquisition of Armis expands asset classification and risk scoring within workflows. Freshworks' acquisition of FireHydrant integrates AI-driven incident management into ITSM. Google Cloud's revamped Partner Network shifts incentives toward outcome-based tiers beginning in 2026. For MSPs and IT service leaders, these moves concentrate responsibility around interpretation, governance, and accountability, even as tools increasingly define risk and success.Four things to know today00:00 Surveys Show AI Adoption Is Happening Without Ownership as Employees, Customers, and Patients Lead Usage04:50 Instagram's CEO Says Trust Is No Longer Assumed as AI Forces Proof-of-Reality Models07:22 AI and MSP Automation Are Converging on the Same Bottleneck: Expert Judgment09:52 Vendors Shift From Tools to Judgement as ServiceNow, Freshworks, and Google Cloud Embed Risk, Incidents, and Outcomes This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/

Laith Palhawan, CEO and founder of OrangeCrew, has successfully transitioned his managed IT services company into the public sector by becoming GSA certified, allowing him to provide IT services to government agencies. This shift has required a deep understanding of compliance and security requirements that differ significantly from those in the private sector. In the public sector, clients expect adherence to strict standards and predefined solutions, which contrasts with the more flexible and responsive approach typically found in private business engagements.Pahlawan's experience highlights the challenges of profitability in the managed services landscape, particularly when working with government contracts that often yield lower margins of 10-15%. He emphasizes the importance of strategic partnerships and effective business analysis to maintain sustainable margins. By utilizing tools like Power BI and Kaseya, OrangeCrew can track time and resources spent on each client, allowing for informed decisions about which clients to prioritize and which to decline based on profitability and demand.The episode also delves into OrangeCrew's innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance internal operations and client services. Pahlawan has developed a centralized database that integrates various data sources, enabling the use of AI to analyze client interactions and identify potential issues proactively. This system not only improves operational efficiency but also positions OrangeCrew as a forward-thinking MSP capable of offering advanced solutions to clients, particularly in the realm of AI.For MSPs and IT service leaders, the insights shared by Pahlawan underscore the necessity of adapting to evolving client needs, particularly regarding compliance and AI integration. As businesses increasingly rely on AI for operational efficiency, MSPs must enhance their understanding of data management and automation to remain competitive. The conversation serves as a reminder that embracing new technologies and strategic partnerships can lead to sustainable growth and improved service delivery in a challenging market.

CISA staff may see pay cuts in 2026. Threat actors advertise a full chain zero-day exploit for iOS. A US-led international coalition releases joint guidance on integrating AI into operational technology. Microsoft lowers sales growth targets for its agentic AI products. A major fintech provider suffers a ransomware-linked breach. Arizona's Attorney General sues Temo over data collection practices. Lessons learned from Capita's handling of Black Basta. The UK sanctions Russia's GRU. My guest is Dave Baggett, co-founder and CEO of INKY (recently acquired by Kaseya), about the challenges of email security. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court insists on AI transparency. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today, Dave Bittner speaks with Dave Baggett, co-founder and CEO of INKY (recently acquired by Kaseya), about the need to update email security that was built on a 1971 design. Selected Reading US Slashes Pay Incentives at Already Weakened Cyber Agency (Bloomberg) Zero-Day Alert: Alleged iOS 26 Full Chain Exploit for Sale (Dataminr) Principles for the Secure Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Operational Technology (CISA) Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas (Ars Technica) Marketing and Compliance Software Vendor to Banks Breached (Data Breach Today) Arizona attorney general sues Chinese online retailer Temu over data theft claims (AP News) What organisations can learn from the record breaking fine over Capita's ransomware incident (DoublePulsar) UK cracks down on Russian intelligence agency authorised by Putin to target Skripals (GOV.UK) General Order 210: Filings Using Generative Artificial Intelligence (Southern District of California, United States Bankruptcy Court) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textAt IT Nation Connect 2025, Mike DePalma—VP of SMB Cybersecurity at OpenText—sits down with Joey Pinz to talk about rebuilding community in the MSP world, evolving vendor programs, and the tidal wave of AI reshaping security and operations.Mike shares how OpenText's new EDR rollout is simplifying life for ConnectWise partners, the surprising results of their latest MSP Report, and why most AI projects fail—hint: it's not the tech. He opens up about the Datto → Kaseya acquisition, lessons in leadership, and why discipline, presence, and family still define success more than revenue or market share.

While many businesses rely on Microsoft 365, Salesforce and Google Workspace security features, critical blind spots remain—the recent series of high profile SaaS breaches demonstrate this. So what should you do? Mike Puglia, General Manager of Kaseya Labs, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss the risks in SaaS applications. In this segment, Mike will explore how bad actors are focusing their attacks on SaaS applications, hijacking tokens and how misconfigured integrations are used to bypass traditional defenses. Mike will also discuss how IT leaders can rethink protecting their essential SaaS business applications with tools that go beyond endpoint and MFA strategies to secure the modern user. This segment is sponsored by Kaseya 365 User. Visit https://securityweekly.com/k365 to learn more about them! In the leadership and communications segment, The rise of the chief trust officer: Where does the CISO fit?, When Another Company's Crisis Hurts Your Reputation, Effective Workplace Communication Tips, and more!   Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-424

While many businesses rely on Microsoft 365, Salesforce and Google Workspace security features, critical blind spots remain—the recent series of high profile SaaS breaches demonstrate this. So what should you do? Mike Puglia, General Manager of Kaseya Labs, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss the risks in SaaS applications. In this segment, Mike will explore how bad actors are focusing their attacks on SaaS applications, hijacking tokens and how misconfigured integrations are used to bypass traditional defenses. Mike will also discuss how IT leaders can rethink protecting their essential SaaS business applications with tools that go beyond endpoint and MFA strategies to secure the modern user. This segment is sponsored by Kaseya 365 User. Visit https://securityweekly.com/k365 to learn more about them! In the leadership and communications segment, The rise of the chief trust officer: Where does the CISO fit?, When Another Company's Crisis Hurts Your Reputation, Effective Workplace Communication Tips, and more!   Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-424

While many businesses rely on Microsoft 365, Salesforce and Google Workspace security features, critical blind spots remain—the recent series of high profile SaaS breaches demonstrate this. So what should you do? Mike Puglia, General Manager of Kaseya Labs, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss the risks in SaaS applications. In this segment, Mike will explore how bad actors are focusing their attacks on SaaS applications, hijacking tokens and how misconfigured integrations are used to bypass traditional defenses. Mike will also discuss how IT leaders can rethink protecting their essential SaaS business applications with tools that go beyond endpoint and MFA strategies to secure the modern user. This segment is sponsored by Kaseya 365 User. Visit https://securityweekly.com/k365 to learn more about them! In the leadership and communications segment, The rise of the chief trust officer: Where does the CISO fit?, When Another Company's Crisis Hurts Your Reputation, Effective Workplace Communication Tips, and more!   Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-424

While many businesses rely on Microsoft 365, Salesforce and Google Workspace security features, critical blind spots remain—the recent series of high profile SaaS breaches demonstrate this. So what should you do? Mike Puglia, General Manager of Kaseya Labs, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss the risks in SaaS applications. In this segment, Mike will explore how bad actors are focusing their attacks on SaaS applications, hijacking tokens and how misconfigured integrations are used to bypass traditional defenses. Mike will also discuss how IT leaders can rethink protecting their essential SaaS business applications with tools that go beyond endpoint and MFA strategies to secure the modern user. This segment is sponsored by Kaseya 365 User. Visit https://securityweekly.com/k365 to learn more about them! In the leadership and communications segment, The rise of the chief trust officer: Where does the CISO fit?, When Another Company's Crisis Hurts Your Reputation, Effective Workplace Communication Tips, and more!   Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-424

Overview: In this episode of the SMB Community Podcast, hosts Amy and James discuss the evolving landscape of IT distribution and whether it is becoming obsolete. They reminisce about the days when IT professionals relied heavily on specific distributors and how the market shift has changed their role. They also touch on the U.S. Senate passing the budget bill, LinkedIn's top 50 startup list for 2025, Apple's advancements in satellite technology, and a change in leadership at Kaseya. Additionally, Amy announces the return of her scholarship program for Microsoft certifications, and James gives updates on his upcoming events. --- Chapter Markers: 00:00 Introduction and Greetings  01:48 MSP Question of the Week: Is Distribution Dead?  07:09 News Highlights: Senate Budget Bill and Government Shutdown 09:37 LinkedIn's Top 50 Startups for 2025 12:30 Apple's Satellite Technology and Future of Cellular 15:24 Kaseya's New CEO and Company Direction 17:54 Scholarship Program for Tech Certifications 19:45 Upcoming Events and Announcements 20:28 Closing Remarks  --- New Book Release: I'm proud to announce the release of my new book, The Anthology of Cybersecurity Experts! This collection brings together 15 of the nation's top minds in cybersecurity, sharing real-world solutions to combat today's most pressing threats. Whether you're an MSP, IT leader, or simply passionate about protecting your data, this book is packed with expert advice to help you stay secure and ahead of the curve. Available now on Amazon! https://a.co/d/f2NKASI --- Sponsor Memo: Since 2006, Kernan Consulting has been through over 30 transactions in mergers & acquisitions - and just this past year, we have been involved in six (6). If you are interested in either buying, selling, or valuation information, please reach out. There is alot of activity and you can be a part of it. For more information, reach out at kernanconsulting.com

Send us a textAt DattoCon Miami 2025, Joey Pinz sits down with one of the industry's sharpest minds to explore how AI, automation, and evolving customer needs are redefining the Managed Services landscape. From Kaseya's 42-product ecosystem to the accelerating pace of AI adoption, this conversation dives deep into how MSPs can stay ahead in a fast-changing world.

The podcast discusses the current state of AI adoption among Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and the challenges they face in delivering measurable results to clients. Despite significant investments in AI, many enterprises report no new revenue from these technologies, leading to a growing skepticism about their practical value. MSPs are now under pressure to bridge the gap between vendor promises and client realities, focusing on specific workflow use cases that can demonstrate tangible benefits. The conversation emphasizes the importance of understanding client workflows and integrating technology in a way that enhances human productivity rather than replacing it.Ryan Morris, a channel strategist, highlights the cyclical nature of technology adoption, comparing the current AI landscape to previous technology trends like the dot-com boom and cloud computing. He notes that while the tools for implementing AI have become more user-friendly, the challenge remains in effectively integrating these tools into existing business processes. The discussion also touches on the need for MSPs to evolve from traditional roles to become more strategic partners, guiding clients through the complexities of AI implementation.The podcast further explores the trend of vendor consolidation in the tech industry, particularly with Kaseya's acquisition of Inky. This move signals a shift towards integrated platforms, but Morris argues that the best-of-breed approach is still relevant, especially for MSPs who prioritize flexibility and risk management. He explains that while vendors may push for comprehensive solutions, MSPs are cautious about committing to a single vendor due to concerns about vendor lock-in and the need for reliable service delivery.Finally, the conversation addresses the changing landscape of market development funds (MDF) in the channel. Traditional MDF programs are viewed as outdated, with partners now seeking outcome-based funding and support for solution development. This shift reflects a broader desire for meaningful collaboration between vendors and partners, focusing on integrated campaigns that drive measurable results rather than simple marketing reimbursements. The podcast concludes with a call for a more strategic approach to channel development that prioritizes long-term partnerships and shared success.

It's hump day and Tobin & Leroy gets you through it talking what is going in the world of sports. They talk about the Miami Dolphins and all the controversy with QB Tua Tagovailoa and his unprovoked comments he made following the loss the Los Angeles Chargers. Tua will be answering questions from the media today and they will ask him about how his comments was a national headline? Tobin & Leroy talk about how the 1-5 start to the season has the fanbase very upset and quickly irritable but it has opened the eyes to the fact they arena good team with a lot of weaknesses especially upfront with the offensive and defensive lines. With a 1-5 record are they in the business of trading some of their players and would you let Chris Grier make personnel decisions? They talk Florida Panthers who are back on the ice tonight looking to get back on the winning track as they are in a national televise game vs the Detroit Wings. The Miami Heat host their red, white and pink scrimmage tonight at the Kaseya center. They ask the question who will be the go to guy with Tyler out for a couple of months? Tobin & Leroy start to talk University of Miami vs Louisville Cardinals at the Hard Rock Friday night. Star defensive player Reuben Bain is getting a lot national recognition but he says he doesn't wat any individual awards when the big awards "the natty" us the ultimate goal. We talk all of this and much more including "Mix Bag" and our favorite Wednesday game "Rats off A Ship" on today's Tobin & Leroy show.

International law enforcement take down the Breachforums domains. Researchers link exploitation campaigns targeting Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and Fortinet. Juniper Networks patches over 200 vulnerabilities. Apple and Google update their bug bounties. Evaluating AI use in application security (AppSec) programs. Microsegmentation can contain ransomware much faster and yield better cyber insurance terms. The new RondoDox botnet exploits over 50 vulnerabilities. Researchers tag 13 unpatched Ivanti Endpoint Manager flaws. Our guest is Jason Manar, CISO of Kaseya, sharing his insight into how the private and public sectors can work together for national security. Hackers mistake a decoy for glory.  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today we are joined by ⁠Jason Manar⁠, CISO of ⁠Kaseya⁠, sharing his insight into how the private and public sectors can/must work together for national security. Selected Reading FBI takes down BreachForums portal used for Salesforce extortion (Bleeping Computer) Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks Devices Targeted in Coordinated Campaign (SecurityWeek) Juniper Networks Patches Critical Junos Space Vulnerabilities (OffSeq)   Apple Announces $2 Million Bug Bounty Reward for the Most Dangerous Exploits (WIRED) Google Launches AI Bug Bounty with $30,000 Top Reward (Infosecurity Magazine) In AI We Trust? Increasing AI Adoption in AppSec Despite Limited Oversight (Fastly) Reducing Risk: Microsegmentation Means Faster Incident Response, Lower Insurance Premiums for Organizations (Akamai) RondoDox Botnet Takes ‘Exploit Shotgun' Approach (SecurityWeek) ZDI Drops 13 Unpatched Ivanti Endpoint Manager Vulnerabilities (SecurityWeek) Pro-Russian hackers caught bragging about attack on fake water utility (The Record) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kaseya made headlines at DattoCon by announcing its shift to becoming an “AI-first” company, highlighted by its acquisition of INKY, a generative AI email security provider. Alongside this, the company unveiled new Datto products and teased its upcoming Cyber Resiliency Platform for 2026. While Kaseya's vision of unified, intelligent automation sounds ambitious, many managed service providers (MSPs) remain skeptical, wanting to see real product integration rather than marketing promises.AI's impact on the workforce also dominated discussion, with reports showing that one in seven U.S. jobs faces automation risk. However, experts emphasize that AI isn't eliminating jobs—it's transforming them. The real challenge for businesses lies in broken workflows and poor operational readiness, not the technology itself. For MSPs, this creates a new opportunity to help organizations document processes, integrate AI effectively, and deliver measurable ROI.Meanwhile, OpenAI's trillion-dollar compute deals with major tech firms reveal the escalating financial pressure behind the AI race. Despite massive commitments with Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle, analysts question the sustainability of such spending as compute costs surge. This “AI bubble” highlights that power and price, not innovation, may soon be the industry's greatest constraints, pushing businesses toward efficiency and smarter workloads.Finally, companies like Snowflake, IBM, Otter.ai, and Google are leading the next evolution of AI—turning it into infrastructure. From data management and cost-efficient models to meeting automation and browser-based AI agents, these developments mark the shift from experimentation to real-world integration. The emerging “intelligence layer” means that AI will soon underpin how services, systems, and workflows connect, defining the next frontier for MSPs and tech providers alike. Four things to know today 00:00 At DattoCon, Kaseya Sells an AI Future — But MSPs Want Proof, Not Promises04:19 AI Isn't Taking Jobs — It's Exposing Broken Workflows and Creating a New Service Market06:41 AI's Real Risk: Not Job Loss, But Business Disorganization and Soaring Compute Costs08:42 The Intelligence Layer Emerges: Snowflake, IBM, Otter, and Google Show How AI Becomes Infrastructure  This is the Business of Tech.     Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/https://cometbackup.com/?utm_source=mspradio&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sponsorship

Full transcript and links to extended interviews is at https://businessof.tech/podcast/datto-sues-slide-2025/What happens when a founder returns to disrupt the company he built, and that company sues him for stealing its secrets? This is the central conflict in the case of Datto v. Slide, a legal battle unfolding in Delaware. Datto, now owned by Kaseya, accuses Slide, founded by former Datto CEO Austin McCord, of misappropriating proprietary technology related to its Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) system. Slide, on the other hand, asserts that it developed its technology independently and that Datto's lawsuit is merely a distraction from the reality that better products will prevail in the market. The lawsuit includes multiple allegations, such as trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition. Datto claims that Slide's technology closely resembles its own HIR, which allows for near-instant recovery of systems across different virtual environments. The complaint details how Datto's HIR operates and the proprietary elements it encompasses, arguing that Slide's founders had access to these trade secrets and used them to expedite their competing platform. Slide counters these claims by emphasizing that its product was built from the ground up, utilizing modern tools and practices that do not infringe on Datto's intellectual property. To provide further context, the podcast features interviews with Slide's founders, who discuss the safeguards they implemented during development to ensure compliance with legal obligations and to avoid using any confidential information from Datto. They assert that their technology is fundamentally different and that their marketing strategies, including a dramatic demonstration involving the destruction of Datto hardware, were intended as light-hearted competition rather than disparagement. The conversation highlights the importance of transparency and trust for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) considering which platform to support. The episode also delves into the broader implications of the case, particularly how litigation can serve as a competitive strategy in a consolidating market. With Kaseya reportedly carrying significant debt, the lawsuit may reflect a defensive posture rather than a commitment to innovation. For MSPs, the ongoing legal battle raises questions about vendor reliability and the potential distractions that litigation can create. Ultimately, the podcast suggests that while the case may settle, the reputational costs for Kaseya could be substantial, impacting its image as a channel-friendly company. 00:00 Intro: Founder vs Incumbent01:45 Case Summary: Datto v. Slide Explained02:22 Inside HIR: The Alleged Trade Secret04:47 Slide's Defense06:05 Timeline and Next Steps08:36 Interview: Slide Founders Respond14:04 Expert Analysis: Bob Zeidman20:10 Expert Analysis: Prof. Camilla Hrdy24:10 Market Context: Kaseya's Debt & Strategy26:24 Lessons for MSPs28:33 Closing Take: What This Means for the Channel All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of B2B Sales Trends, Harry Kendlbacher speaks with Susana Klotz, VP of Global New Client Acquisition at Kaseya, about what it takes to embed strategy into daily habits and build revenue that endures. Susana leads a global team she calls “go-to-market sales killers,” focused on putting solutions in the hands of IT professionals and solving real problems. She shares how to balance vision with execution, shift sales culture beyond product pitching, and ensure strategies don't just sound good in the boardroom but actually get lived out across hundreds of sellers. Inside the conversation: - How to work backwards from growth goals into daily behaviors and execution. - Why strategies often fail in the field — and how to connect them to what sellers actually do every day. - Shifting sales culture from pitching products to solving real-world challenges. - Moving beyond the “toothache sale” to uncover long-term business impact and partnership. - Standing out in crowded markets where products look similar and buyers care more about post-sale value. - Turning strategy into a lived sales culture, with buy-in, proof, and internal marketing. If you want to understand how to align strategy with execution and create a sales culture that drives revenue long-term, this episode is packed with practical insights.

Overview: In this episode of the SMB Community Podcast, hosts Amy and James discuss a variety of tech topics relevant to IT professionals. They start by sharing personal anecdotes about their preferences for coffee and tea before diving into recent changes in the Microsoft Partner Program, emphasizing the importance of meeting revenue requirements. The conversation then shifts to Oracle's headquarters' growth, AI investments, and its significant role in database management. They also highlight leadership changes aimed at making Kase AI-focused. The discussion covers Apple's recent product announcements, stressing their new features in health tech and their surprising decision to maintain pricing. The episode wraps up with a talk on upcoming regulations to protect minors from harmful online content, reflecting on the importance of such regulations.  --- Chapter Markers: 00:00 Introduction and Hosts' Banter 01:52 Microsoft Partner Program Updates 06:10 Oracle's Revenue Surge and AI Potential 08:31 Kaseya's AI-First Strategy 09:52 Apple's Latest Announcements  17:37 Regulations on Social Media Content for Minors 20:10 Conclusion and Listener Engagement --- New Book Release: I'm proud to announce the release of my new book, The Anthology of Cybersecurity Experts! This collection brings together 15 of the nation's top minds in cybersecurity, sharing real-world solutions to combat today's most pressing threats. Whether you're an MSP, IT leader, or simply passionate about protecting your data, this book is packed with expert advice to help you stay secure and ahead of the curve. Available now on Amazon! https://a.co/d/f2NKASI --- Sponsor Memo: Since 2006, Kernan Consulting has been through over 30 transactions in mergers & acquisitions - and just this past year, we have been involved in six (6). If you are interested in either buying, selling, or valuation information, please reach out. There is alot of activity and you can be a part of it. For more information, reach out at kernanconsulting.com

OpenAI has announced a major restructuring plan that involves transferring an equity stake valued at over $100 billion to the non-profit organization overseeing it. This move is part of a broader strategy to transition OpenAI from a non-profit to a public benefit corporation, alongside a tentative agreement to resolve financial issues with Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019. The revised agreement includes a clause that limits Microsoft's access to OpenAI's most advanced technologies if they achieve artificial general intelligence. This transition is under scrutiny from regulators and raises concerns about OpenAI's commitment to its foundational mission of ensuring that artificial intelligence benefits humanity.The financial implications of OpenAI's restructuring are significant, particularly with an estimated computing cost problem of $350 billion. This staggering figure not only highlights the challenges OpenAI faces but also sets a concerning precedent for other tech companies relying on cloud computing resources. If OpenAI struggles with these costs, it could lead to higher API pricing, throttled access, or abrupt contract changes that would affect managed service providers (MSPs) and their clients. The podcast emphasizes the importance of diversifying partnerships and negotiating flexibility in contracts to mitigate potential volatility in the AI landscape.In other industry news, N-able has launched CATMIP, an initiative aimed at standardizing AI terminology in cybersecurity and IT management. This effort seeks to address the inconsistencies in terminology across different tech vendors, which can lead to errors and ambiguities in AI command interpretation. Meanwhile, Kaseya has reshaped its leadership with a community-first message, appointing new executives to enhance its AI-first platform, Kaseya 365. These changes reflect a shift towards a more community-centric approach for managed service providers, although the podcast cautions that new titles alone won't resolve existing integration challenges.Adobe and Coro are also making strides in integrating AI into their offerings. Adobe has introduced AI agents in its Experience Cloud, with over 70% of customers already adopting the new tools designed to enhance customer experience processes. Coro has released a new version of its cybersecurity platform tailored for small and mid-sized businesses, leveraging AI to simplify security processes. The podcast concludes with a discussion on the decline of the open web, the normalization of AI as a technology, and the importance of aligning AI adoption with business goals rather than treating it as a standalone strategy. Four things to know today 00:00 OpenAI Restructures With $100B Equity Transfer While Confronting $350B Compute Crisis03:58 N-able Pushes AI Standardization While Kaseya Reshapes Leadership for AI-First Future06:51 Adobe Targets Customer Experience as Coro Brings Enterprise Security to SMBs08:28 Open Web Fades, AI Normalizes, and Strategy Matters More Than Ever  This is the Business of Tech.     Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/ All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Catch more Miami Comedy — podcasts, live stand-up, sketches, and raw social commentary — at miamicomedy.comMiami calls itself a cultural city, but our performing arts scene is either Lady Gaga at Kaseya or a crackhead breakdancing in the Publix parking lot. No in-between, no community, just bottle sparklers pretending to be art. This episode rips open the lie and asks — when do regular Miamians finally get a stage?(00:00) Welcome to the Madness(00:15) Miami Arts: Gaga or Crackhead?(01:41) Jazz in Miami = Background Noise(06:56) Pop Culture NPCs Unite(12:25) Bottle Sparklers as Performance Art(20:32) The 80% Nobody Markets To(26:11) The Next Era of Miami

Microsoft is facing backlash from managed service providers (MSPs) for not adequately protecting them against aggressive pricing strategies employed by larger licensing solution providers. These larger entities are reportedly undercutting smaller MSPs by as much as 20%, leading to significant margin erosion and increased competition. The Cloud Solution Provider Program, which was designed to create a more equitable environment for smaller providers, has not been effectively enforced by Microsoft, leaving many MSPs feeling abandoned. Analysts warn that this trend may result in consolidation among partners, as smaller providers struggle to compete in a landscape increasingly favoring larger firms.In the realm of cybersecurity, MSPs are grappling with severe alert fatigue, with a recent survey indicating that over 75% of providers experience this issue monthly. The report highlights that larger firms are particularly affected, with nearly half of those employing over 500 staff facing daily fatigue due to excessive tools and poor integration, which leads to a high volume of false positives. Alarmingly, one in four alerts is a false positive, and many providers are hesitant to consolidate their security tools due to concerns about migration complexity and potential feature loss. Despite the clear advantages of integrating platforms and enhancing automation, only 31% of MSPs have adopted AI or security orchestration tools to alleviate their burdens.In product news, several companies have made significant announcements. SuperOps has launched an AI marketplace for MSPs in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, aiming to streamline the adoption of AI agents for various tasks. Kaseya introduced customer responsibility matrices to help MSPs comply with Department of Defense cybersecurity requirements, while ConnectWise expanded its remote monitoring and management platform to include third-party patching for over 7,000 applications. Synchro reported impressive operational efficiency improvements for a client, and Ignite unveiled a no-code framework for creating customized AI agents.Lastly, the podcast discusses the ongoing challenges faced by Intel and the vulnerabilities in Enable's remote monitoring and management solution. Intel is receiving substantial investments from SoftBank and potential support from the U.S. government, indicating a lack of market confidence in the company's performance. Meanwhile, Enable is dealing with two critical vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited, with nearly 900 servers still unpatched. The urgency for MSPs to apply updates and validate their security measures is emphasized, as these vulnerabilities pose significant risks to their operations. Four things to know today 00:00 Microsoft Faces Backlash as MSPs Accuse CSP Program of Favoring Larger Licensing Providers04:53 From SuperOps to Egnyte, Vendors Announce AI and Security Features—Syncro Stands Out With Measurable Results07:50 Chip Market Split: Intel Relies on Bailouts, Foxconn Rides Explosive AI Demand10:24 Shadowserver: Nearly 900 N-able N-central Servers Remain Unpatched Against Critical Vulnerabilities This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by: https://www.moovila.com/ https://scalepad.com/dave/ All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

In an era where organizations depend heavily on commercial applications to run their operations, the integrity of those applications has become a top security concern. Saša Zdjelar, Chief Trust Officer at ReversingLabs and Operating Partner at Crosspoint Capital, shares how protecting the software supply chain now extends far beyond open source risk.Zdjelar outlines how modern applications are built from a mix of first-party, contracted, open source, and proprietary third-party components. By the time software reaches production, its lineage spans geographies, development teams, and sometimes even AI-generated code. Incidents like SolarWinds, Kaseya, and CircleCI demonstrate that trusted vendors are no longer immune to compromise, and commercial software can introduce critical vulnerabilities or malicious payloads deep into enterprise systems.Regulatory drivers are increasing scrutiny. Executive Order 14028, Europe's Cyber Resilience Act, DORA, and U.S. Department of Defense software sourcing restrictions all require greater transparency, such as a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). However, Zdjelar cautions that SBOMs—while valuable—are like ingredient lists without recipes: they don't reveal if a product is secure, just what's in it.ReversingLabs addresses this gap with a no-compromise analysis engine capable of deconstructing any file, of any size or complexity, to assess its safety. This capability enables organizations to make risk-based decisions, continuously monitor for unexpected changes between software versions, and operationalize controls at points such as procurement, SCCM deployments, or file transfers into critical environments.For CISOs, this represents a true technical control where previously only contractual clauses, questionnaires, or insurance policies existed. By placing analysis at the front of the software lifecycle, organizations can reduce reliance on costly manual testing and sandboxing, improve detection of tampering or hidden behavior, and even influence cyber insurance rates.The takeaway is clear: software supply chain security is a board-level concern, and the focus must expand beyond open source. With the right controls, organizations can avoid becoming the next headline-making breach and maintain trust with customers, partners, and regulators.Learn more about ReversingLabs: https://itspm.ag/reversinglabs-v57bNote: This story contains promotional content. Learn more.Guest: Saša Zdjelar, Chief Trust Officer at ReversingLabs and Operating Partner at Crosspoint Capital | On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasazdjelar/ResourcesLearn more and catch more stories from ReversingLabs: https://www.itspmagazine.com/directory/reversinglabsLearn more about ITSPmagazine Brand Story Podcasts: https://www.itspmagazine.com/purchase-programsNewsletter Archive: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/tune-into-the-latest-podcasts-7109347022809309184/Business Newsletter Signup: https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-business-updates-sign-upAre you interested in telling your story?https://www.itspmagazine.com/telling-your-storyKeywords: Black Hat 2025, Black Hat USA, sean martin, saša zdjelar, software supply chain security, commercial software risk, binary analysis, software bill of materials, sbom security, malicious code detection, ciso strategies, third party software risk, software tampering detection, malware analysis tools, devsecops security, application security testing, cybersecurity compliance

Rania Succar, the new CEO of Kaseya, discusses her vision for the company at a crucial time for both Kaseya and the managed service provider (MSP) ecosystem. With Kaseya facing scrutiny over customer service and billing practices, Succar emphasizes the importance of innovation and a cultural reset to strengthen relationships with MSP partners. She believes that Kaseya has the potential to be a leader in driving outcomes for small businesses through its partnerships with MSPs, which are essential for helping these businesses adopt cutting-edge technology. Succar outlines four key values that will guide Kaseya's next chapter: measuring success based on the profitability and revenue growth of MSP partners, delivering innovation that benefits these partners, enhancing the overall customer experience, and investing in the community. She acknowledges the frustrations MSPs have expressed regarding customer service and billing practices, and she highlights specific steps Kaseya is taking to address these issues, including the end of high watermark pricing and improvements in customer support. The conversation also touches on the importance of internal culture and employee retention at Kaseya. Succar emphasizes the strength of her leadership team and the need for a culture that empowers employees to make decisions at all levels. By fostering a customer-centric and innovative environment, she aims to improve the overall experience for both employees and customers, ultimately leading to better service quality. Looking ahead, Succar shares her vision for leveraging AI and automation to enhance Kaseya's offerings for MSP partners. She recognizes the challenges SMBs face in adopting AI and emphasizes the need for collaboration between Kaseya and MSPs to unify data and create effective solutions. By focusing on these areas, Succar aims to position Kaseya as a leader in helping small businesses navigate the evolving technology landscape. All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

OpenAI has released a new economic analysis showcasing the extensive impact of its AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, on productivity across various sectors. The report reveals that over half a billion people globally utilize OpenAI's AI tools, with a significant portion of users in the U.S. reporting that they use ChatGPT for work. However, a survey indicates that many employees feel pressured to adopt AI tools despite lacking confidence in their usage, raising concerns about the actual productivity gains versus the pressure to conform to employer expectations.In the realm of enterprise technology, Kindrel has introduced the Kindrel Agentic AI framework, aimed at facilitating the deployment of AI in secure environments. This initiative comes in response to the growing adoption of generative AI technologies. Kindrel's framework is designed to enhance operational efficiency and address critical issues such as bias and security, particularly in sectors like banking and government. This move highlights the importance of delivering tangible outcomes rather than merely promoting the hype surrounding AI.Dedicated servers are experiencing a resurgence as organizations seek to meet performance and compliance requirements. A recent survey indicates that a significant majority of IT professionals are utilizing dedicated servers, particularly in sectors like government and finance. This trend reflects a strategic shift towards hybrid infrastructure, where businesses are increasingly recognizing the value of dedicated resources for specific workloads, rather than relying solely on public cloud solutions.Proton has launched a privacy-focused AI chatbot named Lumo, which emphasizes user privacy by storing data locally and employing zero-access encryption. This initiative contrasts with offerings from larger tech companies that often exploit user data. Additionally, Kaseya has introduced an AI-powered workflow generator to enhance automation for managed service providers, while Malwarebytes has integrated a new email security module to combat sophisticated email threats. These developments underscore the growing importance of automation and privacy in the tech landscape, providing opportunities for service providers to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. Three things to know today 00:00 OpenAI's scale, worker pressure to adopt AI, vendor risk blind spots05:43 Liquid Web reports rising dedicated server spend—MSPs must guide smart workload placement, not a full retreat from cloud08:22 Kaseya, Malwarebytes, StorX, NinjaOne, and Inforcer all launch moves to help MSPs automate, secure, and scale13:06 AppleCare One is a masterclass in “sticky” support—can your plans deliver the same seamless value?  This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://cometbackup.com/?utm_source=mspradio&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sponsorship   Tell us about a newsletter!https://bit.ly/biztechnewsletter All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

A recent report by Auvik reveals significant challenges faced by managed service providers (MSPs), highlighting issues such as tool sprawl, burnout among IT professionals, and the increasing reliance on IT generalists. The report indicates that 50% of MSPs use over ten tools to manage client networks, with many professionals experiencing high levels of stress and burnout. The ongoing retirement of baby boomers in the IT sector exacerbates these issues, leading to a demand for specialists who can assist generalists in navigating the complexities of technology. Key areas of interest for IT professionals include cybersecurity planning and cloud computing, as they seek to enhance productivity and user experience.In addition to the challenges faced by MSPs, two significant cybersecurity incidents have come to light. Kaseya's Network Detective tool was found to have critical vulnerabilities that could expose sensitive data across managed environments. Similarly, a flaw in McDonald's chatbot job application platform compromised the personal information of over 64 million applicants due to weak security measures. These incidents underscore the importance of robust vendor security practices, as clients often hold their MSPs accountable for data breaches, regardless of the source.The podcast also discusses the ongoing struggle for right-to-repair legislation, which has seen limited enforcement despite public support. A report indicates that many products lack accessible repair materials, and manufacturers continue to resist changes that would facilitate repairs. This situation presents an opportunity for service firms to incorporate repairability into their procurement strategies and asset management services, aligning with client values around sustainability and cost control.Finally, Sonomi has launched new tools aimed at enhancing business impact analysis and continuity planning for cybersecurity professionals. These tools are designed to help MSPs communicate the business value of cybersecurity to leadership, shifting the perception of security from a cost center to a value driver. The success of these initiatives will depend on MSPs' ability to integrate these features into their service delivery, ultimately positioning them as strategic partners who understand both technology and business needs. Four things to know today 00:00 Auvik Report Warns MSPs of Tool Sprawl, Talent Drain, and Rising Burnout04:10 Kaseya and McDonald's Incidents Reveal Fragile Trust in Vendor Security Practices07:01 Manufacturers Withhold Parts, Manuals Despite State-Level Repair Rights Legislation08:40 Cynomi Adds Business Impact and Continuity Planning Tools to Help MSPs Drive Strategic Outcomes This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by: https://getflexpoint.com/msp-radio/ ThreatDown Webinar:  https://bit.ly/threatdown  All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Managed service providers (MSPs) are currently facing unprecedented pressure from clients regarding cybersecurity, with a significant increase in expectations for MSPs to manage their cybersecurity infrastructure. A recent survey revealed that 84% of MSPs report their clients now expect them to handle cybersecurity end-to-end, a notable rise from 65% the previous year. This shift comes as MSPs themselves are under increased scrutiny, with 77% reporting heightened oversight of their security practices. The growing concern over emerging threats, particularly those related to artificial intelligence, has further complicated the landscape, as MSPs find themselves caught between rising client demands and a lack of accountability from cybersecurity vendors.In a related development, a fraudulent impersonator has been using artificial intelligence to mimic the voice and writing style of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, successfully contacting several high-level officials to manipulate them for sensitive information. This incident highlights the vulnerabilities in secure communication channels and the ease with which attackers can exploit lax data security among government officials. The FBI has issued warnings about ongoing malicious messaging campaigns that utilize AI-generated voice messaging, emphasizing the need for enhanced verification protocols in executive communications.Additionally, attackers have been exploiting Microsoft 365's direct send feature to launch phishing attacks, impacting over 70 organizations. This method allows attackers to send emails that appear to come from legitimate internal addresses, bypassing traditional security measures. Research indicates that conventional phishing awareness training is largely ineffective, with many employees failing to recognize phishing attempts even after training. The study suggests a shift towards interactive training methods, which have proven more effective in reducing the likelihood of falling victim to such scams.Ingram Micro has begun restoring customer ordering capabilities following a ransomware attack that temporarily disabled its systems, but the company's lack of communication during the crisis has raised concerns among partners. The incident serves as a case study in breach communication, highlighting the importance of transparency and effective communication in maintaining trust. Meanwhile, Kaseya has expanded its community investment with the Technology Marketing Toolkit, aimed at enhancing resources for MSPs. However, questions remain about the potential cultural clash and the impact on the independence of the Toolkit's offerings within Kaseya's larger ecosystem. Four things to know today 00:00 MSPs Face Rising Cybersecurity Pressure as Clients Demand Full Protection and Vendors Sidestep Shared Risk04:25 AI Deepfake Impersonates Secretary of State in Sophisticated Attack, Exposing Risks for Executive Security09:17 Ingram Micro Begins System Restoration After Ransomware Attack, But Silence Frustrates12:07 Robin Robins Sells Technology Marketing Toolkit; Joins Kaseya as Strategic Advisor This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://getnerdio.com/nerdio-manager-for-msp/ All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Microsoft is facing significant challenges in promoting its Copilot AI assistant within enterprises, as many employees show a preference for OpenAI's ChatGPT. This trend highlights a competitive shift in the corporate sector, where companies are increasingly recognizing the advantages of generative AI solutions. Despite Microsoft's efforts, including a notable implementation plan by Amgen Inc. for 20,000 employees, the growing strength of OpenAI suggests a changing landscape in AI adoption. The struggle to sell Copilot internally reflects broader issues of product-market fit, as users often favor consumer-grade options over sanctioned tools.The impact of AI on managed service providers (MSPs) is also noteworthy, as a recent report indicates that AI-driven platforms are beginning to replace traditional tools. This shift is expected to reduce the number of product categories from 13 to 7, leading to increased interoperability among services. While AI-powered automation can lower operational costs, it poses market challenges, particularly for MSPs that may need to pivot from troubleshooting to delivering strategic insights. The caution expressed by Kaseya's CEO underscores the importance of integrating fragmented customer data for effective AI solutions.Legal developments surrounding AI training data are reshaping the copyright landscape. A federal judge ruled in favor of Anthropic, allowing the company to train its AI models on legally purchased books without needing permission from authors, classifying this practice as fair use. However, the ruling is limited to physical books and does not absolve Anthropic from a separate trial regarding the alleged piracy of millions of books. Similarly, Meta Platforms secured a legal victory, but the court's decision does not confirm that its use of copyrighted materials qualifies as fair use, indicating a complex and evolving legal environment for AI training.The podcast also highlights ongoing disparities in the IT leadership pipeline, particularly regarding diversity. Recent data shows little change in the demographic makeup of IT leadership, with a significant majority being white and male. The challenges faced by women and people of color in securing leadership roles are exacerbated by rigid criteria in executive searches. As larger companies scale back diversity efforts, there is an opportunity for smaller firms to differentiate themselves by fostering inclusive cultures, as exemplified by OIT VoIP, which received recognition for its commitment to diversity in technology. Four things to know today 00:00 AI Reality Check: Fragmented Data, Poor UX, and Platform Consolidation Derail Enterprise and MSP Hype04:42 Fair Use but Not Free Reign: Courts Back AI Training on Books—with Major Caveats07:28 Smaller Tech Firms Like OITVOIP Show How Inclusion Can Be a Competitive Advantage10:32 Collaboration Reimagined: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Rewst Redefine the Future of Work with AI-First Tools This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://syncromsp.com/ All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

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