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2d ago

CDW Canada’s Glenn Kaul on how AI is changing the solution provider business

Glenn Kaul, vice president of sales and solutions at CDW Canada Artificial intelligence is creating significant new opportunities for IT solution providers, but it’s also changing the way they operate, the services they deliver, and even the technology investments their customers are making. At Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, much of the discussion focused on how Cisco is helping partners capitalize on AI, security, and the shift toward a more integrated technology platform. But those changes are already having practical consequences for solution providers and their customers. In this edition of In the Channel, ChannelBuzz.ca sits down with Glenn Kaul, vice president of sales and solutions at CDW Canada for a look at how those trends are playing out in the Canadian market. One of the more unexpected developments has been the impact of AI infrastructure demand on traditional IT spending. Kaul describes how rising memory prices and concerns about hardware availability forced customers to reconsider their purchasing priorities, accelerating some infrastructure investments while delaying other projects. More recently, he says, customers have begun returning to longer-term planning discussions. AI is also changing the cybersecurity business. As AI-powered tools accelerate the discovery and potential exploitation of vulnerabilities, Kaul argues that security services need to become more continuous and responsive. The traditional model of periodic assessments and updates is giving way to an environment where monitoring, remediation, and resilience must be ongoing priorities. At the same time, AI could change the economics of professional and managed services. Some routine tasks that previously required specialized expertise may become increasingly automated, potentially reducing the value of certain traditional services while increasing demand for architecture, consulting, and more sophisticated capabilities. Kaul also sees emerging opportunities for partners to help customers understand and manage the cost of AI consumption. Much as cloud computing introduced new challenges around consumption-based pricing, AI is creating a need for guidance on token usage, budgeting, and choosing the right technologies for different workloads. The conversation also explores the growing importance of data sovereignty in Canada, including how customer expectations are expanding beyond where data is physically stored to questions of access, control, and service provider ownership. And Kaul shares his perspective on Cisco’s integration of Splunk, including the progress being made in bringing the two companies’ technologies and customer-facing organizations together, and the opportunities that could emerge as Splunk becomes a more seamless part of Cisco’s broader portfolio. In this episode, we discuss: How AI infrastructure demand has disrupted customer technology purchasing decisions. Why AI-driven threats are accelerating the shift toward continuous security services. How automation could reshape the economics of professional and managed services. The emerging opportunity for partners to help customers manage AI consumption and token costs. Why data sovereignty is becoming a more complicated requirement for Canadian organizations. How CDW Canada is developing its own AI capabilities and preparing employees for changing customer needs. What Cisco’s ongoing integration of Splunk means for partners and enterprise customers. Listen to the full conversation with Glenn Kaul of CDW Canada, recorded at Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, in this edition of In the Channel. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In the Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. Over the last week, we’ve been bringing you conversations from Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, where Cisco laid out its vision for how artificial intelligence, security, and an increasingly connected technology platform will reshape the opportunities available to its partners. What does that vision look like from the perspective of a major solution provider? And how are the changes being driven by AI already affecting the way partners work with their customers and build their businesses? Those are some of the questions I explored with Glenn Kaul at CDW Canada when we sat down at Partner Summit. Glenn has a particularly interesting perspective on how AI is changing the market, and not always in the ways you might expect. We discuss how demand for AI infrastructure has disrupted traditional IT purchasing patterns, how increasingly sophisticated security threats are forcing solution providers to rethink the way they deliver their services, and how AI itself could change the economics of professional services. We also get into some of the emerging opportunities around managing AI consumption costs, the growing importance of data sovereignty for Canadian customers, and what Cisco’s ongoing integration of Splunk means for partners and their customers. It’s a conversation that goes beyond the announcements of Partner Summit to explore what these changes actually mean for the business of a solution provider. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Glenn Kaul from CDW Canada. Robert Dutt: Glenn, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Glenn Kaul: Glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Robert Dutt: Let’s start big picture. You’ve been here at Partner Summit the last couple of days, hearing the announcements, talking with Cisco leadership. What’s standing out to you? What are the things you’re taking away from Vancouver that will matter the most to CDW going forward? Glenn Kaul: Well, there’s a couple of things. One is that our customers’ need for having access to a platform and not just a number of point solutions, that’s not news. That’s been a trend that’s been going on for a few years, particularly in the security space, but in general. I’d say that’s accelerating now. And it’s accelerating for lots of reasons, including pressures that our clients have with budgets, managing price increases because of some of the component prices. Their budgets have stayed the same, having some of the needs they have to have all the skills they need to go and run multiple platforms and systems, having visibility. So I think that’s accelerating, number one. And number two, I think the importance of networking, network refresh, and secure networks for AI defence as a general statement, but as a broader statement, just to have resilience and sovereignty in a secure network, that’s more important now than it was a year ago. And it’s dramatic. Robert Dutt: Is that accelerating too, especially the sovereignty side of things? Glenn Kaul: The conversations are accelerating. I think defining what sovereignty means — is it physical sovereignty? What does it mean in Canada? What does it mean elsewhere? Is it access? Is it controls? People say, “Well, it’s all of the above.” And so, well, how do you solve for that? It’s an important conversation. The exact meaning of it and the implications for each customer are going to be, I think, segment- and use-case-specific. Robert Dutt: And that’s where you guys get to have fun defining and scoping all that and making it stand up and real. Glenn Kaul: Right. And asking our customers, interviewing them and doing assessments, understanding what’s important to them. For some customers, if it’s healthcare, it’s going to be different. But look, we had a small regional public school system — or a midsize regional public school system — recently that we were responding to an RFP on, and they said, “This has to be sovereign.” And we said, “Well, what does that mean?” “The provider has to be sovereign. It has to prove to us that everything’s in Canada and it’s never going to leave Canada.” We said, “Well, hang on a second. That’s about eight conversations in one.” They wouldn’t have even asked that before. And this isn’t the federal government asking. This is a small school system. Robert Dutt: Yeah, yeah. The three big messages that I keep taking away from this week are the push around AI, security, and the evolution of the partner ecosystem and partner program. When you look at those priorities through CDW’s lens, where do you see the biggest opportunities to grow the business right now? Glenn Kaul: It’s secure networking and AI defence. And these are related items. The new partner program has been announced for some time. We’re very fortunate, and I think the scale partners are fortunate, in that we have the resources and more specializations and master specializations than anyone in the country. And so we have the breadth and depth of the resources we need. It’s a question of, within that very broad portfolio, making sure we focus on the right things that are important to our customers and that fuel our growth. Robert Dutt: One of the things that I keep hearing is that AI is changing what customers need from you guys in the partner base. Jeetu Patel talked about the need to rethink business processes rather than just layering AI onto existing workflows, for example. Is that consistent with what you’re seeing and what customers are either looking for or ultimately needing, whether they’re looking for it or not? And how does what you’ve learned and heard here change the conversations you’re having with customers around that? Glenn Kaul: Well, first of all, I’d say every time somebody says AI, which we hear frequently, I always ask, “What’s the word before or the word after AI?” Because what are we talking about? Are we talking about how we use AI internally? How Cisco uses AI internally? How the tools, and particular
2d ago

The Buzz: HP Canada changes leaders, TD SYNNEX puts Canadian investment in focus, and Ingram Micro rides AI demand

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: HP Canada leadership changes put John Cammalleri in charge HP Canada is undergoing a leadership transition, with president and managing director Michelle Biase moving to a new role as vice president of U.S. Corporate Sales. Longtime Canadian channel chief John Cammalleri will step into the top Canadian position on an interim basis, while April Marshall assumes the role of vice president of Canada Commercial Channel Sales. The changes continue an interesting pattern: HP Canada’s last three leaders have all come from channel backgrounds. Cammalleri has led the company’s Canadian channel organization for years; Biase returned to HP after a stint at distributor D&H; and her predecessor, Mary Ann Yule, joined HP from CDW Canada. HP confirmed the latest leadership changes directly to ChannelBuzz.ca. TD SYNNEX highlights Caledon investment and MyShop at Inspire Canada TD SYNNEX held its Inspire Canada conference in Toronto Thursday, highlighting investments in its Canadian distribution infrastructure and new digital tools for partners. Among the developments discussed was its planned 850,000-square-foot distribution facility in Caledon, Ontario. The facility, which has room to expand by approximately 40 percent, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2028. TD SYNNEX also discussed the Canadian rollout of MyShop, its partner e-commerce offering. The initial approach involves working with selected Canadian partners on customized implementations rather than launching the same experience across the entire partner base at once. The discussions fit into TD SYNNEX’s broader PartnerFirst strategy, which includes expanded AI-powered capabilities intended to simplify partner transactions and workflows. We’ll have more from Inspire Canada next week on In The Channel, including conversations with TD SYNNEX Canada president Chris Fabes about the company’s Canadian strategy and Meredith Payne about PartnerFirst, MyShop and agentic commerce. Ingram Micro reports strong Q3 as AI infrastructure drives growth Ingram Micro reported $15.2 billion in third-quarter net sales, an increase of 20.8 percent year over year, as demand for AI infrastructure and cloud solutions helped drive growth. The distributor also reported adjusted earnings of 91 cents per share, up 26.4 percent from a year earlier. Both sales and adjusted earnings exceeded analyst expectations, and Ingram raised its financial outlook. Growth was particularly strong in its Advanced Solutions business, including GPU and AI infrastructure, and in cloud-based solutions. But the results also illustrate an important trade-off in the current AI infrastructure market. Ingram reported pressure on its gross margin as lower-margin GPU and AI infrastructure products accounted for a greater proportion of its sales. For channel partners, it’s a reminder that the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure spending doesn’t necessarily translate into equally rapid margin growth. The opportunity extends beyond supplying hardware to the higher-value services, integration and ongoing management that customers need around those investments. Source: Ingram Micro investor relations Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca. I’m Robert Dutt, and today is Friday, October 30, 2026. We’ve got a particularly Canadian edition to wrap up the week, with a leadership shakeup at HP Canada, a look at TD SYNNEX’s Inspire Canada conference in Toronto, and strong quarterly results from Ingram Micro, driven in part by demand for AI infrastructure. First up, some significant leadership changes at HP Canada, affecting both the company’s top Canadian position and its channel organization. Michelle Biase, HP Canada’s president and managing director, is moving into a new role as vice president of U.S. Corporate Sales. Taking over HP Canada’s leadership on an interim basis is John Cammalleri, who has been the company’s Canadian channel chief for years. And with John moving into that position, April Marshall will assume responsibility for Canada Commercial Channel Sales. HP confirmed those changes to ChannelBuzz.ca this week. There’s an interesting bit of history here, because HP Canada’s last three leaders have all come from channel backgrounds. John, of course, has spent years leading HP’s Canadian channel business. Michelle returned to HP after spending time at distributor D&H. And before Michelle, Mary Ann Yule came to HP from CDW Canada. So while there’s a leadership transition underway, there’s also considerable continuity in the kind of experience HP is putting at the top of its Canadian organization. We’ll be interested to see what that means for Canadian partners as the new leadership team settles in. Next, TD SYNNEX held its Inspire Canada conference in Toronto yesterday, and there were a couple of interesting developments worth highlighting. One is a substantial investment in the company’s Canadian distribution infrastructure. TD SYNNEX is planning a new distribution facility in Caledon, Ontario, measuring approximately eight hundred and fifty thousand square feet, with room to expand by another forty percent. The company expects the facility to be completed in the first half of twenty twenty-eight. It’s a significant investment in TD SYNNEX’s Canadian operations, and one that should give the distributor additional capacity as its business evolves. The other development is the Canadian rollout of MyShop, TD SYNNEX’s e-commerce offering for partners. I spoke with Meredith Payne about the rollout, and she explained that the company is working with selected Canadian partners on customized implementations. So this isn’t a broad launch where every Canadian partner gets exactly the same experience on day one. It’s a more deliberate approach, with TD SYNNEX working closely with participating partners. And that fits into the company’s broader PartnerFirst strategy. TD SYNNEX has been expanding the AI-powered capabilities of its digital platform, with the goal of making it easier for partners to find products, prepare quotes, place orders and manage transactions. Some of those developments were announced earlier this month at the company’s U.S. Inspire event, but they were an important part of the discussion in Canada as well. One of the particularly interesting themes from my conversation with Meredith was how quickly agentic commerce could change the way partners interact with distributors. We’ll have much more from Inspire Canada next week on In The Channel. I’ve recorded conversations with TD SYNNEX Canada president Chris Fabes about the distributor’s Canadian strategy, including the Caledon investment, and with Meredith Payne about PartnerFirst, MyShop and the evolution of agentic commerce. And finally today, Ingram Micro has reported a strong third quarter, with AI infrastructure and cloud solutions helping drive significant growth for the distributor. Ingram reported fifteen point two billion dollars in quarterly sales, an increase of twenty point eight percent from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share rose twenty-six point four percent to ninety-one cents, and both revenue and earnings came in ahead of analyst expectations. The company also raised its financial outlook. Ingram says growth was particularly strong in its Advanced Solutions business, including GPUs and AI infrastructure, as well as its cloud solutions business. But there’s an interesting wrinkle in those results. While AI infrastructure demand is helping drive substantial sales growth, Ingram also reported pressure on gross margins because those GPU and AI infrastructure products generally carry lower margins. And that’s a useful reminder that the AI infrastructure boom isn’t necessarily an uncomplicated profitability story. There’s clearly a tremendous amount of money being spent on the infrastructure required to support AI workloads. But the real opportunity for solution providers may be in the services around that infrastructure: helping customers design, deploy, secure, integrate and manage increasingly complex environments. Ingram’s results offer another indication of just how significant AI infrastructure demand has become for the channel, while also illustrating the importance of finding ways to capture value beyond the hardware transaction itself. You can find more details on all three stories at ChannelBuzz.ca. And before we go, a couple of notes on In The Channel. Later today on In The Channel, we’ve got my conversation with Glenn Kaul of CDW Canada, recorded at Cisco Partner Summit in Vancouver. Glenn offers a particularly interesting solution-provider perspective on how AI is changing the market. We discuss how demand for AI infrastructure is affecting traditional IT purchasing patterns, how increasingly sophisticated security threats are changing the services partners need to deliver, and how AI itself could reshape the economics of professional services. And if you haven‘t heard it yet, yesterday’s In The Channel featured my conversation with Raj and Erin from Cisco Partner Summit, looking at the opportunities emerging for partners as Cisco’s technology and partner strategy evolve. Both episodes are available through ChannelBuzz.ca and wherever you get your podcasts. And that’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca. Thanks for listening, and have a great day.
3d ago

Cisco Canada leadership on the partner opportunities ahead for Splunk, Cisco IQ, and Cisco 360

Erin Gertner, vice president of the Partner Organization and SMB sales at Cisco Canada Cisco Partner Summit 2026 brought a wide range of announcements around artificial intelligence, security, customer experience, and the evolution of the company’s partner ecosystem. But for Canadian partners, the biggest question is how to translate those announcements into practical business opportunities. In this edition of In the Channel, wet sit down with Raj Juneja, president of Cisco Canada, and Erin Gertner, vice president of the partner organization at Cisco Canada, to discuss where they see the biggest opportunities for Canadian partners and what partners should be doing to capitalize on them. One of the more immediate opportunities comes from Cisco’s growing integration of Splunk into its broader portfolio. Juneja argues that partners with established Cisco networking and security businesses should look beyond simply reselling Splunk and consider how its data capabilities can help them deliver new services to existing customers. By collecting and analyzing data from infrastructure customers already own, partners can potentially develop new offerings around security, observability, operational intelligence, and business insights. For partners that haven’t worked extensively with Splunk, Juneja suggests starting by understanding the platform’s capabilities and identifying opportunities within their existing customer base. Raj Juneja, president of Cisco Canada Cisco IQ is another potential foundation for new partner services. Gertner points to network inventory, infrastructure assessments, vulnerability management, and modernization planning as natural starting points for partners looking to build advisory and lifecycle practices around the platform. The conversation also explores Cisco’s new Ecosystem Deal Registration initiative, which is designed to recognize partners that influence customer technology decisions even when they aren’t responsible for the eventual transaction. Gertner says Cisco Canada sees an opportunity to build relationships with advisory firms, consultants, and other organizations that have historically played a less visible role in Cisco’s partner ecosystem. She also acknowledges that Cisco has work to do in identifying the full range of organizations influencing customer decisions. And as Cisco continues its transition to the Cisco 360 Partner Program, Gertner emphasizes the importance of developing adoption and lifecycle services capabilities. Cisco has provided transitional protections intended to give partners time to adapt, but those protections won’t last indefinitely. Gertner says Cisco Canada is working closely with partners to help them prepare for the next stage of the program, and reports that many partners have been pleasantly surprised by their initial payments under Cisco 360. Looking at customer demand, both executives identify secure networking and network modernization as significant opportunities in Canada, particularly as organizations prepare for the growing demands of AI-driven workloads. But their message to partners is that a network refresh shouldn’t simply be a like-for-like replacement. Instead, it should be an opportunity to introduce additional capabilities around security, observability, infrastructure visibility, and ongoing services. In this episode, we discuss: The biggest opportunities for Canadian partners emerging from Cisco Partner Summit 2026. Why existing Cisco networking and security partners should consider building services around Splunk. Practical first steps for partners looking to get started with Splunk without making a major upfront investment. How Cisco IQ could become the foundation for new advisory, assessment, and lifecycle services. What Ecosystem Deal Registration means for consultants, advisors, and other non-transacting partners. How Canadian partners are responding to Cisco 360 and what they should be doing to prepare for the next stage of the program. Where Cisco Canada sees the strongest customer demand heading into 2027. Why network modernization represents an opportunity to expand customer relationships rather than simply replace existing infrastructure. Listen to the full conversation with Raj Juneja and Erin Gertner of Cisco Canada, recorded at Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, in this edition of In the Channel. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In the Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’re continuing our coverage of Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, where Cisco has been laying out its vision for a new generation of partner opportunities around artificial intelligence, security, and an increasingly integrated technology platform. But with so many announcements, new capabilities, and changes to the partner program, there’s an important question for Canadian partners: Where do you start, and how do you turn this into a profitable business? That’s what we’re exploring in today’s episode, as I’m joined by Raj Juneja and Erin Gertner from Cisco Canada. We discuss some of the biggest opportunities they’re seeing for Canadian partners, including how existing Cisco networking and security partners can begin building a business around Splunk, and how Cisco IQ could become the foundation of new advisory and lifecycle services. We also get into the evolution of the Cisco 360 Partner Program, including some of the early feedback from Canadian partners and what they need to be doing now to protect and grow their profitability as the program continues to evolve. And we look at Cisco’s new Ecosystem Deal Registration initiative, which recognizes that the partners influencing customer decisions aren’t necessarily the same partners ultimately selling the technology. Finally, we discuss where Canadian customers are spending their technology budgets, and why Cisco sees an opportunity for partners to rethink their traditional network refresh rather than simply replacing what’s already there. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Raj Juneja and Erin Gertner. Robert Dutt: Erin, Raj, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Erin Gertner: Thank you for having us. Robert Dutt: I guess let’s start with the obvious, given where we’re sitting right now. What does it mean to the Cisco Canada team and to your partners to have home-ice advantage this week? And I guess I should add, between Vancouver once before and Montreal, we’re back on home ice. Erin Gertner: Yeah, I think it’s just such a privilege to have everybody join us in Vancouver. I think I can speak for myself and probably on behalf of Raj. We’re such proud Canadians, and Cisco Canada had such a fantastic year this year, and we have so much to celebrate. We’re so grateful for our partners. So I think being back in Canada, and specifically in Vancouver, has been amazing for us. And it’s been really nice to hear feedback from the partners as they’re walking by, saying how much they love the city and that they’ve gotten to explore. If you look out the window, it’s so picturesque when you get to look at the mountains. I think our city shows very well, so I’m very happy to be here. Raj Juneja: Yeah, I think I would echo everything that Erin is saying. I’ve heard nothing but positive sentiment about coming to Canada and what they’re surrounded by here. This venue in downtown Vancouver, overlooking the ocean. What can you say? It’s beautiful, and it brings joy to folks who are visiting for the first time. It’s a good representation of what Canada has to offer. Robert Dutt: Now, with Vancouver 2010, there was the strategy leading up to it to position the team well for that. Was there a similar long-term strategy behind getting Cisco Canada to have that great year, with Partner Summit coming here? I ask entirely in jest. Erin Gertner: And own the podium! That was great. I think we just had a great opportunity this year in Cisco Canada, and being able to show off our success here is an even bigger blessing. I think we’re always intentional around our success, and we’ve been asked to replicate it year on year. If you hear everybody talk about the notion of durable growth, Raj talks a lot about that, and growth on growth. We’re proud of the year we had, and I think we wish we had this year again next year so we can demonstrate another growth-on-growth year. But we’ll be in luck even if we’re doing this in Vegas. Robert Dutt: Yes, even if we’re doing it in Vegas. We’ve heard a lot this week about the vision around the next generation of the ecosystem, particularly around AI, security, and services. When you look at the announcements through a Canadian lens, what stands out as particularly important? What do you see as the biggest opportunities for Canadian partners in this moment, especially the stuff that’s been talked about here this week? Erin Gertner: I think that Ecosystem Deal Registration that was announced this week is particularly interesting for our Canadian partners. Raj and I were actually talking about this on the way here. That’s something Splunk has always done very well, and it was something that I don’t think Cisco had completely figured out. But we know as the world evolves, we’re seeing different types of partners spending time advising our customers, helping them figure out how to build AI, how to build out a secure network, and how to drive digital transformation. And the fact that we can have multiple partners in an opportunity delivering value to a customer, and each of those partners be rewarded in some capacity, I think that’s a really exciting opportunity. The other feedback we’ve gotten from partners over the last few days has been around Cisco IQ.
3d ago

The Buzz: Cisco details November price increases, ThinkOn expands sovereign cloud opportunity, Digitate advances AI operations

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Cisco says November price increases will be smallest of recent rounds Cisco is preparing another round of price increases effective November 7, but the company says the adjustments will be more selective than previous increases. CRN reported October 24 that Cisco plans mid-single-digit increases on affected networking and security software, along with adjustments to selected hardware. Speaking at Cisco Partner Summit in Vancouver, Cisco CFO Mark Patterson said rising costs for memory, printed circuit boards, power supplies and logistics continue to pressure the company. However, he emphasized that many products will see no increase at all. Patterson said the November adjustment will be Cisco’s smallest recent price increase when measured across its global price list. Cisco is also pursuing more than 30 memory-efficiency initiatives, including engineering changes that have reduced memory requirements by approximately 50 percent in one of its Wi-Fi 7 products. For partners, the immediate consideration is reviewing affected products and outstanding quotes before the November 7 effective date. Read CRN’s original reporting on Cisco’s November 7 price increases. ThinkOn and Preservica expand Canadian sovereign cloud opportunity Canadian cloud provider ThinkOn has partnered with Preservica to help government organizations preserve permanent digital records while keeping them under Canadian jurisdiction. The offering combines ThinkOn’s Canadian cloud infrastructure with Preservica’s digital preservation technology, targeting long-term records management, accessibility and compliance. ThinkOn plans to bring the solution to market through its network of more than 200 channel partners. For solution providers serving Canadian government customers, the partnership creates an opportunity to expand existing cloud and infrastructure relationships into digital preservation and information governance services. Read ThinkOn’s October 27 announcement of its partnership with Preservica. Digitate adds autonomous agents to IT operations platform Digitate announced ignio Hummingbird on October 28, introducing additional agentic AI capabilities designed to move enterprise IT operations beyond detecting problems and recommending fixes. The new release targets workflows including service desk operations, incident management and patch planning, with AI agents intended to execute approved tasks under defined governance controls. The announcement reflects the broader shift toward autonomous IT operations, with potential implications for service delivery, operational efficiency and the economics of managed services. For MSPs, the important question is how these capabilities can be incorporated into services while maintaining appropriate oversight and accountability. Read Digitate’s ignio Hummingbird announcement. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca. I’m Robert Dutt. Today is Thursday, October 29, 2026. We’re looking at three developments for the Canadian IT channel: Cisco’s upcoming price increases, a Canadian cloud partnership focused on data sovereignty, and new AI agents designed to automate enterprise IT operations. First, Cisco is preparing another round of price increases, effective November seventh. CRN first reported the changes last week, including mid-single-digit increases on affected networking and security software, along with selected hardware. But during Cisco Partner Summit in Vancouver this week, the company offered some additional perspective on how those increases will affect its overall portfolio. Cisco chief financial officer Mark Patterson discussed the changes during a session with Tim Coogan, the company’s senior vice president of global partner sales. Patterson said Cisco continues to face increasing costs for memory, printed circuit boards, power supplies and logistics. With demand for AI infrastructure putting additional pressure on supply chains, those costs are becoming more difficult to avoid. But he emphasized that raising prices is a last resort, and that Cisco is taking steps to limit the impact. Those efforts include more than thirty initiatives aimed at improving memory efficiency. Patterson pointed to one example involving Cisco’s Wi-Fi 7 products, where engineering work has reduced memory requirements by approximately fifty percent. And when Cisco does increase prices, Patterson said it’s trying to be selective rather than applying the same adjustment across its entire portfolio. Some products will see mid-single-digit increases, but many others won’t see an increase at all. In fact, Patterson said that when Cisco measures the November seventh adjustment against its overall global price list, it will be the smallest of the company’s recent rounds of price increases. That’s an important distinction for partners. The increase on an individual product isn’t necessarily representative of the change across Cisco’s entire portfolio. It also means partners need to understand which products are affected, particularly where they have customer quotes or projects already in progress. And coming out of a Partner Summit where Cisco spent considerable time discussing partner profitability, it’s an interesting reminder that improving the economics of the channel involves more than incentives and rebates. Partners also have to manage the costs of the products and services they’re delivering. Next, Canadian cloud provider ThinkOn has announced a partnership with Preservica focused on digital preservation and data sovereignty for Canadian government organizations. The partnership combines ThinkOn’s Canadian cloud infrastructure with Preservica’s technology for preserving permanent digital records. The companies say the offering will help government organizations manage long-term records preservation, maintain access to important information, and keep that data under Canadian jurisdiction. And there’s a direct channel component to the announcement. ThinkOn plans to bring the solution to market through its network of more than two hundred channel partners. For partners already working with government customers, that creates an opportunity to extend existing infrastructure and cloud relationships into information governance and digital preservation. It also gives those partners another way to address data sovereignty requirements, which continue to be an important consideration for Canadian public-sector organizations. The opportunity here isn’t necessarily just selling another cloud service. It’s helping customers manage information that may need to remain accessible, trustworthy and under their control for decades. Our third story is another example of how agentic AI is moving from assisting IT teams toward taking a more active role in their operations. Digitate has introduced ignio Hummingbird, an update to its AI operations platform that adds new capabilities for autonomous action. The company is targeting workflows including service desk operations, incident management and patch planning. The idea is to move beyond identifying problems and recommending what someone should do about them, toward AI agents that can execute approved tasks within defined governance controls. It’s a direction we’re seeing from a growing number of enterprise technology vendors, and it has some potentially significant implications for managed service providers. Routine operational work has traditionally been an important part of managed services delivery. As more of that work becomes automated, providers will need to consider how they differentiate their services and demonstrate their value. And there’s also the question of oversight. Giving AI agents the ability to act on enterprise systems creates opportunities for efficiency, but it also makes governance, accountability and security particularly important. Those are questions service providers will increasingly have to address as they build AI into their own operations and the services they deliver to customers. Later today on In The Channel, we’re continuing our conversations from Cisco Partner Summit with Raj Juneja and Erin Gertner, Cisco Canada’s president and channel chief respectively, looking at Cisco’s evolving partner strategy and the opportunities it creates. And if you haven’t heard it yet, yesterday’s episode featured Cisco’s Andrew Sage discussing how agentic AI is transforming technology distribution, including the work Cisco is doing with Ingram Micro and TD SYNNEX. You’ll find that interview, along with links to today’s announcements, at ChannelBuzz.ca. That’s how wer’re seeing the headlines. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca. Thanks for listening. Have a great day.
4d ago

Cisco’s Andrew Sage: Agentic AI is transforming the role of IT distribution

Andrew Sage, Cisco’s vice president of global partners and distribution sales Artificial intelligence is beginning to change the way technology moves through the IT channel, and Cisco believes the impact on distribution could extend far beyond simply automating transactions. At Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, the company highlighted new agentic AI integrations with distributors designed to simplify the process of configuring, pricing, and ordering technology. But Cisco also sees an opportunity for distributors to take on a much broader role in helping partners deliver sophisticated solutions and services to customers. In this edition of In the Channel, ChannelBuzz.ca editor Robert Dutt sits down with Andrew Sage, Cisco’s vice president of global partners and distribution sales, to discuss how the company’s distribution strategy is evolving and what those changes mean for Canadian VARs, MSPs, and solution providers. One of the most immediate examples is Cisco’s new integration with Ingram Micro‘s Xvantage platform. Sage says the agentic workflow can reduce a process that previously took as much as a day — including network configuration, deal registration, pricing, and ordering — to approximately five minutes. Unlike traditional API-based integrations, which typically exchange information through predefined requests and responses, the new approach allows AI agents operating across Cisco and distributor systems to exchange information and recommendations as part of a more sophisticated workflow. And Ingram Micro isn’t the only distributor involved. Sage describes another integration already operating within TD SYNNEX’s U.S. presales organization, where a distributor-side AI agent can communicate with Cisco’s configuration agent to help turn customer requirements into proposed solutions and quotes. Human presales engineers remain involved in reviewing and refining the results. For Sage, however, the long-term opportunity goes beyond speeding up the sales process. Cisco is encouraging distributors to provide more capabilities on behalf of partners, including security assessments, infrastructure modernization planning, professional services, and software activation and adoption. That approach could be particularly valuable for smaller partners that lack the resources to develop every specialized capability internally. Sage points to sophisticated purchasing arrangements, including Cisco enterprise agreements, as an example of opportunities that smaller partners may be able to pursue with distributor support. And as Cisco continues expanding its use of agentic AI, Sage expects the next generation of distributor integrations to move beyond configuration and commerce into installed-base analysis, security recommendations, lifecycle management, and renewals. The conversation also explores the upcoming integration of distributors into the Cisco 360 Partner Program. Sage says distributors will begin prequalification in January 2027, ahead of the program’s planned launch on August 1, 2027. With AI driving demand for networking and security infrastructure while simultaneously reducing the cost of scaling channel operations, Sage believes Cisco distribution is entering a period of significant opportunity. In this episode, we discuss: How Cisco sees the role of IT distributors evolving beyond traditional fulfillment and transactions. Why Cisco is connecting its AI agents directly with distributor platforms. How the Ingram Micro integration can reduce configuration, deal registration, pricing, and ordering from as much as a day to approximately five minutes. How a separate agentic integration is already supporting TD SYNNEX’s U.S. presales organization. Why Cisco wants distributors to deliver more services and capabilities on behalf of smaller partners. How agentic AI could help smaller VARs and MSPs pursue more sophisticated Cisco opportunities. What’s next for agentic distribution, including installed-base analysis, security recommendations, and lifecycle management. How distributors will transition into the Cisco 360 Partner Program in 2027. Why Sage believes the distribution channel has several significant growth opportunities ahead. Listen to the full conversation with Andrew Sage, recorded at Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, in this edition of In the Channel. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In the Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing you news and information for the Canadian IT channel for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’re continuing our coverage of Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, where one of the recurring themes has been the evolution of the partner ecosystem, and particularly the growing role of artificial intelligence in changing how partners, distributors, and Cisco itself work together. And when it comes to distribution, Cisco isn’t just talking about what’s possible. It’s already putting agentic AI to work. This week, we heard about an integration between Cisco and Ingram Micro that can reduce a process involving network configuration, deal registration, pricing, and ordering from as much as a day to just five minutes. And there’s similar work underway with TD SYNNEX, where AI agents are helping automate the presales configuration and quoting process. But the bigger opportunity may be what these technologies allow distributors and their partners to do next. Cisco is increasingly looking to distributors to provide services and expertise on behalf of partners, helping smaller VARs and MSPs offer more sophisticated solutions, develop new capabilities, and compete for opportunities that might previously have been out of reach. To explore what this means for the future of distribution, I sat down with Andrew Sage, Cisco’s vice president of global partners and distribution sales, here at Partner Summit. We discussed how agentic integration is changing the relationship between Cisco and its distributors, where the next wave of automation is heading, and why Sage believes these changes could significantly expand Cisco’s reach into the SMB market. We also get into the upcoming integration of distributors into the Cisco 360 Partner Program and what Sage sees as an unusually strong set of growth opportunities for the distribution channel. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Andrew Sage. Robert Dutt: Andrew, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Andrew Sage: Of course, Robert. Always great to see a fellow Canadian here in Vancouver. Robert Dutt: Speaking of that, you’ve spent so much of your career with global roles at Cisco. What’s it like having Partner Summit in Vancouver this year? And from your perspective, what is bringing Cisco’s global partner community back to Canada for the third time, may I add? Andrew Sage: For the third time, yeah. Well, you know, we move Partner Summit around North America, and I was patiently waiting to come back to the home country. I think it’s a perfect time to get partners together because there is so much going on right now in our business. We sat through a keynote today where Jeetu Patel, our president and chief product officer, walked through the innovation that Cisco is bringing to this moment we’re having with AI. And our CEO, Chuck, was comparing it to the Internet and how that changed how people thought about technology. The impact was underestimated at the beginning and ultimately became quite profound. I really feel like it’s exactly the same now, probably on steroids, if I can add that. So, yeah, we’ve got a lot to talk about, and we’re lucky enough to be in this beautiful convention centre. This place is just off the charts. Robert Dutt: And distribution has been such a hot topic. It always gets attention because it’s Partner Summit, and obviously distributors are a big part of that. But it feels like the subject of distribution is getting the love from the top executives on down at this week’s event. There’s a lot going on. We’ve heard a lot this week about the vision of an agile, increasingly AI-enabled partner ecosystem. And distribution has obviously been central to the channel strategy for obvious reasons. But how do you see the role of the distributor changing, both as a result of that vision becoming reality and as a result of the decisions the distributors are making about what they want to be going forward? Andrew Sage: Yeah, great question. Distribution remains hugely important to Cisco. About a third of our business goes through our distribution channels. More than two-thirds of our transactions go through our distributors. So they are very, very busy partners of ours in every corner of the world, and they continue to gain share in Cisco’s route-to-market mix. They become more and more relevant over time. And their business is changing. I have an AI agent that every morning gives me a summary of what’s been announced from our distributors, usually earnings announcements and things like that. Their businesses are growing really well, and they’re profitable. They’re in a good spot. But they’re being asked to do more and more by companies like ours who partner with them. Obviously, they still need to deliver that core value of scaling our business into every corner of the world, providing us with capillarity, enabling our partners, helping our partners do demand generation, and even the most basic things they provide, almost taken for granted: inventory, credit, those sorts of things. But now, more than ever, we’re really focusing on getting our distributors to help partners move fast, because this is all moving very fast. We have this concept we call “on behalf of,” where our distributors are building capabilities to do things on behalf of partners. In a community of partners that is pretty diverse, not every
4d ago

The Buzz: Cisco opens AI model opportunity, N-able accelerates patching, Dell expands cyber resilience

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers includes a potentially significant new AI services opportunity from Cisco, an effort by N-able to accelerate vulnerability remediation, and expanded cybersecurity and resilience capabilities from Dell Technologies. Cisco Model Foundry opens new AI development opportunity for partners Cisco is giving partners access to specialized artificial intelligence models through a new service called Model Foundry, introduced at Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver. The offering is part of Cisco Cloud Control and is designed to let partners use Cisco’s purpose-built models in their own applications and customer solutions. Partners can also customize those models using customer-specific data, creating opportunities for differentiated AI services. The initial catalogue includes models focused on networking, security, operational decision-making and time-series analysis. Among them are Cisco’s Deep Network Model for network troubleshooting, Antares for identifying software vulnerabilities, and a decision model designed to help AI agents determine which tools to use and when human intervention is necessary. Rather than requiring partners to develop specialized models from scratch, Cisco is positioning Model Foundry as a foundation for building customer-specific AI solutions. That could include AI-powered network troubleshooting, automated security investigations, operational assistants and applications trained on a customer’s infrastructure and support history. During Tuesday’s Partner Summit keynote, Cisco president and chief product officer Jeetu Patel explicitly encouraged partners to develop practices around the new capability. The business proposition is that Cisco supplies the underlying domain expertise and model infrastructure, while partners contribute their knowledge of customer environments, business processes and operational requirements. Cisco also presented early testing conducted with World Wide Technology. In a 12-scenario laboratory evaluation, a Cisco Deep Network Model fine-tuned using WWT troubleshooting data recommended the correct remediation in 11 cases, compared with eight for the frontier model used as a benchmark. The results suggest potential benefits from specialization, although the small evaluation does not establish how the models will perform across different customer environments. Model Foundry entered controlled availability with partners first at Partner Summit. Cisco is targeting general availability in June 2027. For Canadian solution providers, the announcement raises an interesting question: Could developing, customizing and operating specialized AI models become a practical managed service, rather than a capability restricted to large organizations with substantial AI development teams? The opportunity will depend on pricing, implementation complexity, ongoing support requirements and whether partners can demonstrate meaningful improvements in customer operations. But it represents another step in Cisco’s effort to help partners build services businesses around its technology rather than relying primarily on product transactions. Read more from Cisco’s Model Foundry announcement and ChannelBuzz.ca‘s coverage of Cisco Partner Summit 2026. N-able connects vulnerability discovery, patching and verification N-able has announced AI-accelerated Vulnerability and Patch Management capabilities intended to help MSPs reduce the time between identifying a security vulnerability and confirming that it has been remediated. The enhancements are part of the company’s Unified Endpoint Management platform. The approach brings vulnerability scanning, risk-based prioritization, patch deployment and post-remediation verification into a connected workflow. For MSPs, the objective is to reduce the manual work involved in moving between vulnerability assessment tools, patch management systems and reporting processes. N-able says the platform can prioritize vulnerabilities based on exploitability and other risk factors, apply appropriate updates and rescan systems to verify that remediation was successful. The company’s N-zo AI assistant can also provide information about failed patches and help administrators determine whether another deployment attempt is appropriate. N-able is positioning the enhancements as a way to reduce patching windows from days to minutes, although actual results will depend on the vulnerability, affected systems and operational environment. The announcement addresses a persistent challenge for MSPs managing multiple customer environments. Identifying a vulnerability is only the beginning. Service providers must also determine which customers are affected, prioritize remediation, coordinate changes and confirm that the vulnerability has actually been addressed. Bringing those activities together could help reduce administrative overhead and improve consistency. The opportunity for MSPs is not simply faster patch deployment, but a more complete and demonstrable vulnerability management service. Read N-able’s announcement. Dell expands cyber resilience across AI, identity and infrastructure Dell Technologies has expanded its cybersecurity and resilience portfolio with capabilities designed to protect AI environments, strengthen identity recovery and improve infrastructure resilience. Announced Tuesday at Dell’s AI Cybersecurity and Resilience Summit, the additions reflect the changing requirements of organizations deploying increasingly complex AI systems. The expansion includes new AI-focused services and PowerProtect capabilities intended to help organizations protect AI environments and recover from security incidents. Dell is also placing greater emphasis on identity resilience. Identity systems increasingly control access to applications, data and infrastructure, making them critical to business continuity. Compromising those systems can disrupt an organization’s ability to operate even when its underlying data remains intact. Dell’s new capabilities are intended to strengthen protection and recovery for critical identity platforms, alongside managed threat detection. The company is also expanding integration between PowerProtect and PowerScale and introducing additional capabilities intended to prepare infrastructure for emerging quantum-related security risks. For solution providers, the announcement reinforces the growing overlap between cybersecurity, data protection, identity management and business continuity. Customers adopting AI need more than protection for the models and applications themselves. They also need to consider the data those systems access, the identities controlling them and the infrastructure required to restore operations after an incident. That creates opportunities for partners delivering security assessments, resilience planning, implementation and ongoing management. The challenge will be integrating those capabilities into coherent services that customers can understand and justify. Read Dell’s cybersecurity and resilience announcement. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello, and welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca. I’m Robert Dutt. Today is Wednesday, October 28, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. We’re coming to you from Vancouver, where Cisco Partner Summit 2026 is underway. Yesterday, we took a broad look at Cisco’s efforts to help partners build more profitable businesses around artificial intelligence. Today, we’re going to start with something a little more specific. And potentially, a pretty interesting new business opportunity for partners. We’re also looking at new developments from N-able and Dell Technologies, both focused on helping organizations manage increasingly complex cybersecurity challenges. Let’s get into it. First, Cisco Model Foundry. During yesterday’s Partner Summit keynote, Cisco president and chief product officer Jeetu Patel introduced a new service intended to give partners access to some of the company’s specialized artificial intelligence models. And perhaps more importantly, to let them customize those models for individual customers. It’s called Model Foundry, and it’s part of Cisco Cloud Control. Now, Cisco has been developing AI models specifically for networking, security and infrastructure operations for some time. These aren’t general-purpose models designed to answer questions about everything from programming to pizza recipes. They’re models trained to understand particular technical domains. For example, Cisco’s Deep Network Model is designed to understand network configurations, telemetry and troubleshooting. Another model, called Antares, focuses on identifying potential software vulnerabilities. And there’s a decision model designed to help AI agents determine which tools they should use, whether they have enough information to make a decision, and when they should escalate a problem to a human. What’s changing with Model Foundry is that Cisco wants partners to be able to use those models directly in applications and services they develop for customers. And they can go a step further. Partners can fine-tune those models using information specific to a customer’s environment. Think about a managed service provider that has years of information about a customer’s network, including configurations, support tickets, troubleshooting history and operational data. Instead of relying entirely on a general-purpose AI model, that provider could potentially build an assistant that combines Cisco’s networking expertise with detailed knowledge of that particular customer. That could create opportunities for more sophisticated troubleshooting, operational automation and ongoing managed services. And Cisco is trying to reduce the technical barriers involved. Model Foundry provides access to the model
5d ago

Cisco’s Alex Pujols on how AI is changing what partners can build

Alex Pujols, vice president of solutions engineering for Cisco’s Global Partner Organization Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing the technologies Cisco partners deliver. It’s changing the kinds of businesses they can build. That’s a central theme of this episode of In The Channel, recorded at Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, where Alex Pujols, Cisco’s vice president of sales solutions engineering, joins us to discuss the opportunities emerging as AI becomes increasingly embedded in enterprise infrastructure and operations. Pujols identifies security as perhaps the most immediate opportunity. He discusses Cisco’s five-stage Vulnerability Operations Maturity Model, designed to help partners assess their capabilities and develop the increasingly sophisticated services customers require. He also offers his assessment of how quickly partners are progressing through those stages. The conversation turns to infrastructure, including emerging edge AI use cases, before exploring how Cisco Cloud Control could simplify managed services delivery. Pujols confirms that Canada is among the next markets targeted for Cloud Control availability, although no specific date has been announced. Another major theme is partner-developed intellectual property. Cisco’s AI Studio and Model Foundry aim to make it easier for partners to build AI agents and specialized solutions, potentially creating new opportunities for recurring revenue. But if AI agents become easy to create, how do partners differentiate their offerings and protect their intellectual property? Pujols discusses the importance of customer trust, creativity and the commercial protections Cisco is developing for its marketplace. Finally, Pujols reflects on how AI is transforming Cisco’s Partner Innovation Challenge, with AI-related submissions rising from fewer than 20 percent just a few years ago to more than 95 percent today. It’s a look at how Cisco sees the channel evolving from selling technology to building solutions around it. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello, and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last sixteen years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. We’re coming to you today from Cisco Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, where Cisco is laying out its vision for how partners can capitalize on the next wave of artificial intelligence. And while there’s no shortage of technology announcements this week, one of the more interesting themes is how those technologies are changing the kinds of businesses Cisco partners can build. We’re talking about partners moving into increasingly sophisticated security services, building and managing AI-powered infrastructure, and developing their own AI agents and applications. Cisco is also making a significant push to lower the barriers to creating those solutions, potentially opening up opportunities that were previously limited to partners with substantial development resources. But making technology easier doesn’t necessarily make it easier to build a differentiated business around it. That’s one of the questions I put to Alex Pujols, Cisco’s senior vice president of sales solutions engineering in its global partner sales organization, when we sat down here Monday at Partner Summit. We also discussed Cisco’s new Vulnerability Operations Maturity Model, which is helping partners assess their capabilities and develop more sophisticated security practices; the implications of Cisco Cloud Control for managed services providers; and the opportunities emerging around specialized AI models and edge computing. And Alex shared some interesting observations about how quickly Cisco’s partner community is evolving, including a dramatic increase in the proportion of Partner Innovation Challenge submissions involving AI. It’s a conversation about where Cisco sees the channel heading and what partners need to do to take advantage of the opportunities ahead. Let’s get right into it, my chat with Alex Pujols. Robert Dutt: Alex, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. I’m sure this is a busy week for you. Alex Pujols: Happy to be here, of course. Robert Dutt: You talked this morning about the three major shifts you’re seeing in the market: securing agentic AI, scaling infrastructure for AI, and bringing agentic AI into business operations. From a partner’s perspective, which of those shifts do you see creating the most immediate opportunity today? Like, the right-now opportunity? Alex Pujols: I think there’s an opportunity for all of them right now. It’d be really hard to ignore the role that security is playing within AI, not even just for agentic operations, but just more broadly. We also talked about this whole post-Mythos era that we’re in, and defending at machine speed, at machine scale. And so I think, 100 percent, the agentic opportunity. If I’m a partner right now, and I’m looking at these shifts, and I have to invest in a single area, I would certainly look there because the demand that we’re seeing from customers is overwhelming. The activity from a compliance and legislative perspective means there’s probably going to be even more opportunity around this moving forward. And then, selfishly, I feel that we have an amazing portfolio to address the opportunity. And so I certainly would say the security side of it. Robert Dutt: I have to imagine that’s accelerating, too. AI has been the priority for a while now, but over the last six months or so, drip, drip, drip — Mythos, [unclear], OpenAI — all of that is just adding to the awareness, the appetite, all of it. Alex Pujols: A hundred percent. And it’s interesting. It’s to the point where family members who know nothing about technology are asking me, “Is it over? Is the end near?” And so, in between therapy, I also just do a little bit of education and kind of help them understand where things are. But the point is, it’s mainstream. It’s mainstream. And so Mythos did that. The news reports of AI autonomously attacking other AI and stealing secrets have people spooked. But while I think, in my opinion, a lot of that is inflated, what’s not inflated is the opportunity more broadly around security. And so I think it certainly is real, and it’s going to continue to grow. Robert Dutt: You talked a bit today about the Vulnerability Operations Maturity Model, helping partners understand where they are today and what capabilities they need to develop. Can you give me that kind of elevator pitch on that? Just the real quick walkthrough of it: how it works, and what it tells a partner about how and where they should be investing right now? Alex Pujols: Yeah. So how the maturity model came about was initially a little bit before Mythos, but certainly as the news dropped, we really accelerated the conversations we were having with partners. And in my conversations, I was just noticing that everyone was on a different journey, or they were at different stages of that journey. And so a lot of partners, we’d say, “Hey, how can we help?” They’d say, “Get out of the way. We’re rocking and rolling. We’re cooking. We’re good.” Then we had a lot of partners that said, “I have no earthly idea how to have a conversation with my customer about this. I have no idea what capabilities I need to build out. I’m not sure how to build them out.” And so, “I’m struggling with just understanding the gravity of the situation and how I should respond.” As we saw so many different levels, we said, “Look, let’s put this into a model, and as part of that, we can help partners get from one stage to the next.” And so the model has five stages. You could say Level 1 is probably partners with the least amount of sophistication around their practice. And then Level 5, which is our most advanced partners, have full-fledged, what we’re calling Vulnerability Operations practices. And so they can manage customer vulnerabilities really at machine speed, instantly. They have super-advanced capabilities, like being able to go out and proactively scan customer networks, almost leverage AI to create automated patching on the fly, even when the vendor hasn’t supplied patching on their end. So, super-advanced capabilities. But ultimately, that’s not needed for every customer. And so the idea isn’t that every partner has to develop that capability. They need to find out where on that maturity model their customers need them to be, and then build to that. So if your customers need you to be at a three, and you’re at one, then you can move to Stage 2 and Stage 3. From a vendor perspective, what we want to do is equip them with the skills and the capabilities and the tools, and ultimately the guidance, so that they understand clearly how to get from one level to the next and build out the practices their customers need. Robert Dutt: Especially for those partners who are finding they’re at the Level 1, perhaps, and their customers are saying, “Maybe two or three would be more representative of what we need, what we want from a partner.” Are there any common threads or common first steps that you find work best for helping them move up that? Alex Pujols: Yeah, I think there’s a couple of things. Number one, of course, even though we’re talking about this more in the context of agentic AI and post-Mythos and things like that, what is just the fundamental understanding of AI at the organization? Generally, for our Level 1 partners, AI means that a few people have ChatGPT subscriptions or something. And so it’s kind of tapping into, where are you? What are the specific skills and capabilities that you need to build? And then also, how do you apply them? Because a lot of partners maybe work with a specific subse
5d ago

The Buzz Special: Cisco wants partners to make more money from AI, and it’s changing the rules to help

VANCOUVER — Cisco‘s message to partners at Partner Summit 2026 is about more than the opportunities created by artificial intelligence. It’s about how partners can turn those opportunities into profitable businesses. In this special edition of The Buzz, we’re reporting from Vancouver with a closer look at the announcements and strategy emerging from the opening day of Cisco’s annual partner gathering. A central piece is the continued evolution of Cisco 360, including new incentives intended to reward partners for more of the value they contribute throughout a customer relationship. That includes Ecosystem Deal Registration, designed to recognize partners that influence customer decisions even when they aren’t the ones completing the transaction. Cisco is also expanding incentives tied to adoption, customer growth and recurring revenue. The changes reflect a broader reality: As customer technology environments become more complex, the partner creating the opportunity, the partner delivering the solution and the partner providing ongoing services may not be the same company. Cisco is also expanding its AI infrastructure opportunity, including making rack-scale infrastructure developed with Supermicro available through its global price list. But the more significant profitability opportunity may lie beyond the initial infrastructure sale—in networking, security, observability and services. That theme extends to Cisco IQ, Cisco’s evolving customer experience platform, and new Cisco Powered managed services built around Splunk and Duo. For MSPs, those developments could create new ways to build recurring revenue. They also raise questions about how Cisco’s increasingly integrated platform strategy fits with partners’ existing technology stacks. Distribution is another important part of the picture. Cisco plans to bring distributors into the Cisco 360 Partner Value Index in February 2027, while continuing to invest in AI-assisted partner workflows intended to reduce administrative complexity. The bigger question is whether these changes can deliver meaningful improvements in profitability across Cisco’s diverse partner ecosystem—not just for large global integrators, but for smaller partners serving Canadian businesses. That’s the focus of today’s special edition of The Buzz from Cisco Partner Summit 2026 Read Full Transcript Hello, and welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca. I’m Robert Dutt. Today is Tuesday, October 27, 2026. And here’s what’s happening in the channel today. We’re coming to you from Vancouver, where Cisco Partner Summit 2026 is underway. We’re doing something a little different for this edition of The Buzz. Rather than our usual roundup of industry news, we’re dedicating the entire episode to the announcements, conversations and bigger themes emerging from the opening day of Cisco’s annual partner event. And while there’s certainly plenty of AI technology to talk about, I think the more interesting story here is about how Cisco wants its partners to make money. Because the company is making a fairly ambitious argument: That the AI era isn’t simply going to create more opportunities to sell infrastructure, networking and security products. It’s going to change the kinds of services partners deliver, the ways they participate in customer relationships, and ultimately, how they’re compensated. And Cisco is trying to adjust its partner program, its technology portfolio and its own processes to support that transition. The question, of course, is how much of that ambition translates into real business opportunities for partners. Let’s get into it. First, Cisco 360. Cisco’s new partner program has been a major focus of the company’s channel strategy, and Partner Summit brought another round of changes intended to address how partners actually create value. One of the more interesting is something called Ecosystem Deal Registration. Traditionally, deal registration has been built around the partner that identifies an opportunity and ultimately transacts the sale. But that’s not always how technology projects work anymore. A consultant might help a customer develop its AI strategy. Another partner might design the architecture. A systems integrator might build the solution. And a different partner could ultimately handle the transaction or provide ongoing services. Cisco wants to recognize more of those contributions, including from partners that influence a deal without necessarily selling the products themselves. That’s a meaningful change in philosophy. And it reflects something Tim Coogan, who leads Cisco’s global partner sales organization, has been emphasizing: The partner ecosystem increasingly includes companies that don’t fit the traditional reseller model. Cisco is also expanding incentives around customer adoption, growth and recurring revenue. The company says adoption incentives are nearly doubling, and it’s introducing additional opportunities tied to Enterprise Agreement activation and the use of Cisco IQ. There are also new incentives intended to reward partners for growing customer relationships over time, rather than simply closing the initial transaction. Now, there’s an important distinction between creating more incentive categories and creating more profitable partner businesses. Partners will ultimately judge these changes by whether they can understand the rules, qualify for the incentives, and receive predictable payments. Cisco says it’s working on those issues, including better visibility into potential earnings and more predictable program administration. But the real test will come when partners start using these programs in the field. And there’s another question worth watching with Ecosystem Deal Registration: Does recognizing more participants create additional revenue opportunities, or does it sometimes mean dividing the economics of an existing opportunity among more companies? That’s something we’ll be watching as the program develops. Next, the AI infrastructure opportunity. Cisco’s technology announcements this week reinforce its ambition to play a larger role in the infrastructure supporting enterprise AI. Among the developments is the availability of rack-scale AI infrastructure developed with Supermicro through Cisco’s global price list. That gives Cisco partners another route into AI infrastructure projects, with associated deal protection and opportunities to attach networking, security and services. But there’s a useful distinction here between selling AI infrastructure and building a profitable AI business. During the opening-day presentations, Cisco’s leadership repeatedly returned to the idea that the strongest economics aren’t necessarily in the compute hardware itself. They’re in everything surrounding it. The networking required to move data. The security required to protect increasingly complex environments. The observability tools needed to understand what’s happening. And the services required to design, deploy, operate and optimize the whole thing. Cisco’s leadership made the point that margins follow the platform. That’s an important way to understand what the company is trying to accomplish. Cisco doesn’t simply want its partners to participate in the next wave of infrastructure spending. It wants them to capture a larger share of the work surrounding those investments. And Cisco has some numbers suggesting customers are going to need help. In a survey of seventeen hundred partners, ninety-one percent reported customer concerns about the operating costs of AI. And forty-one percent identified on-premises AI as a growth opportunity. Those findings point to a market that’s still working through some fundamental questions about where AI workloads should run, how much they cost, and how to manage them securely. For partners, those questions create opportunities for assessment, consulting, integration and ongoing management. But they also mean AI infrastructure isn’t necessarily an easy sale. Customers are going to want a credible business case, not just a collection of expensive new hardware. And partners that can help customers answer those questions may be better positioned than those focused primarily on moving products. That brings us to security and managed services. One of the most consistent themes across the opening day was that AI is changing the security conversation. It’s not just about protecting employees using AI applications. It’s increasingly about protecting the infrastructure supporting AI, understanding what AI agents are doing, and managing the identities and permissions those agents need. That creates opportunities for partners to develop more sophisticated security practices. And Cisco is trying to make some of those opportunities easier to package and deliver. The company announced two additional Cisco Powered managed services: One built around Splunk for security operations, and another using Duo for identity and access management. For MSPs, that’s particularly interesting. Managed security is already an established business opportunity, but the complexity of delivering advanced security services can be a significant barrier. If Cisco can make it easier for partners to build repeatable offerings around these platforms, that could open opportunities for partners that haven’t traditionally operated at that level. Cisco IQ is another part of the strategy. Cisco is positioning the platform as a way to give customers and partners better visibility into their environments, while supporting more proactive management and customer experience services. And it’s backing that strategy with additional partner incentives. There’s a twenty-five-hundred-dollar Cisco IQ adoption incentive, along with opportunities associated with higher support tiers. Cisco h

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