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Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Pax8 Beyond26 – managed intelligence: Pax8 wrapped its annual Beyond conference in Salt Lake City on Tuesday with over 3,500 attendees including 200+ from Canada, centering the show on the transition from managed services to the Managed Intelligence Provider model. The headline announcement was Microsoft Agent 365 for Managed Intelligence – multi-tenant governance of agentic AI across MSP client environments through the Pax8 Agent Store, arriving in July – alongside the launch of the Managed Intelligence Provider Program, Voyager Alliance Rewards, and the Managed Intelligence Alliance. CEO Scott Chasin argued that as AI models commoditize, the trust MSPs have already built with clients is their primary competitive advantage going forward. Arrow Electronics global experience centers: Arrow introduced a network of global experience centers on Tuesday, built in close collaboration with channel partners in North America and Europe to reflect how partners actually go to market today. Facilities in the US and Sweden are fully networked to deliver a consistent design and testing experience regardless of location, and are designed specifically to help partners accelerate the move from AI and cloud evaluation into deployment and monetization. Mitel names new channel chief: Mitel has appointed Ben Macdonald as vice president of global channel go-to-market, bringing experience from Owl Labs, Poly, Juniper Networks, and Ekahau. The hire comes as Mitel’s own research shows 68 percent of businesses are running communications infrastructure more than seven years old, with 92 percent of modernizing organizations choosing an integrated-hybrid strategy – a dynamic the company says positions its 6,000-plus channel partners at the center of one of the largest communications refresh cycles in a decade. Cork Cyber wins Pax8 Startup Vendor of the Year: Pax8 recognized Cork Cyber at Beyond26 for its AI-native remediation platform built for MSPs, which remediates threats automatically, reduces ticket volume, and provides financial payback when risks slip through. The award was presented on the Beyond mainstage by Pax8 president Nick Heddy. Canada’s cloud market: A new report from the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, covered by CBC News, calls the Canadian cloud computing market “broken,” warning that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google control approximately 85 percent of the market. The report argues that even adding domestic sovereign alternatives will not fix the problem without interoperability standards, coining the term “maplewashed dependency” for the risk of trading one lock-in for another. Pentesting research: New research from Cobalt and Omdia finds that 53 percent of security leaders believe traditional penetration testing is now outdated, with demand growing for continuous, AI-assisted approaches. iCOUNTER leadership: iCOUNTER has appointed Joel Molinoff, formerly of BlueVoyant and CBS Corporation, as chief operating officer. DataStrike expansion: DataStrike has expanded its Linux managed services practice by hiring Jon Cain as senior Linux infrastructure engineer to meet growing client demand. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Thursday, June 11, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Pax8 wrapped its annual Beyond conference in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, and the event made a clear statement about where the distributor sees the managed services business heading. With more than 3,500 attendees – including over 200 from Canada – the show centered on what Pax8 is calling the Managed Intelligence Provider model, or MIP. The idea is that MSPs are no longer primarily managing infrastructure. The next phase of the business is orchestrating agentic AI and delivering outcomes that SMB customers cannot build on their own. The headline product announcement from the show was Microsoft Agent 365 for Managed Intelligence, which will give MSPs multi-tenant governance of agentic AI across their client base through the Pax8 Agent Store, arriving in July. Alongside that, Pax8 announced the Managed Intelligence Provider Program, the Voyager Alliance Rewards program, and the Managed Intelligence Alliance, all aimed at helping partners navigate that business model transition. CEO Scott Chasin’s central argument was that as AI models commoditize rapidly, the trust that MSPs have already built with their clients becomes the primary competitive differentiator. It’s a different kind of pitch than many vendors have been making this year, and the Canadian partner contingent at the show was among the largest regional groups in attendance. Distribution giant Arrow Electronics introduced a new set of networked global experience centers on Tuesday, and the design philosophy behind them is worth paying attention to. According to Arrow, the facilities in the US and Sweden were built in close collaboration with channel partners across North America and Europe, specifically around how partners actually go to market today, where they face constraints, and what slows them down. The two locations are fully networked, meaning the design and testing experience is consistent regardless of where the customer or partner is located. Arrow has operated various lab facilities over the years, but this iteration is explicitly oriented around solving the commercial and operational friction partners face in moving customers from AI and cloud evaluation into deployment. For solution providers working to differentiate on deep technical expertise and pre-sales capability, the ability to leverage distribution infrastructure at this level is increasingly part of the value equation. Mitel announced Tuesday that Ben Macdonald has joined the company as vice president of global channel go-to-market, making him the company’s new channel chief. Macdonald comes from Owl Labs, where he led the shift to a scalable B2B and enterprise channel model including strategic alliances with Microsoft and Lenovo. He has also held senior channel roles at Poly, Juniper Networks, and Ekahau. The appointment arrives at a moment Mitel describes as one of the largest communications refresh cycles in a decade. According to Mitel’s own research, 68 percent of businesses are currently running communications systems that are more than seven years old, and 92 percent of organizations actively modernizing are choosing an integrated-hybrid strategy. Macdonald’s specific background – building recurring revenue models out of historically transactional, hardware-centric businesses – aligns directly with what Mitel says it needs. For the more than 6,000 channel partners in Mitel’s ecosystem, including a significant number of Canadian resellers and MSPs with established UC practices, the appointment signals an intent to activate that market opportunity through the partner community. In Brief – Pax8 named Cork Cyber its Startup Vendor of the Year at Beyond, recognizing the MSP-focused AI remediation platform that remediates threats automatically and pays out financially when risks slip through. A report from the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project calls Canada’s cloud computing market “broken,” warning that Amazon, Microsoft and Google control 85 percent of the market and domestic providers risk creating what the report calls “maplewashed dependencies.” Cobalt and Omdia research finds that 53 percent of security leaders believe traditional penetration testing is now outdated. iCOUNTER appoints Joel Molinoff, formerly of BlueVoyant and CBS Corporation, as chief operating officer. DataStrike expands its Linux managed services practice by hiring Jon Cain as senior Linux infrastructure engineer. Full details and links in the show notes or the blog post. Later today on In The Channel, we’re hearing from Josh Singh at Turning Point Technologies in Vancouver – it’s a conversation about running a single-vendor Dell practice, AI for SMB, and why backup is the last line of defense against ransomware. And if you haven’t heard it yet, yesterday on In The Channel I sat down with ESTI’s Earl Gosick on AI infrastructure, cyber resilience, and why Saskatchewan may be Canada’s next data center hub. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

New research from Omdia, Hub, and Antenna underscores the growing importance of advertising in streaming, across FASTs and premium SVOD.

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Zscaler launches Project AI-Guardian: Zscaler announced a new initiative on Tuesday called Project AI-Guardian, partnering with global systems integrators Cognizant, EY, HCL, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro to help enterprises secure AI deployments. The program leverages Zscaler’s AI Protect portfolio – covering AI asset discovery, access controls for AI services, and real-time guardrails for AI infrastructure – to address what the company describes as the security blind spots created by autonomous AI agents acting with delegated permissions. According to CEO Jay Chaudhry, the initiative is designed to “ensure that AI adoption does not come at the cost of security.” Jamf names Beth Tschida CEO: Jamf named Beth Tschida as chief executive officer, effective immediately, on May 20. Tschida moves from interim CEO and former CTO to the permanent role, becoming the first woman to lead the company in its more than 20-year history. The appointment comes roughly four months after Francisco Partners completed its $2.2 billion acquisition of Jamf in January 2026; Tschida’s tenure as CTO saw Jamf’s security ARR grow 40 percent year over year to represent more than 30 percent of total revenue. Aura + TD SYNNEX: Aura Business has partnered with TD SYNNEX to bring its identity-centric BYOD security solution to MSPs through distribution. Aura debuted the offering at MSP Summit 2026, with Omdia research finding that demand for BYOD security among MSP clients is surging. SOCRadar AI agents: SOCRadar launched an AI Agent Marketplace and Identity Intelligence platform designed to help security teams automate detection and response against identity-driven attacks, positioning the agents as additions to existing security stacks. Akamai acquires LayerX: Akamai Technologies announced a definitive agreement to acquire browser security vendor LayerX, extending its workforce security strategy with browser-level visibility and governance over AI usage. Cisco Canada marketing: Jennifer Rideout has rejoined Cisco as head of Canada marketing, noting on LinkedInthat she is about a week into the new role. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Thursday, May 21, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. On Tuesday, Zscaler announced Project AI-Guardian – a formalized initiative that brings together six major global systems integrators under a common framework for securing enterprise AI deployments. The partners are Cognizant, EY, HCL, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro, and together they’ll leverage Zscaler’s AI Protect portfolio to deliver what the company describes as a full 360-degree view of an organization’s AI footprint. The program is designed to address what Zscaler calls the “agentic world” problem – the reality that AI models don’t just respond to queries anymore. They act autonomously, connect to data and apps, trigger downstream actions with delegated permissions, and in doing so, create blind spots that traditional security tools simply aren’t built to see. According to Zscaler’s CEO Jay Chaudhry, “AI adoption does not come at the cost of security” – and the GSI partnerships are meant to scale that posture across the largest enterprises in the world. The GSI framing is enterprise-scale, but the underlying framework – discover your AI assets, control who accesses AI services, secure what AI builds and runs – is a blueprint that maps directly onto the conversations solution providers at every level are already having with their clients. As more organizations ask harder questions about what’s actually running on their networks, the partners who have this conversation early will have an edge. Jamf named Beth Tschida as its permanent chief executive officer yesterday, effective immediately. Tschida has served as interim CEO since March, and before that was the company’s chief technology officer. She becomes the first woman to lead Jamf in its more than 20-year history. The announcement lands about four months after Francisco Partners completed its $2.2 billion acquisition of Jamf in January, taking the company private. Strosahl, who shepherded that transition, has stepped away. Brian Decker of Francisco Partners cited Tschida’s “technical depth, operational discipline, and strategic vision” in a statement. The headline number from her CTO tenure: Jamf’s security ARR grew 40 percent year over year under her watch and now accounts for more than 30 percent of total company revenue. Her stated priorities going forward include autonomous device management, opening the platform for third-party AI tools, and building out an AI governance layer – all of which signal where the product is heading. The Francisco Partners angle is worth a second look. The PE firm also owns SonicWall, BeyondTrust, and Boomi – a portfolio of security and integration assets that, taken together, creates interesting possibilities for cross-platform plays. Channel partners who move Apple devices, or who sell into environments where Apple is a growing presence, should keep an eye on where this leadership takes the product roadmap. In Brief – Aura Business partners with TD SYNNEX to bring its identity-centric BYOD security solution to MSPs through distribution. SOCRadar launches an AI Agent Marketplace and Identity Intelligence platform targeting identity-driven cyberattacks. Akamai announces a definitive agreement to acquire LayerX, a browser-based AI usage control and workforce security vendor. Jennifer Rideout has rejoined Cisco as head of Canada marketing. Full details and links in the show notes or the blog post. Later today on In The Channel, Anthony Tanoury from Dell Technologies joins me to talk about how distribution has become the primary on-ramp for mid-market AI, and what that means as Dell’s Modern Partner Platform takes shape. It’s the last of three conversations I had at Dell Technologies World this week and a good one to end on. And if you haven’t caught Wednesday’s episode yet, Rob Emsley from Dell makes the case that the backup is the target – and why data protection needs to be reframed as a full cyber resilience practice. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

Security operations for MSPs are undergoing a structural shift from simply deploying additional tools to establishing a liability-focused accountability model, where the ability to provide operational evidence of controls is becoming as critical as the tools themselves. This shift is catalyzed by corporate insurance, procurement, and third-party verification structures—such as those cited by WatchGuard, Assurix, and the NIST AI cybersecurity overlays—demanding verifiable security outcomes and alignment with external standards, rather than relying on provider assertions alone. Survey data referenced from Cybersmart and Beta News reveals that 75% of MSPs experienced at least one breach in the past year, while 54% endured multiple incidents; concurrently, SMB buyers state security is a top priority, but only 13% of microbusinesses operate proactively. According to WatchGuard's global survey of 842 professionals, 94% of clients using dedicated MSPs feel adequately protected, yet 58% indicate intent to change providers within three years—highlighting a disconnect between perceived and delivered value. The emergence of Assurixs' live MSP Trustmark, based on 64 operational controls, further formalizes evidence requirements as market prerequisites. These dynamics are reinforced by shifts in insurer behavior and regulatory alignment. Huntress and Acrisure are collectively rolling out a cyber insurance package contingent on adoption of Huntress's managed detection and response, explicitly tying coverage eligibility to verifiable provider-side controls. The maturing of NIST's AI cybersecurity overlays introduces new standardized control checklists likely to become operational requirements. Additionally, reports from Omdia and MSP Channel Insights note that vendor ecosystems are now rewarded for integrating security as an outcome with automation and multi-tenant integration—reflecting market demand for reliable, defensible evidence of controls. For MSPs and IT leaders, these developments drive the need to restructure contracts to clearly delineate evidence obligations, manage liability exposure, and price evidence production as a formal deliverable rather than as unreimbursed support. Failing to do so risks absorbing unfunded post-incident evidence work, margin erosion, and loss of control over the security value conversation. Operationally, maintaining live accreditations, standing up a formal evidence management function, and explicitly excluding unmanaged SaaS, identity, and AI workflows from baseline service tiers are becoming necessary to maintain profitability and accountability. 00:00 Breach, Then Switch  04:52 SaaS Blind Spot 07:16 Prove or Pay 10:24 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  Zero Networks HaloPSA   

Rob Emsley, director of cyber resilience marketing at Dell Technologies For most of the history of managed services, backup has been foundational but frankly unremarkable. You back up the data. Customers sleep better. Everyone moves on. That model needs to evolve. In this episode of In The Channel, recorded at Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, Rob Emsley, director of cyber resilience marketing at Dell Technologies, makes a compelling case for why MSPs need to reframe their entire backup practice around cyber resilience – and why the opportunity to do so has never been bigger or more urgent. The stat that sets the table: 97% of cyber attacks now involve targeting the backup infrastructure directly. Attackers know that if they can compromise the backup, the game is essentially over. An MSP whose backup practice is not built around isolated, immutable copies is not selling a last line of defense – it’s selling false assurance. Central to the conversation is the idea of the “minimum viable company”: a framework Emsley encourages MSPs to bring to their customers, ideally at the board level. The question is deceptively simple – if everything goes down, what are the absolute minimum systems and data sets required to bring the business back online? Building a resilience strategy around that answer changes how you architect backup, and how you price and position it. Emsley walks through Dell’s PowerProtect portfolio, including the Data Domain platform and its multi-tenant capabilities for MSP environments, the Workspace Protection endpoint play, and the new premium rebate incentives for cyber resilience solutions in Dell’s Modern Partner Platform. His most practical advice for the mid-market? Have an incident response plan – and print it out. Because when ransomware strikes, the runbook sitting on the encrypted server is not going to help anyone. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’re still coming to you from Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas this week, where AI Factory and agentic AI have understandably grabbed most of the headlines. But while I was on the show floor, I also wanted to bring you a conversation that I think is going to resonate long after the conference fades. The question of how MSPs should be thinking about cyber resilience – not just backup or data recovery, but the full picture of what it actually takes to bring a customer’s business back to life after a ransomware attack – sits at or near the top of virtually every board-level buying agenda right now. And with AI increasingly in the hands of the bad guys as much as the good guys, the calculus around protecting data is changing fast. I sat down with Rob Emsley, director of cyber resilience marketing at Dell Technologies, for a conversation about the difference between disaster recovery and cyber recovery, the concept of the minimum viable company, and why MSPs who are still selling backup the old-fashioned way may be leaving both value and their customers seriously exposed. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Rob Emsley. Robert Dutt: Rob, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Rob Emsley: Yeah, great to meet you, Robert. Robert Dutt: Director of cyber resilience marketing. You’re sitting in a pretty fascinating place right now, I have to think. Let’s start by sort of setting the table a little bit for an MSP and solution provider audience. How do you define cyber resilience at Dell today and how is that different from what it looked like even a couple of years back? Rob Emsley: Yeah, I mean, for many years, what the portfolio that I market was really the data protection portfolio. And like many vendors in the industry, one of the things that’s dramatically changed over probably the last decade, I would say, is the increase in cyber attacks and really the concern over things like ransomware, over things like insider threats, basically anything where bad actors are going after your data. And over the last probably 10 years, you’ve seen a lot more interest in cyber recovery as opposed to disaster recovery. Disaster recovery has been around forever. Bad things happen to good people. Do I have a set of infrastructure that I can restart from, whether it’s a natural disaster or human error, et cetera, et cetera. And the interesting thing with cyber recovery is the frustrating reality is that your hardware is probably still in good shape. You’re not under five feet of water or your infrastructure hasn’t been destroyed by a tornado. So everything looks as if it’s recoverable, but you know it isn’t because it’s been impacted, it’s been infected, and your good data is now bad data. So many MSPs that work with vendors in this market have seen an evolution of those vendors changing their messaging to certainly become more security companies. And some of that, you could argue, is based on vendor evaluations, especially private companies that are looking to go public or be acquired, et cetera, et cetera. So Dell Technologies was probably one of the last to really make a hard pivot from the products that we sell, predominantly delivering backup and recovery, but really to position those products and market those products as cyber resilience offerings. And cyber resilience really drives us to have new conversations with different parts of the customer’s team. Certainly it’s the old adage that when you’re selling data protection, you take the elevator to the basement to talk to the infrastructure team. When you’re selling cyber resilience, you take the elevator to the top floor to talk to the board, and it really has become a board-level discussion. So I think for managed service providers, the topic of cyber resilience is a much broader conversation that they can have with prospective customers. I think that customers know that there’s only two things that they’re afraid of losing. One is their employees, and two is their data. Losing either of them is really a bad day. So I think that when you look at buying intentions from many analyst firms that do those types of research projects – Omdia, for instance, is one – cyber resilience tops the top three, if not the top two or even top one, buying intentions for the coming years. And it has done for many, many years. So I think that’s why cyber resilience is an opportunity for managed service providers to expand the conversations and the people that they’re talking to, because it’s a horizontally required discipline. One of the things that customers, unfortunately over the years, have overspent on – maybe not overspent, but maybe not got the balance correct – is they’ve spent a lot of their budgets on cybersecurity products, trying to make their environments more secure. Basically build a wall. Firewalls fall into that category of technology, ransomware detection, those types of things. The area where we’ve tried to get a better balance in IT budgets is on recovery and resilience, based on the premise that there’s no such thing as absolute security. So you need to be prepared to have a good copy of your data to bring back to life, to bring your company back to life. Robert Dutt: Obviously, a lot of talk about AI because it’s the 2020s and we’re at a tech conference. Everyone’s going that way, which is good news in some regards and bad news in other regards in the security sphere, because it turns out the bad guys have access to it. Rob Emsley: Yeah. And that’s true for, as you imagine, a lot of technology. If you think about just life in general, there’s a lot of things that are available in the market that can be used for good and can also be used for bad. It all depends on what hands those technologies are in. And certainly, if you look at the use of AI to manufacture more sophisticated cyber attacks, certainly if you think about the use of AI to provide more sophisticated phishing emails, that’s certainly one thing I think we’ve seen. And certainly the concern around using AI to more quickly identify vulnerabilities – that’s been something that’s been top of mind in the news over the last few weeks, a couple of months. But again, I think both of those just reinforce the importance of having a surety that you have a good known copy of your data that you can take to the bank to bring the company back online. And I think from an MSP perspective, offering an infrastructure that gives their customers that assurance is really beneficial to customers. The old adage of customers want to sleep well at night – and if an MSP can help them do that, then a good night’s sleep is worth a fortune sometimes. Certainly my wife would say so. Robert Dutt: I think after 365, backup has been a fundamental underpinning of managed services for such a long time. I’m curious what you think is most common for MSPs to miss in terms of evolving and doing more than just the old-fashioned backup technology and getting more out of that. Rob Emsley: Yeah, I think if you look at a lot of the backup technologies that are available, certainly backup has always been that last line of defense. And unfortunately, being that last line of defense, the bad actors realize that if you compromise the backup infrastructure, you can pretty much do whatever you want. All bets are off. The customer doesn’t have a last line of defense. So if you think about some of the research that’s in the industry, 97% of cyber attacks involve attacking the backup infrastructure. And that doesn’t matter whether or not it’s managed by the customer or managed by an MSP. So I do think that MSPs need to become much more conversant in explaining what they are doing and how they have implemented a backup infrastructure that really is that last line of defense. And that’s something which you start getting into the concept of offering isolated copies of backups – maybe not for every single data type, but certainly we believe wholeheartedly in the concept of the minimum viable company, which really is a discussion to have with the board about when everything is gone, what needs to come back in order for you to be viable. Because I think that’s the killer – some people have a laissez-faire attitude to, well, everything’s important. But if everything’s important, then nothing’s important. So I do think that the MSPs that are in the backup industry need to realize that the backup value has changed. It used to be very much around being there for operational recovery. Having backups is just good hygiene, but having backups that aren’t secure is a no-no in today’s market. So that becomes a very important shift for MSPs that are in the backup market. Because I do agree with you – backup, God bless it, has been a great value creator for MSPs. Many customers realize that they need to back up their data. Subscribing to a service to do that is certainly an easy way to use your resources for more productive work to drive revenue. But at the end of the day, if you’re not secure, it’s difficult to innovate with confidence. Robert Dutt: All right. How does the portfolio that you guys are offering today help partners position their customers to be able to bounce back based on what really happens when they get attacked, breached, when their backup is part of that? Rob Emsley: Yeah. So within the Dell Technologies portfolio, this occurred probably about seven years ago. When I came back to Dell in 2018, we were simplifying the infrastructure portfolio of the company – storage predominantly, servers, and at the time data protection and cyber resilience. So many of our customers and our partners realized we have a portfolio of Power-branded products: PowerEdge, PowerStore, PowerMax, PowerSwitch. And probably in 2019, we introduced PowerProtect. So PowerProtect is the umbrella portfolio for everything we do in that backup and recovery, data protection, and cyber resilience space. Within there, we sell software to create copies of data and store them on hardware. And the hardware that we sell is something that we’ve been very lucky to have ownership of for literally 20 years. It’s an acquisition that was made by Dell Technologies, actually prior to the acquisition of EMC – it was an EMC acquisition, a company called Data Domain. And Data Domain has been really foundational for delivering cyber resilience. It falls into the category of what IDC calls the purpose-built backup appliance market. So unlike general purpose storage that many backup vendors use, this is a storage tier that was specifically developed for the purpose of storing backups. So it was developed with three attributes in mind. One was performance – how fast can I back up, how fast can I recover? It was built on efficiency – backup is a very repetitive process, so how can I store multiple backups in less physical capacity? So data reduction, deduplication. And then scalability – how can I start small and scale? But then overarching to that is how can you make it rock solid and secure? So the security features of our PowerProtect Data Domain appliances are something that’s very advantageous. And many of our managed service providers have stood that up in their data centers and offered that as the foundation for cyber resilience. The nice thing is that Data Domain, as well as supporting Dell Technologies software – so PowerProtect Data Manager, and other software assets that we’ve had for even longer, products like Networker and Avamar – it also has a very healthy ecosystem. There’s a protocol called Data Domain Boost that we use to allow third parties to integrate with Data Domain directly. Because the reality is that an MSP, when they go and talk to a customer, that customer has more than likely already made choices around the backup software that they’re using. And it’s more than likely not just one. And sometimes when they go to the MSP, they’ll say, well, can you basically choose a backup software application? But even the nice thing is, from an MSP perspective, Data Domain is multi-tenant. So you can slice up Data Domain into an ability to serve many MSP customers using different software if the customer so chooses. So if you look at our expo floor this year, we’ve got companies like Commvault exhibiting, companies like Veeam exhibiting. That’s the way that our portfolio is set up to provide that backup infrastructure for MSPs to leverage. Robert Dutt: Obviously, one of the big occurrences here from a partner point of view is the Modern Partner Platform that’s rolling out. And in part of all of those changes, you got the specific call out for cyber resilience solutions as one of the differentiated product areas for premium rebates. That’s a pretty big carrot. What does it say about the signal to the channel about where you see the biggest growth opportunities across Dell? Rob Emsley: Yeah, we have historically done the majority of our business through the channel, but we also recognize that the channel has a lot of choices. Many of our competitors, in fact most of our competitors in that cyber resilience backup solution space, are all pure-play individual companies, most of which have very little direct sales capabilities. So very channel-focused and therefore have blanketed the channel to sell their wares, sell their products. We wholeheartedly believe that the Dell Technologies portfolio, either standalone from a cyber resilience solutions perspective, but also taken in context of the other key elements – you think about things like private cloud and AI – gives a channel partner the concept of delivering secure infrastructure and the opportunity to take advantage of that broader portfolio. And as we talked about earlier, you can’t deny that cyber resilience is top of mind. It’s as high on the board’s agenda as, hey, how are we going to take advantage of artificial intelligence? Some could argue that cyber resilience is either on par or if not, for many customers, more of a concern, because it’s that ever-present danger of – is the infrastructure that I have now, even before I’ve implemented AI, secure enough to allow us to sleep at night? We certainly see the pivot from data protection to cyber resilience fitting well with the other vendors that our MSPs talk to. We certainly have a portfolio that addresses small customer needs to large customer needs, can absolutely be leveraged by our MSP partners to build a practice behind. And also, with cyber resilience solutions, there’s that upfront services component built in – identifying what is the minimum viable company that needs to be the most secure, the most isolated, to give those customers the peace of mind and actually show the MSPs as valued trusted partners. Robert Dutt: So much of the focus is obviously on enterprise data, on the data center, on the infrastructure side. But you also have the Workspace Protection offering going on. How important is securing the endpoint in the overall resilience strategy, and what’s the play there for partners from a resilience point of view? Rob Emsley: Yeah, certainly if you think about the entry point into most networks, the endpoints are clearly the most numerous, just by the volume of endpoints compared to the volume of elements in the data center. So certainly when we look at cyber resilience, we look holistically – not only at the data center infrastructure, but absolutely the endpoints that we sell. We continually look at the elements of security across the portfolio. And there’s a lot of foundational technology across the Dell product line, whether it be in the client space or in the server or storage space. The concept of trusted boot, secure BIOS, really carries forward through the PC line all the way into our server line and then the leverage of those servers into our storage portfolio. And then from an MSP standpoint, when you engage with Dell from a purchase perspective, you gain the advantage of the secure supply chain that Dell uses to its advantage. Our supply chain forever has been an incredible value, not only to ourselves, but also to anybody that buys from us, including our partners. But the fact that the way that we leverage that supply chain securely gives a lot of peace of mind. Because many of our partners, when they’re working with security companies, those security companies are not manufacturing their devices. Certainly they’re not manufacturing endpoints. Most of the time, they’re not manufacturing data center servers and data center storage solutions. They’re buying from somebody else. So the concept of a secure supply chain becomes harder to rationalize when you have multiple suppliers providing your solution. So at the end of the day, one of the advantages when it comes to Dell is that if you choose to work holistically with Dell, you get this foundational benefit across the portfolio of a lot of commonality when it comes to security and resilience. That’s one take-it-to-the-bank benefit that an MSP can achieve when they work with Dell Technologies across the entire portfolio. We’re fortunate enough to be in a position to have that entire portfolio, and long may that continue. And certainly that’s one of the advantages – when we look at security and resilience, we can look at it from the endpoint all the way to the data center and beyond. And I think that’s something that is a big benefit for MSPs to lean into the whole portfolio, as well as the advantages of aggregation of benefits and different tier levels by having a single-vendor, multi-portfolio opportunity, as opposed to slicing and dicing their vendor engagements across half a dozen different vendors. Robert Dutt: What do you see as the most common gap, especially in the mid-market, in terms of incident response plans today? Rob Emsley: I think it’s one, having one that is documented and printed out. That may seem very basic, but… Robert Dutt: Until your systems are locked down by ransomware. Rob Emsley: Exactly. So the very basic advice of have a plan and print it out may sound very old-fashioned and simplistic, but in the mid-market, that is probably something that people should consider. Certainly, practice does make perfect is not a trite saying. Practice, practice, practice in the mid-market becomes important. You don’t want to be developing a plan or using a plan for the first time when the house is on fire. You want to know where the exits are, where the fire extinguisher is, and you want to know how to use it. You want to make sure that when you use it, they work. Something which we can probably all think about in our own home lives, to be honest. So I think that’s probably something which, no matter what size company you are, it comes back to – you don’t want to lose your employees, you don’t want to lose your data. And when it comes to cyber resilience, you’re never too small or too big to take a fresh look at what you do and what your plan is. Robert Dutt: Once again, I appreciate you taking the time. Great chat. Rob Emsley: Great. Thanks, Robert. Robert Dutt: There you have it, Rob Emsley from Dell. I’d like to thank Rob for carving out some time during what has been a very busy week on the show floor at DTW. A couple of things from the conversation that I think are worth mentioning. First, that 97% figure – 97% of cyber attacks now involve targeting the backup infrastructure directly. If you’re an MSP and your backup practice is still built on the assumption that the backup is the safe harbor, that’s a foundational problem. The attackers know exactly where the life raft is. And second, the idea of the minimum viable company sounds simple, even obvious, but it’s actually a board-level conversation that most MSPs probably aren’t having and probably should be. What are the absolute minimum systems, data sets, and processes that a business needs to restart their operations? Answering that question and then building a resilience stack around that answer is the real difference between selling backup and selling business continuity. And his parting advice – have a plan and print it out – almost laughably basic until you consider how many organizations discover their incident response runbook is sitting on the encrypted server when they need it the most. I’d like to thank you as always for listening to the show. Please follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts – Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, most directories. Ratings and reviews are always appreciated and always help. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Omdia's Scott Sinclair discusses how Enterprise AI is driving infrastructure modernization, the critical role of Data Security, and the unprecedented...

Why you should listenJay McBain breaks down the data behind why 51% of partners are in double-digit profit decline while the industry grows at 10.2%, and what separates the partners winning from the ones quietly falling behind.Learn the specific positioning shift that gets you found by large language models, buyers, and vendors, including why "I sell to midsize banks in Perth and do compliance" beats every generic services page on the internet.Walk away with the new partner economics: the 6.3 partners surrounding every SaaS deal, the 28 measurable moments in a buyer's journey, and where partner revenue actually sits inside the next 20 years of AI.Half the channel is in double-digit profit decline in an industry growing 10% a year, and most SaaS partners can't work out why their pipeline is drying up. In this episode, I talk with Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Omdia, the world's leading voice on channels, partnerships, and ecosystems, with 32 years entirely in the channel. We get into why digital sameness is killing smaller partners, why large language models can't find you when you do all things to all people, and where the real money sits inside the 20-year AI era. Jay shares the data behind the 1,000 partners doing two-thirds of all tech services globally, and the niche play that puts you on the right side of that line. If you're tired of competing in a sea of identical websites and watching better-positioned partners win deals you should have been in, this one's for youAbout Jay McBainJay McBain is Chief Analyst for Channels, Partnerships, and Ecosystems at Omdia, with more than 30 years analyzing the global channel landscape. He has held executive channel roles at IBM, Lenovo, Autotask, ChannelEyes, and Forrester, and was named Global Channel Influencer of the Year by Channel Futures Magazine. His research on the 28 measurable buyer moments, the 6.3 partners surrounding every SaaS deal, and the shift from resell to ecosystem-driven revenue has made him the analyst vendors and partners turn to when they need to understand where the channel is heading next.Resources and Linksomdia.comJay's LinkedIn profileJay McBain on The Paul Higgins Podcast: Episode 435Need help with your WHO and WHAT decisions? Apply for a FREE Multiplier CallBook a Decision Session herePrevious episode: 682 - 82% of Tech Partners Are Not AI Ready Are YouCheck out more episodes of the Paul Higgins PodcastSubscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoringJoin our newsletterSuggested resources

In a live recording from COVESA all-member meeting in Porto, Portugal, John and Omdia analyst Maitê Bezerra discuss the 2026 SDV survey, which reveals the industry expects to reach SDV level 3 by 2030. Key findings highlight a shift toward data-driven value creation and predictive maintenance, though organizational readiness still lags behind technology deployment by several years.

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

#realconversations #Hollywood #microdrama CONVERSATIONS WITH CALVIN — WE THE SPECIESHosted by Calvin Schwartz Meet NICOLE MATTOX and SETH EDEEN, starring in The Hitwoman.“It is a brave new world. Of young actors and actresses. Film. Writing.Content. Microdrama storytelling. Thanks to LaQuita Washington at QEY CreativeStudios for implementing this interview. Great chemistry with Nicole and Seth.Responsive, animated, dedicated, and ebullient. I rarely use ebullient. Puristfun. Texas and Wyoming are chatting with me. Of course, I related how Texas gotme married. And I was in a movie with Meryl Streep. And now to Nicole and Seth.The Hitwoman is about Madeline Archer, an assassin who doesn't want bloodshed.And Hayden Clark, contracted and Maddie's first love. Great storyline. Nicoletalked about dealing with moral conflict. Delightful. And Seth has to portray amix of love, confusion, and suspicion. Romance and danger. And preparing forthis demanding role. They love this new world of microdramas. And I forgot.They loved ‘Casablanca.' I'm a happy interviewer. And yes, these two letterscame up. AI. How they handled it. Nicole stressed being yourself. Seth would'veliked to spend a day with Phillip Seymour Hoffman. A perfect flowing Zoom withwondrous, energetic, passionate actors. Made my day.”  Calvin

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Acronis launches GenAI Protection for MSPs. Acronis GenAI Protection went generally available April 22nd, giving MSPs a purpose-built tool to discover shadow AI usage across client environments, prevent sensitive data from flowing into unsanctioned AI tools, block prompt injection attacks, and enforce per-client AI usage policies – all from within the existing Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud console. Acronis president Gaidar Magdanurov is framing it as a direct MSP revenue opportunity: turning an invisible and largely ungoverned risk into a billable managed service. Omdia analyst Matthew Ball puts SMB AI adoption at over 50 percent regardless of IT sanction, which tells you exactly how large that ungoverned footprint already is. This is the first release in Acronis’s broader Cyber Workspace initiative, with additional AI-native security capabilities on the roadmap. Everpure CEO publishes open letter on RAMageddon pricing. Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) CEO Charles Giancarlo published a frank letter to customers today warning of roughly 70 percent average price increases since January 2026 – driven by AI infrastructure buildout pulling semiconductor supply away from conventional components. Everpure’s own input costs for CPUs, DRAM, and flash storage have risen between 300 and 900 percent since mid-2025, with costs doubling December to January and doubling or tripling again through March. Giancarlo says the company is absorbing a significant share of the increase rather than passing it through, and commits not to profiteer – but the channel impact is real. Quote validity windows are now 30 days, down from 60 to 90. Giancarlo warns the disruption could persist for years. CRN’s coverage of Everpure’s recent earnings provides useful context on the company’s supply chain posture. If you have hardware-heavy proposals in flight, review your numbers and start the proactive conversation with clients now. Cisco unveils working prototype of a Universal Quantum Switch. Cisco’s Universal Quantum Switch, announced today, is a research prototype that solves a foundational barrier to quantum networking: different quantum systems encode information in incompatible ways, and connecting them has previously meant destroying the quantum information in the process. Cisco’s patented conversion engine routes and translates between all major encoding modalities at room temperature on standard telecom fiber, with less than four percent quantum information degradation and sub-nanosecond switching at under one milliwatt of power. This is research, not a shippable product – but Cisco is drawing an explicit parallel to how classical switches made the internet scalable, and has collaboration agreements with IBM, Qunnect, and Atom Computing working toward a full quantum network stack. For channel partners with public sector, defence, or financial services accounts where quantum security is beginning to surface, the practical timeline on distributed quantum infrastructure is moving faster than most of the channel has been tracking. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Friday, April 24, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. First up: Acronis has launched Acronis GenAI Protection, a new managed service offering aimed  squarely at MSPs. What it does is give service providers centralized visibility and control over generative AI usage across client environments. That means shadow AI discovery – finding out which AI tools employees are actually using, sanctioned or not. It means prompt injection blocking, so bad actors can’t use AI tools to manipulate systems or exfiltrate data through a chat interface. And it means sensitive data protection: preventing PII, PHI, and confidential business information from getting fed into tools that were never cleared to receive it. MSPs can set and enforce AI usage policies on a per-client basis, all from inside the existing Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud console – no separate point solution to manage or sell. Acronis president Gaidar Magdanurov is positioning this explicitly as a revenue expansion opportunity – the idea being that MSPs can convert an invisible risk their clients already have into a billable managed service line. The market backdrop supports that framing: Omdia analyst Matthew Ball estimates that more than half of SMBs are already using AI tools regardless of IT approval, and for the most part there is no governance layer in place to manage that usage. This is the first release under Acronis’s broader Cyber Workspace initiative, with more capabilities – AI-native threat detection, deeper workspace monitoring – described as coming. Worth evaluating now. For most MSP client bases, the shadow AI governance conversation is already overdue. Second: Everpure – the company formerly known as Pure Storage – CEO Charles Giancarlo published an open letter to customers and partners today that anyone selling or speccing hardware needs to read carefully. The headline number is a 70 percent average price increase since the beginning of 2026 – and Giancarlo’s message is that this may not normalize for years, not quarters. The underlying cause is AI infrastructure buildout consuming semiconductor supply at a pace that’s starving conventional storage and compute components. Everpure’s own input costs – CPUs, DRAM, and flash storage – have surged between 300 and 900 percent from mid-2025 baseline levels. Costs roughly doubled between December and January alone, then doubled or tripled again through February and March. Giancarlo is explicit that the company is absorbing a significant share of those increases rather than passing them straight through – it’s operating at the low end of its 65 to 70 percent gross margin range as a result – and the letter commits explicitly to not treating the supply crisis as a margin opportunity. That’s worth acknowledging. But absorbing part of a 300-to-900 percent input cost spike still leaves a 70 percent average increase landing on customers. The channel-specific implications are concrete. Quote validity has been cut from 60 to 90 days down to 30, because costs are moving too fast for longer windows to hold. And Giancarlo’s warning about multi-year disruption applies broadly – the underlying DRAM and flash component dynamics affect the whole hardware market, not just Everpure’s product line. If you have proposals in flight with any significant storage or compute components, pressure-test those numbers now and get ahead of the conversation with your clients before they come to you. And third, something from the longer end of the technology horizon: Cisco has announced a Universal Quantum Switch – a working research prototype that addresses one of the foundational barriers to practical quantum networking. Here’s the core problem it solves. Quantum computers from different vendors encode information in fundamentally different ways – polarization, time-bin, frequency-bin, path encoding – and until now, connecting them has meant destroying the quantum information in the process. There’s been no equivalent of a network switch for quantum systems. Cisco’s prototype changes that with a patented conversion engine that can route and translate between all of those encoding types simultaneously, preserving the quantum state across the translation. It operates at room temperature on standard telecom fiber – no exotic cryogenic infrastructure required. In testing, it achieved less than four percent quantum information degradation, with sub-nanosecond switching at under one milliwatt of power. The analogy Cisco uses is instructive: classical networking switches made the internet possible by connecting incompatible endpoints through a common network fabric. This is the same concept applied to quantum systems. The company is working with IBM, Qunnect, and Atom Computing toward a fuller quantum network stack. To be direct about where this fits for the channel: it’s a research prototype and it won’t appear on a quote sheet this year or next. But for those with public sector, defence, or financial services accounts where quantum is starting to surface in security and infrastructure conversations, the practical timeline on distributed quantum networking is compressing faster than the industry has generally been tracking. This is meaningful progress, and it’s worth knowing about. Later today on In The Channel, we’ll be discussing Cisco 360, three months in with Cisco Canada channel chief Erin Gertner, and looking at why Canadian partners are responding better than expected to the program’s rollout. And if you haven’t heard it yet, yesterday’s episode features Dell Technologies vice president of global partner marketing Eric Arcese discussing the AI Factory and why the gaps around it are the real opportunity for the channel. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day, and an even better weekend.

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Hewlett Packard Enterprise expands software channel push: Hewlett Packard Enterprise is doubling its dedicated sales team to drive its Hybrid CloudOps software portfolio through the channel. According to CRN, Rocco Lavista, vice president and general manager of worldwide Hybrid CloudOps software sales at HPE, noted that rising global memory prices and the resulting hardware cost pressures are actively driving demand for virtualization alternatives like VM Essentials. For Canadian MSPs and VARs grappling with supply chain volatility and tightening server margins, the vendor’s expanded software push offers a potential pivot point to maintain profitability through higher-margin recurring revenue streams. AvePoint and Omdia research highlights AI governance gap: AvePoint and Omdia have released new global research indicating that governance and compliance, rather than technical capability, represent the primary barrier to AI monetization. Based on a survey of over 300 MSPs, 51 percent cited governance as the main obstacle to customer AI adoption. The report highlights a significant execution gap: while 94 percent of respondents are committed to AI readiness, only 43 percent report high maturity in their service delivery. As Canadian solution providers face increasing data sovereignty requirements, the research suggests that packaging AI governance as a standalone service is a viable path to capturing a share of a market Omdia projects will reach $276 billion by 2030. ESET tracks cyber insurance influence on the channel: Security vendor ESET has published its 2026 SMB Cyber Readiness Index, highlighting the growing influence of cyber insurance underwriters on the managed services landscape. The report found that 78 percent of Canadian small and medium-sized businesses now carry cyber insurance, with insurers increasingly mandating specific security controls. Among Canadian SMBs that outsource their security, 27 percent are now bypassing traditional providers to use a cyber insurer offering Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services. For the Canadian channel, the data underscores a critical shift: insurers are setting the baseline, and MSPs must integrate advanced monitoring capabilities to prevent clients from migrating to insurer-provided solutions. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Thursday, April 23, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is doubling its dedicated sales team to drive its Hybrid CloudOps software portfolio through the channel. According to Rocco Lavista, vice president and general manager of worldwide Hybrid CloudOps software sales at HPE, the vendor is actively working to accelerate partner attach rates for its software suite. Lavista recently noted that rising global memory prices and the resulting hardware cost pressures are actively driving demand for virtualization alternatives like VM Essentials. For Canadian MSPs and VARs grappling with supply chain volatility and tightening server margins, the vendor’s expanded software push offers a potential pivot point to maintain profitability through higher-margin recurring revenue streams. AvePoint and Omdia have released new global research indicating that governance and compliance, rather than technical capability, represent the primary barrier to AI monetization for managed service providers. Based on a survey of over three hundred MSPs, fifty-one percent cited governance as the main obstacle to customer AI adoption. The report highlights a significant execution gap: while ninety-four percent of respondents are committed to AI readiness, only forty-three percent report high maturity in their actual service delivery. As Canadian solution providers face increasing data sovereignty and privacy requirements, the research suggests that packaging AI governance as a distinct, standalone service may be the most viable path to capturing a share of a market Omdia projects will reach two hundred and seventy-six billion dollars by 2030. Security vendor ESET has published its 2026 SMB Cyber Readiness Index, highlighting the growing influence of cyber insurance underwriters on the managed services landscape. The report found that seventy-eight percent of Canadian small and medium-sized businesses now carry cyber insurance, with underwriters increasingly mandating specific security controls as a condition of coverage. Among Canadian SMBs that outsource their security, twenty-seven percent are now bypassing traditional providers to use a cyber insurer offering Managed Detection and Response services, while thirty-eight percent remain with a traditional MSP. For the Canadian channel, the data underscores a critical shift: insurers are actively setting the security baseline, and MSPs must integrate advanced monitoring capabilities to prevent clients from migrating to insurer-provided solutions. Later today on In The Channel, my conversation with Eric Arcese, vice president of global partner marketing at Dell Technologies, discussing the AI Factory, VxRail’s evolution, and what’s ahead. And if you haven’t heard it yet, be sure to check out yesterday’s chat with Rewst founder Aharon Chernin on building the automated MSP. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening.

As high-speed internet becomes essential to daily life, this episode explores Omdia's latest report on what's next for broadband across North America. The report examines emerging trends reshaping connectivity—from expanding rural access and improving home network experiences to evolving pricing models and intensifying competition. In this week's episode, Gary Bolton, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, is joined by Jaimie Lenderman, Research Manager, Service Provider Networks and Alzbeta Fellenbaum, Practice Leader, Service Provider–Consumer, to discuss forward-looking strategies operators can adopt to strengthen customer loyalty, attract new subscribers, and drive sustainable revenue growth in a rapidly changing market. Register now! With Special Guests: Jaimie Lenderman, Research Manager, Service Provider Networks, Omdia Alzbeta Fellenbaum, Practice Leader, Service Provider Consumer Research, Omdia

Equinix, Inc., the world's digital infrastructure company®, has announced the availability of Equinix Fabric Intelligence, an AI-native operational layer to manage network infrastructure. Fabric Intelligence enables enterprises to deploy AI-powered networking across their operations, a shift from legacy software-defined networking design to simplify the complexities of today's AI workflows. Powering the Equinix Distributed AI Hub, Fabric Intelligence introduces smart automation for deploying, optimizing and maintaining global infrastructure, giving organisations a more resilient, efficient and adaptive backbone for their AI workloads. "The whole concept of AI is to make processes faster, and manual processes for network monitoring and management are difficult, if not impossible, to scale effectively," said Jim Frey, Principal Analyst at Omdia. "Our research shows 93% of organizations agree that network automation will be essential for keeping pace with future change, and 88% also agree that AI itself will be required for effective network automation. With Fabric Intelligence, Equinix is providing enterprises the AI-driven control plane for deploying, activating, and managing multi-cloud networking, to help them meet the scale and automation needs of the distributed AI era." AI thrives in dynamic, connected environments, but many enterprises rely on slow, rigid legacy network architectures that were never designed for the speed and complexity of today's intelligence systems. As AI adoption continues to accelerate, traditional network operations teams are struggling to keep up. Manual workflows can create bottlenecks, long deployment cycles hamper growth, and visibility gaps compound the challenge. AI demands real-time, adaptive networking—driving a shift to AI-assisted network operations that interpret telemetry and respond dynamically. The result is a widening gap between the speed of AI and the networks expected to support it. Fabric Intelligence automates how AI workloads connect and operate across clouds, data centres and edge environments. It provides organisations with a smarter way to manage the complexity of AI by automating how their connections are set up, adjusted and maintained across these distributed environments. As a result, distributed systems run reliably without constant manual effort, freeing teams to focus on strategic business priorities, such as building new AI capabilities and scaling operations. "All enterprises are focused on leveraging AI to transform their business, but most lack the infrastructure needed to deploy it at scale in ways that drive their growth," said Jon Lin, Chief Business Officer at Equinix. "As agentic AI matures and inferencing applications proliferate across the enterprise, networking infrastructure needs to be faster and more flexible than ever before.Fabric Intelligence turns infrastructure from a constraint to a competitive advantage by enabling our customers to spend less time managing complexity and more time moving their business forward." Fabric Intelligence provides a suite of AI-native solutions enabling enterprises to design, deploy and manage their infrastructure using intuitive tools like natural language, automated agentic workflows and powerful predictive insights. Combined with Equinix's global infrastructure of 280 high-performance data centers in 77 metros around the world, Equinix is helping to accelerate enterprise adoption of AI tools and next-generation infrastructure. Earlier this year, Equinix also joined the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), the open foundation driving the transparent and collaborative evolution of agentic AI, as a Gold member. This commitment will help build an open, secure and infrastructure-ready foundation for the global autonomous economy. Fabric Intelligence, part of the Equinix Fabric® portfolio with more than 4,400 customers worldwide, is made up of the following components: Fabric Super Agent An AI superagent that helps customers au...

For the past three years, Omdia has modeled and forecasted the impact of AI on network traffic through a cross-team effort spanning business and consumer trends, networks, hardware, software, devices, and facilities. In this week's episode, Brian Washburn, Chief Analyst, Telco B2B Solutions, Omdia, joins Gary Bolton, President & CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, to discuss Omdia's latest AI network traffic reports, including its surveys, trackers, and forecasts. As AI accelerates, network providers worldwide must strike a balance between protecting their core business—mobile and fixed connectivity—and participating in the broader AI opportunity. Brian shares his analysis of the significant challenges providers will face as AI reshapes network demand, as well as where the potential exists to capture greater revenue from this adjacent opportunity—if they move strategically. Register now! With Special Guest: Brian Washburn, Chief Analyst, Telco B2B Solutions, Omdia

This episode of In Case You Missed It is brought to you by ESET Canada. ESET’s Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship is now open for 2026, with three $5,000 awards available to women pursuing careers in cybersecurity. Applications close April 8. Learn more and apply. On this episode: Channel profits in freefall. A new global survey from Omdia found that nearly 60% of channel partners expect Q1 profits to decline by double digits. Revenue is slightly more encouraging, but costs are rising faster than partners can pass them through. Hardware vendors are refusing to hold pricing until shipment and in some cases cancelling orders after POs have been received. If you haven’t stress-tested your quoting and procurement processes, that conversation needs to happen now. Check Point plants a data sovereignty flag in Canada. Check Point Software launched a dedicated Canada data region for its CloudGuard Web Application Firewall, ensuring all configurations, logs, and security data remain within Canadian borders. For partners navigating data residency and CLOUD Act conversations, this removes a common objection and adds another signal that global vendors are recognizing the Canadian market demands more than just a sales office. Canadian partners on the CRN MSP 500. CRN’s 2026 MSP 500 list included several Canadian companies: WBM Technologies out of Saskatoon on the Elite 150, Bulletproof (a GLI company) on the Security 100, Nucleus Networks on the Pioneer 250, plus appearances from Arctiq, Converge, and Premier Cloud. ESET Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship. ESET’s Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship is open for 2026, with three $5,000 awards for women in Canada pursuing cybersecurity careers. Now in its 11th year, the program has supported 14 women in Canada with more than $50,000 in funding since expanding here in 2021. Last year’s Trailblazer Award recipient, Constance Prevot, is now a working SOC analyst while finishing her degree at Concordia. Deadline to apply: April 8, 2026. Remembering Rob Megaw and honouring Fawn Annan. The Canadian channel lost Rob Megaw, president of Compu-SOLVE Technologies in Midland, Ontario, who led the company for more than 30 years — from its beginnings as a local ISP and PC repair shop through its evolution into a managed services provider. Our condolences to his family and the Compu-SOLVE team. And CIOCAN announced the CanadianCIO Fawn Annan Memorial Award, recognizing women in IT leadership whose work reflects Fawn’s enormous contribution to Canada’s technology community. Nominations are open. Read Full Transcript Welcome to In Case You Missed It from ChannelBuzz.ca. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca. Today is Monday, March 16th, 2026. Let’s get your week started right. This week’s In Case You Missed It is brought to you by ESET Canada. ESET’s Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship is now open for 2026, with three $5,000 awards available to women pursuing careers in cybersecurity. Applications close April 8th. Learn more and apply at eset dot come slash ca. ESET – protecting progress. If you needed a single data point to explain the mood in the channel right now, Omdia may have just provided it. A new global survey from the analyst firm found that close to 60 percent of channel partners expect their Q1 profits to decline by double digits compared to last year. Less than a third predict that profits will grow at all. The revenue picture is slightly more encouraging – 45 percent expect Q1 revenues to increase year over year, and about a third are forecasting double-digit revenue growth. But there’s a dangerous disconnect between topline and bottom line, and the reason is straightforward: costs are rising faster than partners can pass them through. Hardware vendors are increasingly refusing to hold pricing until the point of shipment, and in some cases are cancelling orders even after a purchase order has been received. If you’re locked into contractual pricing with a customer, you quoted a price, the vendor changed theirs, and you’re absorbing the difference. Layer in Middle East conflict pushing oil prices higher, component shortages showing no signs of easing for at least another 12 months, and the downstream effects on cloud providers, MSPs, and SaaS companies all being forced to raise their own prices – and Omdia’s Alastair Edwards warns the risk of channel bankruptcies is set to increase dramatically. If you haven’t stress-tested your quoting and procurement processes for a world where vendor pricing is no longer reliable, that conversation needs to happen now. Check Point Software launched a dedicated Canada data region last week for its CloudGuard Web Application Firewall. All configurations, logs, and security data generated by Canadian customers using CloudGuard WAF will now stay within Canadian borders. This is a data sovereignty play, and the timing isn’t accidental. Data residency is becoming a real differentiator in how Canadian organizations evaluate security vendors. Whether it’s regulatory pressure, customer demand, or the reality that storing data with U.S.-headquartered cloud providers carries CLOUD Act risk, the partners who can have an honest conversation about where data lives are the ones winning deals. For Check Point partners, it removes one of the more common objections. And in a broader sense, it’s another signal that global security vendors are recognizing that having a data region in Canada actually matters to this market. CRN published its annual MSP 500 list last week, and several Canadian companies made the cut. WBM Technologies out of Saskatoon landed on the Elite 150 – now in its 75th year and still reinventing itself. Bulletproof, a GLI company based in New Brunswick, made the Security 100. Nucleus Networks, which has expanded from Vancouver to five cities across Western Canada, appeared on the Pioneer 250. Arctiq, Converge, and Premier Cloud also showed up across the three categories. We don’t dwell on awards lists on this podcast, but the MSP 500 is one of the few that gives Canadian partners real visibility alongside the larger U.S. players. If you’re building your practice and wondering whether you’re on the right track, it’s worth looking at who made it and asking what they’re doing that you could learn from. Since our friends at ESET Canada are sponsoring this episode, it’s worth flagging something they’re doing that goes beyond product. The ESET Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship is now open for 2026, with three $5,000 awards available to women in Canada pursuing careers in cybersecurity. The deadline to apply is April 8th. This is the 11th year of the program.  Since 2021, ESET has supported 14 women in Canada with more than $50,000 in scholarship funding. Last year’s Trailblazer recipient, Constance Prevot, is now a working SOC analyst while finishing her degree at Concordia. If you know someone who should apply, point them to eset.com/ca. Link’s in the show notes. Finally, two moments from the past week that remind us this industry is built by people, not just products. The Canadian channel lost Rob Megaw last week. Rob was the president of Compu-SOLVE Technologies in Midland, Ontario, and had led the company for more than 30 years – from its early days as a local ISP and PC repair shop through its evolution into a managed services provider. That’s the Canadian channel story in miniature, and our condolences go out to his family and the Compu-SOLVE team. On a more hopeful note, CIOCAN announced the CanadianCIO Fawn Annan Memorial Award, recognizing women in IT leadership whose work reflects Fawn’s enormous contribution to Canada’s technology community. Fawn founded the CanadianCIO of the Year Awards and the CIO Hall of Fame. Nominations are open, and we’ll have a link in the show notes. Those are some of the things we were paying attention to last week.  This week on In The Channel: Zero Networks goes all-in on the channel and why Canadian partners should pay attention. Barracuda’s Merium Khalid walks us through their latest threat report. And Jeff Collins from WanAware makes the case that you’re hitting every SLA metric and your customer still thinks you’re failing.  For ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt. Have a great week, and I’ll see you in the channel.

The dominant structural shift identified centers on liability allocation and governance in the context of agentic AI deployment across IT and managed services. The episode underscores how automation is moving beyond content generation to direct operational and security actions, referencing technology from OpenAI (GPT-5.3 Instant), Anthropic (Claude Marketplace), Google Workspace CLI, Microsoft's SharePoint AI features, and Hexnode's Genie AI. Vendors are embedding AI deeper into productivity and endpoint infrastructure, increasing both operational efficiency and the risk footprint—making governance, reliability, and accountability the new competitive differentiators. The most consequential development highlighted is the industry-wide disconnect between rapid AI remediation adoption and lagging governance. According to Omdia, 88% of organizations are using AI-driven remediation, but only 44% have implemented it for most exposure types, and nearly half (49%) of security teams lack trust in these systems. IBM data shows that 63% of organizations lack formal AI incident response policies, meaning deployment often outpaces the development of auditability and risk management. This creates a landscape where automated decisions are taken at scale without clear accountability structures or incident protocols. Supporting developments reinforce these governance and risk concerns. Reports of cognitive fatigue—termed “AI brain fry”—affecting over 14% of users (Boston Consulting Group/UC Riverside) and a 39% increase in error rates among those affected, point to compounding human and system risk when automation outpaces oversight. Market analysis from Accenture, Wharton, and the Dallas Fed notes that AI has shifted skill demand, displaced younger tech workers, and pressured traditional fixed-fee business models. Meanwhile, vendors are migrating from predictable per-seat pricing to variable token-based consumption, passing operational uncertainty onto MSPs and their clients. For MSPs, IT service providers, and technology leaders, the practical implications are clear. Failure to implement explicit governance, contract clauses, and incident protocols exposes providers to unpredictable liability. Passing through ungoverned consumption costs under fixed-contracts damages margins as AI use expands. The increasing cognitive load on staff supervising partially trusted automation further compounds operational risk. As the pricing model shifts, providers must negotiate new contract terms, institute AI incident playbooks, audit tool autonomy, and manage the blast radius of AI with the same rigor as legacy security controls. 00:00 Platform Land Grab 03:56 Who Owns Failure 07:27 Skills Over Titles 09:52 Why Do We Care?  Supported by: JumpCloud  

Enterprise IT spending is projected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2026, but this growth is concentrated in software, cloud services, and AI infrastructure for large organizations, according to HG Insights and Omdia research cited by Dave Sobel. The system integration market is positioned to approach $950 billion in 2025, with enterprises working with an average of 6.3 technology partners. A substantial surge in AI-optimized server sales, as reflected in Dell Technologies' reported 342% year-over-year increase in revenue for those systems, is reshaping supply chains and vendor dynamics, leading to shortages of DRAM, SSDs, and hard drives. Underlying this development are volatile component costs. DRAM prices have doubled quarter over quarter, and both Micron Technologies and Western Digital have indicated they are sold out for 2026. HP reports that RAM now constitutes 35% of new PC materials costs, up dramatically from 18% the previous quarter. Such cost shifts are creating downstream risks for managed service providers (MSPs) with fixed-price agreements, as the economic assumptions underpinning many contracts—stable hardware prices and predictable cloud costs—no longer hold. The episode also highlights an increase in application sprawl and a widening gap between IT budgets and other operational costs. A Torii report shows large enterprises use over 2,191 applications on average, with more than 61% bypassing formal IT approvals, resulting in unmanaged security and compliance exposure. Additionally, 80% of small businesses report rising energy costs that directly compete with IT budget allocations. Industry analysis from Jefferies and Boston Consulting Group signals that AI and automation are not viewed uniformly as productivity boosters and may compress revenue models in both Indian and domestic IT services sectors. The practical implication for MSPs is the urgent need to audit and reprice contracts related to hardware procurement and refresh cycles, clearly documenting and communicating current cost realities with clients. Dave Sobel stresses reframing device lifecycle extensions as a security risk rather than a cost-saving measure and warns against selling clients on speculative AI market projections. The advice is to focus on specific, scoped use cases and to structure agreements that accurately reflect volatility in component costs and the operational burden of application sprawl, ensuring financial and legal accountability as the IT services landscape evolves. 00:00 $4.96T IT Spend Surge Bypasses SMBs as AI Infrastructure Captures Enterprise Budgets 03:58 Dell's $43B AI Server Backlog Triggers DRAM Shortage, Repricing Downstream Hardware 05:52 AI Shrinks IT Services Revenue Model; MSPs Face Contested Implementation Role   This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:

Send a textIn a discussion on the current state of the channel, Robin Ody, Principal Analyst at Omdia, talked about the value gap currently stalling MSP growth. While the shift toward high-margin services like GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) and vCISO roles is essential, many providers are struggling to operationalize these offerings due to the sheer complexity of the 2026 tech stack. With organic growth slowing—as 70% of new business is now merely “churn” from competing MSPs—Robin emphasized that resilience is the new ROI. This is especially true regarding Agentic AI; while AI has delivered measurable wins in ticket triage and MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution), it has introduced “recursive risk.” MSPs need to move beyond viewing AI as a simple tool and instead treat AI agents as identity-bearing actors that require strict governance and access controls to prevent lateral movement and systemic vulnerabilities.While some private equity rollups focus on operational excellence, others have prioritized margin-cutting at the expense of interoperability, leaving MSPs vulnerable to vendor-heavy ecosystems that stifle innovation. To counter this, MSPs are forming small, trusted peer federations to share on-call support and security expertise. By converting internal AI efficiencies into client-facing outcomes and adopting a “governance-first” posture, MSPs can differentiate themselves in a crowded market.

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠In the Notorious Mass Effect segment, Analytic Dreamz dives deep into the RAM Price Crisis (2025–2026), unpacking the key data, market drivers, and real consumer impact behind the dramatic surge in memory costs.RAM prices have skyrocketed into a sustained inflation cycle heading into 2026, fueled by explosive AI data center demand that prioritizes high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and diverts supply from consumer DRAM. Manufacturing bottlenecks, limited cleanroom capacity, and lithography constraints exacerbate the shortage, while major players like Micron exit consumer RAM sales (Crucial brand in December 2025) to focus on higher-margin AI segments. Samsung and SK hynix report massive profit surges amid the boom.DDR5 RAM has seen prices more than quadruple (+340–344%) since July 2025, with a +27% month-on-month jump from December to January 2026. DDR4 and older standards are rising even faster recently (+46% MoM in January), narrowing the gap with newer tech. ComputerBase's fixed-basket analysis confirms average prices have quadrupled versus September 2025, with Germany's retail tracking—Europe's largest PC hardware market—mirroring global trends, including growing secondary-market distortions.Secondary effects hit related components hard: SSDs up +79%, hard drives +53%, GPUs +14% (with street prices far exceeding MSRP on models like RTX 5070 Ti). Specific examples include 2TB NVMe drives jumping 60–159% and NAS HDDs doubling.Analyst forecasts from TrendForce and Omdia point to +50–60% DRAM contract price hikes in Q1 2026, following 40–70% YoY increases in 2025. PC shipments grew +9.2% in 2025 but face potential declines in 2026, while smartphone output forecasts drop ~20% for some brands, risking +30% price hikes or spec downgrades. Gaming consoles may see delays or higher launch prices.Apple's upgrade costs (e.g., $400 for 16GB→32GB) already outpace comparable DDR5 sticks, with M6 Macs potentially facing steeper hikes or supply delays if AI firms continue outbidding.The core takeaway: This AI-driven structural shift has quadrupled RAM prices in under six months, with volatility persisting through 2026. A plateau is the most optimistic scenario—no full reversal in sight. Analytic Dreamz breaks down the data, root causes, and widespread ripple effects across PCs, smartphones, and beyond.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/analytic-dreamz-notorious-mass-effect/donationsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Global channel sales in IT are projected to exceed $4 trillion this year, with two-thirds of total spending driven by partner-led deals, according to Omdia research. However, managed service providers (MSPs) continue to encounter significant integration failures following mergers and acquisitions, leading to operational inefficiencies and diminished client trust. The Business of Tech analysis highlights that stacking acquisitions without comprehensive integration amplifies risks, particularly affecting margins, service consistency, and accountability.Supporting survey data from POPX indicates that 60% of UK MSPs report platform and data integration as critical hurdles post-acquisition, while 44% identify poor morale and lack of team alignment as sources of inefficiency. Notably, 38% experienced client disruption during transitional periods, signaling that rapid growth without sufficient operational coherence creates drag rather than leverage. These issues are compounded by rising technology budgets—nearly 75% of organizations expect increased IT spending—and intensifying reliance on AI and cloud services in MSP environments.Additional stories addressed include the widespread adoption of unsanctioned "Shadow AI" tools in healthcare settings, with over 40% of workers aware of unapproved usage, and the increasing tendency for AI platforms to reference general sources like YouTube over traditional medical authorities. The episode further examines new AI-driven arbitration tools, platform consolidations within managed security, and the centralization of authority across purchasing and service delivery ecosystems. Vendor integrations, such as Synchro's marketplace partnership with Ironscales and LevelBlue's acquisition of AlertLogic's unit, illustrate a shift away from component choices towards streamlined, but potentially opaque, accountability structures.For MSPs and IT service leaders, the central takeaway is not the urgency to adopt new tools, but the necessity to clarify ownership, governance, and liability as technology platforms accelerate efficiency and centralize control. Failure to address integration fundamentals, define formal oversight for AI-driven decisions, and maintain transparency amid automation will expose service providers to unpriced risks and erode client trust. Sustained growth is contingent upon operational discipline, not just expanding portfolios. Four things to know today 00:00 Channel Growth Accelerates While MSP Integration Failures Threaten Margins and Trust03:58 New Research Shows Agentic AI Adoption Outpacing Governance and Workforce Readiness07:25 AI Interfaces, Security Consolidation, and MSP Marketplaces Point to a Shift in Where Authority Lives10:27 AAA's AI Arbitrator Shows How Automation Changes Who Owns Decisions, Not Just How Fast They're Made This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by: 

Today, our guest on The PARTNERNOMICS® Show is Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Omdia. Jay McBain is an accomplished speaker, author and innovator in the IT industry. Named Channel Influencer of the Year by Channel Partners Magazine, Top 40 Under Forty by the Business Review, Channel A-List by CRN, Top 8 Thought Leader by Channel Marketing Journal, Top 20 Visionary by ChannelPro, Top 25 Newsmaker by CDN Magazine, Top 50 Channel Influencer by Penton, Top 100 Most Respected Thought Leader by VSR Magazine, Global Power 150 by SMB Magazine, and Top 250 Managed Services Executives by MSPmentor. Jay is often sought out for keynotes, thought leadership and future industry guidance. He has spent his 30-year career in various executive channel sales, marketing, strategy roles within IBM, Lenovo, Autotask, ChannelEyes, Forrester, and now Canalys. Jay is the chief analyst for global channels at Canalys - the world's leading analyst firm with a distinct focus on channels, partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems. Jay has led several communities at CompTIA including Vendor Advisory Council, Managed Services Community, Advancing Women in Tech and Emerging Tech. He is also a board member of Channel Partners, Channel Vanguard Council, Ziff Davis Leadership Council, and CRN Channel Intelligence Council. As a futurist, and long standing member of the World Future Society, Jay is a recognized expert in the future of channels, alliances, partnering ecosystems and the study of emerging go-to-market models. An avid blogger, community, and social media expert, he has developed an innovative channel tech stack highlighting the importance of channel data and automation. Jay has lived in Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Raleigh, Albany & Boynton Beach. He actively gives back to the community and been on the board of the United Way, National Cristina Foundation, and Junior Achievement. Key Insights: Services Now Outpace Products In Growth, Making Partner Ecosystems Essential For Scale Millennial Buyers Prefer Integrated Best Of Breed Stacks And Avoid Traditional Sales Motions Ecosystems Determine Winners, As No Company Succeeds Without Alliances, Integrations, and Services Partners Deals Are Shaped By Twenty-eight Buying Moments and An Average Of Seven Influencing Partners LAUNCH Provides Leaders A Clear System For Building Profit-Focused Partnership Programs Around These Moments A Small Percentage Of Partners Produce Most Results, So Leaders Must Recruit Broadly And Invest In Proven Performers   ********* Are you a partnering professional wanting to earn industry certifications and badges to showcase on LinkedIn? We will give you the first course and certification for FREE ($595 value)!

Send us a textJay McBain, Chief Analyst Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems at Omdia, outlined the strategic shifts facing the tech industry ahead of 2026. He pointed out the concerning gap between the success of consumer AI and the low ROI from most business AI implementations, linking this challenge to data center dependency and sustainability issues. He forecast major growth in managed security and AI services and stressed that companies must identify key market segments, develop essential skills, and use strategic partnerships to capitalize. Both McBain and Julian emphasized the importance of differentiation and strong leadership to succeed in a market increasingly defined by digital sameness.

The lads were delighted to welcome back special guest Gabriel Brown of analyst firm Omdia. Pausing only to reflect on some mixed sporting news, they get straight into the big new of the week, which emanated from Nokia's capital markets day. It was the opportunity for Nokia's newish CEO to reveal his cunning plan for the company. Given events that preceded, that inevitably leads to discussion of Nvidia's increasing influence over Nokia and the telecoms world in general, before they conclude by reflecting on a recent event held by BT International.

MSP events are experiencing a notable shift, with a growing preference for smaller, localized gatherings over traditional mega-conferences. Jessica Davis, Principal Analyst at Omdia, highlights that this trend is driven by factors such as increased travel costs and a desire for more meaningful community interactions. Research indicates that MSPs are increasingly seeking value from events that foster peer connections and provide insights into vendor roadmaps, particularly in the realms of cybersecurity and automation. The acquisition of Channel Pro by Cyber Risk Alliance further underscores the industry's focus on cybersecurity, as it aims to integrate channel and cybersecurity insights.The analysis of 352 global channel events reveals that many MSPs are prioritizing local roadshows, which allow for easier access and more personalized engagement. The pandemic has also influenced this shift, as MSPs are eager to reconnect in person after extended periods of remote interaction. Davis notes that while larger events like IT Nation and Kaseya Connects have their place, the saturation of the event landscape has led to a dilution of value for attendees, prompting a reevaluation of which events are worth the investment of time and resources.In addition to the primary focus on event dynamics, the episode discusses the varying approaches vendors take to measure return on investment (ROI) from these events. While some vendors rely on gut feelings or anecdotal evidence, others employ systematic methods to assess lead generation and engagement quality. This disparity in measurement practices highlights the need for vendors to adopt more data-driven strategies to justify their event expenditures.For MSPs and IT service leaders, the evolving landscape of events presents both challenges and opportunities. As the industry transitions into what is termed MSP 3.0, there is a clear need for MSPs to align their event participation with their business goals, focusing on those that offer relevant insights and networking opportunities. Understanding the financial motivations behind events and seeking out vendor-neutral gatherings can enhance the value derived from these engagements, ultimately supporting better decision-making and growth strategies.

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AI proof-of-concept projects are facing high failure rates, with a recent Omdia survey indicating that nearly one-third of companies report complete failures in these initiatives. Only 9% of firms successfully transition more than half of their AI projects into operational use, while 46% manage to move over 10% into production. The primary reason for these failures is not the technology itself but rather a lack of clearly defined business problems that AI could address. Additionally, only 32% of companies have identified specific human tasks that AI should supplement or replace, highlighting a significant gap in strategic planning for AI integration.The demand for AI skills testing in the workplace has surged, with a 166% increase reported over the past year, according to Test Guerrilla. This trend reflects a growing recognition among employers that traditional hiring methods, such as resumes and interviews, are inadequate for assessing actual candidate capabilities. The 2025 State of Skills-Based Hiring Report reveals that 71% of employers believe skills testing is a more accurate predictor of job performance than resumes. However, a concerning statistic shows that 93% of candidates are not questioned about their AI skills during interviews, indicating a disconnect between hiring practices and the skills needed in the evolving tech landscape.In related developments, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as a beneficial communication solution for small and mid-sized businesses, despite the technology being well-established for over a decade. Corsica Technologies has acquired Accountability IT, enhancing its capabilities in AI-enabled managed IT and cybersecurity, while Morgan Franklin Cyber has acquired Lynx Technology Partners to bolster its governance, risk, and compliance services. These acquisitions reflect a trend of consolidation in the managed services sector, emphasizing the need for IT service providers to adapt to changing market demands.For Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and IT service leaders, these developments underscore the importance of aligning technology initiatives with clear business outcomes. As organizations increasingly seek to implement AI solutions, MSPs must guide clients in defining specific problems that AI can solve and ensuring that their teams are equipped with the necessary skills. The emphasis on skills testing and the strategic integration of technologies like VoIP and AI highlights the need for operational maturity and expertise in navigating the complexities of modern IT environments. Failure to adapt could result in missed opportunities and increased competition from larger, more agile providers. Four things to know today00:00 New Reports Show AI Failing in Deployment and Hiring Due to Strategy Gaps, Not Technology Limitations05:10 U.S. Chamber Endorses VoIP for SMBs as Corsica and MorganFranklin Expand Through Cybersecurity Acquisitions09:03 Vendors Target MSP Operational Pressure With Faster File Workflows, White-Label Staffing, and AI-Powered Search12:37 AI Isn't Failing—Organizations Are: New Research Calls Out Siloes, Leadership Gaps, and Poor Workflow Design This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/https://timezest.com/mspradio/

Diving into the evolving landscape of the partner ecosystem, the discussion centers around three major forces shaping the industry by 2030. First, cloud marketplaces are projected to reach $163 billion in transactions, with nearly 60% of that being partner-led. This shift signifies a redefinition of partner value in the marketplace era, moving beyond traditional procurement methods. Second, the rise of AI services is highlighted, with a projected $267 billion opportunity by 2030, growing at an impressive 35% CAGR. This transition emphasizes the importance of packaging, governance, and delivering measurable outcomes rather than merely developing AI technologies.The conversation also delves into the critical role of cybersecurity as a services multiplier, with a study indicating that for every dollar spent on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, partners can generate over $7 in services revenue. This statistic underscores the potential for partners to leverage cybersecurity solutions to enhance their service offerings. Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Omdia, provides insights into how these trends impact channel partners, vendors, and the future of IT services, emphasizing the need for partners to adapt to these changes. As the discussion progresses, the challenges and opportunities for partners in the AI landscape are examined. The conversation points out that while AI is becoming a feature rather than a standalone product, partners must engage with business leaders across various departments to capitalize on the growing demand for AI-driven solutions. The importance of understanding customer needs and aligning services accordingly is stressed, as partners risk being sidelined by larger system integrators and management consultants if they do not adapt.Finally, the dialogue touches on the changing economics of partnering, particularly in light of recent shifts by major vendors like Microsoft and Cisco, which are cutting back on their partner networks. This consolidation raises questions about how partners can continue to thrive in a landscape where margins are shrinking. The emphasis is placed on the necessity for partners to rethink their business models, focusing on delivering high-value services and leveraging the opportunities presented by AI and cybersecurity to ensure sustainable growth in the future. All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

According to the market research firm Omdia, the school security industry is now worth as much as $4 billion, and it's projected to keep growing. Following what happened to Charlie Kirk on a college campus, the conversation is back. We spoke about it with Former FBI Agent and UNH lecturer, Ken Gray. Image Credit: Getty Images

Send us a textEngineered AI has achieved remarkable milestones, yet fundamental questions remain about whether it can ever reason, think, or truly understand like the human mind. Current systems, while powerful, expose the limitations of today's technology, particularly the persistent neuroscience gap—the divide between brain research and cognitive psychology that prevents machines from replicating human-like cognition. This gap is compounded by the looming energy challenge, as the massive computational demands of AI training strain global infrastructure, in stark contrast to the human brain's ability to operate on the energy equivalent of a 20W light bulb. These realities underscore the growing promise of neurocomputing, which seeks to emulate the brain's structure and efficiency, offering a potential breakthrough in building systems that are not only more intelligent but also vastly more energy-efficient.In this episode, Sam Gupta engages in a LinkedIn live session with Michael Azoff, Chief Analyst, Omdia, in a live LinkedIn session to discuss LLMs: disembodied AI - it's not human-like AI as we imagine it.Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

I've wanted to get Craig back on the show since so much has been happening at the Broadband Forum in the last year, and so much more to come. Now is the time to get involved! We talk about the latest challenges facing service providers, the new OMDIA report coming soon, and what the BBF needs to hear from the industry at large. 

Send us a textMeet Omdia Memwequa, also known as "The Candy Man" – a name earned from his addictively delicious pecan candy that customers jokingly call "legal crack." But behind this sweet success story lies an extraordinary journey of transformation that will leave you inspired.Omdia's story begins with his name itself – a creative combination formed from a monk's chant and a West African word, while his last name emerged during a Scrabble game. This creativity extends throughout every aspect of his life, from his entrepreneurial ventures to his approach to overcoming life's challenges. With remarkable candor, he shares how uncontrolled anger led to his incarceration, and how he used that experience to completely reinvent himself.What sets Omdia apart is his refusal to be defined by his past mistakes. During his time in prison, rather than adopting what he calls an "inmate mentality," he worked in the law library helping others who had been over-sentenced and fought to keep educational programs available. Since his release in 1997, he's never returned to prison and has dedicated himself to mentoring young people at risk of making similar mistakes. His current project involves teaching entrepreneurial skills to a young man recently released from a group home, showing him legitimate ways to earn money and build a future.Beyond his candy business, Omdia has expanded into music, creating songs like "Legal Crack" and his latest release, "Yellow Dress" – a heartwarming true story about a song commissioned as a birthday gift that helped spark a relationship. His creativity, resilience, and commitment to giving back make this an episode you won't want to miss.Ready to experience some "legal crack" yourself or hear Omdia's music? Find him on social media as "Mr Memwequa the Candy Man" or email mrmemwequa@gmail.com to connect with this inspiring entrepreneur who proves that our past mistakes don't have to determine our future.Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

Filmed at the COVESA All-Member Meeting in Berlin, Germany,  Maitê Bezerra, senior principal analyst, software-defined vehicles for Wards Intelligence (now part of Omdia), shared insights on the automotive industry's shift towards software defined vehicles (SDVs) with host John Heinlein, Ph.D., Chief Marketing Officer of Sonatus. The SDV survey, newly expanded to seven countries, highlights the growing role of AI in vehicles, the timeline of rollout of many key technologies, open source operating systems,  applications of vehicle data, vehicle updates, and especially highlights regional differences from around the world. The State of Software Defined Vehicles | Key findings from the 2025 edition of the Software-Defined Vehicle Survey 

The lads are uncharacteristically smart this week ahead of an event Scott chaired immediately after recording. One of the speakers at that event was Analyst Roz Roseboro of Omdia and she was able to join the pod for a bit. They start by reflecting on another recent event they all attended called FutureNet World, which covered a lot of telecoms industry hot topics. They go on to talk about AI, which was the theme of Roz's event, before concluding by questioning the utility of higher frequency spectrum.

The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer wants the UK to become “one of the great AI superpowers”. Earlier this year the government published a plan to use artificial intelligence in the private and public sectors to boost growth and deliver services more efficiently. Once mainly the preserve of the tech community, AI really entered public awareness with the release of ChatGPT, a so-called “chatbot” founded by the US company OpenAI at the end of 2022. It can write essays, scripts, poems and even write computer code …and millions of people are using it. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss whether the UK could become a successful AI hub, as the government hopes and asks if we'll be able to compete globally with the US and China, the home of huge tech companies?Guests: Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton. Eden Zoller, Chief Analyst in Applied AI, Omdia. Professor Neil Lawrence, the DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at University of Cambridge and author of The Atomic Human Jeremy Kahn, AI Editor at Fortune magazine and author of Mastering AI: A survival guide to our superpowered future. Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight, Nathan Gower Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Sound Engineer: James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon

Dive into the future of AI in game development with this insightful panel from GDC featuring Aaron Farr (CTO at Jam and Tea Studios) and Liam Dean (Principal Analyst, Games at Omdia). They explore AI-native games, emergent gameplay, development acceleration, and how AI is transforming both game creation and player experiences. Essential viewing for game developers, executives, and anyone interested in how AI will reshape the gaming landscape.Timestamps0:00 - Introduction and panel overview1:50 - How revolutionary will AI be for gaming?3:30 - Current limitations of AI in game development5:10 - The concept of "AI native games" explained8:00 - Retail Mage: A real example of an AI native game11:10 - Emergent gameplay with AI - The painting IOU story14:20 - AI games vs. multiplayer games comparison17:40 - The controversy around AI in the games industry18:50 - Ethics of AI in game development22:20 - Who wins and loses with AI in game development?24:40 - The "organizational meta" and how AI will reshape studio structure27:40 - AI's impact on product development velocity30:20 - How traditional game studios will adapt (or fail)34:00 - Behind the scenes of an AI-native studio36:10 - How AI dramatically reduces development time (8 weeks vs 4 years)38:10 - The AI Dungeon Master example43:30 - Practical AI applications available right now47:10 - Q&A: Examples of AI-native games in the market49:30 - Q&A: Impact on staffing and team sizes52:40 - The future of game development organizationsSUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

Game consoles have come a long way since the 1970s but could their days now be numbered?The entrepreneur, Sam White, returns with a new series of Dough - the BBC Radio 4 show which looks at the business behind profitable everyday products and where the smart money might take them next. In each episode, Sam, and the futurist, Tom Cheesewright, are joined by product manufacturers and industry experts whose inside knowledge gives a new appreciation for the everyday things that we often take for granted. Together they look back on a product's earliest (sometimes ridiculous!) iterations, discuss how a product has evolved and the trends which have driven its profitability. In this episode on video game consoles, the pair hear from expert guests including:Seamus Blackley - the original creator of Microsoft's XboxKeza MacDonald - video games editor at the GuardianJames McWhirter - a senior analyst specialising in video games for the research firm, Omdia. They trade opinions on the game console's 'game-changing' innovations and its most pointless, or least effective, ones too, before Tom steps in, drawing on his expertise as a futurist, to imagine where consoles might end up in the decades to come. Dough is produced by Jon Douglas and is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in the spring when Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread.In the meantime, Dough is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds

Game consoles have come a long way since the 1970s but could their days now be numbered?The entrepreneur, Sam White, returns with a new series of Dough - the BBC Radio 4 show which looks at the business behind profitable everyday products and where the smart money might take them next. In each episode, Sam, and the futurist, Tom Cheesewright, are joined by product manufacturers and industry experts whose inside knowledge gives a new appreciation for the everyday things that we often take for granted. Together they look back on a product's earliest (sometimes ridiculous!) iterations, discuss how a product has evolved and the trends which have driven its profitability. In this episode on video game consoles, the pair hear from expert guests including:Seamus Blackley - the original creator of Microsoft's XboxKeza MacDonald - video games editor at the GuardianJames McWhirter - a senior analyst specialising in video games for the research firm, Omdia. They trade opinions on the game console's 'game-changing' innovations and its most pointless, or least effective, ones too, before Tom steps in, drawing on his expertise as a futurist, to imagine where consoles might end up in the decades to come. Dough is produced by Jon Douglas and is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in the spring when Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread.In the meantime, Dough is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds

OLED and extra-large TVs are leading the charge in display sales according to Omdia surveys. What do integrators need to do to prepare for projects that need TVs like this? Henry Clifford writes to ask, "are you losing sales to monolouging?" When do we need to just let the product speak for itself? Amazon announces their new Alexa+, their own AI assistant. What this means for AI and voice control in the residential space.Every week we take a look at the news and information integrators need to know about the residential AV industry. We discuss these topics with a panel of experts in our space. Joining us this week is Jason Knott from D-Tools and Ian Bryant of IES Communications.Host: Matt ScottGuests:Ian Bryant – IES CommunicationsJason Knott – D-ToolsLinks to sources:CE Pro – OLED & Extra-Large TVs leading TV salesResidential Systems – Letting Tech Speak For ItselfAmazon – Alexa+ AnnouncementSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

CISA says it will continue monitoring Russian cyber threats. Broadcom patches zero-days that can lead to VM escape. Google patches 43 Bugs, including two sneaky zero-days. CISA flags vulnerabilities exploited in the wild. Palau's health ministry recovers from ransomware attack. Lost and found or lost and leaked? On this week's Threat Vector segment, David Moulton previews an episode with Hollie Hennessy on IoT cybersecurity risk mitigation and next week's special International Women's Day episode featuring trailblazing women from Palo Alto Networks sharing their cybersecurity journeys and leadership insights. And is that really you?  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. Threat Vector Segment On our Threat Vector Segment, host David Moulton shares previews of two upcoming episodes. On this Thursday's episode, he speaks with Hollie Hennessy, Principal Analyst for IoT Cybersecurity at Omdia, to discuss how attackers exploit vulnerabilities in connected environments and the best approaches for risk mitigation. The next week On Thursday, March 13th, David shares four conversations with some of the trailblazing women at Palo Alto Networks in honor of International Women's Day and Women's History Month. They share their journeys into cybersecurity, discuss the challenges they faced and offer insights on leadership, innovation, and mentorship. Be sure to tune in for some inspiring stories. Don't miss the full episodes every Threat Vector Thursday, subscribe now to stay ahead. If you're in Austin, Texas for SXSW and want to meet up, email David at threatvector@Paloaltonetworks.com.  Selected Reading DHS says CISA won't stop looking at Russian cyber threats (CyberScoop) Did Trump Admin Order U.S. Cyber Command and CISA to Stand Down on Russia? (Zero Day) Broadcom Patches 3 VMware Zero-Days Exploited in the Wild (SecurityWeek) Google fixes Android zero-day exploited by Serbian authorities (Bleeping Computer)  Several flaws added to CISA known exploited vulnerabilities catalog (SC Media)  Palau health ministry on the mend after Qilin ransomware attack (The Record) Lost luggage data leak exposes nearly a million records (Cybernews) Lee Enterprises ransomware attack halts freelance and contractor payments (TechCrunch) TikTok Blasts Australia for YouTube Carveout in Social Media Ban (Bloomberg) Deepfake cyberattacks proliferated in 2024, iProov claims (The Register)   Share your feedback. We want to ensure that you are getting the most out of the podcast. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey as we continually work to improve the show.  Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at cyberwire@n2k.com to request more info. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guys are delighted to welcome Pablo Tomasi of analyst firm Omdia this week, whose appearance is so well timed as to create the impression of planning. All three of them attended Ericsson's big pre-MWC media and analyst presentation in London, so they start off by reviewing that, specifically Ericsson's bets on the future of the mobile industry and the likelihood of them paying off. That leads to conversation about enterprise telecoms in general, before they conclude with a robust debate about the implications of Nokia's new CEO appointment.

In this special breaking analysis, we're pleased to host our fourth annual data predictions power panel with some of our collaborators in the CUBE Collective and members of the Data Gang. Joining theCUBE Research's Dave Vellante are five of the top industry analysts focused on data platforms. Sanjeev Mohan of Sanjmo, Tony Baer of dbInsight, recent IDC graduate Carl Olofson, the always engaging Dave Menninger, who is with ISG, and Brad Schimmin with Omdia.Follow theCUBE's live event coverage https://www.thecube.net/Their discussion focuses on the rapid transformation of the technology and data landscape, driven by advancements in AI and accelerated computing. They also analyze market trends, highlighting the increasing dominance of machine learning and AI in enterprise spending priorities. For daily news for CIOs, check out our parent publication at https://siliconangle.com/In addition, they explore emerging technologies such as inference-time data consumption, the evolution of AI-driven enterprise applications and the importance of metadata management. The conversation also turns to the growing security challenges associated with AI implementation and the need for better tools to manage and protect AI systems effectively.Be sure to follow Dave's weekly Breaking Analysis podcast as well, for the deep data dives on enterprise computing trends, from spending patterns to Wall Street implications.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLenh213llmcZMTRZKjnAwesSCiuLQT21E#theCUBE #BreakingAnalysis #theCUBEResearch #CUBECollective #TechPredictions #DataGang

We dig into the trends and analysis from the recently released 2024 Channel Futures MSP 501 report with Ingram Micro VP of services Paul Hager and Omdia's Devan Adams, who authored the report.

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by guest, Patrice Brend'amour,, Marty Jencius, Jeff Gamet. We discuss the Apple Vision Pro headset, exploring its historical patent context and market predictions estimating a $4.5 billion spatial computing market by 2024. The panel debates the implications of the Vision Pro's $3,500 price point on adoption. We also cover updates in iOS 18.2 beta, product reviews of Scosche's new car mounts, and recent automotive news regarding CarPlay integration in GM vehicles and Mercedes-Benz's Apple Watch app.  The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com 
Direct Link to Audio  Links to our Show Give us a review on Apple Podcasts! CLICK HERE we would really appreciate it! Click this link Buy me a Coffee to support the show we would really appreciate it. intouchwithios.com/coffee  Another way to support the show is to become a Patreon member patreon.com/intouchwithios Website: In Touch With iOS YouTube Channel In Touch with iOS Magazine on Flipboard Facebook Page BlueSky Mastodon X Instagram Threads Spoutible Topics and Links Summary We explore a variety of topics, beginning with a recap of how Thanksgiving was celebrated differently across continents, specifically highlighting Patrice's Austrian experience. Our main focus this week revolves around the Apple Vision Pro headset, as the panelists share their personal insights. We reflect on the fascinating history behind an Apple patent from 2008 that hinted at the Vision Pro's eventual manifestation. This leads to a discussion about how Apple's innovative trajectory is often obscured by the complexity of technological advancements over time, suggesting that multiple factors, primarily the maturation of the relevant technologies, contribute to long development cycles. We further examine market predictions for the Vision Pro, highlighting research by Omdia that estimates the global spatial computing market could be worth approximately $4.5 billion by 2024. Each panelist shares their perspective on the Vision Pro's pricing and potential popularity, debating whether its $3,500 price tag could effectively deter broader market adoption. Notably, we discuss the phenomenon of Apple's slow-burn strategy, where they aim for gradual market penetration rather than immediate blockbuster sales. The episode also touches upon updates in iOS 18.2 beta, primarily focused on enhancements in Apple Mail, which now offers automated inbox sorting and drafting capabilities. Our conversation reveals varied experiences with Apple Mail, with some panelists praising its improvements while others remain critical of its limitations compared to competing email clients. Transitioning to product reviews, I share insights about Skosh's new car mount products, including the innovative Magic Flask that combines functionality with convenience, allowing users to secure their phones while on the go. The panelists dive into the nuances of car mounts and discuss strengths and weaknesses to aid listeners in making informed choices. The discussion then shifts to the latest news in the automotive space concerning CarPlay and its integration into GM vehicles. We highlight how a third-party kit attempts to restore CarPlay functionality in GM's Ultium EVs—a provocative development given GM's previous abandonment of support for the feature. The conversation continues with further examination of Mercedes-Benz's new Apple Watch app and the potential implications for car owners seeking seamless connectivity. In our concluding segments, we reflect on industry trends, including Apple's scaling back of its Product Red initiatives and the growing reliance on eSIM technology. The episode wraps up with a focus on the significance of identifying and utilizing innovative applications within Apple's ecosystem. In Touch With Vision Pro this week.  A forgotten Apple patent reveals the original idea for the Vision Pro | Digital Trends and Apple has been working on Vision Pro since at least 2008 and MacWorld Apple is most dangerous when it shows up late The Apple Vision Pro's sales could take off as spatial computing market expands Apple in talks to upgrade a sports stadium for live Vision Pro immersive video Beta this week. iOS 18.2 Apple Mail gets major redesign: 3 biggest updates Here's everything coming from Apple this December, and what not to expec]t Apple Announces 2024 App Store Awards Finalists, Including Kino Dave Gives a review of Scosche products. MagicMount™ Flask Car Mounts Scosche MPQMRDV-SP MagicMount Charge Pro Qi2 MagSafe Car Mount  MagicMount™ Charge Elite 3-in-1 News GM's mission to eliminate Android Auto and CarPlay has been thwarted by this clever third-party kit [Gallery] - Video WAMS is proud to... - White Automotive & Media Services | Facebook Mercedes-Benz unveils all-new Apple Watch app  Porsche Still Has No Imminent Plans to Launch Next-Generation CarPlay Despite 2023 Preview Next-Generation CarPlay Images With Audi Logo Appear in EU Database You Can Now Upload Videos Directly to YouTube With iOS Share Sheet Integration You Can Now Upload Videos Directly to YouTube With iOS Share Sheet Integration -  Here's How the Apple Card Savings Account's Interest Rate Compares to Major Competitors iPhone Sales Stall Despite Global Smartphone Market Recovery - MacRumors Apple Has Scaled Back (PRODUCT)RED Color Option Over Past Few Years Apple Reportedly Plans to Remove iPhone's SIM Card Tray in More Countries Next Year Announcements Macstock 8 wrapped up for 2024. But you can purchase the digital pass and still see the great talks we had including Dave talking about Apple Services and more. Content is now available! .  Click here for more information: Digital Pass | Macstock Conference & Expo with discounts on previous events.  Our Host Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastadon @daveg65, and the show @intouchwithios   Our Regular Contributors Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's managing editor, and Smile's TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet as well as Twitter and Instagram as @jgamet  His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet Marty Jencius, Ph.D., is a professor of counselor education at Kent State University, where he researches, writes, and trains about using technology in teaching and mental health practice. His podcasts include Vision Pro Files, The Tech Savvy Professor and Circular Firing Squad Podcast. Find him at jencius@mastodon.social  https://thepodtalk.net  About our Guest Patrice Brend'amour loves to create podcasts, automations or software. She also enjoys working with diverse sets of people, leading them to success and making a tiny difference in the world. Which she does as VP of Development at a Healthcare Software provider. She can be found at https://the-patrice.com and her podcast Foodie Flashback at https://foodieflashback.com

Omdia's Roz Roseboro provided a look at the value that AI is bringing to a number of telecom IT software categories such as monetization, orchestration and assurance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Tereza Krasova joined the podcast to discuss Omdia's positive forecast for growth in the telecom market, and why DT and BT had opposing views on telco APIs at the Network X event. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner, Omdia's Jaimie Lenderman, Heavy Reading's Alan Breznick and Dell'Oro Group's Jeff Heynen discuss unified DOCSIS 4.0, the challenges ahead for DOCSIS 5.0 and the potential for 5G on HFC. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While telco opex dropped in 2023, the biggest contributor were divestments, which isn't ideal because service providers are selling business segments, explains Omdia's Adam Mackenzie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Could fridges make way for kitchen cabinets that don't just keep food fresh but actually grow it?Dough is a new series from BBC Radio 4 which looks at the business behind profitable, everyday products, assessing where the smart money is going now and what that could mean for all of us in the years ahead.In this episode, the entrepreneur Sam White speaks with experts from the world of refrigeration including:Federica Torelli – Head of Product Management with Smeg which makes fridge freezers.Emir Lasic - Principal Analyst with the industry analysts, Omdia.Jason Hirst - CEO and founder of EvoGro which makes plant growing cabinets.Also joining them is the technology expert and applied futurist, Tom Cheesewright, who offers his insight and predictions on what might be coming beyond the current production pipeline.Together, they explore fridge freezer trends and inventions chatting about their own choices for game changing, and pointless, innovations.We hear how energy efficiency labels are not always as accurate as you might think and assess the chances of indoor incubators providing a new home for vegetables and leafy greens away from the fridge. Produced by Viant Siddique & Jon Douglas. Dough is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in August when Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread.In the meantime, Dough is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds

What might our TV sets be like in the future?Dough is a new series from BBC Radio 4 which looks at the business behind profitable, everyday products and considers how they might evolve in the years to come. In this episode, the entrepreneur Sam White speaks with experts from the world of television manufacturing, including Brian Palmer, who has seen many interesting and amusing changes during his long career in the industry. Brian is now the founder and chief executive officer of Cello Electronics (UK) Ltd which makes televisions at its factory in County Durham. He gives a candid account of some of the ups and downs he has faced, while explaining how his business has always managed to make a profit, despite competition from global rivals. Paul Gray is a Research Director for Consumer Electronics and Devices at the analysts, Omdia. With a background in TV manufacturing, he has considerable knowledge on how the business has changed.Brian and Paul offer their views on game-changing - and pointless - TV innovations before considering where companies are investing their money now. Tom Cheesewright, a technology expert and applied futurist, then offers his predictions on what might be coming beyond the current production pipeline. TVs have come a long way in a relatively short space of time and where they are going next might surprise you!Produced by Jon Douglas. Dough is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in August when Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Dough is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds