Podcasts about msps

Jack Hirsch, vice president of product at Okta The rise of AI in the workplace is creating a new kind of risk for organizations: shadow AI. Employees can now spin up AI agents that connect directly to emails, files, and business systems—often without IT oversight. These agents can access sensitive data, and without proper controls, they become prime targets for cyberattacks. In this episode of the podcast, we're joined by Jack Hirsch, vice president of product at Okta, to explore what shadow AI is, why it matters for Canadian organizations, and how IT partners can help their customers manage it. Jack discusses Okta's latest tools, which provide real-time visibility into AI agents and their permissions. These capabilities make it easier for security teams to discover unmanaged agents, understand their access, and quickly bring them under identity-based controls. We also touch on regulatory implications, including Canada's proposed Bill C-8, which heightens expectations around cyber risk accountability, access controls, and transparency. As legislation moves forward, organizations will need to prove they understand not just who has access to sensitive systems—but which AI agents do as well. For MSPs and IT resellers, this emerging landscape represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Jack shares insights into how partners can position themselves as trusted advisors for clients navigating AI risk, turning a potentially complex problem into a service opportunity. Tune in to hear why identity management is becoming central to securing the agentic enterprise—and what your customers will need to stay ahead of shadow AI risks. Read Full Transcript Hello and welcome to the ChannelBuzz.ca podcast, 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. Okta has announced a new set of capabilities designed to help organizations uncover and manage a fast-growing risk: shadow AI. As AI tools become easier to use, employees are increasingly creating their own AI agents, connecting them to emails, files, SaaS apps, and internal systems to get work done faster. The problem is that many of these agents are created without security oversight, governance, or clear ownership. Once they’re connected to sensitive systems, they can quietly gain broad access to data, making them attractive targets for attackers and a potential liability for organizations. Okta’s new solution is designed to address that gap. It gives security teams real-time visibility into AI agents across the enterprise, showing which agents exist, what they can access, and what permissions they’ve been granted. Just as importantly, it allows organizations to quickly bring unmanaged or risky agents under identity controls, treating them more like digital employees than anonymous tools. That visibility matters even more in Canada, where proposed legislation like Bill C-8 is raising expectations around cyber risk accountability, access controls, and transparency. As AI becomes embedded into everyday workflows, organizations will be expected to know not just who has access to what sensitive data, but what machines and agents do as well. To unpack what shadow AI really means, why identity has become central to managing AI risk, and what all this creates in terms of opportunity for Canadian IT partners, I’m joined today by Jack Hirsch, Vice President of Product at Okta. Let’s dive in. Robert Dutt: Jack, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Jack Hirsch: My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Robert Dutt: It feels like this is a topic that a lot of folks in the channel have been through with different flavors in the past. When you say “shadow X,” it certainly brings up memories of transitions past, but just to level set and set the parameters here, can you give me a quick definition on shadow AI? I almost said shadow IT. Can you give me a quick definition on shadow AI, and why it’s becoming both a security and governance issue? Jack Hirsch: Sure. Well, look, it’s no secret now that AI is changing the shape of how work gets done in the modern era. You have these non-deterministic entities running around, and fundamentally, they’re exciting, they’re interesting on their own, but where they really light up in value, where you start to see efficiency and effectiveness gains from your carbon-based workforces, is when you start connecting them to tools. They need resource access to be truly productive. So AI agents need resource access, and that’s when it can start to get scary, and that’s when shadow AI starts to create a ton of risk for modern organizations. We know that the point of authentication is now much stronger with phishing-resistant auth. However, post-auth security is the primary breach vector for the vast majority of cybersecurity incidents now, meaning the session token’s been cut. There’s access out in the ecosystem, and that’s why shadow AI is terrifying. Unfortunately, the options available to the ecosystem to secure AI and to build it quickly have been not good enough, to put it bluntly. This leaves security leaders with this very, very difficult challenge of moving fast and potentially breaking things and giving away the keys to the kingdom to OpenClaw, or whatever it is that you want to do, or potentially stifling innovation. That’s a really, really difficult spot for security leaders to be in. So yeah, shadow AI is everywhere. The challenges are greater. The stakes have never been higher. Robert Dutt: Yeah, so that’s sort of the problem space. So when employees spin up AI agents and connect them to emails, to files, to internal data, to systems, whatever it may be, I presume most of the problems emerge from unintended consequences, as is so often the case in technology. But what are some of the common ways that sensitive data ends up exposed without anyone really necessarily realizing it, or is that the nature of the problem? Jack Hirsch: Well, look, I think there’s sort of the naive answer, and not to say that it’s easy or trivial. I don’t want to trivialize this, but the naive answer is, “Oh, prompt injection, data leakage, data poisoning. Oh yeah, who knows what the LLM will spit out?” But the actual scarier risk is around inadvertent access and the standing credentials that need to be given to AI agents for them to be productive. If Rob, you and I work at Acme Corp, and we’re working on a project together and we want to spin up an AI agent, whose permissions do we give it? Most of the time now, a security leader is not going to be able to jump in front of every single moving train and slow them. They’ll just say, “Oh yeah, give it a set of static credentials. Give it an API key, but don’t give it Rob’s access. Don’t give it Jack’s access. Give it super user access, and we’ll trust it to do the right thing.” And so you’re giving this untrained, very influenceable, non-deterministic entity the keys to the kingdom. And that’s really the primary risk vector here. And so it’s all an identity and access management problem. Fundamentally, these are identities that need to be discovered. They need to be controlled. They need to be governed. And their access needs to be managed in the same way that their carbon-based peers, us as humans, need to be governed as well. Robert Dutt: So with that framing, it sounds like maybe identity is more important than traditional network or endpoint controls in terms of security in this world, where there are all these agents running around and doing whatever it is, hopefully, we want them to do and potentially what we don’t want them to do. Jack Hirsch: I think this is where the traditional model of endpoint or network or identity-based detection and response falls flat. You can’t keep up with the incredible volume of AI agent activity out in the ecosystem to detect it all. Every single, even approved platforms are now starting to put AI sprinkles throughout their products. And so it’s sort of fighting an uphill battle there. And so the reason this is truly an identity-centric problem is because, again, all those agents need access to resources inside of organizations. And the way that AI grew, and we saw this with how OpenAI and Anthropic and even Google with Gemini, their sort of growth paths were primarily consumer driven. And in a consumer world, it’s really easy. I’m spinning up, I’m literally sitting next to a machine that has a Claude bot spun up in a fully isolated environment, but I’m an individual user in that scenario. And so if I want to give it access, I can just OAuth myself. It’s super easy. And so the authorization mechanism wasn’t really thought about in an enterprise context. And then when you get into an enterprise context, you have individuals that want to do exactly the same thing and access corporate resources. So it really is a new type of identity. We can talk about some of the differences between human and AI agent, but it’s fundamentally an identity and access management problem. These are digital identities, non-human identities that need access to resources within an organization. And you actually see this being recognized by broader standards bodies. So for example, Cross App Access was something that we’ve been working on. It’s a new standard, it’s an extension of the OAuth protocol. And it’s something that we’ve been working on for years, two, three years now at this point. And we reintroduced it to the ecosystem this past summer, summer of 2025. And we introduced it first to ISVs and the people that were sort of around the Okta ecosystem had heard about it before. But then the rest of the ecosystem, the adoption was wild because MCP had become a thing and people were trying to deploy MCP servers and AI agents into their enterprises. And no one, not at the time Anthropic or OpenAI or any of the big model providers, had taken on the challenge of enterprise authorization for AI agents. And so this standard that had been sort of latent and sitting somewhere in an IETF draft for a while got picked up and started gaining a ton of steam. And just in November, right before Anthropic split off MCP and gave it away to the open ecosystem, it got merged into the MCP repo as the new default enterprise authorization mechanism for MCP. And so this isn’t something that’s Okta owned, it’s just a standard that we developed because we are independent. And as such, we are the sort of standard-bearer for the open security ecosystem. We believe that we need to be the rising tide that lifts all ships. And that’s why we develop open standards like Cross App Access. So now, really excited, we’ve taken our own engineers and pushed this authorization code out into the open ecosystem so that many applications start picking up this capability, this new OAuth extension. Robert Dutt: So at a high level, when you talk about the products that you guys are bringing to market, the solutions to address this, at a high level, what kind of new visibility or new insights are you giving organizations that are using these tools that they simply didn’t have before when it comes to discovering AI agents, the privileges they have, and what they’re up to? Jack Hirsch: Yeah. So, I mean, maybe if I can even blow it up further and say, let’s talk about maybe three steps: discovery, then control, and governance. So on the discovery side, there are many ways to discover, let’s date ourselves, shadow IT. There are many ways to discover, right? You can have a browser extension, you can have some sort of endpoint monitoring, you can have network monitoring. You can also check the resources themselves for access. And so we took a, initially, we’re taking a multi-pronged approach to doing the discovery, but we’re doing what we do best, which is integrating into over 8,000 ISVs and checking for resource access. And so who’s accessing these resources? Are they carbon-based? Are they digital-based? And so the first phase of discovery with our ISPM product is being able to see who’s accessing these resources and why. And so that extended very, very nicely to AI agents. And it doesn’t really matter where the AI agents exist, right? It doesn’t matter if they’re part of a larger platform with something like Salesforce and Agentforce, or whether they’re homegrown, built off in some skunkworks team off to the side. Ultimately, when they get access to the resource, we see it. And then you get into the control plane. So that’s just the discovery. Within the control plane, we want to meet our customers where they are. And we know that the vast majority of these things are going to be granted access via static credentials, just the god-mode tokens. And for those, we can harden them. We can effectively bring them under management. We can bring those credentials under management. We can observe them. We can rotate them. We can observe for anomalous behavior, et cetera. And so that’s like what you would consider a traditional PAM use case or maybe a modern IGA use case. But then also with control, we give Cross App Access, which is a new mechanism that extends the amazing innovation that was OAuth and OAuth scopes, basically extending that to say, instead of checking with the end user for access to this resource, we can set policy. Now the IDP can set policy to control access to those resources. And then to close the loop, there’s governance. And so standard governance flow, and actually I don’t even want to say standard governance flow because governance historically has this GRC compliance lens, but it’s very much a security-forward technology here. When you get to the state where you need to govern these identities and their access, we can run access certs in the exact same way based on whether or not they’re human or non-human. And so every one of those agentic identities gets pulled into Okta’s Universal Directory. All of their access is controlled. All of it is governed. We still gather the same risk signal and risk pattern behavior from the Identity Threat Protection product. And that’s, I wish I could say that 10 years ago, we knew we were building an identity security fabric, this new category of product that’s going to cover every identity use case, every resource type, and every user type. However, that was the strategy, not knowing that AI agents were going to be born in the 2020s. And it just makes it so that we are really well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. And it gives us a very novel approach to how we secure AI in a way that, it’s because we have this unified identity security fabric. A basket of tools that don’t talk to each other, if you have a disparate IAM and IGA and PAM set of tools, in theory, you could stitch it all together, but you end up with higher costs and worse security outcomes. And so we actually took a much harder approach to market. And this is many years ago. Again, this predates the rise of AI agents, but we decided that we were not going to take an acquisitive strategy where we just bolt on a bunch of things and call them a “platform” in air quotes. And your order form would look like a drugstore receipt. And so you’re not buying a list of products that happen to be on the same order form because we want to satisfy a CFO. We’re taking an approach that we want to drive end-to-end identity security outcomes for CISOs and IT leaders. So we’re doing the hard work deeply integrating these products across the fabric so that we can truly secure every identity, every use case, and every resource type. Robert Dutt: Close to home here in Canada, we have a proposed Bill C-8 on the table. It’s raising expectations around visibility, around access control, accountability, risk, all of these things. I know there are similar ideas out there in terms of government around the world. How does legislation along these lines change the conversation for IT leaders, especially around the topic of shadow AI? Jack Hirsch: So look, I am such a fan of this type of regulation because it pushes… When we enter highly regulated markets, regardless of where they are, and we can talk about C-8, I think it really does align with our identity security fabric narrative and what we’re angling for. But fundamentally, what we’re talking about is trust. If I’m not mistaken, C-8 talks about resilience and reliability. Okta has industry leading availability and resilience. We proudly espouse our four nines of availability, but in reality, it’s much higher. And we target much higher. With the launch of our cell in Canada, and we can talk about the nature of that launch, but with the launch of our cell in Canada, we not only get multi-region disaster recovery, but we get Enhanced Disaster Recovery, which is a product that I really wanted to call Instant DR, because it’s a DNS flip, but the lawyers didn’t like that. So it’s Enhanced Disaster Recovery. And so when you’re talking about resilience and reliability and running critical infrastructure, fundamentally, identity is critical infrastructure. We support governments, financial services, militaries, supply chain logistics with organizations like FedEx, healthcare. And so maybe bringing it back to C-8, data residency, check, highly invested, especially with de-globalization pressures around the world. Supply chain governance, super, super important for us to maintain our independent posture here and to say, look, it doesn’t matter whether you’re buying from a monolithic platform or an independent provider of identity security. We are invested in making sure that your entire enterprise is secure. And so just the same way FedRAMP was a standard-bearer and STIGs in the US were standard-bearers, or IRAP was pushing us in the right direction in Australia, or ISMAP in Japan, I think C-8 is a very, very welcome change. I think it highlights the need for robust identity security and it should put identity at the foundation of every security leader’s agenda this year. Robert Dutt: Well, these pieces of legislation are still in the process and we can look forward. This is likely to see the light of day in some shape or another, but there’s still that sort of sense of maybe we should wait and see. I guess what I’m getting at is what’s the danger or the risk involved in waiting until regulations are finalized, on the books and in place, before starting to take action? Jack Hirsch: So let’s just say at a personal level, I am not into promoting scare tactics. I know that it is very common in the security space for colors to be red. Our colors are blue. That’s not our vibe at Okta. And so look, every organization has their own risk barometer. What I can say is the vast majority of breaches stem from some form of attack on identity. The vast majority of breaches, the implications of having a data breach, oftentimes they go, I think the average time to detection for a data breach is somewhere just shy of 300 days. And so you’re talking about millions of dollars in damages, huge reputational hit. And there are scenarios, and I will not point to any recent security incidents that might have impacted large swaths of the industry, but not Okta. But I’ll just say the reason is because we believe strongly that having a lower risk profile should be easier, should be more elegant. People come to Okta not because of the, “Oh, you get it all done by the CLI.” Yeah, you can, but it’s elegant. It’s intuitive. It’s easier to use. It de-complexifies the world of identity security. I’m sitting in front of my notepad here to take notes, and one of our product principles is productizing best practices. And so we want to make it easier for organizations to reduce their risk profile and make the end user experience elegant and memorable when it needs to be, and disappear into the background when it shouldn’t be memorable. And so with that, look, I would advise everyone go down the rabbit hole. Just look at recent breaches. Look at how widely pervasive these breaches are. Look how easy it is to go after a phish, to buy a phishing kit on the dark web, and see the types of organizations that get hit by these and it’s everyone. And so whether you’re waiting for legislation to be imposed to drive the standards or you are just looking to have an appropriate barometer of risk for your organization, you shouldn’t have to choose between ease of use and cost and lower risk and greater security. And so I would just say everyone’s going to be on their own journey. I’m not a salesperson. I’m on the product team. But I fundamentally think that identity is one of the pillars of Zero Trust. I believe that it should be. It’s foundational. It is the foundation. If I had nothing else to do, if I were starting my own company today and I wanted to build a security practice for my company to manage our organizational risk, it would start with identity, 110%. Robert Dutt: We’ve taken sort of a general market-wide view of the technology problem and now of the regulatory side of things. This is a podcast for IT solution providers. So sort of going with that “if I were starting a business today” line that you just started there, for MSPs and resellers, where do you see the biggest opportunity to help customers get ahead of shadow AI, both in terms of reducing customer risk and in terms of new services, new types of services that they can bring to market? Jack Hirsch: I’ll take it in two parts. One is just you can’t control what you don’t see. And so for VARs and MSPs and sort of operators in the technology ecosystem, I would say look at Okta’s ISPM product. It is amazing what you learn by wiring it. And it’s not just for Okta as an IDP. It’ll wire into any IDP. It will wire into multiple IDPs. It’ll wire into over 300 SCIM-based apps because it’s wired into the Okta Integration Network, and there’s a large set of SCIM apps that work natively with ISPM. And just see what you can find. I optimized my life, my product world for hugs and high fives. And I’ll never forget, I’m sure this person knows exactly who they are. It was a security leader in Australia, ran out of their office after trying ISPM during a merger and they used it to reduce risk during the merger as they were establishing a trust relationship between their organizations. And it basically made this person look like a superstar in front of their C-suite and board because it was like the entire risk burndown chart for their entire M&A transaction to establish the technical risk barometer. So I would just say ISPM is an incredible starting point. A+, highly recommend. You can’t control what you can’t see. And then I think on the second part, of course ISPM will discover AI as well. And then the second part is just, I wouldn’t lose sight of the experience. And so making sure that you’re creating an elegant experience by your choice of products, not only for the admins that you might work directly with or the leadership that might be engaging with you, but also for the end users. And knowing when tools should be elegant, easy to use, easy to configure, and when they should just sort of fade into the background. That’s ultimately what we work on at Okta. It’s our strong conviction from a product standpoint, that it needs to be an absolutely elegant, unmatched user experience for partners, for admins, for end users, and for customers. Robert Dutt: I think we’ve gone over a lot of the territory that I wanted to go over, but just to kind of bring things home, looking ahead over the balance of 2026 or into the first half of next year, what do you think are going to be the biggest mistakes that organizations might make when it comes to agents and identity? And what can solution providers be doing now to make sure their customers don’t make those mistakes? Jack Hirsch: This is an easy one. I think there’s sort of two categories of mistakes. One is getting worried because everything is moving so fast, getting that sort of analysis paralysis to say, “I’m going to see where it shakes out. How important is this AI thing?” Or even if you’re an AI bull, waiting to see who the winners and losers are before you establish any sort of program around it. That’s, I think, one big category of things not to do. I would say, go after it immediately. The capabilities you need are already out there. They might be newer. They might feel a little bit less familiar. But again, ultimately, these are identities that need access to your corporate resources. So I think that is one big category. The other big category is, I would not look at point solutions for this. Anyone that is saying, “We’re going to secure your AI.” That’s great. But what is an AI? It’s an identity. It can be a resource in some scenarios, right? With agent-to-agent, agents acting as resources, but ultimately they’re just identities. That’s for the identity nerds. Sorry. Just as a caveat for the identity nerds out there like myself. But fundamentally, you need a unified platform that gives you that unified view of core access management, core governance, core privileged access, brings all of those identities, whether it be human or non-human, into a single directory and can discover them, can control them, can govern them. And it shouldn’t matter whether they were built by your users, by third parties, by partners, by your supply chain contractors. That unified identity security fabric will deliver comprehensive security and it should be deeply orchestrated into any technology stack. And those products already exist, and it just so happens that Okta is building a reference implementation. Robert Dutt: Works out well for you then, doesn’t it? Jack Hirsch: It does. Robert Dutt: I appreciate your taking the time, Jack. It’s been an interesting conversation and it’s a fascinating and ever-evolving area. Jack Hirsch: Thank you very much. All right. Thanks, Rob. And thanks everyone. Appreciate the time. There you have it, a look at shadow AI through an identity lens with Jack Hirsch from Okta. I’d like to thank Jack for joining us for the show and thank you for listening today. The podcast will be back in your feed tomorrow as we take a look at the launch of Lexful, an AI-first documentation tool for MSPs that boasts, if you can believe it, a robotic channel chief. We’ll find out all about that tomorrow. You’ll want to be sure to catch that, so please subscribe to or follow the podcast in your podcast app of choice. And if it allows you to do so, please consider leaving a rating or review of the show. Until tomorrow, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca and I’ll see you in the channel.

In this episode of Tate Talks, sponsored by JumpCloud, Chris Tate sits down with Daniel Welling, a seasoned MSP veteran, mentor, and motorsport enthusiast. Daniel shares his journey from running a "dark MSP"—operating in isolation without the support of the community—to becoming a central figure in the UK MSP ecosystem.The conversation dives deep into the value of community, the nuances of M&A, and how Daniel has successfully blended his passion for racing with business networking.The Power of Community: Daniel reflects on his first iteration as an MSP owner and how a lack of community awareness led to missed opportunities for growth and confidence.Motorsport as a Networking Tool: Learn how Daniel uses events at iconic tracks like Brands Hatch and Silverstone to create intimate, high-value networking experiences that break the mold of traditional conferences.Defending Your Client Base: Daniel discusses why the "mundane" basics—like consistent QBRs (Quarterly Business Reviews)—are the best defense against competitors, especially as clients look for guidance on navigating the AI hype.The "Numbers Game": Why every MSP owner should pick at least one core metric to measure progress and gain a sense of achievement in the daily grind.The Tech Tribe: Local meetups and a global community for MSPs.It's a Numbers Game Podcast: Daniel's podcast exploring the financial landscape of MSPs.Welling Media (YouTube): Check out Daniel's "Channel Cars" series and his insights on F1 sponsorships.CompTIA / GTI: The industry trade association mentioned regarding community events.Connect with todays guest on LinkedIn hereIt's a Numbers Game podcast https://mspfinanceteam.com/blog/IT & Motorsport YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@itandmotorsportKarting MSP Meetup https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-msp-finance-team-karting-meetup-2026-tickets-1982350254976?aff=oddtdtcreatorBTCC MSP Meetup https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-msp-finance-team-btcc-brands-hatch-2026-meetup-tickets-1773108407979?MSP Finance Team https://mspfinanceteam.com/Music - https://www.purple-planet.com

This week's Security Squawk episode isn't about phishing. It's about structural weakness. Three separate incidents. Three different industries. One uncomfortable pattern: the systems organizations trust most are expanding risk quietly — and in some cases, architecturally. First, a lawsuit that should make every board member pay attention. Marquis Software Solutions, a fintech serving 74 U.S. banks, is suing SonicWall. The allegation centers on SonicWall's cloud backup system, where firewall configuration backups were allegedly accessible and contained credentials — including MFA scratch codes. Those backups were reportedly used to compromise Marquis, leading to a ransomware incident and downstream exposure. What began as a scoped 5% customer exposure was later reported as potentially impacting all customers. This is not a misconfigured endpoint. This is a control-plane failure. For CEOs, this reframes vendor risk. It's no longer a questionnaire exercise. It's a litigation vector. If a security provider's design exposes authentication artifacts, your internal diligence may not matter. The liability chain now includes vendors and MSPs in a very direct way. For IT Directors, the operational question is simple: what exactly is inside your firewall backups? Are reusable authentication artifacts stored? Who can access vendor-hosted exports? If attackers obtain your configuration backups, can they replay your defenses? For MSPs, the exposure is real. If you manage firewall exports or MFA deployments, you are part of the architecture. And potentially part of the courtroom. Then we shift to UFP Technologies, a medical device manufacturer. Intrusion detected. Billing and shipping label systems disrupted. Data stolen or destroyed. Insurance expected to offset financial impact. But this isn't primarily a data story. Attackers disrupted order-to-cash and fulfillment velocity. In healthcare supply chains, slowing billing and labeling can create immediate executive escalation without touching the factory floor. Modern ransomware groups increasingly target business process choke points — ERP, labeling, scheduling — because leverage doesn't require full encryption anymore. For CEOs, “no material impact expected” is accounting language. Customers measure impact in delayed shipments. For IT leaders, the question becomes operational: can billing, labeling, and fulfillment functions recover independently? Are those systems segmented? Tested? Immutable? For risk managers and insurers, this represents a shift in underwriting focus — from endpoints to process resilience. Finally, the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center ransomware incident. Roughly 87,000 study participants directly impacted. But historical datasets, including Social Security numbers collected from driver's license and voter registration data dating back to 1998, expanded potential exposure to nearly 1.2 million individuals. They engaged the threat actors. They received a decryptor. They received “assurances” that data was destroyed. That's not verification. That's negotiation. The uncomfortable truth: legacy identity data becomes modern ransom currency. Research environments often have weaker governance than clinical systems, yet they can contain decades of sensitive identifiers. For boards, the issue isn't just security posture. It's data retention discipline. What obsolete identity data are you still holding? Why? For how long? And who owns the risk? Across these stories, three themes emerge: Control-plane trust is fragile. Operational choke points are the new leverage strategy. Data retention is compounded liability. Cybersecurity is no longer just about stopping intrusion. It's about architectural accountability and governance maturity. If you value independent, executive-level analysis without vendor spin, support the show at: buymeacoffee.com/securitysquawk The real question is this: Are your greatest cyber risks coming from external attackers — or from design decisions you haven't revisited in years?

Mark Sweeney, senior vice president of mid‑market growth and global commercial strategy at Citrix As of this week, MSPs and resellers working with Citrix may notice their partner relationship looks a little different. On March 1, Citrix officially expanded its long-standing partnership with Arrow Electronics, shifting more of the day-to-day management of its Service Provider partners in North America and Europe to the distributor. The move builds on an existing relationship between the two companies, but goes further — touching partner engagement, transactions, and how partners interact with the Citrix ecosystem overall. For MSPs and resellers, especially in Canada, changes like this tend to raise practical questions. What's actually changing in the partner experience? Why make this move now? What responsibilities remain with Citrix, and which ones move to Arrow? And what does this mean for quoting, renewals, incentives, and support escalation? In this episode of the podcast, we're joined by Mark Sweeney to help unpack the announcement. We talk through what Citrix had already handed over to Arrow, what's new as of March 1, and how the company sees this shift fitting into its broader channel strategy. The conversation also takes a Canada-specific lens, exploring what this transition means for Canadian MSPs and resellers, and what partners should be thinking about as the new model settles in. We wrap with a look ahead at what comes next — and how partners can position themselves to get the most value from the change. Read Full Transcript Hello and welcome to the ChannelBuzz.ca podcast, 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. If you’re an MSP or a reseller working with Citrix, as of this week, your relationship with the vendor may look a little different. Earlier this year, Citrix announced it’s expanding its partnership with distributor Arrow Electronics, handing over more of the day-to-day management of its service provider partners in North America and Europe. That change officially took place March 1st. Citrix and Arrow have already been working together for some time, but this move goes further, affecting things like partner engagement, transactions, incentives, and how partners interact with the Citrix ecosystem overall. For MSPs and resellers here in Canada, it naturally raises questions. What’s actually changing? Why now? What stays with Citrix? What shifts to Arrow? And most importantly, what does it all mean to your day-to-day business? To help unpack all of that, I’m joined by Mark Sweeney from Citrix. Mark’s been deeply involved in the company’s channel strategy and is here to walk us through not just what is changing, but why Citrix believes it’s the right move and how partners can get the most out of the transition. So let’s dive right in. Robert Dutt: Mark, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Mark Sweeney: No, thanks for having me, Robert. Robert Dutt: I guess let’s start with a little bit of context first. You guys have been working with Arrow Electronics for a long time as a distribution partner and more recently, over the past little while, have handed over a little bit more responsibility and management to Arrow. I guess to level set it, can you walk me through before this March 1 announcement, what part of the relationships had already been managed by Arrow and what parts did Citrix still manage or handle directly? Mark Sweeney: Sure. Thanks for that. You’re right. Over the past numerous years, we’ve had a long and outstanding relationship with our friends at Arrow and it historically was a distribution-related arrangement that we had with them. Over the past two years, I would say that that relationship has started to change and evolve into where we see it today. Specifically, I would say it was probably about 18 months ago where we started to extend more of our business over to Arrow. That specific piece was around our CSP business. That was below a certain threshold. The threshold being about 2,000 users. Any of our CSP, MSP partners that were providing services to end users, we actually shifted those over to Arrow about 18 months ago to start supporting that business. The initial approach that we saw was very healthy and very good. One of the things that we wanted to do was actually extend that a little bit further. We looked at some of our mid-market customers and any of our mid-market customers that we didn’t manage with our enterprise team. We started to have Arrow actually manage them from a go-to-market perspective as well. The first idea there was to start to remove friction between the CSP business that was managing the same type of customers that were existing in our mid-market space. That happened probably about 12 months ago. During that period of time, our enterprise team continued to manage enterprise customers and larger MSPs that were above that 2,000 user threshold. If you thought about it and you just drew a line into our business, anyone that was below that 2,000 threshold was probably being managed by Arrow and anyone above was being managed by our enterprise team. Robert Dutt: We look forward to March 1 as that goes live, as that has gone live. What actually changes for a Citrix service provider or MSP partner of yours with this further transition to Arrow? Mark Sweeney: If there were MSP partners that were being managed by named account executives as part of Citrix, those MSP customers are also being moved over to Arrow as of March 1. Now, we’ve already communicated that to them. If not all of the MSPs should have received communication from us and from Arrow on this. I’ve also posted myself on LinkedIn about this. Anyone who was an MSP before, they are now also going to be managed by Arrow. Robert Dutt: Why make the move now? Was this something that partners were asking for? Is it sort of about where you’re at and where you want to take the channel? Mark Sweeney: I like to say, “Why not now?” The reason why I say that is because we saw some very good success with Arrow in our mid-market space and then also in our MSP business. What we also saw was a little bit of friction, as I mentioned earlier, in the smaller CSPs but then also in the mid-market space because we’re selling into the same market. What we wanted to do was we wanted to remove that friction entirely so that all MSPs now could be worked and can be functioning as a single entity that’s being managed by Arrow. What that allows us to do is really begin to focus on our innovation of our technology but then also allow us to give further support to our product development teams or product engineering teams, all of our support teams. I think for us, it wasn’t necessarily that it had to be done on March 1st, but I think it was just more of a natural time for us to do it as it was occurring 12 months after the mid-market space, 18 months after the initial CSP space. That’s why I think now is probably the best time. Robert Dutt: Continue to pull on that thread that you just introduced there. As this transition is complete, in terms of the partner business, where does Citrix stay very hands-on and where does Arrow kind of fully take the wheel? Mark Sweeney: I would say that Arrow is fully taking the wheel on all the business that is mid-market business. Anything where our enterprise account executives aren’t managing the team, they’re going to be there. Any of our service providers, any of our managed service providers, Arrow is taking the full reins too. But we still have a channel team and our channel team is still going to be managed by Kerry Saunders in the US from an enterprise perspective. For the enterprise CSA channel partners out there, they’re still going to be managed. We’re still going to be building this team. We’re still going to be managing that team. I’m working very closely with Kerry and her team. My counterparts on Arrow are actually working very closely with Kerry and her team as well. I’ll also say that I’m fully supporting the Arrow business right now and I have a team that’s supporting the Arrow business as well. We have Citrix representation that is going to be supporting all of our partners across the business. Robert Dutt: Most of our listeners are Canadian MSPs and resellers, folks who’ve been working with you or with Arrow historically. But as this transition happens, what can they expect to feel different in Canada compared to the rest of North America, if anything? Mark Sweeney: This business, what we’re doing is not just happening in North America as well. This is also happening in Europe. I’m based out of London, England, as I’m sure you hear the accent, originally American. I’ve actually spent a couple of years in Canada and in the Mississauga-Etobicoke area when we had our office there. I have had the opportunity to meet a number of your partners and your customers in the region. I don’t think anything is going to change based on geography. Anything that we’re going to see in the US is likely what we’re going to see in Canada. Similar things that we’re going to see in Europe. I would say immediate changes, there really aren’t going to be any. I think a lot of the business that we’ve already worked on with the channel partners in Canada as well as the other regions is going to be an extension. Any of the contracts that you have in place with us, those are being assigned out to the Arrow team. You’re not going to see anything change there. I did have the opportunity to spend a few days with Arrow and their leadership last week in Spain talking about strategies. One thing that it’s not a change, but I would think of it more as an opportunity. There are a lot of technologies that Arrow is exploring outside of Citrix. If I were to give one recommendation to the Canadian team, it is to work with your Arrow counterparts to see what other technologies that they have inside of their portfolio that could potentially play into what you’re doing as an MSP or in the mid-market. Given what they’re doing, there are some areas of synergy in terms of being able to potentially expand the portfolio that some of the managed service providers are actually providing to their customers. Robert Dutt: Along those same lines, what can partners do to make sure this is as smooth a transition as possible for them, to make things as simple as possible? What are you doing to make sure this is as simple a process as possible? This hopefully simplifies things for partners. I don’t think any channel chief ever sets out to make things more complex. Mark Sweeney: Two answers to that. I think the first is what I’m doing. In North America, I’m establishing a team that’s going to be dedicated to supporting the MSP business and our MSP partners, and then also a team that’s going to be supporting our mid-market team too. The reason why I’ve kept them separate is specifically what you just said, to provide this as seamless as possible so that we have subject matter experts on the MSP business and then subject matter experts on the mid-market business. I think that’s probably the first thing. Keep in mind that these are overlays from a Citrix standpoint, so there are going to be direct counterparts for Arrow that will be able to work with your partners in Canada. I think the first thing that I would recommend to any of the MSPs in Canada is to identify who your account executive is going to be from an Arrow standpoint and reach out to that person as quickly as you can. Don’t wait for a renewal to happen. Don’t wait for an expansion need to happen. Really understand what your business looks like today. Understand if you have customers, if you are looking to expand what that looks like, reach out to your account team. In the FAQ that should be shared, you should be able to find it. In North America, there’s a gentleman by the name of John Heller who is available for you to reach. He’s based in the US. Then you’ve also got myself, Mark Sweeney, that you could reach out to if you’re having any challenges identifying who your account executive is. I would say, again, two things just to summarize. I’m building a team to help support. Then from your perspective, just go ahead and reach out to your account executive as quickly as you can. Robert Dutt: Any time a vendor shifts responsibilities like this, I think there’s a natural tendency for partners to worry about support and escalation, those sorts of things, about being a step further away from the vendor in abstraction and potentially worst case scenario becoming that proverbial pop fly that drops harmlessly between two fielders who both presume the other guy’s got the ball. What are you guys doing to make sure that that doesn’t happen? What safeguards are in place? You discussed a little bit having that overlap already, but what else are you doing to make sure partners’ fears around that may be assuaged if they’re out there? Mark Sweeney: Sure. To play on your reference a little bit, because I don’t get to talk about baseball too often and it’s always cricket related, I will say that it’s important for us to call the ball. If I’m in center field and the ball’s coming my way and I’ve got my left fielder over there, I want to make sure I know who has what. I think the first thing we’re doing is creating rules of engagement between our two partners so we understand who’s doing what. From a support perspective, that support is still being handled by Citrix. Anything that’s tier one related or tier two related, you’re still calling or you’re still working into the Citrix support teams. You still have contact information from Citrix support people that you can work with, but from a go-to-market perspective, that’s where you’re going to be working with the Arrow team. I think we’ve drawn very clear lines in terms of who’s doing what. We have our support team that’s being managed, the support still being managed by Citrix. All the go-to-market functions are going to be managed by Arrow. So I think that’s the first thing to keep in mind. The second thing is to think holistically, why are we even doing this? We’re doing this because we want to dedicate more resource to our innovation. We want to dedicate more resource to our supportability of our products. We want to dedicate more of our resource just to the overall adoption and consumption of everything that we’re trying to do from a technology perspective. I understand that and I’ve heard that before and I’ve had conversations with partners and customers on this, but I think when you actually dive into it to say, “Why are we doing it?” I think the answer to that “why” is what should actually make you feel better. The reason why is because we’re trying to invest more in innovation and support engineering and product development and product management. We’re actually seeing quick execution and quick successes from a lot of that as we continue to expand on our technology and our platform and our portfolio. Then again, on the support perspective, we’re still managing that and then the go-to-market functions are going to be managed by Arrow. Robert Dutt: Zooming out a bit from that, how does this Arrow partnership and this new structure fit into the overall picture of where you guys want to take your channel community over the next year or two? Mark Sweeney: I think our channel community is incredibly important to us as a whole. When we look at who our channel partners are, the ones that have been working with us for the past dozen years, they know who we are as an organization. They know what we’ve been doing from a technology perspective. If you look at where we are building our channel program right now, more on Kerry Saunders’ team, a lot of it right now is identifying the partners that are providing value-added services into our product community and into our customer community. I think where I start to think about what’s going to happen in the future is a lot of this is like, what more can we be providing to our customers and how can we do that with our channel? This allows us to help enable our channel even further, start to enable our channel around some of the concepts that we’re thinking specifically around persona-based selling, persona-based consumption. One of the things that we’re working with our consulting teams and our technical teams right now is around the concepts that we really want our customers to think about us as a company that secures the work. The way we do that is by looking at various personas across our customer base. We want our channel partners to really understand that concept and work with customers to identify them as a persona that is focused on the modern worker, somebody who’s using SaaS-based applications on a regular basis, personas that are task-based workers, think about call centers, things like that, knowledge-based workers, maybe somebody that needs more access to more specialized applications. Then you may have power users. I think working with our channel to build that out, build that strategy out so that we could go more wall-to-wall with customers is where I see our business going towards in the next few years. Robert Dutt: Before we wrap up, I’m sure you’ve been talking to a lot of partners about this change as you formulated it and since it was announced and out there, and channel partners are not a notoriously shy bunch in terms of sharing opinions. I’m curious if you had one misconception that you’ve heard from partners or otherwise in the market about this announcement that you’d like to clear up. Mark Sweeney: I haven’t heard a misconception yet. I think that’s a good thing. I did have some conversations with a few of the partners already. For the most part, and I’ll say for the whole part, it’s actually been very positive. I think the piece about removing the friction is one of the critical pieces. I think our channel partners and our managed service providers are very excited about the fact that we’ve removed that friction and we’re allowing that ability to really sell into all of the spaces out there. I’ll double back on one of the points that you raised and it’s that point of what’s going to happen. Is there going to be any miss or any like missing the fly ball? I think that’s not a misconception I’ve heard yet. That’s a misconception I heard last year. That’s probably still out there a little bit. I mean, you’ve asked the question and I think where I want your partners in Canada to think about is we have done this for a specific reason and that specific reason is because we saw significant growth in the relationship in the business over the past 18 months. We saw that also give us the ability to really focus on our innovation and our technology and our support and product management capabilities. The reason why we’re extending it is because we’ve seen success early on and we want to continue that success and we want to build on that momentum. I would say that’s probably, even though I haven’t heard something yet, that would be the reason why I think it could be out there. Robert Dutt: Mark, I appreciate your taking the time. Good luck on this transition and look forward to seeing how the relationship evolves. Mark Sweeney: That’s great. Thanks very much for your time, Robert. Thank you to the folks listening to me in Canada. There you have it, a look at the expanding Citrix-Arrow relationship, courtesy of Citrix’s Mark Sweeney. I’d like to thank Mark for joining us for the show and thank you for listening today. The podcast will be back in your feed tomorrow as we tackle shadow AI from an identity point of view and Thursday as we take a look at the launch of Lexful, an AI-first documentation tool that boasts, if you can believe it, a robotic channel chief. You’ll want to catch both of those, so please subscribe to the show or follow it in your podcast app of choice and if it allows you to do so, please consider leaving a rating or review of the show. Until tomorrow, I’m Robert for ChannelBuzz.ca and I’ll see you in the channel.

Today is Monday, March 2, 2026. Welcome to In Case You Missed It, our weekly five-minute rundown of important channel news stories that might have flown under the radar last week. In this edition: Component shortages start hitting the channel: Rising memory and storage costs are prompting vendors to revisit pricing and deal protections, highlighted by a letter from Cisco to partners and reinforced by warnings from other vendors, distributors, and suppliers as availability tightens across servers, storage, and PCs. Pure Storage rebrands as Everpure: Pure Storage has rebranded to Everpure, signaling a shift toward AI-ready data management and rolling out partner program changes aimed at supporting subscription services and platform-led growth. WatchGuard targets MSPs with enterprise-grade security: WatchGuard says new platform enhancements allow MSPs to deliver enterprise-level security outcomes — including zero trust, MDR, and unified management — without enterprise-level complexity. AWS threat research highlights AI-driven attacks: New findings from Amazon Web Services show attackers using AI-assisted techniques to accelerate exploitation of perimeter devices, including firewalls, underscoring how rapidly the threat landscape is evolving. Read Full Transcript Hello and welcome to In Case You Missed It from ChannelBuzz.ca, your Monday morning recap where we catch you up on some of the channel news and trend headlines you may have missed in the last week. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca. Today is Monday, March 2, 2026. Let’s get your week started right. This week, the IT channel is being forced to confront an uncomfortable reality. Global components shortages and memory price spikes are fundamentally reshaping how hardware deals are negotiated and fulfilled, and vendors are already updating partner policies as they try to cope. At the center of the storm is a note from Cisco Systems to partners, which was obtained by CRN, in which Cisco says it’ll adjust partner contract terms in response to rapidly rising memory costs and supply volatility. The company now reserves the right to cancel compute orders up to 45 days prior to shipment and to adjust pricing between order and shipment date if component costs, tariffs, or other external factors shift dramatically. That’s a significant departure from the traditional price protection norms. And this isn’t isolated. Executives from major distributors told CRN that memory and storage shortages, particularly DRAM and SSDs, are pushing prices up and tightening supplies across servers, storage, and PC portfolios. Memory prices are reported to have doubled year over year in early 2026, and are expected to continue rising, leading many distributors to shorten their own validities and revisit backlog pricing with vendors. Vendors themselves are directly advising partners of pricing shifts too. Lenovo has warned partners that select PC and server products will see price hikes in March unless orders are placed and shipped promptly, reflecting those costs. And hardware availability is also tightening in real terms. For example, Western Digital says its entire 2026 hard drive production capacity is already spoken for, with most allocations locked up in long-term agreements with hyperscale cloud and AI customers, a trend that could push prices higher and leave less inventory for channel projects. As memory, storage, and other components become harder to source and pricier to procure, partners may face shortened quote windows, less pricing certainty, and project timing risk, compelling MSPs and VARs to rethink their own quoting strategies, accelerate their sales cycles, and build supply chain agility into their roadmaps. Good luck out there. Also worth noting, Everpure, the company formerly known as Pure Storage, has completed a major strategic evolution, rebranding itself to signal a transition from traditional storage vendor to a broader AI-ready data management platform and announcing changes that partners should really pay attention to. The name change, which takes effect on the New York Stock Exchange March 5, reflects the company’s push into enterprise data orchestration and intelligence beyond simply shipping storage hardware and arrays. Central to this transformation is Everpure’s planned acquisition of data intelligence firm 1touch, a move designed to bring automated data discovery, classification, and semantic enrichment capabilities into its portfolio. This expands the enterprise data cloud vision, equipping enterprises to make data inherently AI-ready and more valuable across hybrid environments. Alongside that rebrand, Everpure has updated its partner engagement model with a new tiering structure that gives MSPs, resellers, and distributors clearer pathways to profitability and growth, reflecting the broader mission of the company going forward. Recent results show that the demand for data management and subscription services are driving double-digit growth, the company says, underscoring why partners should lean into Everpure’s evolving platform play. For channel pros, the message is that Everpure sees partners as critical to selling data-centric solutions in the AI era and is aligning its incentives and program structure accordingly. Up next, WatchGuard is positioning its latest platform updates as a way for MSPs to deliver what it calls enterprise-grade security to small and mid-sized customers, without the complexity typically associated with large enterprise tools. The company says the enhancements are focused on unifying endpoint, network, identity, and MDR capabilities into a single manageable platform designed for service providers. Key to the message is simplification. WatchGuard is emphasizing centralized management, automated threat response, and bundled security services that allow MSPs to deploy advanced protection like zero-trust network access, AI-driven threat detection, and 24/7 monitoring at scale and under predictable pricing models. For MSPs, the pitch is that this closes a long-standing gap, giving smaller customers access to security capabilities that more rival enterprise deployments, while still fitting MSP operational and margin requirements. WatchGuard argues that as threats become more sophisticated, the ability to offer enterprise-grade outcomes without enterprise-grade overhead is becoming a baseline expectation rather than a premium add-on. And speaking of more sophisticated threats to bring this week’s roundup home, new threat research from Amazon Web Services adding to the evidence that AI is actively changing how attacks are carried out, not just how they’re defended against. AWS researchers report seeing threat actors use AI-assisted techniques to more quickly identify and exploit vulnerabilities in perimeter devices, including Fortinet FortiGate firewalls, reducing the time between disclosure and real-world exploitation. The finding reinforces a growing concern for solution providers. Attackers are using AI to scale reconnaissance, speed up exploit development, and adapt attacks faster than traditional defenses expect. For MSPs and VARs, the implication is clear. Staying ahead now requires faster patching cycles, continuous monitoring, and security platforms that assume AI-accelerated threats are the norm and not an edge case. Those are some of the things we were paying attention to last week. This week on the podcast, expect to hear how Citrix is thinking of partners as it hands off more of its channel management to Arrow Electronics, a look at the role of identity in taming shadow AI, and how startup Lexful is aiming to redefine how MSPs think about documentation. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca. Have a great week!

The episode centers on the evolving responsibility and risk allocation within cybersecurity distribution, with particular focus on Exclusive Networks' approach. Jason Beal, as president of Exclusive Networks North America, outlines their emphasis on a technical workforce, maintaining a 1:3 ratio of engineers to sales representatives. This structure is positioned to address the increasing complexity of cybersecurity and the demands faced by service provider partners, aiming to support solution integration and customer needs while clarifying each party's liability. Supporting this structure, Jason Beal identifies the role of the distributor as both an extension and enabler for MSPs and IT services companies. Distributors are expected to supplement partners' capabilities—whether technical, financial, or operational—without assuming technology failure risk, which remains with the original technology vendors. Discussion of shared responsibility models also distinguishes between sales success (customer adoption, retention) and risk management. Recent developments in cyber insurance are cited as having reduced the direct risk burden on MSPs, shifting much of the liability away from service providers toward technology creators, albeit within contractually defined limits. Adjacent to cybersecurity, the conversation addresses skill and adoption gaps prompted by rapid technical innovation, specifically referencing artificial intelligence (AI). Jason Beal quantifies educational efforts by highlighting a collaboration with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which has seen 100 students engaged to help address workforce shortfalls in cybersecurity and AI. Additionally, academic experience informs the importance of modernizing IT operations curricula to better reflect current business challenges, such as cloud, AI, and global supply chain impacts. For MSPs and IT service providers, implications include the growing necessity to audit core competencies and allocate resources strategically, leveraging distributors not just for sourcing products but for specialized expertise, integration, and operational support. Risk mitigation remains tied to understanding contract language, vendor accountability, and developments in cyber insurance. The pace of AI and other technology adoption requires continuous education and careful evaluation of both operational risk and the practical limitations of solutions promoted by the channel and distribution partners.

Anthropic's refusal to remove safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons in its interactions with the Department of Defense establishes an explicit boundary on the use of AI in federal contracts. The company cited specific civic and legal risks, emphasizing that current AI systems are not reliable enough for autonomous weapon deployment and warning that government pressure on vendors to bypass statutory constraints poses broader accountability issues. This underscores a shift in liability for MSPs and IT providers—any weakening of safeguards under contract does not eliminate risk but instead transfers possible exposure down the technology supply chain. This position is reinforced by the lack of unconditional trust in military oversight, as highlighted by the Pentagon CTO's remarks, and by clear legal challenges, including violations of the Fourth Amendment and Department of Defense Directive 3000.09. Dave Sobel asserts that professional liability and cyber policies do not typically cover actions undertaken solely at government request where legal limits are breached. This increases the necessity for MSPs and IT leaders to verify that contract language explicitly defines acceptable AI use and to ensure written documentation before government or enterprise client demands arise. Additional analysis includes operational deployments of AI in service and workplace environments. Burger King's AI chatbot, Patty, and ServiceNow's autonomous request resolution underscore the friction between efficiency claims and trust gaps, as evidenced by a YouGov survey that found 68% of consumers lack confidence in AI customer service. Dave Sobel notes that MSP benchmarks tied to vendor ticket closure rates may not reflect real client satisfaction or risk, especially when legal requirements for monitoring and consent are not met. The episode further covers market reactions to speculative reports on AI-driven job displacement, studies demonstrating AI's failure to maintain human-like restraint in conflict scenarios, and IBM's valuation drop due to AI modernization tools. For MSPs and IT decision-makers, the practical takeaway is the need for documented governance, explicit contractual safeguards, and ongoing risk assessments when deploying or recommending AI solutions—particularly in environments where trust, human oversight, and insurability are not yet aligned with technical capability. Three things to know today: 00:00 Anthropic Refuses Pentagon Demands on Surveillance and Autonomous Weapons, Risks Contract 03:40 AI Hits the Human Layer — and Governance, Consent, and Trust Infrastructure Aren't Ready 07:37 AI Moves Markets, Escalates Wars, and Splits Partner Ecosystems — In One Week   This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  IT Service Provider University

The episode's central development is the ongoing dispute between the U.S. Department of Defense and Anthropic regarding Pentagon demands for unrestricted access to Claude, Anthropic's AI model. According to Dave Sobel, the Pentagon has threatened to sever ties or invoke the Defense Production Act if the company does not comply, seeking capabilities that Anthropic argues may be illegal—specifically mass surveillance without warrants and autonomous weapons systems without human control. This move exposes Managed Service Providers (MSPs) serving defense contractors to unpredictable legal, operational, and compliance risks embedded in their AI workflows. The analysis highlights that a commercial AI provider's acceptable use policy now intersects directly with national security policy, and even partial vendor compliance can trigger regulatory or legal instability for dependent organizations. For MSPs, this means that building service offerings on AI infrastructures without clear fallback strategies or documented policy change clauses can lead to unmanageable risk and liability in the event of provider or legal regime shifts. Dave Sobel stresses that failing to address policy volatility as part of a managed service amounts to underwriting geopolitical risk without compensation. Other notable developments include the passage of the Small Business Artificial Intelligence Advancement Act, federal cybersecurity resource contraction as CISA operates with 38% staffing after layoffs, and heightened uncertainty around cloud infrastructure due to Microsoft's Azure Local “air-gapped” offering not wholly mitigating U.S. CLOUD Act exposure. Vendor news covered new AI-powered compliance features from Compliance Scorecard (version 10) and Beachhead Solutions (ComplianceEZ 2.0), Apple's accelerated retirement of Rosetta 2 translation technology, a Microsoft 365 Copilot DLP change, and continued fallout from VMware's acquisition by Broadcom, which has led to ongoing cost and trust challenges for cloud and infrastructure partners. The episode's clear implications for MSPs and IT providers are operational. Service catalogs and statements of work should actively address AI provider liability, dependency exit planning, and degraded federal cybersecurity support. Without scheduled and documented compatibility and risk reviews, MSPs absorb hidden exposure into their margins. Vendor stability can no longer be assumed, and proactive policy, renewal intelligence, and transparent advisory sessions are now required to avoid unplanned liability, budget crises, and damaged client trust. Four things to know today 00:00 Pentagon Threatens Anthropic Over Claude Access, Demands Autonomous Weapons Use 04:31 CISA Cuts, Azure Sovereignty Push Signal End of Federal MSP Safety Net 06:56 AI Compliance Tools Flood Market as MSPs Face Validation Gap 09:54 86% of Firms Cutting VMware Ties as Broadcom Renewal Costs Loom   This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by: Small Biz Thoughts Community

The primary discussion in the episode centers on the increasing risk to data privacy posed by the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) applications within SMB environments. Panelists highlighted the challenge of educating clients on how AI systems may access, process, and transmit sensitive information, sometimes integrating client data into broader training datasets owned by third parties. Specific emphasis was placed on the operational reality that data, once shared with AI models, may no longer be under the original owner's control. This development directly affects both regulatory compliance and client trust, especially for service providers tasked with protecting client environments. Supporting details referenced both technical and procedural countermeasures available to MSPs. Tools such as browser-based security assessments (e.g., Atacama), network analysis at the firewall, and Microsoft 365's built-in security features (Defender and Cloud App Security) were identified as practical resources for monitoring data flow and enforcing restrictions on AI integration. The approach recommended focuses on assessment-driven education—using tangible network data to demonstrate risks and capabilities, supporting MSPs in facilitating more accountable, informed decision-making among clients. Adjacent topics included a workforce transition in the MSP sector, driven by compliance and security requirements. The discussion referenced an industry demographic shift, with a substantive proportion of MSP owners above the age of 55, and many considering mergers or exits rather than evolving to meet new consulting, compliance, and productivity challenges introduced by AI. Additional coverage addressed the impact of AI and data center expansion on community resources (e.g., demands on electrical grids and water supply), as well as divergent organizational responses to emerging consumer technologies such as smart glasses.   Evolve or Exit -  Many MSP's are facing this reality https://mspglobal.com/blog/exit-or-evolve-msp-reinvention-cycle/ Browser based security assessment tool http://www.atakama.com   States moving to require AI to pay for its own electricity. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/states-move-to-shield-ratepaye-0_4v24YTRWGbech52eWGZw   Airforce ban meta glasses while army adopts them.  https://www.perplexity.ai/page/air-force-bans-meta-ai-glasses-KTBzW6_tQom3lJ6XuWNcZg Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The First Minister answers questions from Party Leaders and other MSPs in this weekly question time. Topics covered this week include: Michelle Thomson MSP To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of warnings from industry leaders that high transmission charges are making wind farms in the north of Scotland uncompetitive, including any implications for its work to grow the renewable energy sector. Liam Kerr MSP To ask the First Minister, in light of reported renewed calls over the weekend to end the Lord Advocate's dual role, when the Scottish Government will publish its proposals and begin a consultation on separating the prosecution function from the role of providing legal advice to the Scottish Ministers.  Mercedes Villalba MSP To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the outcome of the University of Aberdeen UCU ballot, which resulted in 83% of those voting in support of strike action and 90% in favour of action short of a strike. A full transcript of this week's First Minister's Questions will be available on the Scottish Parliament website: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report

Mike DePalma, vice president of business development for cybersecurity at OpenText AI has quickly moved from an abstract talking point to a real strategic priority for managed service providers. But while enthusiasm is high, readiness — and results — are far more uneven. In this episode, I'm joined by Mike DePalma, vice president of business development for cybersecurity at OpenText, for a candid conversation about how MSPs are actually navigating the AI transition. We dig into why many partners are excited about AI, yet still unprepared to deliver it in a scalable, customer-facing way, and why that's starting to change. As MSPs gain a clearer understanding of where AI can be profitable, pricing models are evolving, and old assumptions about margins and service delivery are being challenged. Mike explains why the channel has made faster progress using AI internally than deploying it for customers, and how concepts like AI-as-a-Service are pushing providers to focus less on tools and more on business outcomes. We also talk about the return of consulting and custom project work, and why quarterly business reviews are becoming a key lever for expanding the scope of AI services. The conversation goes beyond technology to look at ecosystem dynamics: why partners want openness more than consolidation, what MSPs are asking vendors for right now, and how shifting feedback has forced OpenText to slow down changes to its partner program. Finally, Mike shares his view on what the AI opportunity will look like a year from now—and why deeper engagement with MSP communities may be more important than ever during this transition. If you're trying to separate real AI opportunity from hype, this is a grounded, practical discussion you won't want to miss.

Recent analysis from Goldman Sachs indicates that $700 billion in AI investment during 2025 resulted in no measurable U.S. GDP growth, with most AI equipment imports negating domestic benefits and 80% of surveyed firms reporting no productivity or employment improvements. This pattern suggests that AI-related spending has primarily shifted margins from enterprise IT budgets to a small number of infrastructure vendors rather than delivering distributed value. Internal concerns are rising, with 90% of IT leaders questioning AI's return on investment, and 80% citing fragmented data as a primary challenge to measuring outcomes. Further context reveals that agentic AI initiatives face operational headwinds: Gartner expects 40% of such projects to be cancelled by 2027, and S&P Global found nearly half are abandoned before production, most often due to inadequate planning and data foundations. Margin erosion is widespread, attributed to AI implementation costs, and attempts to scale AI agents into production remain limited by inference costs and insufficient infrastructure. Despite increased adoption efforts, sustainable value delivery from AI platforms remains elusive for most organizations. Enterprise AI access is becoming increasingly concentrated. OpenAI's partnership with consulting firms such as BCG, McKinsey, Accenture, and Capgemini consolidates control of the enterprise distribution layer, narrowing competitive opportunities for smaller providers. Meanwhile, Amazon's 13-hour AWS outage, linked to the misconfiguration of an internal AI tool, underscores the liability ambiguity in agentic systems—where vendors may attribute autonomous actions to user error, complicating risk assignment. Additional updates from vendors such as Anthropic, Cloudflare, and New Relic address incremental technical capabilities, with a distinct focus on cost, operational governance, and policy enforcement. The prevailing themes for MSPs and IT leaders are increased scrutiny of AI value, heightened exposure to cost and accountability risk, and the emergence of managed service opportunities around data governance, cost instrumentation, and liability management. With enterprise market channels consolidating and risk shifting toward service providers, integrating robust contractual definitions for autonomy, incident attribution, and financial boundaries is essential to limit harm and clarify responsibility before incidents occur. Four things to know today 00:00 Goldman: $700B AI Spend Delivered Near-Zero U.S. GDP Growth in 2025 03:49 OpenAI Enlists BCG, McKinsey, Accenture to Distribute Enterprise AI Agents 06:44 Report: Amazon's Own Engineers Prefer Claude Over Its Mandated Internal Tools 08:56 AI Inference Costs Are Falling — But Governance Gaps Are Growing This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by: CometBackup  Small Biz Thoughts Community   

In this episode of One Sharp Sword, Dr. Wayne Pernell sits down with mission-driven tech founder Dekel Skoop, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree who has built companies serving underserved markets—from web accessibility to cybersecurity. Dekel shares hard-earned leadership lessons on scaling organizations, hiring for adaptability and common sense, and why people always come before process and product. He also unpacks how real growth guarantees change—and why great leaders plan for it instead of resisting it. This is a grounded, practical conversation for founders, executives, and leaders navigating growth in fast-changing environments. Key Takeaways Why people—not products—are the foundation of scalable organizations How successful growth guarantees change (and why that's a good thing) The leadership discipline of hiring people who are better than you How to assess adaptability, culture fit, and common sense when hiring Why small and midsize businesses are the backbone of the global economy How Guardz is simplifying cybersecurity for MSPs and SMBs Connect with Dekel ● LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dekel-skoop-469335118

Cybercrime's escalation has reached a projected $12.2 trillion annual impact by 2031, with a notable surge in remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool abuse—up 277% year-over-year, according to Huntress and supporting vendor reports. Attackers utilize legitimate IT tools to facilitate stealthier ransomware and phishing campaigns, amplifying structural vulnerabilities within MSP technology stacks. Key metrics from Acronis, WatchGuard, and Vectra AI indicate a shift to smaller, more evasive malware campaigns, longer times to ransomware deployment (averaging 20 hours), and widespread unaddressed security alerts, raising questions about the adequacy of current defenses and incident response practices. Vendor-supplied threat intelligence further shows that MSPs' reliance on signature-based platforms and insufficient visibility leaves them exposed to evolving attack techniques. Data reviewed suggests phishing footholds can quickly compromise cross-client environments, and legal ramifications heavily fall on the service provider when RMM or monitoring tools act as entry points. Notably, only about 58-60% of organizations report full visibility across their systems, with a majority of alerts remaining unaddressed, underscoring gaps in operational maturity and preparedness. Adjacent coverage highlighted Microsoft Copilot's repeated security control failures within regulated environments, specifically its inability to enforce sensitivity labels and boundaries across emails—most recently affecting the UK's National Health Service. The lack of vendor-announced architectural changes calls into question the viability of deploying AI tools in compliance-driven contexts. Separately, political and public backlash against surveillance technologies (such as Flock cameras) demonstrates that unchecked data collection is no longer a manageable passive risk, as data becomes increasingly actionable and retains liability beyond technical considerations. The practical takeaway for MSPs and IT leaders is a need to prioritize audit, documentation, and enforcement of controls within their technology stacks, especially where vendor tools or AI-driven automation intersect with compliance and client trust. Preserving operational optionality and scrutinizing vendor terms—particularly data sharing and architectural enforcement—are essential to reduce exposure. Waiting for vendor patches, disregarding documented control failures, or underestimating public scrutiny elevate liability across legal, reputational, and client relationship domains. Four things to know today: 00:00 Vendor Threat Reports Converge on One Risk MSPs Can't Outsource: The RMM as Breach Vector 05:11 Copilot Failed Compliance Controls Twice in Eight Months — A Patch Won't Fix That 07:03 Flock Backlash Exposes the Liability Hidden in Every Vendor Data-Sharing Contract 09:42 GTDC Summit: Distributors Pitch AI On-Ramp as Hyperscalers Compress Their Margin Sponsored by:  

Managed Service Providers are being pushed to “get compliant fast.” In my discussion with Bruno Leqoc, we reframe the challenge. Compliance isn't security, and lasting compliance depends on security maturity first. Highlighting how AI policy can extend existing governance frameworks, why Microsoft Secure Score is a practical readiness indicator, and why foundational controls (MFA, patching, device management/remote wipe) must come before certifications and GRC tooling. In this episode, we also explore MSPs' expanding responsibilities in data privacy and governance amid fragmented U.S. state laws and why client alignment and continuous maintenance are the true costs of compliance.

Join Brian Doyle on this episode of MSP Business School as he sits down with Doug Kreitzberg from SeedPod Cyber to discuss the intricate world of cybersecurity insurance. Kreitzberg, with a rich background in the insurance industry, explores the dynamic relationship between MSPs and cyber insurance providers. He highlights the importance of having well-designed insurance programs that align with the specific technology and risk environments of SMBs (Small and Medium-sized Businesses). Doug's insights shed light on how MSPs can leverage cyber insurance to build trust and offer more value to their clients. In this episode, Doug Kreitzberg delves into the complexities of cyber insurance underwriting, emphasizing the role of MSPs in ensuring their clients are adequately protected. He reveals eye-opening statistics regarding insurance claims and the common pitfalls businesses face when they fail to understand the nuances of their coverage. By partnering with firms like SeedPod Cyber, MSPs can better navigate these challenges, offering their clients tailored insurance solutions that account for evolving risks, including the impacts of AI on cybersecurity protocols. Kreitzberg shares the latest trends in the industry, where insurers are starting to offer managed security services, potentially disrupting traditional MSP roles. Key Takeaways: Understanding Claims: 44% of cyber incidents result in denied claims due to unmet tech stack requirements, emphasizing the need for comprehensive and precise policy coverage. MSP Partnerships: Collaborations between MSPs and cyber insurance providers can enhance risk management and simplify the insurance process, benefiting both parties. Insurer Trends: Some insurance carriers are venturing into offering security services, creating potential conflicts of interest with MSPs. Risk Evaluations: Tools like the Insurability Audit help MSPs communicate risks and insurance needs more effectively to clients, aligning coverage with actual tech environments. Fee Income Opportunities: MSPs can benefit financially by incorporating SeedPod's systems, offering audit processes that create additional revenue streams. Guest Name: Doug Kreitzberg LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougkreitzberg/ Company: SeedPod Cyber Website: https://seedpodcyber.com/ Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Host Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoylevciotoolbox/ Sponsor vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com

Welcome to the newly rebranded Get More MSP Leads podcast. In this episode, Laura Johns introduces Lydia Walker, TBG's new COO and a 20-year MSP and telecom operator who has sat in the same seat many of you are in right now. Laura was not looking for another marketing expert. She was looking for someone who understands how to run an MSP. Someone who knows where growth breaks. Someone who loves fixing broken things. Together, they break down: • The Visionary and Integrator dynamic and why it matters for MSP growth • How operational gaps quietly sabotage your lead generation • Laura's "hole in the boat" metaphor and what it reveals about scaling • Why MSPs flail when they do not truly know who they are • What this leadership shift means for TBG clients and their results Most agencies hire more marketers. TBG hired an operator who has been the client. If you care about predictable growth, strong systems, and lead generation your operations can actually support, this episode connects the dots. Because getting more MSP leads is not just about marketing. It is about building a business that can handle the growth. The Business Growers: https://www.instagram.com/thebizgrowers/ _________________________________________________________ About The Business Growers: Many Managed Services Providers and IT companies struggle to grow because they are constantly putting out fires and don't have the bandwidth to focus on the marketing strategy and execution required to scale the business. At The Business Growers, we believe you shouldn't have to hire a full-time marketing team to compete in the marketplace. We work exclusively with MSPs and IT companies, serving as their tech marketing dream team and offering a proven framework for revenue growth. Visit us at https://thebusinessgrowers.com

Recent data highlights a growing disconnect between technology spending and measurable business outcomes, with small business optimism softening and widespread skepticism about the benefits of artificial intelligence. The transcript cites an 80% rate of firms seeing no noticeable AI-driven productivity improvements, while trust in technology companies, particularly AI vendors, has declined globally according to the Edelman report. For MSPs, this presents a risk of credibility gaps, especially for those selling AI solutions without corresponding outcome data, as client trust and spending habits grow more discerning in the face of unfulfilled promises. Further context is provided by economic indicators showing a resilient U.S. economy, yet persistent challenges for small businesses. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index has dropped slightly to 99.3, with insurance costs and labor quality as major pain points; only 16% of business owners expect higher sales. At the same time, IT professionals face salary compression—median IT salaries fell from $145,000 in 2023 to $115,000 in 2024—despite a severe shortage of skilled cloud, AI, and infrastructure talent, as less than 10% of hiring managers are confident in filling in-demand roles. Additional market pressures include rising technology budgets—three-quarters of CFOs anticipate larger tech allocations, but headcount increases are slowing and tech spending faces a widening affordability gap due to sector-specific inflation outpacing budget growth. Vendor-specific developments, such as Western Digital exhausting hard drive capacity for 2026 and Enable reporting 12.8% revenue growth alongside ongoing losses and a 65% stock decline since 2021, illustrate structural risks. Vendor rationalization and strategic uncertainty are likely outcomes for MSPs relying heavily on underperforming partners. Key takeaways for service providers and IT leaders include the need for caution in messaging and solution positioning: outcome data and defensible value propositions are essential when advocating AI or cloud services. Salary data should be weighed against demand-side evidence to avoid retention failures. Finally, dependency on vendors with deteriorating financial outlooks heightens operational risk; providers should proactively assess alternatives and align with financially sustainable partners to reduce exposure during vendor consolidation cycles or market restructures. Four things to know today 00:00 AI Productivity Gap Widens as Trust Drops — MSPs Selling Outcomes They Can't Measure Face CFO Audits  04:51 IT Median Salary Dropped 20% in 2024, But Only 7% of Hiring Managers Can Fill AI and Cloud Roles 07:26 IT Inflation Hits 6.9% as CFOs Concentrate Spend; Western Digital Fully Booked Through 2026 10:28 N-Able Beats Revenue, Misses Earnings as 2026 Growth Guidance Drops to 8–9%   Sponsored by: CometBackup Small Biz Thoughts Community

What does it take to turn the dream of an autonomous SOC into something organizations can actually deploy? Subo Guha, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Stellar Cyber, joins Sean Martin to share how the company's AI-driven security operations platform is making that vision a reality. Stellar Cyber serves SOC teams across more than 50 countries, with a primary focus on MSPs and MSSPs supporting the underserved mid-market, though marquee enterprise customers like Canon are also part of the portfolio.How can agentic AI change the way SOC teams handle alert overload? Guha describes what he calls a "digital army" of AI agents that work around the clock to automate alert triage and catch phishing attacks. The system filters 70 to 80 percent of incoming alerts, allowing analysts to focus on the 20 percent that matter most. With attackers using AI to launch faster and more frequent campaigns, Stellar Cyber takes a human-augmented approach, meaning the AI learns from analyst interactions and continuously guides the SOC team toward faster, more accurate remediation.Why does this matter for MSPs operating on thin margins? Guha explains that the autonomous SOC capability layered on top of Stellar Cyber's XDR platform allows MSSPs to serve more customers, reduce mean time to repair, and grow their tenant base without proportionally increasing staff. When MSSPs grow revenue, Stellar Cyber grows alongside them, creating a mutually beneficial model that ultimately means more organizations get protected.This is a Brand Highlight. A Brand Highlight is a ~5 minute introductory conversation designed to put a spotlight on the guest and their company. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#highlightGUESTSubo Guha, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Stellar Cyber @LinkedInRESOURCESLearn more about Stellar Cyber: https://stellarcyber.aiAre you interested in telling your story?▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlightKEYWORDSSubo Guha, Stellar Cyber, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand highlight, autonomous SOC, agentic AI, security operations, XDR, NDR, MSSP, MSP, alert triage, AI-driven security, Open XDR, Gartner Magic Quadrant, phishing detection, SOC automation Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does it take to turn the dream of an autonomous SOC into something organizations can actually deploy? Subo Guha, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Stellar Cyber, joins Sean Martin to share how the company's AI-driven security operations platform is making that vision a reality. Stellar Cyber serves SOC teams across more than 50 countries, with a primary focus on MSPs and MSSPs supporting the underserved mid-market, though marquee enterprise customers like Canon are also part of the portfolio.How can agentic AI change the way SOC teams handle alert overload? Guha describes what he calls a "digital army" of AI agents that work around the clock to automate alert triage and catch phishing attacks. The system filters 70 to 80 percent of incoming alerts, allowing analysts to focus on the 20 percent that matter most. With attackers using AI to launch faster and more frequent campaigns, Stellar Cyber takes a human-augmented approach, meaning the AI learns from analyst interactions and continuously guides the SOC team toward faster, more accurate remediation.Why does this matter for MSPs operating on thin margins? Guha explains that the autonomous SOC capability layered on top of Stellar Cyber's XDR platform allows MSSPs to serve more customers, reduce mean time to repair, and grow their tenant base without proportionally increasing staff. When MSSPs grow revenue, Stellar Cyber grows alongside them, creating a mutually beneficial model that ultimately means more organizations get protected.This is a Brand Highlight. A Brand Highlight is a ~5 minute introductory conversation designed to put a spotlight on the guest and their company. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#highlightGUESTSubo Guha, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Stellar Cyber @LinkedInRESOURCESLearn more about Stellar Cyber: https://stellarcyber.aiAre you interested in telling your story?▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlightKEYWORDSSubo Guha, Stellar Cyber, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand highlight, autonomous SOC, agentic AI, security operations, XDR, NDR, MSSP, MSP, alert triage, AI-driven security, Open XDR, Gartner Magic Quadrant, phishing detection, SOC automation 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 The IT Experts Podcast, we ask a powerful question. Are you ready to stop being the bottleneck in your MSP and step into true Owner Not Needed leadership?    So many MSP owners tell us the same story. They are still the person everything flows through. Every decision lands on their desk. Every problem escalates to them. Every opportunity waits for their approval. They are working eighty or ninety hours a week while the rest of the team finishes at five. And deep down, they are wondering whether the business is working for them, or whether they are working for the business.    At The MSP Growth Hub we use the phrase Owner Not Needed. It is not about disappearing. It is about building a business that can grow, perform and create value without being dependent on you for every move. One day you will exit your MSP. Whether that is five years away or fifteen, the value of your business will be shaped by how needed you are. The less dependent it is on you, the stronger the valuation and the more freedom you create along the way.    One of the biggest fears around Owner Not Needed is loss of control. Owners worry that if they delegate properly, quality will slip, standards will drop and clients will suffer. The truth is that poor delegation creates risk. Structured delegation reduces it. When you build clarity around roles, responsibilities and expectations, you do not lose control. You create scale.    Another common challenge is decision dependency. Your team comes to you with ten-pound tasks. Small decisions. Quick clarifications. Simple approvals. Individually they feel harmless. Collectively they make you the bottleneck. A practical shift is the one three one rule. When someone brings you a problem, ask for one decision, three options and their recommendation. This develops thinking, confidence and ownership. It moves you closer to Owner Not Needed behaviour and further away from reactive firefighting.    There is also the emotional side. What happens if the business runs smoothly without you? What happens if the team no longer needs your input every hour? Some owners experience a subtle fear of becoming irrelevant. The shift from technical doer to strategic leader is not easy. What got you here will not get you there. Owner Not Needed requires you to redefine your value. You move from fixing tickets to setting direction. From solving immediate problems to shaping long term outcomes.     A practical starting point is to define your thousand pound an hour tasks. These are strategy, leadership, growth planning, financial oversight and culture. If you are spending your week buried in technical work or low value approvals, you are operating far below your true impact level. Owner Not Needed is about elevating your contribution. Delegate the ten-pound tasks. Develop your leadership team to handle the hundred-pound tasks. Protect your time for the thousand-pound decisions that drive growth.     Building leaders rather than helpers is another essential shift. Helpers wait for instruction. Leaders take ownership. They understand their numbers. They report performance. They challenge ideas. They contribute to innovation. This requires structure. Clear KPIs. Departmental plans. Individual accountability. Regular one to ones. Without structure, people drift. With structure, they grow. Owner Not Needed thrives in a culture of clarity.     Numbers also play a critical role. Many MSP owners cannot confidently say whether they are truly making money. They look at the bank balance and hope. Owner Not Needed demands financial visibility. Know your margins. Know your EBITDA. Share the right metrics with your team. When everyone understands performance, decisions improve and dependency reduces.     Staying strategically involved is different from daily firefighting. A weekly cadence focused on progress, priorities and performance replaces reactive noise. Instead of walking around asking how things are going, you review structured updates. Instead of solving every issue, you coach leaders to solve them. This is how Owner Not Needed becomes a lived reality rather than a slogan.    The benefits are powerful. Clear head space to think. A capable leadership team making aligned decisions. Consistent delivery without owner interruption. More time with family and friends. Greater flexibility and control over how you spend your time. And when the day comes to sell, a stronger multiplier because the business is not reliant on you.    Owner Not Needed is not about stepping away and hoping for the best. It is about intentionally building a structure that allows the business to thrive without constant owner intervention. When you lift yourself out of the bottleneck position, you unlock growth, value and freedom.     If this episode has struck a chord, take a moment to reflect. Where are you still the decision maker for something your team could own? What would change if you truly embraced Owner Not Needed thinking?   Make sure to check out our Ultimate MSP Growth Guide, a free guide that walks you through a proven process to take your MSP from stuck to scalable, without working even more hours. It's 44 pages rammed with advice, insights and inspiration to help you decide what support is available to you now if you want to grow and scale your business. Click HERE to get your copy.    Connect on LinkedIn HERE with Ian and also with Stuart by clicking this LINK    And when you're ready to take the next step in growing your MSP, come and take the Scale with Confidence MSP Mastery Quiz. In just three minutes, you'll get a 360-degree scan of your MSP and identify the one or two tactics that could help you find more time, engage & align your people and generate more leads.  OR   To join our amazing Facebook Group of over 400 MSPs where we are helping you Scale Up with Confidence, then click HERE  Until next time, look after yourself and I'll catch up with you soon!   

Key Takeaways and Insights: The New B2B Buyer Journey -Buyers seek personalized answers in Slack groups, Discord, WhatsApp, Reddit, and LLMs. -LLMs frequently leverage Reddit to inform their responses. -Influence now happens in communities—not just on your website. -If you're not present where conversations happen, you're invisible at decision time. Reddit's Influence on LLMs & AI Search -Platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini pull insights from Reddit. -Reddit Answers (Reddit's native AI tool) is growing rapidly. -Showing up on Reddit increases your likelihood of influencing AI-generated responses. -Reddit is now an upstream distribution channel for AI visibility. The Three Buckets of Modern Organic Growth -Onsite optimization: technical SEO, structure, and speed. -Offsite influence: reviews, mentions, and third-party validation. -Word-of-mouth engines: content and product experiences that spark conversation. -Sustainable growth requires alignment across all three. SEO Fundamentals Still Win -Clean site architecture and clear navigation matter. -Optimize for real search queries—not internal jargon. -Remove redundant branding from meta titles. -Prioritize site speed, mobile-first performance, and backlinks. Offsite Optimization Beyond Backlinks -Be included in “best tools” lists and review content. -Win in comparison threads and niche discussions on Reddit. -Influence buying decisions where prospects evaluate options. -Visibility off your domain often matters more than traffic to it. Word of Mouth as a Growth Flywheel -Word of mouth was ranked the #1 buying factor in a Winter study. -Engineer moments that inspire customers to talk. -Reviews, tweets, blog posts, and Reddit threads compound over time. -Build systems that generate advocacy—don't leave it to chance. Listen, Learn, Leap: The Reddit Framework -Listen: Audit what customers are saying about you. -Learn: Identify content trends and cultural norms in subreddits. -Leap: Create native content that aligns with community expectations. -Treat Reddit as a long-term investment, not a campaign channel. Finding Content-Market Fit on Reddit -Sort subreddit posts by “Top” to uncover engagement patterns. -Reverse engineer themes that drive upvotes and comments. -Look for repeated formats: transparent case studies, financial breakdowns, how-tos. -Validate resonance before scaling your posting cadence. Niche Down to Win -Large subreddits are competitive—start in focused communities. -Every B2B niche likely has an active subreddit. -Example: Reverse engineering content for r/MSPs led to strong traction. -Precision beats volume in early-stage Reddit growth. Create for Reddit Culture -Blend educational, engaging, entertaining, and empowering content. -Publish consistently once you understand audience expectations. -Repetition works—humans gravitate toward familiar story structures. -If you've truly listened, your audience won't fatigue. Resources & Tools:

Welcome to a feed drop ofthe SMB Community Podcast, the longest-running MSP-focused podcast in the industry.  Hosts James Kernan and Amy Babinchak dive deep into AI go-to-market strategies for 2026, inspired by insights from Amy Babinchak's recent AI class for MSPs.They open with the latest news on Microsoft Copilot and Anthropic's integration, highlighting new privacy and security features for Office apps. Then, they explore how MSPs can not only adopt AI internally but also create new, innovative service offerings for their clients—like custom AI grant-writing agents for nonprofits, real-world business demonstrations, and the integration of AI readiness assessments.Pricing strategies, project sales versus monthly recurring revenue, and the importance of meaningful quarterly business reviews also come under the spotlight. Throughout the conversation, Amy Babinchak and James Kernan share practical examples, discuss industry challenges, and encourage listeners to rethink and monetize their approach to AI as we move toward 2026.Tune in for fresh ideas, actionable strategies, and a glimpse into the real-world experiences of MSPs shaping the future with AI, and find it on your favorite podcast player.   Links at https://smbcommunitypodcast.com

The First Minister answers questions from Party Leaders and other MSPs in this weekly question time. Topics covered this week include: Christine Grahame To ask the First Minister what measures the Scottish Government is taking to standardise the criteria for urgent referrals to child and adolescent mental health services for an assessment, in light of reports that it is currently a postcode lottery. Roz McCall To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that hundreds of teachers have sought medical treatment following attacks by pupils in the last five years. Maggie Chapman To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on the development of a Just Transition plan for the north east of Scotland, including how communities and workers have been engaged. A full transcript of this week's First Minister's Questions will be available on the Scottish Parliament website: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report

This Week's Highlights:1. Elevating Your Business ConversationsEver feel anxious about those business-focused meetings with customers? You're not alone! In this episode, Amy Babinchak and James Kernan share their personal experiences—like ice-breakers for introverts, why finding common ground matters, and how to move the business convo from awkward to actionable. Here's Amy's advice: listen actively, ask about their growth and goals, and let those insights lead you into productive IT conversations. You don't need to come to the table with all the answers—just be ready to listen and respond.2. Why MSAs MatterAre Master Service Agreements (MSAs) critical? Our hosts agree: absolutely. James Kernan and Amy Babinchak lay out why every MSP should have a clear, enforceable contract with each customer (especially if you ever plan to sell your business). They cover how overcomplicated contracts can be a sales hurdle, the importance of keeping agreements simple, and protecting your liability in the age of fast-moving tech and shadow AI.3. Industry NewsWe touch on the recent Pax8 hack—what was exposed, why you should care, and how leaks can impact negotiations. Plus, a heads-up on the ongoing scarcity and price hikes for memory and storage thanks to AI's heavy demand. Don't skimp when buying devices for clients! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send a textIn this wide-ranging and deeply thoughtful conversation, Joey Pinz sits down with Jason Magee, former CEO of ConnectWise and current CEO of Cynet, to unpack what leadership really looks like when the stakes are high and the noise is constant.Jason shares his personal journey through a major health challenge, a high-profile CEO transition, and the mindset shift required when moving from leading a global platform company to scaling a fast-growing cybersecurity organization. Together, they explore the difference between leaders and managers, how to spot real growth versus empty visibility, and why disciplined decision-making matters more than ever.The conversation dives deep into AI, automation, cybersecurity, and the realities MSPs face today—from talent shortages to increasing threat pressure and consolidation. Jason also opens up about motivation, legacy, burnout avoidance, and how leaders can stay grounded while navigating complexity.This episode is a masterclass in modern leadership, focus, and long-term thinking—for CEOs, founders, MSPs, and anyone responsible for building teams, platforms, and trust in a rapidly evolving industry. 

Welcome to the Embrace the Squiggle family, Ashleigh!Ashleigh Beadle joins Colleen as the new co-host of Embrace the Squiggle. Ashleigh shares her squiggly career path through often male-dominated fields. She discusses the mentorship and coaching she received that changed her career. And we dig into Sage & Saunter her new business with a focus on helping small to mid-sized business owners scale or sell by optimizing for value and also supporting buyers- especially for MSPs.Join ETS Book Club for Atomic Habits, register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3EK-BGfBRHehD2jW2bApHQ#/Need accountability in your goals? Join the Squiggle Huddle with Colleen.Learn more and Register here: https://www.maxady.com/workshops/p/the-squiggle-huddle-monthly-accountability-for-2026-goalsIf you want to be a guest on Embrace the Squiggle? Apply hereCheck out Sage & Saunter for MSP and IT Services that adds value, reduces risk, and prepares you for growth: https://sage-saunter.comStay in Touch with Your Hosts:Colleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/comara/Ashleigh on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-beadle/Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for more conversations that transform career complexity into your competitive advantage!

In this episode, Eric talks with Michael Bakaic of Iceberg Cyber about practical ways to generate more business—whether you're an MSP or any service company.They break down how to:Use lead magnets that actually start sales conversationsTurn in-person events into a steady stream of opportunitiesMove beyond referrals and build a repeatable lead engineGet over the fear of rejection and the myth that “great products sell themselves”If you're serious about filling your pipeline and winning more clients, this one's for you.For even more on cybersecurity, startups, MSPs, and entrepreneurship, join Michael on the Cyber Confidential podcast.

Corsica Technologies' reported 105% year-over-year growth in managed services bookings stands out as the primary development, indicating heightened demand for flexible service models among businesses with existing IT functions. According to Brian Harmison, CEO of Corsica, this growth is attributed to the company's focus on operational integration, automation, and data-centric managed services that supplement, rather than replace, in-house IT capabilities. The significance for MSPs is not the expansion itself, but the operational choices that enable sustained trust and differentiated engagement in a competitive landscape. Supporting details clarify Corsica's operational strategy: instead of automating or deploying AI indiscriminately, Harmison emphasizes that automation and AI are only effective atop an already “operationally excellent” MSP framework. Practical deployments cited include user onboarding/offboarding workflows, which demand both internal process clarity and integration with client HR systems. The company positions data integration and workflow consulting as integral to MSP-client relationships, not as add-on projects. Corsica's contracts reportedly reduce friction and avoid asset-tracking or incremental billing, seeking to foster longer-term trust over short-term revenue optimization. The episode also addresses the implications of Corsica's acquisition of Accountability IT. Harmison cites alignment in operating models and targeted capabilities—especially in Microsoft security and AI expertise—as central to the integration's value, rather than generic synergies. He notes that continuity of client relationships and careful preservation of existing service structures were prioritized in the first 90 days, even at the expense of speed, to mitigate operational risk and maintain client trust. The discussion highlights the risk tradeoffs between scaling for broader capability and maintaining agility for specialized client needs. For MSPs and IT leaders, the takeaway is to focus on risk reduction through operational excellence and trusted client relationships. Embracing automation and AI is not a universal solution; process maturity and readiness in both the provider and customer are preconditions for any meaningful implementation. Acquisitions require careful cultural and operational integration, with an emphasis on continuity and incremental capability, rather than immediate consolidation or scale. The episode frames operational clarity and trust—not rapid expansion or technology adoption—as critical determinants of long-term viability and resilience in managed services.

In this episode of MSP Business School, host Brian Doyle welcomes back industry analyst and media personality Dave Sobel. Known for his critical and transparent approach, Sobel dives into the transformative journey of his recent acquisition, discussing the strategic merger with Carl Polachuk's Small Business Thoughts Community. This episode provides an in-depth look into the dynamics of the merger and acquisition process, touching upon essential topics such as collaboration, community building, and strategic growth within the MSP industry. During the conversation, Dave Sobel elaborates on the critical importance of transparency and unbiased content in media, specifically within the IT services sector. Sobel shares insights on his approach to acquisitions, emphasizing the value of due diligence, legal consultation, and careful financial planning. By integrating his media expertise with Carl Polachuk's well-regarded community resources, Sobel aims to craft a holistic educational ecosystem for MSPs, stressing the need for adaptation in the face of technological advancements such as AI and automation. Key Takeaways: Transparency and community are central to building valuable resources in the MSP space, as demonstrated by Dave Sobel's recent acquisition of the Small Business Thoughts Community. Transitioning to new business models involves careful strategic planning and risk assessment, including extensive collaboration with legal, financial, and advisory teams. Embracing new technologies like AI requires a balanced approach, focusing on both technical execution and business strategy to ensure sustainable growth. Legal and governance aspects are critical when integrating new technological solutions, highlighting the importance of thorough contract reviews and stakeholder alignment. Building a community that supports the ongoing education and development of MSPs is vital for navigating the constantly evolving tech landscape. Guest Name: Dave Sobel LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davesobel/ Company: MSP Radio Website: https://mspradio.com Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Host Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoylevciotoolbox/ Sponsor vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com

Agentic AI is being deployed as production infrastructure in enterprise settings, but prevailing frameworks remain unreliable for mission-critical operations. Dave Sobel and Ron Aroussi from Muxie underscored that while AI agents are functional—especially in non-deterministic contexts like customer support—expectations of deterministic, workflow-based reliability are not met. The move from demonstration agents to production-scale tools brings heightened attention to issues of reliability, observability, and especially risk of vendor lock-in for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and their clients.Operational deployment of AI agents currently gravitates toward roles with minimal operational risk, such as customer-facing chatbots or internal chief-of-staff assistants. Aroussi explained that while such agents can automate initial support tiers and internal daily briefings, their unpredictability and potential for error limit their use in processes demanding strict oversight and accountability. He identified two core use cases—external (customer support) and internal (personalized information management)—explicitly noting that agents are best positioned to augment rather than fully automate complex workflows at this stage.A critical risk for MSPs lies in attempting to retrofit existing software frameworks to support agents, which introduces integration complexity and increases the likelihood of operational failures. Purpose-built infrastructure for agentic AI offers better alignment between AI capabilities and production requirements, with Aroussi citing drastically reduced hallucination rates and improved oversight when using native tools. Open source is identified as a foundational element for AI development, but it incurs its own risks, particularly around third-party code quality and the long-term sustainability of community-driven projects.The practical implication for MSPs and IT service providers is clear: a cautious, incremental adoption approach focused on low-risk use cases, coupled with rigorous controls on agent permissions and robust audit trails, is essential. Decision-makers should avoid assuming agents operate with the reliability or accountability of traditional software, prioritize operational transparency, and ensure that responsibilities for agent actions are clearly defined and enforced at the implementation level. Vendor lock-in and software provenance remain significant governance concerns as agentic AI moves from experiment to infrastructure.

The central development addressed is the disconnect between rising overall IT spending and the declining channel share for MSPs and IT partners. Dave Sobel, in discussion with an industry analyst, highlights a reduction in indirect channel participation—from over 75% to a projected 66.7% in 2026—primarily due to the concentration of AI infrastructure investment among the largest technology firms. These hyperscalers and their associated CapEx do not translate into traditional channel opportunities, restricting partner involvement to areas outside large-scale AI data center buildouts.Supporting data point to a technological industry projected to reach $6.07 trillion in customer spend, growing at 10.2%, compared to significantly lower world GDP growth. However, almost none of the rapid AI-related CapEx from companies like Nvidia and Google flows down to channel partners, who instead rely on client-facing managed services, advisory, and security service work. The increasing complexity of customer demand—such as the shift toward managed security (15% growth) and AI services (35.3% compounded growth)—further pushes MSPs to focus on services surrounding the core product, rather than on direct product resale or thin margin opportunities.A significant operational shift within the channel also emerges: the distinction between “influence” and “execution” partners. Vendor programs increasingly recognize partner contributions outside of transactional resale, such as co-selling, advisory contributions, and services attached before or after the point of sale. This trend is reinforced as platforms move toward “point systems” and indirect revenue attribution, redefining how MSPs measure channel health and partner value in a more complex, multi-partner environment.For MSPs, IT providers, and decision-makers, the key operational implications are clear. Traditional growth through seat expansion is less reliable as hiring softens, and managed services must focus on multiplier opportunities—profitable service revenue attached to each dollar of product sold. Capturing value requires adapting to changing program structures, emphasizing trusted advisor roles, and collaborating effectively with adjacent partners. Near-term investment in understanding and building pre-sales AI and security services, and tracking evolving vendor economics, is essential for navigating the new realities of partner participation, risk allocation, and long-term business health.

Global technology spending is projected to reach $5.6 trillion by 2026, with nearly two-thirds of this investment directed toward software and computer equipment, particularly servers, according to Forrester. Generative AI is cited as a primary driver of this increase, shifting the balance of power toward cloud providers such as AWS and Azure. This escalation has implications for operational margins and the position of IT service providers, as businesses increasingly migrate complex workloads to cloud infrastructure ecosystems.Supporting data shows a disconnect between tech employment trends and hiring activity. In January 2026, technology companies cut approximately 20,155 jobs, mainly in telecommunications, while job postings for tech positions rose by 13% compared to the prior month, based on CompTIA analysis. Dave Sobel interprets this as a shift away from permanent IT headcount to project-based, AI-focused engagements. This development places pressure on service providers, who must adapt to buyers reallocating spend from traditional staffing models to short-term, outcome-oriented contracts.Adjacent discussion covered two press releases: VirtuaCare launched a support offering for Windows-based MSPs needing Apple expertise, delivering an externally verifiable, Apple-certified service. In contrast, Miso announced a roadmap for an autonomous AI L1 technician but did not substantiate claims with deliverables or customer data. Dave Sobel emphasized the need for MSPs to demand piloting, outcome metrics, and auditable product maturity, warning against reliance on unproven AI solutions and highlighting the risk of outsourcing as only a temporary solution.The core implication for MSPs and IT providers is a need for tactical negotiation and operational risk management. Dave Sobel recommends using AI first to reduce internal labor costs before introducing it as a client offering, prioritizing outcome-based pricing and adjusting contracts to retain value from efficiency gains. Providers should avoid becoming displaced labor, rigorously test new technologies before adoption, and remain vigilant regarding vendor claims. The emphasis remains on capturing and defending margins through accountable operations and contract governance rather than chasing speculative innovation.Three things to know today00:00 Tech Spending Hits $5.6T but MSPs Face Margin Squeeze Without AI Pricing Reset05:31 VirtuaCare Ships Apple Support; Mizo Announces Roadmap—One's Testable Today08:17 MSPs Must Capture AI Efficiency Value or Face Margin CompressionThis is the Business of Tech.   Supported by:  Small Biz Thought CommunityCheck out Killing IT

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Paul Daigle, Senior Managing Partner and Founder of BizAdvisoryBoard, introduced a new free resource designed to help MSPs grow more strategically: the MSP Business Growth Marketplace. In his conversation with Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, Daigle positioned the platform as a response to a common challenge in the channel—MSPs working in their business rather than on it. Unlike vendor-led marketplaces that focus on extending product reach, this marketplace takes what Daigle calls a holistic approach across eight operational focus areas: sales, marketing, legal, CPA, HR, coaching, services, and support. “We're the only marketplace in the world that specializes in the holistic approach within the eight operational focus areas of an MSP,” Daigle said. “It's like an eight-cylinder engine—you need all those pistons working together.” The platform is vendor-agnostic and designed to match MSPs with vetted resources aligned to their size and growth stage. Whether an MSP needs specialized legal counsel, HR guidance, financial expertise, or operational coaching, the marketplace aims to connect them with providers who understand the MSP model. The goal is to streamline access to trusted partners at the precise moment MSP executives are actively seeking solutions. The concept emerged from BizAdvisoryBoard's executive coaching and M&A advisory work, where Daigle's team consistently fielded requests for qualified referrals. With strong interest from vendors and service providers at MSP Expo, the MSP Business Growth Marketplace is positioned as a centralized growth engine for MSP leaders focused on scaling with structure, discipline, and long-term value creation. Visit https://bizadvisoryboard.com/

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Jim Gurol, CEO of California Telecom, joined Doug Green to discuss NetVerge, a modern software platform designed to address a persistent challenge for MSPs: SaaS sprawl and operational inefficiency. NetVerge was born from Gurol's own experience running an MSP. Faced with juggling multiple ticketing systems, monitoring tools, and documentation platforms, his team found themselves “swivel chairing” between applications that didn't integrate cleanly. Rather than accept outdated workflows, they built their own platform from the ground up. “We wanted to build something from scratch, from the ground up, from our pain,” Gurol explained, emphasizing that NetVerge evolved directly from real-world MSP feedback. The platform consolidates core MSP functions into a modern, AI-enabled environment. Its ticketing interface resembles real-time chat, allowing technicians to collaborate through mentions and threaded conversations rather than traditional form-heavy systems. NetVerge also incorporates AI workflow agents that assist with troubleshooting, pen testing, and other operational tasks. MSPs can even design their own AI agents to automate repetitive processes—helping firms scale without proportionally increasing headcount. Gurol believes this practitioner-driven design is a key differentiator. “We live it,” he said, noting that firsthand MSP experience informs how the platform handles alert management, ticket flow, and day-to-day operational realities. For MSPs looking to reduce tool fragmentation, modernize workflows, and deploy AI in practical ways, NetVerge aims to offer a unified alternative. Visit https://californiatelecom.com/

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Ty Richardson, CEO of One Global Business Financing Corporation, joined Doug Green to discuss one of the most consequential realities facing MSP owners: at some point, you will either acquire—or be acquired. Richardson outlined how today's M&A environment has expanded beyond large “behemoth” firms, enabling even $1–$5 million MSPs to pursue viable exit strategies or strategic acquisitions. One Global Business Financing Corporation operates as a capital advisor and intermediary, working between MSPs and a broad network of lenders, private credit firms, family offices, SBA providers, and private equity sources. “We do the work so that you don't have to,” Richardson explained. Rather than forcing MSPs to navigate banks and paperwork alone, his firm evaluates financial positioning, collects documentation, surveys more than 6,000 capital providers, and returns with structured options tailored to the owner's goals—whether that means a line of credit, equipment financing, a term loan, real estate acquisition, or full M&A funding. Richardson emphasized that financing strategy begins years before a sale. MSPs planning an exit in three to five years must structure recurring revenue, strengthen contracts, build leadership teams, and maintain solid financial reporting. “If you are structuring yourself for a sale, the one thing you should be thinking about is how do I make this easy for a buyer to qualify?” he said. That preparation can significantly impact valuation and buyer confidence. The conversation also highlighted alternative deal structures, including partial acquisitions, staged buyouts, and SBA-backed transactions for smaller firms. Richardson noted that many MSPs initially assume they simply “need a loan,” when in reality more tax-efficient or strategically structured financing solutions may exist. The firm often works in consultation with tax professionals and legal advisors to optimize long-term positioning. Finally, Richardson advised MSP owners to begin networking early if a sale is on the horizon. By cultivating relationships over several years, owners may find qualified buyers privately—avoiding the noise and unqualified interest that often comes with broadly marketing a business for sale. Visit https://oneglobalfinancing.com/

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Simon Bradbrook, Senior Sales Engineer BSG at Snom, joined Doug Green to discuss why hardware reliability, mobility, and voice infrastructure still matter in a cloud-first world. Snom, a member of the Cloud Communications Alliance (CCA), was one of the original IP phone manufacturers, launching one of the first commercially available IP phones in 2001. Today, Snom operates under the global manufacturing strength of VTech, one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers, with additional portfolio depth through the acquisition of Gigaset. Bradbrook highlighted Snom's wireless DECT solutions as a major differentiator for MSPs. Unlike Wi-Fi-based voice devices, DECT was purpose-built for voice communication, providing secure, encrypted, and highly reliable connectivity—especially critical in healthcare, assisted living, and large campus environments. “When I need to make an emergency call, I want to rely on a product that's actually going to complete that call,” Bradbrook noted, underscoring the importance of dependable voice in mission-critical settings. The Snom M900 multi-cell DECT system, which was used live during MSP Expo for staff communications, supports use cases ranging from hospitals and retirement facilities to warehouses. Features such as encrypted voice channels and optional accelerometer-based emergency alerts—capable of detecting a fall and automatically triggering assistance—expand the value proposition for MSPs serving vertical markets with safety and compliance requirements, including HIPAA-sensitive environments. Through VTech's global manufacturing footprint and distribution network, Snom is able to offer a three-year advanced replacement warranty. If a hardware issue is confirmed, a replacement unit is shipped immediately—without waiting for return processing—providing operational continuity for MSP partners and their customers. For MSPs seeking to expand beyond standard desk phones into scalable mobility and enterprise-grade wireless solutions, Snom and Gigaset offer complementary portfolios designed to fit environments from SMB retail to large enterprise campuses. Visit https://www.snomamericas.com/

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Zack Schwartz, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Trustifi, joined Doug Green to discuss a critical but often overlooked reality: while AI dominates headlines, email remains the primary attack vector for cybercrime. Trustifi delivers a full-suite email security platform purpose-built for MSPs, enabling easy deployment, centralized management, and advanced protection against next-generation AI-driven phishing attacks. Schwartz emphasized that over 91% of cyberattacks still originate from inbound email—and the sophistication of those attacks has grown dramatically with AI tools. “Cyber criminals are leveraging AI to create extremely nuanced attacks,” he explained. Trustifi addresses this by combining high-efficacy inbound phishing detection with innovative AI-driven training tools. One standout feature allows MSPs to convert a real phishing attack into customized security awareness training, generating targeted video content based on an incident that actually occurred within a customer's environment. A key differentiator is Trustifi's “journal-only mode,” which allows MSPs to deploy the platform without interrupting live email flow. The system produces a full report showing how Trustifi would have responded to threats, creating what Schwartz described as a powerful “aha moment” for customers. According to Trustifi, this approach converts over 80% of opportunities and requires only minutes to set up—at no cost to the partner or end client. Beyond inbound threats, Trustifi also addresses outbound risk and compliance requirements, including HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, and broader data loss prevention (DLP) concerns. Many organizations underestimate how much sensitive information leaves their network via email. “It's a big issue of not knowing what you don't know,” Schwartz said, highlighting how classification and encryption tools expose hidden vulnerabilities. With no minimum requirements, free NFR licenses for MSPs, and strong momentum away from legacy email gateways, Trustifi is positioning itself as a high-margin opportunity within the channel. The message to MSPs: start internally, see the exposure firsthand, and then extend protection across your customer base. Visit https://trustifi.com/

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO in Fort Lauderdale, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Jon Brinton, Chief Revenue Officer at Crexendo, about the company's latest announcement: the launch of the Crexendo Marketplace. Crexendo is also a member of the Cloud Communications Alliance (CCA). Crexendo, a unified communications service provider, merged with NetSapiens five years ago, bringing together a robust UCaaS platform now powering approximately 240 service providers globally. That ecosystem supports nearly 7.5 million users—a number that has grown more than fourfold since the acquisition. The new Crexendo Marketplace builds on that momentum by delivering a centralized, frictionless application store for certified integrations and third-party solutions. “What we've now released is a Crexendo Marketplace,” Brinton explained. “If you think about it like the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, it's an application store that somebody can go to download, activate or integrate with applications that are certified for our platform.” Through one-touch provisioning, service providers can enable integrations such as mobile dialer support, analytics, Microsoft Teams connectivity, and Crexendo's AI-powered receptionist and orchestrator, Cairo—all without complex implementation paths. The Marketplace reinforces Crexendo's sessions-not-seats licensing model, which allows MSPs and service providers to own their customer relationships while building equity in their businesses. Brinton noted that AI-driven add-on applications are driving significant incremental revenue, often far exceeding traditional per-user UCaaS pricing. “Some of these AI applications… may be worth four to five to ten times that in monthly revenue to our partners,” he said, underscoring the opportunity for higher-margin growth. As innovation accelerates across the cloud communications landscape, Crexendo continues to invest heavily in platform development and ecosystem expansion. With its annual NetSapiens user group meeting scheduled for Austin later this year, the company remains focused on empowering partners with tools, integrations, and community support to compete—and win—in an evolving market. Visit https://www.crexendo.com/

Mid-market organizations are transitioning from pilot projects to operationalizing generative AI and agentic workflows, according to a TechEYE article and Tech Isle survey cited by Dave Sobel. This shift centers on outcome-driven automation but exposes providers to new liability concerns, mainly due to fragmented, unreliable data and shadow AI usage—employees employing unauthorized tools outside official controls. The primary risk is that MSPs may be blamed for incidents where contract boundaries and technical controls do not cover browser-based generative AI use, making forensic evidence and documented enforcement essential for defending accountability. Supporting data from Tech Isle found that over 5,000 companies are pursuing structured approaches to AI-enabled growth, but face persistent issues in data trust, governance, and user fatigue. Additionally, European investment in sovereign cloud infrastructure is projected to triple between 2025 and 2027, driven by regulatory demands and concerns about U.S. data sovereignty. MSPs managing split architectures—sovereign providers for regulated data and hyperscalers for everything else—encounter API mismatches, operational complexity, and margin pressure. The recommendation is to standardize policy enforcement, identity management, and residency mapping while prioritizing audit-ready reporting and exception handling. AI-driven cyberattacks have increased, with reports from Level Blue and Check Point Research highlighting a surge in both attack volume and sophistication. Only 53% of CISOs feel prepared for AI threats, despite 45% expecting to be impacted within a year. Browser-based generative AI use introduces visibility gaps, raising the risk of negligence claims when service providers cannot demonstrate governance or forensic readiness. Reauthorization of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) underscores that voluntary data sharing is inadequate, with CIRCA now requiring mandatory 72-hour incident reporting for critical infrastructure. The key takeaways for MSPs and IT leaders are to proactively define AI coverage and governance in contracts, enforce acceptable use policies, and instrument monitoring to close visibility gaps. Providers who can deliver forensic-grade telemetry, managed compliance programs, and operational readiness for incident reporting will be better positioned to defend against penalties, retain higher-value accounts, and offer meaningful differentiation. These structural challenges—fragmented control planes, increased compliance costs, and permanent risk friction—necessitate a strategic shift toward governance-led service models.Three things to know today00:00 Midmarket Shifts to Agentic AI as Europe Triples Sovereign Cloud Spending by 202706:08 Most Security Chiefs Say They're Not Ready for AI-Powered Cyberattacks Coming This Year09:46 CISA 2015 Reauthorized Through 2026; CIRCIA Mandates Expose Voluntary Sharing Failure This is the Business of Tech.   Supported by:  TimeZest  IT Service Provider University

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Lyle Pratt, CEO of Vida, about the company's latest release: an expanded AI Agent Operating System designed for enterprise scale and built specifically for MSPs and channel partners. Vida provides AI-powered phone agents that integrate directly into existing UCaaS and telecom environments. With native SIP registration, Vida's agents can register back to an MSP's current UCaaS platform and appear just like any other VoIP endpoint. The new release enhances omnichannel capabilities, centralized control, observability, billing integrations, and reseller management—allowing MSPs to deploy, monitor, and monetize AI agents at scale across multiple customers. Pratt emphasized that the platform was architected from a telecom channel background. “We've designed the OS specifically for MSPs,” he said. “We make it extremely easy to roll those out to all your customers using our AI Agent OS.” Vida supports a multi-tier model—partners, resellers, enterprises, and agents—enabling white-label deployments where MSPs retain brand control and pricing authority. The platform also includes built-in billing and reporting capabilities to streamline recurring revenue operations. A key opportunity lies in redirecting call traffic that traditionally flows to third-party call centers or BPOs. Vida's AI phone agents can handle first-tier interactions at approximately 15 cents per minute, enabling MSPs to capture revenue streams that previously bypassed them. “Software is going to begin to eat into the labor market,” Pratt noted. “And that actually is great for MSPs because they sell software solutions—now they can collect those margins for themselves.” As AI continues to reshape communications infrastructure, Vida is positioning its platform as the backbone for next-generation IVRs, auto attendants, and voice-driven automation. With SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance, flexible integrations, and omnichannel automation capabilities across voice, SMS, and email, the company is aiming to simplify AI deployment for MSPs while opening new, high-margin revenue paths. Visit https://vida.io/

At ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Mahen Gundecha, Broker at Bristol Group, about mergers and acquisitions activity in the MSP and cybersecurity markets—and what business owners should be thinking about long before they decide to sell. Bristol Group is an M&A advisory firm focused on small- and mid-sized companies across multiple industries, with Gundecha concentrating on IT and managed services. Drawing parallels between biotech and the rapidly evolving MSP and cybersecurity sectors, he emphasized that today's environment is knowledge-intensive, fast-moving, and increasingly shaped by consolidation and private equity activity. For MSP owners dreaming of an eventual exit, Gundecha offered practical guidance rooted in three core areas: personal goals, financial readiness, and market risk. “Ask yourself what you want personally, what your financial situation looks like, and what risks are coming your way,” he advised. Many owners assume aggressive growth will dramatically increase valuation in a short period, but in reality, sustained, realistic growth—and careful timing—often determine the outcome. Understanding whether there is a gap between retirement goals and current valuation is a critical first step. He also highlighted the growing impact of consolidation. As private equity-backed platforms acquire regional MSPs, competitive pressure increases—bringing stronger capabilities, deeper cybersecurity stacks, and potentially lower pricing. This can affect both customer retention and employee retention, particularly for highly skilled cybersecurity professionals. For owners nearing retirement, a dip in valuation due to lost accounts or talent may be difficult to recover from within a limited time horizon. Importantly, selling does not have to mean walking away entirely. Gundecha described partial exits where owners retain equity in a larger acquiring platform. This approach can reduce customer concentration risk, provide immediate liquidity, and potentially deliver greater long-term upside if the buyer scales aggressively. “You've cashed out part of your risk, diversified the rest, and positioned yourself for additional wealth creation,” he explained—while underscoring that selecting the right buyer is the key strategic decision. Visit https://bristolgrouponline.com/

In a podcast recorded at ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Rick Bekers, CEO of Channel Sales Pro, about how MSPs and technology vendors can design effective channel programs that accelerate growth while avoiding common pitfalls. Bekers brings more than four decades of experience to the conversation, including 35 years as an MSP owner, time leading a Technology Services Distributor (TSD), and years as a consultant helping vendors and service providers enter and scale through the channel. He emphasized that channel programs—whether built by vendors or MSPs evolving into “master MSPs”—require specialized expertise. “Trying to build a channel program on your own can slow you down by 18 months to three years,” Bekers said, noting that missteps and trial-and-error often delay revenue and partner momentum. The discussion focused on how Channel Sales Pro engages with MSPs seeking to expand. Bekers described a structured discovery and gap analysis process designed to align channel strategy with business goals, followed by execution that leverages established industry relationships. Drawing on his own experience running an MSP, he stressed the importance of solid operational foundations—repeatable processes, PSA and RMM tools, and consistent onboarding—to prevent burnout and customer churn as firms scale. “You don't want to try to scale a program on broken processes,” he explained. Bekers also delivered a direct message to MSP founders who feel stuck managing growth alone. By standardizing operations and seeking experienced guidance, MSPs can move from reactive, exhausting growth cycles to predictable, repeatable expansion. His confidence in the model is underscored by a performance guarantee tied to measurable revenue outcomes, reinforcing his belief that disciplined channel strategy can deliver returns within months. Visit https://www.channelsales.pro/

In a podcast recorded at ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Mike Wehrs, CTO of TieTechnology, about the upcoming launch of Genie 1.1 and the company's broader mission to reposition voice as a fully integrated component of modern IT infrastructure. TieTechnology focuses on making voice a “first-tier partner” within business systems rather than a disconnected afterthought. Genie, the company's SMB product family, provides a backend softphone capability for PCs along with applications that connect voice into tools such as Slack, CRMs, and EMRs. With Genie 1.1, the company is deepening its ability to capture, transcribe, summarize, and structure voice interactions so that the most valuable customer data—what was actually said—flows directly into business systems. “AI is not magic,” Wehrs noted. “If you don't have good data going into the system, you're not going to get the results out of it that you want.” He emphasized that many organizations layer AI on top of incomplete infrastructure, resulting in underperformance. Genie addresses that gap by cleaning audio streams, identifying speakers, summarizing conversations, and delivering structured data—often in JSON format—into CRM environments. The result, according to Wehrs, can represent as much as a 40 percent increase in high-quality CRM data, driving better customer support, marketing automation, and operational insight. For MSPs, the opportunity is twofold. First, Genie simplifies voice integration through straightforward APIs, eliminating the need to understand complex SIP stacks or telecom architecture. Second, it opens new revenue potential by allowing MSPs to modernize dated phone systems and embed voice-driven intelligence directly into client workflows. As Wehrs framed it, voice should become as native to the PC environment as networking did in the Windows 95 era—fully integrated, flexible, and foundational to digital operations. Visit https://tietechnology.com/

In a podcast recorded at ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Federico De Faveri, founder of De Faveri Consulting, about the growing demand for highly technical, hands-on consulting that bridges gaps between business needs and complex software systems. De Faveri Consulting focuses on what Federico describes as “tech enablement consulting”—hands-on work that includes software development, system integrations, automation, and custom tooling. Rather than operating through large consulting layers, De Faveri works directly with clients to design and implement solutions that remove bottlenecks, reduce manual processes, and create more auditable, data-driven workflows. “I like going into a company with a real problem and building something that saves time, improves visibility, and just works,” De Faveri said. During the discussion, De Faveri explained that clients engage him both reactively and proactively—either to fix broken or inefficient systems or to bring new ideas to life. His interest in attending MSP Expo centered on identifying emerging challenges faced by MSPs, enterprises, and channel partners, particularly as AI-driven tools and integrations reshape operations. While based in South Florida, De Faveri emphasized that most projects are delivered remotely, allowing him to support clients nationwide while still prioritizing trust-building and occasional in-person collaboration. As a newer independent consultant, De Faveri highlighted the freedom and focus that come with running his own firm, along with a core piece of advice for organizations evaluating technology solutions. “Always get multiple technical opinions,” he noted. “Sometimes the best solution isn't another platform—it's a smart integration or a custom script that connects what you already have.” Visit https://df.consulting/

In a podcast recorded at ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Gregory Tellone, CEO of Cloud IBR, about simplifying disaster recovery (DR) testing and turning recoverability into a practical, recurring revenue opportunity for MSPs. Cloud IBR is a SaaS platform designed for organizations using Veeam backups. With a single click, the system provisions dedicated bare-metal cloud servers, installs operating systems, restores encrypted backup repositories, configures networking, VPN access, firewalls, and hands off a fully operational environment for either a live disaster or a scheduled recovery test. “Most backup products are great at backup,” Tellone explained. “The problem is knowing whether your backups are actually good and being able to test recovery easily.” The platform addresses a longstanding gap in the SMB market: the complexity and cost of maintaining secondary DR sites and conducting realistic recovery testing. Traditional DR requires duplicate infrastructure, bandwidth, replication management, and ongoing maintenance—often making full testing impractical. Cloud IBR automates that entire process in approximately 20 minutes of onboarding time, enabling monthly recovery testing by default and generating detailed PDF reports documenting every recovered server and recovery time objective (RTO). For MSPs, the opportunity is strategic. Starting at $299 per month, the service provides a low-barrier entry point into customer accounts while strengthening trust and expanding monthly recurring revenue. Tellone described it as a relationship builder: “It's always easier to sell to a customer than to a prospect. You start with something simple that works, and from there you grow.” With automated reporting suitable for cyber insurance applications and RFP responses, Cloud IBR transforms disaster recovery from a checkbox exercise into a demonstrable operational advantage. Visit https://cloudibr.com/

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intensifying workloads rather than alleviating them, leading to increased burnout and declining decision quality, according to findings published in the Harvard Business Review and cited by Dave Sobel. The episode underscores that AI lowers the cost of producing outputs such as drafts and summaries but raises throughput targets and introduces new verification burdens. Economic gains from AI remain concentrated where capital and skilled labor already exist, while negative impacts—like displacement and wage pressure—are felt locally. These dynamics highlight the need for robust governance, particularly for managed service providers (MSPs) who deploy AI solutions.Supporting studies referenced include the International AI Safety Report, which details heightened uncertainty around AI development and its risks, as well as research from Oxford documenting the unreliability of AI chatbots in real-world medical decision-making. Experts warn that rapid automation without corresponding improvements in control systems creates structural constraints, making traditional software governance frameworks inadequate for unpredictable AI behaviors. Without proactive measures, these gaps risk exacerbating economic inequality and liability in regulated environments.Additional developments include OpenAI's release of upgraded agent features—such as GPT-5.2, improved context retention, managed shell containers, and a new skills standard—presented as operational enhancements but raising concerns about black-box context handling, auditability, and dependency risk. T-Mobile's AI-powered live translation service offers greater convenience but eliminates audit trails, shifting compliance risk to customers and prohibiting independent verification. Quark Cyber's launch of an internal cyber risk score introduces further complexity, as the scoring methodology is embedded within a financial product structure and lacks transparent validation.For MSPs and IT service leaders, the key takeaway is to treat new AI features and risk metrics as tools with significant tradeoffs. AI deployments should focus on governance layers that include workload caps, quality gates, and measurable outcomes rather than simply accelerating productivity. New features should be used for low-stakes workflows and carefully avoided in high-risk or regulated contexts unless auditable controls and deterministic checkpoints are established. Vendor-managed risk scores and warranties require independent validation before being positioned as client-facing truth standards.Four things to know today00:00 Harvard, Oxford Studies Find AI Raises Workload, Delivers Inadequate Medical Advice05:01 OpenAI Updates Deep Research and Adds New Agent Runtime Capabilities07:33 T-Mobile Tests Real-Time Call Translation Built Into Its Network09:17 Cork Cyber Rolls Out New Risk Score for Managed Service ProvidersThis is the Business of Tech.   Supported by:  ScalePad Small Biz Thoughts Community

OpenAI's twin initiatives to monetize ChatGPT's free tier through ads and launch the Frontier enterprise agent platform represent a shift in the AI provider's business model, with substantial implications for compliance and operational governance. Free and low-cost ChatGPT users will now see sponsored links unless they opt to reduce daily usage; only customers paying $20 or more per month retain an ad-free experience. OpenAI is concurrently marketing Frontier to enterprise clients such as HP, Intuit, and Uber, offering AI agent orchestration and deploying a team of consultants to support custom AI applications. The company projects enterprise revenue will constitute 50% of its income by year-end, up from 40% the prior month.Operating in both the consumer funnel and the enterprise layer, OpenAI combines top-of-funnel data monetization with vertical integration of services. The ad-supported free tier raises compliance concerns, as user interactions become subject to additional data collection and monetization. For organizations, this means enforcement decisions around whether and how employees may use free AI tools in regulated or sensitive environments. The more consequential development, however, is the introduction of enterprise agent orchestration through Frontier, where questions persist regarding liability, governance, production stability, and how organizations are protected from errors committed by autonomous agents.Related market movements include Anthropic's release of Claude Opus 4.6—which enables multi-agent collaboration with context windows up to 1 million tokens—and Microsoft's planned shift for Windows to a signed-by-default trust model. Anthropic's enhancements to agent functionality remain constrained by key gaps, such as conflict arbitration mechanisms, rollback procedures, and documented cost models, and the expanded context remains limited to beta testers. Microsoft's strategy to enforce signed apps by default mirrors iOS's approach to application trust, but its operational viability depends on how override mechanisms are managed by both users and IT administrators. Additional developments in backup, asset management, and AI governance (as seen with NinjaOne, JumpCloud, and Zoom) reflect a general trend towards increased integration and platform consolidation, though with ongoing gaps in security and compliance as AI adoption accelerates.The practical takeaway for MSPs and IT service leaders is the need to re-evaluate policies around free AI tool usage, invest in governance and auditability for enterprise AI, and prepare operational systems for stricter software trust and exception management requirements. Structural changes in software security and AI orchestration are transferring costs and risks from incident response to ongoing policy enforcement and exception handling. Those offering AI services should prioritize model-agnostic governance and avoid reliance on a single vendor's automation layer, as vertical integration by platform providers is reducing the defensibility of narrow service offerings.Four things to know today:00:00 OpenAI Adds Ads to Free ChatGPT; Launches Frontier Platform for Enterprise Agents04:07 Anthropic Ships Opus 4.6 Agent Teams; Model Found 500 Zero-Days in Testing06:43 Microsoft Announces Signed-App-Only Mode for Windows 11; Phased Rollout Planned10:19 NinjaOne Adds Asset Management; Zoom Launches AI Workspace Tool; JumpCloud Opens VC ArmThis is the Business of Tech.   Supported by:  CometBackup IT Service Provider University

IT spending continues to expand, with North America projected to lead a 12.6% increase to $2.6 trillion, primarily due to hyperscaler investments in AI infrastructure. However, the proportion of technology spending funneled through channel partners is declining, now at 61% compared to over 70% four years ago, according to a survey by Omnia. This shift signals that while the market is growing, traditional margin and resale opportunities for MSPs are narrowing as vendors redirect a larger share of revenue direct while still relying on partners for implementation, support, and customer operations.Data from Salesforce underscores a near-universal trend toward partner involvement in sales, with 94% of surveyed global salespeople leveraging partners to close deals and 90% using tools to manage relationships. Despite this, Dave Sobel clarifies the distinction between involvement and compensation, highlighting that partner influence on deals does not guarantee economic participation at previous levels. These dynamics reinforce that MSPs must adapt to a reality where their role in the value chain is being separated into influence and execution, with the middle tier facing increasing pressure.Additional analysis draws attention to labor market changes and technology commoditization. U.S. job openings have fallen to their lowest point in over five years, undermining MSP growth strategies dependent on seat expansion. Simultaneously, the AI market is fragmenting at the application layer—with Google's Gemini app, Grok, and OpenAI's ChatGPT shifting market shares rapidly—while hyperscalers like Alphabet (Google) commit unprecedented capital expenditures, fueling an infrastructure arms race even as front-end AI tools become more interchangeable.The practical implication for MSPs and IT service providers is increased pressure to re-evaluate business models, operationalize AI offerings, and focus on defensible, productized services. Reliance on a single vendor or seat-based growth forecasts presents heightened risk. Successful adaptation will require a shift toward managed services around AI operations, governance, and productivity—emphasizing accountability, optionality, and measurable ROI—rather than assuming historic revenue models will persist.Three things to know today:00:00 Partners Essential to Sales but Losing Economic Share, Survey Shows05:44 US Job Market Shows Low Hiring, Low Firing Despite Falling Openings       08:00 Alphabet Plans $180B AI Capex as Gemini Hits 750M UsersThis is the Business of Tech.   Supported by: Small Biz Thoughts Community

Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ https://youtu.be/-flNeKF6CxQ?si=xIIQ4LUl7oraQjkg Microsoft’s Cyril Belikoff joins Vince Menzione to reveal the seismic shift occurring within the newly reimagined Microsoft Marketplace. As the industry moves toward a predicted $300 billion partner opportunity by 2030, this discussion deconstructs the evolution of the “Frontier” vision, the launch of the AI apps and agents category, and the critical “Resale Enabled Offer” (REO) that is currently doubling deal sizes for early adopters. Whether you are a software company looking to scale globally or a reseller aiming to stitch together complex AI solutions, the message is clear: the flywheel is already spinning, and those who wait for a “perfect strategy” risk being permanently displaced by more agile competitors who are getting their feet wet today. Key Takeaways The Microsoft Marketplace has been reimagined into a single destination for discovering, buying, and deploying AI apps and agents. Analysts predict a staggering $300 billion opportunity for partners within the Microsoft Marketplace by 2030. The new Resale Enabled Offer (REO) allows software companies to authorize channel partners to resell on their behalf across specific geographies with minimal overhead. Cloud migration is far from over, as massive amounts of on-premise data and ISV apps still need to be modernized for the AI era. Marketplace deal sizes are doubling as customers use Azure commitments to retire their marketplace acquisition costs. Successful partners are moving away from “boiling the ocean” strategies and instead focusing on transacting one or two deals to learn the ecosystem’s mechanics. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: Microsoft Marketplace, AI apps and agents, Resale Enabled Offer, REO, Cyril Belikoff, Azure Marketplace, AppSource, cloud solutions, software companies, digital transformation, AI strategy, channel led sales, ISV solutions, cloud migration, Azure commitments, Microsoft Cloud, Frontier vision, MSP opportunity, marketplace transacting, AI monetization, global scale, procurement, IT deployment, technical modernization, partner ecosystem, business applications. Opening Lines: [00:00:00] Cyril Belikoff: Marketplace is really the extension of our vision for Frontier, uh, and the Microsoft Cloud. You know, the, the Microsoft technology takes a customer a long way, but in many ways to complete the thought. If you’re in football terms, you want to cross over the line and score touchdown. You can’t just get, uh, to the red zone. [00:00:20] Cyril Belikoff: You actually need partner solutions. [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: So let’s, let’s kick off to Marketplace a little bit right, too, because, uh, it’s been a big year for Marketplace, or 20, the first half of 2026 fiscal year 2026 has been a big year. A lot of announcements, a lot of things going on in the world, in marketplace. Where do we wanna start there? Let’s recap some of it. [00:00:44] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. Um, so, um. It feels like a long time ago, but in, at the end of September, [00:00:51] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:00:52] Cyril Belikoff: Um, at the AR tour, uh, in Chicago, we announced a new Microsoft marketplace. We reimagined that experience. It’s a new customer experience, single destination for customers to. You know, discover, find, try, buy, and deploy cloud solutions, AI apps and agents all in one place. [00:01:11] Cyril Belikoff: And so historically, we’ve had a little bit, uh, of decentralization. We had this thing called the Azure Marketplace and AppSource for different experiences. AppSource was more for teams and, and copilot. Um, and, and office, Azure Marketplace. Of course, that was for Azure. We brought all of that into one place. [00:01:30] Cyril Belikoff: So customers, whether they are looking for a SaaS solution running on Azure, an agent that snaps into copilot, an experience that runs in our security store, now they can go to one place. Um. marketplace.microsoft.com. It’s one, it’s the new Microsoft marketplace. And we have an, of course, we have a, we had, we launched a brand new category, AI apps and agents, and we launched that category in September. [00:01:54] Cyril Belikoff: Uh, bringing together numerous, uh, uh, partner offerings. Yeah. And today we have the largest catalog, um, probably in the mid four thousands of AI and agents. Wow. Available to customer. So fantastic. There was, there was quite a big moment in September. Um, and then fast forward a little bit to November, we announced a resale enabled offer, um, at Ignite [00:02:15] Vince Menzione: eo. [00:02:16] Vince Menzione: Eo [00:02:16] Cyril Belikoff: eo. I, [00:02:17] Vince Menzione: I like EO reminds me of the band back in the day. [00:02:19] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. R Speedwagon. There you go. Uh, well, and it’s, it’s not that far from it because Oreo accelerates. Yeah. Um, what partners can do, uh, with the marketplace and really connects. Software companies and resellers, which I’m sure we’ll talk about in a second. [00:02:34] Cyril Belikoff: But that’s really the recap, um, of, uh, you know, the new Microsoft marketplace, how we enabling it for, uh, for partners through the the resell enable offer. [00:02:45] Vince Menzione: So, I know we talked on this a little bit, but I wanna maybe just expand on it. What does the frontier push and the marketplace evolution mean for partners? [00:02:53] Vince Menzione: Because I, I think it’s huge for both, for these partners to really monetize and accelerate their success working with you. [00:03:00] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. So, um. Marketplace is really the extension of our vision for Frontier, uh, and the Microsoft Cloud. You know, the, the Microsoft technology takes a customer a long way, but in many ways to complete the thought and to, you know, uh, uh. [00:03:20] Cyril Belikoff: If you’re in football terms, you wanna cross over the line and score a touchdown, you can’t just get, uh, to the red zone. You actually need partner solutions. [00:03:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:03:29] Cyril Belikoff: Uh, and so that’s where the partner solutions, combined with Microsoft’s first party offerings become a really, really. Great offering and powerful offering for our customers to, to become Frontier. [00:03:40] Cyril Belikoff: So we have obviously a ton of AI experiences, our own co-pilot experiences, uh, Microsoft Foundry, which is a platform for ai, but in, in many ways, we need those industry solutions. We need those AI apps and agents from partners to complete that offering. And that’s really. How it comes together and, uh, you know, uh, I heard you from o was just on before me. [00:04:01] Cyril Belikoff: They actually predict that the Microsoft marketplace, uh, is a 300 billion partner opportunity by 2030. Yeah, they’re talking about, I think, mid eighties growth. We have literally seen our business for the last three years, and we are in the middle of our, uh, you know, third year doubling. And so when you get three or four years of doubling every year, that’s compounded doubling. [00:04:24] Cyril Belikoff: Um, so, uh, we have seen lots of momentum from customers, lots of interest. We’ve made it, you know. Interesting for customers. Um, and incentivize our customers with their Azure commitments that can retire their marketplace, uh, acquisitions that way. We’ve made it, we’ve put incentives for partners and for our own sellers. [00:04:44] Cyril Belikoff: So we really creating the flywheel for everybody in the market to see value from, uh, the marketplace. So. Like, like, like you mentioned, like m the, uh, you know, suggested [00:04:55] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:04:55] Cyril Belikoff: It’s only exploding the opportunity on marketplace. [00:04:58] Vince Menzione: Well, and you both touched on the fact that the data is not in the cloud yet. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: Not all the data that needs to be in the cloud in order to drive the future of where we wanna go from a society. Mm-hmm. And from a business application perspective needs to be in the cloud. So huge opportunities for partners around data states, around securing that data, governing that data, and so on, on top of all the business applications, [00:05:19] Cyril Belikoff: right? [00:05:19] Vince Menzione: As promise. So incredible. Yep. So let’s [00:05:22] Cyril Belikoff: talk about, yeah. The call migration. The call migration, people think that is over and it’s long from over because customers have plenty, uh, on premise, uh, not only Microsoft technology, but the, the, the, the software company or the ISV app that sits on top of it. Yeah. [00:05:36] Cyril Belikoff: And that needs to be migrated, managed, modernized, um, and marketplace is a big part of that too. Um, but there’s so many services and, um, opportunities around it. [00:05:45] Vince Menzione: Incredible opportunity. Let’s talk about the channel and the channel opportunity. You, you touched on this earlier, right? So this really lighting up the channel. [00:05:53] Vince Menzione: I saw this loud and clear when we were at Ignite. Like this is a huge opportunity for the Es, for the resellers, for all the partners. And as part of REO, you’ve got huge opportunities you’re laying out for them for the 500,000 part partners. You know, we talk about the Bill Gates moment down here in Boca. [00:06:09] Vince Menzione: This is where it all started. Uh, yep. How, how do you think about marketplace in the channel today? [00:06:16] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. You know, it’s, um, it’s vital. You know, we have a customer need, um, from. The smallest is small business all the way to enterprise. And the really, the only way we serve that, the only way we know how to serve that is with our partners from the largest of partners that serve our top enterprises down through, um, what we call small and medium and then down to our small business. [00:06:41] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:06:41] Cyril Belikoff: Um, and so, you know, we have seen our. You know, while our, we’ve seen a doubling of our business, we’ve seen three, three and a half to four x doubling of our channel led sales. [00:06:53] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:06:54] Cyril Belikoff: Um, over the last year. And so while our overall business is doubling, channel is accelerating even, you know, even more. [00:07:02] Cyril Belikoff: And so there, there’s a need from our customers because they buy from our channel and there’s obviously a need from the channel. And so we created this resale enabled offer. As you mentioned, we, um. We announced private preview in September and launched GA at Ignite. So, you know, uh, November, just before Thanksgiving holiday and retail Enable offer is all about scale and how we connect a, a, an independent software vendor or a software company. [00:07:27] Cyril Belikoff: To authorize a channel partner to resell on their behalf on a particular geography. And then that allows software companies to expand into new markets with very little overhead. And it allows the channel partners to create a set of offerings, not only from one partner, but you might have multiple software companies or applications that you stitch that are together to create an end-to-end customer offering or experience. [00:07:51] Cyril Belikoff: And so we are seeing, we are seeing many to many relationships. So software companies might authorize many resellers, many markets they’re in, for example. Yep. And then resellers, um, they’re, they’re becoming authorized resellers from many software companies so that they can really stitch together, end into end solution. [00:08:09] Cyril Belikoff: And it, we’re loving it and we are getting great feedback. It is early days for our global availability for, uh, re office, which. But we had partners that were literally waiting, um, uh, and waiting for deals. And within the first week there was, they were, uh, processing the, the Oreo deals at, at, at quite large scale already. [00:08:31] Cyril Belikoff: So. We are excited about the feedback that we’re getting. We, as you know, we, we stay close to that feedback and we listen well, um, and adjust from it. So we got more work to do, but, um, it’s a great opportunity for, to connect our, our multiple types of partners, software companies, and resellers. [00:08:48] Vince Menzione: Yeah, I agree. [00:08:49] Vince Menzione: And you know, I talk to a lot of these organizations myself, and there is palpable excitement. In the channel from Distees that were sort of disengaged a couple of years ago, maybe, trying to figure out where they were gonna monetize. And the other way area that’s aligned to this as well is the Ms. P community. [00:09:06] Vince Menzione: So these MSPs are getting bigger and bigger, and organizations like Accenture, Avanade, and ndl. Or becoming MSPs or creating Ms. P practices within their own firms. But there’s even these smaller MSPs, but many of ’em are getting to a billion dollars or more. These were little mom and pop companies years ago, but the customer so needs to have, you know, especially with ai, right? [00:09:27] Vince Menzione: Because we’re in a constant state of evolution right now. I need somebody that can help me on the tooling and then also help me on, you know, getting the tooling to work. And so, uh, we’re seeing a lot of excitement from that. Community, which wasn’t really as engaged with Microsoft the way they that they are now. [00:09:43] Vince Menzione: They’re really getting engaged in a big way. [00:09:46] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah, it’s promising. Like you say, you know, the, the, we’re all learning this new AI world and obviously marketplace has taken off. We’ve had the classic SaaS solutions or cloud solutions on marketplace for a while, but really un having the local partner that’s close to the customer, what the customer’s trying to need to do and be able to connect the, the traditional. [00:10:07] Cyril Belikoff: Software as a service applications with these new AI experiences and really, uh, stitch them together and help them operationalize, you know, in their own, you know, cus in their own terms and what they’re trying to, uh, do is so important. You know, um, and to your point there, there are large, they’re the large ones that are seeing opportunity on the marketplace. [00:10:27] Cyril Belikoff: But the, you know, when you get down to, uh, medium and smaller businesses, they really need their local friendly resetter to help them. [00:10:35] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:10:35] Cyril Belikoff: Uh, so you’re right. We are seeing an, a new en energy engagement from not only our existing 500,000 partners, but a bunch of those new ones. [00:10:44] Vince Menzione: So, uh, again, second week of 2026, and people are really just starting to wake up from the holidays. [00:10:50] Vince Menzione: Now they’re getting ready for their s ks. All these partners are lining up and getting their teams aligned. Uh, you’re in front of them. Let’s have a conversation like what should they be doing better and differently? What do they need to go do now? It’s 2026. [00:11:06] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. Um, you know, first of all, if you’re a software company, you know, understand what the, the Microsoft marketplace can help you with, uh, can help you scale to global markets, remove burdens like tax, um, a processing, engaging with customers. [00:11:21] Cyril Belikoff: Um, we’re seeing an acceleration and doubling of, uh, not an acceleration deals, but doubling of deal sizes, as you know, through the marketplace. Uh, and there. It helps with engagement at different types of companies, whether it’s, or different types of, uh, roles in a company, whether it’s a, a procurement person or an IT person or a business person. [00:11:42] Cyril Belikoff: So, you know, get onto the marketplace, create offerings, um, and give us feedback. And then on the reseller side, um, also lots of opportunities, you know, register as, as a reseller, um, you know, understand the benefits and. The, the Azure sponsorships that we have available for you, that you can close deals with their, their, their credits and, and incentives that we provide to you. [00:12:06] Cyril Belikoff: And then figure out how you do your first deal with a software company. Um, yeah. You know, a lot of people will say like, should I have a big strategy? And Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you want to, that’s okay, but just getting into. Uh, the marketplace, figuring out one or two deals, transacting and seeing the opportunity is many ways the best way to do it and to learn it yourself. [00:12:28] Cyril Belikoff: And then you figure out, okay, where, where’s the opportunity for me in this deal? Am I in the transaction? Uh, am I in the services around the transaction or combination? Um, and just getting your feet wet will get you going and, and, uh, get you learning. [00:12:42] Vince Menzione: You know, I think about this in the, the time the partners are, they have this huge opportunity with Microsoft around marketplace and then thinking about how they build their own ecosystem. [00:12:52] Vince Menzione: And like you said, don’t, don’t try and boil the ocean, right. Don’t try and do it all at once. Mm-hmm. But start out small, but understand, you know, work with the Microsoft teams, understand how, how co-selling works, how to engage with the, with the Microsoft organization. How to, how to be up on marketplace, how to situationally. [00:13:09] Vince Menzione: You know, Jay and I were talking about this 28 moments and he talked about a deal that started out as an AWS deal, but it wound up a Microsoft deal because NTT and Software one were involved in the in the deal and influencing the customer’s decision process. Right working with Microsoft. And so we just need to be smarter, I think. [00:13:28] Vince Menzione: I think today it’s a very different model than it was 20 years ago when you and I got started in this business. Uh, yeah. And people just really need to go think about this more strategically in how they build this. [00:13:39] Cyril Belikoff: It’s great. I totally agree. Um, like I said, getting your feet wet, understanding the co-sell to your point and, and, and how Microsoft sells. [00:13:48] Cyril Belikoff: Um, and then understand what customers are trying to, you know, get, get, get out of it with their, their Azure commitments and how they can retire their Azure commitments through purchases on marketplace, which in sense them, um, to also work on the marketplace. So you, I think partners will find Microsoft sellers. [00:14:04] Cyril Belikoff: Own compensation, um, incentive to work. We’ll find that customers are incentive to transact on the marketplace. And so just enter that, you know, triangle and, and get engaged and, uh, and learn and then give us feedback. Like, like I’ve mentioned many times with you, we, uh, we take feedback every month from customers and partners in, in forums like this, um, in other forums, and then we evolve and, you know, build out, uh, stronger experiences. [00:14:31] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Cyril, I want to thank you again. So great to have you join us today and, uh, so excited to continue our, our mutual relationship and our beneficial relationship in 2026. So thank you again for everything you do and supporting us. [00:14:45] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Happy New Year to yourself and uh, and your community and, uh, thanks so much again. [00:14:50] Cyril Belikoff: Appreciate it. [00:14:50] Vince Menzione: Thank you, Cyril. The Ultimate Partner Winter Retreat is gonna be here in the Boca Studio. This is the third year that we’re gonna be here in Boca. This is always a favorite of our community members, our executive members, our sponsors and speakers. We’ll all be here in the studio, which is a really intimate setting. [00:15:12] Vince Menzione: We can see upwards of 40, 50 people. Uh, we’ll be hosting an incredible dinner at the Boca Resort overlooking the golf course. That’s an incredible property and, uh, we’d love to have you join us. Thank you for being part of the ultimate Partner community, and I hope to see you this year at one of our events. [00:15:30] Vince Menzione: Thank you.