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  1. 1d ago

    Logging in, not breaking in: Blackpoint Cyber’s Wil Santiago on the 2026 threat landscape

    Wil Santiago, Wil Santiago, chief security and trust officer at Blackpoint Cyber Wil Santiago, chief security and trust officer at Blackpoint Cyber, joins In The Channel to discuss the findings of the company’s 2026 Annual Threat Report – research grounded in thousands of real incidents investigated by Blackpoint’s security operations centre, not surveys. The headline finding: attackers are no longer trying to break in. They’re logging in. Using stolen credentials and commodity remote management tools, threat actors are walking through the front door, hiding in plain sight, and operating with system-level privileges – sometimes for days before anyone notices. Santiago walks through the key trends the SOC identified across 2025: ClickFix and fake CAPTCHA campaigns accounted for more than half of all identifiable incidents, with attackers abusing trusted infrastructure including Azure Blob storage and Cloudflare to deliver payloads. RMM abuse showed up in roughly 30 per cent of triaged incidents – threat actors installing their own version of the same tools MSPs use legitimately, then living off the land with god-mode access. And Adversary-in-the-Middle attacks are now routinely hijacking authenticated sessions even when MFA is in place, by abusing OAuth token handling. The conversation also covers Blackpoint’s detection philosophy: behavioral context over malware signatures. Understanding what normal looks like in an environment – who uses what tool, at what time, from where – is what allows the SOC to catch attackers before they act. It’s a philosophy that is producing results: Blackpoint disrupted 56 per cent of incidents before a payload was ever deployed. Santiago’s closing recommendation for MSPs is straightforward: start with an RMM audit. Know every remote management tool deployed across every endpoint and server you manage. You cannot protect what you don’t know exists. The 2026 Annual Threat Report is available for download on the Blackpoint Cyber website. 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. Wil Santiago is Chief Security and Trust Officer at Blackpoint Cyber, an MDR provider whose SOC monitors and responds to threats in real time across a large base of MSPs and their clients. And unlike a lot of threat research that’s survey-based or derived from external reporting, what Blackpoint publishes comes from live incident data, thousands of actual threat responses they’ve worked through in the SOC. Their 2026 annual threat report has a thesis that cuts right through it. Attackers are no longer trying to break in, they’re logging in, using stolen credentials and legitimate IT tools, the same RMMs, the same cloud platforms that MSPs rely on every day, to walk through the front door, hide in plain sight, and work their way towards payday. It’s a theme we’ve been tracking at ChannelBuzz.ca. If you caught our conversation with Tony Anscombe from ESET, that one dug into the mechanics of how MSP tools are being weaponized against the very clients they’re supposed to protect. This conversation is the data layer behind that story, and the detection philosophy that Wil and the Blackpoint team have built to counter it. Their SOC is disrupting 56% of incidents before a payload even deploys. We talk about how. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Wil Santiago. Wil, thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it. Wil Santiago: Thank you, Robert. Robert Dutt: For people who know Blackpoint primarily as an MDR provider, but maybe haven’t dug into the research side, can you give us a quick sense of what your SOC is actually seeing day to day? When you say this report is based on thousands of real incidents, what does that mean in practical terms, in terms of how you gathered this data? Wil Santiago: That’s a great question, Robert. It really starts at the core of what we focus on at Blackpoint Cyber. In 2025, we focused a lot of our detection efforts in the cloud endpoints, but what we realized is that at the core, at that identity layer, that’s the most important thing. But what we’re protecting at Blackpoint is the identity. What we observed in 2025 is this interesting shift where, yes, there’s vulnerabilities, there will continue to be vulnerabilities. However, threat actors don’t necessarily need to weaponize those vulnerabilities to gain access into an environment. They’re not really targeting customers or companies with any specific new zero-day technology or exploits that are novel. They’re just logging in using stolen passwords. We’re still at that pivotal point, but we’re still talking about the same things we’ve been talking about, password reuse, making sure you’re protecting yourself from phishing emails, so on and so forth. But the reality is that threat actors are getting in. They’re stealing credentials and they’re using legitimate tools to just log in, walking through the front door. Robert Dutt: Yeah, the headline from the report was very catchy with the attackers are no longer trying to break in. They’re just logging in, as you say. And that framing echoes what we’ve seen in other reports elsewhere. People are calling 2025 the year of the abuse of trust in terms of security trends, but your numbers are operational and not survey-based. I’m curious what trusted compromise looks like from where you sit. Is there really a shift away from what you were seeing a couple of years ago or three years ago, or has this always been the playbook and we’re only now measuring it properly? Wil Santiago: Yeah, so if I compare back to, let’s say, 2022, I think we at Blackpoint would still see a trend, the threat actors gaining access into an environment, usually using some type of exploit at that time. You can point to a number of Microsoft Exchange exploits that happened during that time. The Hafnium group was doing a lot of Exchange exploits. The reality is there came a certain time where we were detecting Cobalt Strike, a malware commodity tool, every single day in Blackpoint Cyber’s SOC. And then eventually it became once a week, and then it became once a month. So then we started to think, well, what’s happening with the shift of tactics with the threat actors? And what we found is instead of installing Cobalt Strike, they started to install legitimate IT tools. And that’s the trust component. When they’re installing tools that you use internally, they now can abuse those tools the same way that you use those legitimately. And so we have these threat actors that not only are abusing legitimate tools, but like I said, they’re abusing legitimate identities. So when you have what I call the keys to the kingdom, the passwords, I am you. I am now Robert, for all intents and purposes for this sort of webinar. I think the interesting part that we’ve seen at Blackpoint is that threat actors have really, really focused on leave-behinds. And those leave-behinds are commodity remote management tools. Why do they do that? Because EDRs don’t know how to detect them as malicious, right? These are legitimate IT tools that are being used to service MSPs and their customers. And a threat actor just installs their version of the same exact tool that you’re using legitimately. Right? And so the trust component is you go to review your assets and you see ScreenConnect installed in your environments because you use ScreenConnect, right? But then when you start taking a closer look, you start to realize, wait a second, there’s four different ScreenConnect IDs on this one machine. Now we have a more of a problem, right? And so the attack is a little bit of an invisible signature detection because it’s an authorized tool, right? And so we really have to get to this layer of identifying threat actor activity with behavior context. If you’re an AnyDesk shop, then why do you have TeamViewer installed on your file server that’s publicly facing, right? Let’s start to ask those questions and dig into that a little bit. Robert Dutt: Your SOC found that fake CAPTCHA and ClickFix campaigns accounted for, I think it was 50-odd percent of identifiable incidents. That’s a majority of attacks being driven by a technique that essentially requires the victim to step on the link to execute it themselves. Why is that scaling so fast right now? And especially for an MSP who tends to think, you know, my technicians are too smart to do that. What’s kind of the honest answer for what they need to be looking for and protecting against? Wil Santiago: Yeah. And, you know, ClickFix is such an easy attack when you really get into the root of what it does. But it starts with social engineering. You’re enticing someone, again, just like with phishing, to visit something that you’re going to tell them to do an action. And most of the time, they’re going to do that action. Now, why this is so effective is we’re seeing techniques that really enable the threat actor to deliver the payload. And how do they do that? Search engine optimization, right? These SEO links at the top, when you go look for an OBS installer, because you need your camera to look well, or you get a Google sponsor result. Threat actors are just buying those sponsored results and delivering their payloads on there. You click on it thinking you’re going to download OBS, and then it tells you, hey, wait a second, you have to make sure that you are human. Verify that we’re used to verifying we’re humans to download something. So we go and we click it. But then it says, hey, open up your Windows Run command and maybe run this command on us, on your computer for us. And what happens? Threat actors go and they put the commands on a website. They have t

    Logging in, not breaking in: Blackpoint Cyber’s Wil Santiago on the 2026 threat landscape

  2. 1d ago

    The Buzz: Blumira launches universal AI security command center, Vistera brings AI professional services to Canadian SMBs, and CrowdStrike warns on ransomware targeting MSPs

    Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: [Blumira]: The company on Tuesday launched Hearth, a vendor-agnostic AI command center that Blumira says can intelligently reason across security tools and services an organization already uses. The platform is available in the Pax8 Marketplace, giving MSPs a unified interface to monitor and respond across multi-vendor environments. Read the announcement on Business Wire [Vistera]: The Vancouver-based company on Tuesday unveiled a professional services platform powered by Vero, a multi-agent orchestration layer that Vistera says brings legal, HR, and finance expertise to Canadian SMBs in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. Every output is reviewed by a senior Canadian-qualified professional before delivery, with outcomes priced at $700 each or through monthly plans. Learn more on Vistera [CrowdStrike]: Justin Bradley, senior alliances manager for MSSP aggregators at CrowdStrike, warned attendees at XChange August this week that the group behind Akira ransomware — referred to as Punk Spider — has increased attacks by 134 percent over the past year, specifically targeting SMBs through MSPs. The group buys VPN credentials on the dark web, uses MFA fatigue to gain access, and dumps Entra IDs before deploying ransomware. Read more on CRN [ConnectSecure]: The company on Tuesday added M365 Auto Remediation, AI-powered training assessments, and Patch 360 to its MSP platform, allowing providers to automatically remediate supported Microsoft 365 security findings across multiple tenants. Read more on Channel Dive [GTIA]: The Global Technology Industry Association warned at ChannelCon last week that customers are deploying AI faster than MSPs can deliver security and governance, and announced a new Managed Intelligence Alliance to develop standards and accreditations for AI services. Read more on Channel Dive [NetRise]: The company on August 3 launched its Discovery Partner Program to expand software supply chain security through MSSPs, VARs, and distributors. Read the announcement on PR Newswire [Verizon]: Channel chief and vice president of indirect partner sales Mark Tina is leaving the telecommunications company after 23 years to become vice president of national partner sales and distribution at health insurer Humana. Read more on Channel Dive Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Thursday, August 13, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Blumira on Tuesday launched Hearth, a vendor-agnostic AI command center that the company says can intelligently reason across security tools and services an organization already uses. According to Blumira, the platform is designed to unify visibility and response across the workspace without requiring a rip-and-replace approach, giving lean IT teams a single interface to monitor disparate tools. Hearth is available in the Pax8 Marketplace, positioning it for MSPs that provision through that platform. Blumira is pitching the offering as a way to reduce tool sprawl and alert fatigue for teams that lack enterprise-scale resources. A unified reasoning layer across multi-vendor stacks could cut down on the context-switching that slows incident response for Canadian MSPs, though the value will depend on integration depth and the accuracy of the AI-driven reasoning. Vistera on Tuesday unveiled a Canadian-built professional services platform powered by Vero, a multi-agent orchestration layer that the company says brings legal, HR, and finance expertise to small and medium-sized businesses at a predictable cost. The Vancouver-based company is targeting Canadian SMBs in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario with outcomes priced at $700 each or through monthly plans, a fraction of the typical hourly rates at large firms. According to Vistera, every output is reviewed and signed off by a senior Canadian-qualified professional before it reaches the client, with credential verification and regulatory standing checks built into the workflow. The platform handles intake, research, and preparation through AI agents while preserving human oversight for final judgment. Canadian MSPs should watch how this model lands, as it could create new partnership opportunities around SMB advisory services or introduce competitive pressure in the professional services space. CrowdStrike this week warned attendees at XChange August that prolific ransomware groups are specifically targeting MSPs and their SMB customers. According to Justin Bradley, senior alliances manager for MSSP aggregators at CrowdStrike, the group behind Akira ransomware — referred to as Punk Spider — has increased its attacks by 134 percent over the past year with an emphasis on SMBs. Bradley said the group’s typical strategy involves buying VPN credentials on the dark web, then using MFA fatigue to gain initial access, escalating privileges, and dumping Entra IDs before deploying ransomware. He also noted that CrowdStrike is tracking two break-off groups from Scattered Spider, dubbed Cordial Spider and Snarky Spider, which have been known to impersonate MSPs to trick customers into launching remote access tools. The intelligence underscores the urgency for Canadian MSPs to harden identity controls and monitor for MFA abuse, particularly as credential theft continues to fetch thousands of dollars on dark web markets. In Brief – ConnectSecure says its new M365 Auto Remediation tool lets MSPs approve and automatically apply fixes across multiple customers for supported Microsoft 365 security findings. The Global Technology Industry Association warns at ChannelCon that customers are deploying AI faster than MSPs can secure it, and says it is launching a Managed Intelligence Alliance to set standards for AI services. NetRise says its new Discovery Partner Program will expand software supply chain security through MSSPs, VARs, and distributors. Verizon confirms channel chief Mark Tina is leaving after 23 years to become vice president of national partner sales and distribution at Humana. Full details and links in the show notes or the blog post. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

    The Buzz: Blumira launches universal AI security command center, Vistera brings AI professional services to Canadian SMBs, and CrowdStrike warns on ransomware targeting MSPs

  3. 2d ago

    From order takers to order makers: Sanjib Sahoo on Ingram Micro’s AI revenue intelligence momentum

    Sanjib Sahoo, executive vice president and president of the Global Platform Group at Ingram Micro In this episode of In The Channel, we sit down with Sanjib Sahoo, EVP and President of the Global Platform Group at Ingram Micro, to unpack the “AI Revenue Intelligence” strategy that is currently driving the distributor’s record momentum. Sahoo discusses the evolution of the Xvantage platform from a digital infrastructure vision to a fully trained intelligence layer featuring over 400 proprietary models. A key highlight is the impact of the recently announced Xvantage Integration (XI) Hub and the MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server. Sahoo describes MCP as the “USB-C for AI,” allowing partners to securely connect their own AI agents—whether running on Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini—directly to Ingram Micro’s data mesh. Key discussion points include: The 4x Conversion Metric: How AI-surfaced insights are drastically outperforming traditional sales motions in converting quotes to orders. Democratizing AI: Why small MSPs are becoming the fastest adopters of the MCP Server to bypass complex, expensive ERP system integrations. Operational Efficiency: Real-world examples of partners saving 1,500 hours annually by reducing complex quoting cycles from days to mere seconds. The Human Shift: How the role of the Ingram associate is pivoting from transactional fulfillment to training algorithms and high-value solutioning. For partners looking to get started, Sahoo recommends visiting the Xvantage Developer Portal to explore how to “think big and act small” when it comes to AI adoption. 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. Today, we’re joined by a man who’s effectively the architect of the modern digital Ingram Micro. Sanjib Sahoo is the EVP and president of the Global Platform Group at Ingram Micro and the visionary behind Xvantage. We’re coming off a week where Ingram reported record Q2 results, and Sanjib joins me to talk about why AI revenue intelligence is the engine behind those numbers. We dig into the recently launched XI Hub and MCP server—tools that are allowing even the smallest MSPs to connect their own AI assistants directly to Ingram’s data mesh. We talk about how this is saving early adopters up to 1,500 hours a year and why Sanjib thinks the industry is moving from a world of order takers to order makers. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Sanjib Sahoo. [MUSIC] Robert Dutt: Sanjib, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Sanjib Sahoo: Absolutely, it’s a pleasure to be here. Robert Dutt: You guys just came off record Q2 results. A big part of that is the idea of what you guys are calling AI revenue intelligence. For the folks on the ground, what does that term actually mean? Is this about Ingram’s revenue, partner revenue, or sort of the intelligence sitting between those two fields? Sanjib Sahoo: Absolutely. If you look at it, intelligence is the key that connects the lifecycle in the channel. What we have been doing in the last year or couple of years is building functionality with Xvantage. But that is the infrastructure. What we have done is train our intelligence layer. All the models we have built—more than 400 models—and the intelligent integrations that we have built, it all added to that AI layer. Today, that AI layer goes out, looks at all the quotes, looks at multiple parameters, and then stack-ranks opportunities for our sales team to go and outreach our partners. It’s changing the sales motion where we are moving from order takers to order makers. That is converting at almost four times the rate that traditional distribution converted those quotes to orders. That actually has high-quality revenue. And most importantly, it is really giving us a way to close our cycles faster. That is that AI-led revenue—primarily intelligent revenue—that we are doing. Robert Dutt: That 4x number is pretty striking. You’ve been the architect of Xvantage since the beginning—it’s been your baby. Based on what you described, it’s safe to say we’ve gone from vision well into the momentum phase. I’m curious: what’s the biggest difference in the conversations you’re having with partners today versus, say, even the beginning of the year? Sanjib Sahoo: I think our partners are understanding more and more that this is not another platform or a tool for doing distribution better. This is a way for them to leverage that intelligence that Ingram Micro has from being in business for more than 45 years. It’s about leveraging insights to drive their business. Ultimately, where we want to move, Robert, is away from just selling products to selling outcomes by intelligence. I think more and more, that intelligence is the new relationship and value that we can create. The platform is immaterial; the experience is great, but the intelligence is what they need to drive operations. Robert Dutt: I’m curious how you have found the channel’s aptitude or ability—how is the channel prepared for this move towards intelligence? What is the biggest opportunity for the average MSP at this moment to jump on? Sanjib Sahoo: I think the channel is changing. The entire tech ecosystem is no longer linear. It’s more about solutioning, ecosystem orchestration, and demand gen. We need to scale the “long tail”—the small MSPs and the VARs—and that requires a lot of automation. Let me ask you a question. What is the operating system you have on your phone? You might know it’s iOS or Android, but you don’t know the exact version, right? Does it matter? No. But the operating system is what does the disk cleanup and the CPU optimization. Without that, it doesn’t work. We want Xvantage to be that agnostic operating system of the channel that solves all these complexities of SKU ingestion, billing, attaching, and reconciliation, powered by intelligence. This leads to our announcement about MCP. We have spent too much time on system integration; now we are connecting and combining intelligence. Robert Dutt: Let’s get into that. You’ve recently announced XI Hub and the MCP server layer. You guys have positioned this as “operationalizing AI” for the channel. In plain English, how do those two pieces work together to let an MSP connect their own AI to Ingram’s data? Sanjib Sahoo: Absolutely. If I’m a small MSP or an SMB, I don’t have a lot of IT budget. System integration takes a long time. But today, you can quickly write a quick agent or use your own LLMs. How do you connect that to an Xvantage or Ingram Micro without a massive integration? That is MCP. MCP is connecting intelligence to intelligence—agent to agent—versus system integration. It bypasses the complexity. I recently heard of a partner who got connected with MCP within an hour and is already driving value. Data helps you run the business, but intelligence helps you grow the business. Imagine if an MSP can get that constant intelligence from us for renewals or bundles—fulfillment happens as a byproduct, but intelligence is the value. Robert Dutt: You’ve described MCP as the “USB-C for AI.” Why was it important for Ingram to go through MCP and use an open standard like that, rather than building a “walled garden” approach? Sanjib Sahoo: Because a custom approach takes a long time. This is the fastest way to abstract your systems. Imagine you have ChatGPT or Claude and you connect it securely to Ingram Micro’s Xvantage to run your business. That’s amazing. We have architected it this way because ERPs can answer what, but they can’t answer why. Our architecture—with the real-time data mesh, AI Factory, and headless engines—really creates an environment where MCP can work much faster. Robert Dutt: If I’m an MSP and I’m plugging in an AI assistant to my business systems and to your live data, my first thoughts are going to be security and data leakage. How do the XI Hub and MCP server keep that data secure? Sanjib Sahoo: We have a lot of work going into security—data segregation, multiple protocols for how we expose data. We have different protocols for read versus write. We have been very careful about the details for obvious reasons, but there is a massive focus on security. Robert Dutt: You guys have talked about some incredible numbers—early adopters saving 1,500 hours annually and radically reducing quoting cycles. What was the partner doing manually that an MCP-connected assistant can do for them now? Sanjib Sahoo: They can get instant access to insights and figure out any question they have without needing to invest in extra OpEx or partners to do those activities. That saves them a lot of hours. But it’s also about growth. We see that Xvantage-integrated partners are doing much more business with us. It’s transactional efficiency and growth opportunities. Robert Dutt: When it comes to quoting, how is AI reducing the cycle? Is it fetching data faster or actually suggesting configurations? Sanjib Sahoo: MCP itself isn’t doing the quoting. We have worked hard to build a custom quoting engine in Xvantage as one of our headless engines. It takes complexity out and does the vendor integrations from config to order. MCP is just the pipe giving you the data from that engine. The complexity is solved by the Xvantage infrastructure; you’re just taking advantage of it by connecting with the MCP layer. Complex quotes that used to take days can now be done in minutes or seconds. Robert Dutt: Now that XI Hub and the MCP server are out there, what’s been the most unexpected or novel way that you’ve seen a partner use it? Sanjib Sahoo: I thought the big customers or the mid-market would lead, but I’m seeing a lot of tra

    From order takers to order makers: Sanjib Sahoo on Ingram Micro’s AI revenue intelligence momentum

  4. 2d ago

    The Buzz: Expel extends MDR to AI attack surface, Huntress warns on autonomous adversaries, and Myriad360 crosses $1 billion

    Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Expel MDR for AI attack surface: Expel has launched what it says is the first managed detection and response service covering the full AI attack surface, extending its SOC capabilities to threats launched with AI, employee AI misuse, and exposure inside AI systems themselves. The company announced the expansion at Black Hat 2026, adding an Anthropic Claude integration that pulls enterprise compliance signals and prompt content into Expel’s detection pipeline. Expel’s operators work the prompt content itself to surface intent, not just activity, and the company has mapped its detection library to 13 of 16 MITRE ATLAS tactics. Expel Huntress CEO on autonomous adversary: Huntress CEO Kyle Hanslovan is warning that autonomous, AI-powered attacks have moved from theoretical concern to active reality. In an interview with CRN, Hanslovan cited OpenAI’s disclosure that its AI agents compromised the Hugging Face platform during testing, as well as subsequent Anthropic disclosures about its Claude Mythos 5 model, as evidence that autonomous hacking is already happening. Huntress, which recently crossed $250 million in annual recurring revenue, has built its business around protecting smaller organizations that lack enterprise-scale security teams. CRN Myriad360 acquires F3 Technology Partners: Myriad360 has acquired the assets of F3 Technology Partners, a Connecticut-based healthcare IT solution provider, pushing the combined organization past $1 billion in estimated annual revenue. While Myriad360 is U.S.-based, the firm services the Canadian market through its global logistics and international business operations. F3 brings deep healthcare vertical expertise to Myriad360’s portfolio, reinforcing a trend of mid-market consolidation that is creating a new class of “Super-VARs” with the scale to compete for multinational enterprise business. CRN Nutanix MCP server: Nutanix has released an open-source MCP server for the Nutanix Cloud Platform, enabling AI assistants including GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and Cursor to automate cloud operations through the Prism v4 API. The move follows Ingram Micro’s MCP server launch for its Xvantage marketplace and reflects growing channel investment in the Model Context Protocol as a standard for AI-tool integration. Nutanix Halo AI Studio and MCP push: PSA vendor Halo unveiled AI Studio and MCP integrations at XChange August, giving MSPs tools to build AI agents for service desk, sales, customer success, reporting, and quarterly business reviews. The company also launched an MCP server to act as a central interface across MSP tools. Halo partner John Douglass of Pileus Technologies said the AI Studio capabilities are “a game changer” for automating service delivery. CRN CRN Annual Report Card winners: CRN announced the winners of its 2026 Annual Report Card at XChange August, with solution providers grading vendors across 23 technology categories. Notable winners included HPE in cloud computing and servers, Nvidia in GPUs, Exabeam in AI security, and Scale Computing in hybrid cloud infrastructure. Complete scores will be published on CRN.com on October 5. CRN Liquidware CommandCTRL 1.5: Liquidware launched CommandCTRL 1.5 with AI-powered endpoint diagnostics and browser-based remote control across Windows, macOS, Linux, and thin clients. The update adds AI Insights that interpret endpoint telemetry and extends remote support capabilities to browser-based sessions without requiring a client installation. Liquidware Read Full Transcript TRANSCRIPT TO COME

    The Buzz: Expel extends MDR to AI attack surface, Huntress warns on autonomous adversaries, and Myriad360 crosses $1 billion

  5. 3d ago

    Exabeam rebuilds its MSSP commercial model to fix the economics of managed SIEM

    Craig Patterson, global channel chief at Exabeam For years, SIEM has been one of those technologies that looked good in theory but was genuinely hard to build a profitable managed service around. Deal-by-deal discount negotiations, licensing structures built for enterprise resale rather than recurring managed services revenue, and no predictable floor on margin. For many MSPs, the math just never worked. Exabeam – the combined company formed from the merger of the original Exabeam and LogRhythm – is making a direct play to change that. Global channel chief Craig Patterson and senior director of service provider alliances Peter Stratis join In The Channel to walk through the new MSSP commercial framework inside the recently launched APEX Partner Program. Two new licensing pathways: a single-pool capacity model for high-volume, multi-tenant environments serving SMB and mid-market clients, and a federated subscription model that isolates customer environments for compliance and data sovereignty requirements. For Canadian MSSPs navigating PIPEDA, OSFI E-21, or Protected B, that second model is the one to pay close attention to. Peter Stratis, senior directof of server provider alliances at Exabeam The conversation also covers Sherpa, Exabeam’s new AI-powered partner enablement platform – a move away from the traditional LMS toward an always-on coaching tool that can join partner sales calls in real time – and Agent Behavior Analytics, Exabeam’s new capability for detecting malfunctioning, misaligned, and subverted AI agents inside customer environments, included at no additional cost. The standout line from Peter Stratis – who called this his first-ever podcast appearance – is the one worth writing down: “We treated our service providers like resellers, unfortunately.” The new framework is a direct acknowledgment of that history, and an attempt to rebuild the commercial relationship from the ground up. 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. If you’ve been in the channel for any length of time, you know that SIEM has always been one of those technologies that seems great in theory but has been genuinely hard to build a profitable managed service around. Licensing models that weren’t built for multi-tenancy, unpredictable costs, discount structures that made margin planning more of a guessing game than a business model. A lot of MSPs have looked at the security operations space and quietly backed away for exactly those reasons. Exabeam, the combined company that emerged out of the merger of Exabeam and LogRhythm, is making a direct play to change that. They have overhauled their channel program into what they’re calling the APEX Partner Program and at the centre of it is a new commercial framework built specifically for managed security service providers. Two distinct pathways: one for high-volume multi-tenant environments and one built with compliance and data sovereignty in mind. For Canadian MSPs navigating PIPEDA, OSFI E-21 and Protected B requirements, that second lane is worth paying close attention to. I’ve got two Exabeam executives here to walk us through it. Craig Patterson is Exabeam’s global channel chief and Peter Stratis is the senior director of service provider alliances, the person who’s been working directly with MSSPs to build this out from the ground up. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Craig Patterson and Peter Stratis. Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time. Craig Patterson: Thank you, Robert. Super excited to be on here with you today, my friend. Peter Stratis: Thank you. Robert Dutt: Craig, can you just kick us off with a quick version of where Exabeam sits right now? You know, you guys went through a significant merger with LogRhythm not that long ago. Now you’re pushing an updated partner program. For solution providers who maybe haven’t been following closely, what does the combined company look like from a channel perspective? Craig Patterson: The short answer, my friend, is that we’re sitting in an amazing place. We’re absolutely in a good place positioning to really drive value to our partner community. And so to give you a little more context around that, like you asked, we’ve spent the last 12 months really kind of rethinking, reimagining the whole partner ecosystem in a way to create value for all of our partners globally. And so there was a number of things we went through over the last 12 months. We spent a lot of time really going to this assessment loop, understanding everybody’s perspective. So we did that by having very strategic conversations with our top-tier partners. We did some survey work. We looked at the broad landscape in terms of the trends that the partners are really looking for in these modern channel programs. So all of that really became this assessment loop. The output of that is that really became the foundation for what we built here with APEX. And so with APEX, the Exabeam APEX Partner Program, what you have here is you have a program that’s really centered on value that’s really focused on solving a problem that exists in our market today around enablement. And so when you think about enablement today, I’ve written a lot of articles on this. Most enablement programs really don’t drive to the level of outcome that companies are looking to have. Outcomes like conversion rates, outcomes like time to first deal, outcome rates like retention rates, all these things. And so what we’ve done is we’ve really focused on enablement as the key catalyst to really drive value to our partners. And so with that, we’ve launched new enablement programs really with a focus on increasing their competency level so we can align to those outcomes we’re looking to have with our company’s operating plan. And so there’s a lot of thought that’s got into this. The short answer is we have a program that’s built on value. It aligns to where the market is going and what partners are really asking for. Robert Dutt: Peter, your title as senior director of service provider alliances is a pretty specific role. Can you tell us a little bit about what that looks like sort of on a day-to-day basis and the big problems that you’re focused on? Peter Stratis: Sure thing. Thanks, Robert. Well, I’ve been with Exabeam for about eight years now and service providers have always been a key component of not only our channel strategy, but our go-to-market and just from our net new revenue perspective. After our merger with LogRhythm, that actually continues and if anything, it’s only been more emphasized because both from an on-prem and from a cloud perspective, we see the MSSPs being a strong driver of that strategy of our go-to-market. So over the last eight years, we’ve seen that trend of not only on net new revenue, net new logos being a major part of our business, but then how do, to Craig’s point, how do we support them? To be quite honest, in the past, it was quite difficult. We really didn’t have any kind of structured pricing for these partners. It was, to say the least, it was more of a resale program that had some discounts tied to it. So through Craig’s efforts, through our whole surveys and our intent to really go after this market and treat them the way they should be treated, he mentioned that we did these surveys. We asked internally, what do you look for in a service provider partner? We asked externally what these partners were looking for from us. And that’s when in building the APEX Partner Program here at Exabeam, we also took into account what service providers would look for in a new partner program. So that’s everything from pricing to support. Craig mentioned enablement. Enablement is a huge part of that, where they felt in the past they were just lumped up as just a regular partner. Now we have supported APIs, documented APIs that most, if not all, of our partners are using as part of their foundation for their services. So we’ve really come a long way and continue actually to build upon that, as you’ll see throughout 2026 and beyond. Robert Dutt: Okay, let’s get into the framework itself. You guys positioned it at launch as solving commercial and operational friction for MSSPs. Curious, what did you hear that friction looked like in practice? What were MSSPs telling you was broken or was a big challenge? Craig Patterson: Yeah, so I’ll take a stab at this and I’ll let Peter give more context. So a lot of this came out during that assessment phase. Robert, we’re talking to the MSSPs globally. I’m like, what’s working? What’s not working? What would they like to see incorporated into the MSSP program 2.0? So a lot of the feedback we heard was really around the flexibility. Being able to have a license that is catering to all the customer demand they have beneath. So it’s really giving them the flexibility to buy that one license and carve it up as they see fit. And giving them more flexibility on the commercial terms. That was a lot of the commentary we heard. The other thing we heard was really they wanted more value as it leads to the enablement side. So obviously getting them enabled on the pre-sales side, but more importantly on the post-sales side. So they could actually drive those implementations, drive the management and really help those customers create a lot of value. And so I think those were kind of the big levers that I heard from those assessments. And then in practice, Peter can give you some more context in terms of how we’re putting all this together. Peter Stratis: Yeah, thanks Craig. A lot of what we heard from the service provider community in the past was friction. So when they’re trying to price out their servic

    Exabeam rebuilds its MSSP commercial model to fix the economics of managed SIEM

  6. 3d ago

    The Buzz: Schneider Electric brings multi-chemistry UPS to the edge, Ingram Micro connects AI to partner workflows, and D&H expands Dell storage distribution

    Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: [Schneider Electric]: The company yesterday unveiled its next-generation APC Smart-UPS at XChange August 2026, introducing what it says is the first multi-chemistry battery technology for distributed and edge environments. The platform accepts both VRLA lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries, allowing customers to start with lower-cost lead-acid and upgrade later without replacing the chassis. Read more on CRN. [Ingram Micro]: The distributor says hundreds of channel partners are now using its Xvantage Integration Hub and secure Model Context Protocol Server to connect AI assistants directly to their business systems. Trust X Alliance member Matrix Integration estimates the platform will save its team between 1,000 and 1,500 hours this year, while IT Design Consulting says it cut quoting from hours or days to seconds. Read the announcement on Ingram Micro. [D&H Distributing]: The distributor is now authorized to carry Dell Technologies’ full enterprise storage portfolio in the United States and Canada, adding a new sourcing option after Dell ended its relationship with Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions. D&H says its Advanced Solutions+ business unit now accounts for more than 25 percent of its overall business. Read more on CRN. [Acronis]: The company unveiled an autonomous IT platform update with an AI-driven console, service desk, and migration tools designed to help MSPs automate operations and expand services. Read more on msp-channel.com. [NCC Group and SailPoint]: The two companies have partnered to strengthen identity security services for both human and non-human identities. Read the announcement on NCC Group. [Lexful]: The company announced general availability of its AI-native IT documentation platform for MSPs, with plans to join the Pax8 and Sherweb marketplaces before the end of 2026. Read more on Yahoo Finance. [Circana]: Research presented at XChange August says AI’s workforce shock is unlikely to ease in the near term, with MSP executives noting persistent talent gaps despite automation advances. Read more on CRN. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Tuesday, August 11, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Schneider Electric yesterday unveiled its next-generation APC Smart-UPS at XChange August 2026, introducing what the company says is the first multi-chemistry battery technology for distributed and edge environments. The new platform accepts both traditional VRLA lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries, allowing customers to start with lower-cost lead-acid technology and upgrade to longer-lasting lithium-ion later without replacing the chassis. Adam Compton, offer management leader at Schneider Electric, told CRN that the chassis is engineered to recognize different battery chemistries through firmware and battery management systems, which then alert EcoStruxure IT monitoring software about the specific battery type and replacement timeline. The company says future battery chemistries will also be supported as they become viable. For channel partners, the flexibility creates new service opportunities around battery lifecycle management, assessment, and the Rip-Replace-Recycle refresh program. Gordon Lord, vice president of channels, said Schneider Electric is doubling down on its Gateway program to give partners visibility into distributed power infrastructure across customer sites. The online versions of the new Smart-UPS are slated to be available starting September 1, with line-interactive versions following next year. Partners will not require new certifications. Canadian partners working with regulated and industrial customers should note the air-gapped deployment potential and the EcoStruxure monitoring layer as a recurring services hook. Ingram Micro says hundreds of channel partners are now using its Xvantage Integration Hub and secure Model Context Protocol Server to connect AI assistants directly to their business systems. The distributor announced the expanded adoption last Wednesday, positioning the platform as a way to reduce integration friction and automate workflows across quoting, ordering, and customer management. Executive Vice President Sanjib Sahoo described the MCP Server as a way to bring AI directly into the flow of business, giving partners a secure, real-time connection to Ingram Micro’s data mesh without building custom integrations. Trust X Alliance member Matrix Integration estimates the platform will save its team between 1,000 and 1,500 hours this year. IT Design Consulting CEO Ryan Evans said his team cut quoting processes from hours or days to seconds using the XI Hub integration. Ingram Micro is offering on-demand training sessions to help partners build AI-powered solutions through the platform. The company is positioning the offering as part of its broader strategy to make Xvantage an intelligent operating layer for the global channel. Canadian partners should watch how quickly small MSPs adopt the plug-and-play connectivity, since Ingram Micro reports that smaller providers are the fastest adopters so far. D&H Distributing is now authorized to carry Dell Technologies’ full enterprise storage portfolio in the United States and Canada, adding a new sourcing option for partners after Dell ended its distribution relationship with Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions last month. The Harrisburg, Pa.-based distributor is bringing Dell’s advanced infrastructure, including Dell Apex as-a-service and subscription technologies, to its Advanced Solutions+ business unit. Chief Commercial and Consumer Officer Marty Bauerlein told CRN that Dell’s decision followed an RFP process and was influenced by D&H’s execution capabilities and growth mindset. Partners including Precision Computer Services and CompuCom have praised D&H’s responsiveness and collaborative approach. D&H says its Advanced Solutions+ unit now accounts for more than 25 percent of its overall business. For Canadian partners, the move adds another distributor option for Dell storage and server infrastructure at a time when Dell is also rolling out program changes focused on AI outcomes and faster rewards. The timing means partners can evaluate sourcing alongside the new rebate and registration structures Dell is expected to introduce this month. In Brief – Acronis unveils autonomous IT platform update with AI-driven console, service desk, and migration tools for MSPs. NCC Group partners with SailPoint to strengthen identity security services for human and non-human identities. Lexful announces general availability of its AI-native IT documentation platform for MSPs, with plans to join the Pax8 and Sherweb marketplaces before the end of 2026. Circana research presented at XChange August says AI’s workforce shock is unlikely to ease in the near term. Full details and links in the show notes or the blog post. Later today on In The Channel, my conversation with Exabeam about rebuilding the MSSP commercial model to fix the economics of managed SIEM. And if you haven’t heard it yet, check out my conversation with Chris Fabes from TD SYNNEX Canada about his three-sided view of 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.

    The Buzz: Schneider Electric brings multi-chemistry UPS to the edge, Ingram Micro connects AI to partner workflows, and D&H expands Dell storage distribution

  7. Aug 6

    Chris Fabes brings three-sided channel view to TD SYNNEX Canada

    Chris Fabes, president of TD SYNNEX Canada Chris Fabes is two weeks into his new role as president of TD SYNNEX Canada, and he brings a perspective almost nobody else in the Canadian channel can match: senior leadership experience on all three sides of the ecosystem. Fabes spent a decade at Lenovo Canada, where as channel chief he tripled channel revenue to $1.2 billion in three years. He then moved to SHI International, where he led the Canadian operation with a focus on enterprise and public sector. Now he’s at the distributor side, taking over from Mitchell Martin, who ran the business for 35 years through multiple mergers and industry transformations. In this conversation, Fabes discusses what he learned from seeing the channel from the vendor, reseller, and distributor sides – and how each perspective informs what partners should expect from TD SYNNEX going forward. He talks about the booming Quebec market (he’s Montreal-based and bilingual), the role of MSPs as “AI ambassadors” for 1.3 million Canadian SMBs, and the shift from traditional SaaS consumption toward tokenomics. He’s candid about needing more time to assess TD SYNNEX’s internal AI readiness, and he closes with a challenge to the Canadian channel: be “proud and loud” about what the ecosystem has accomplished. 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 at ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. Today I’m joined by Chris Fabes, who’s just a couple of weeks into his new role as president of TD SYNNEX Canada. Now, TD SYNNEX is of course the largest technology distributor in the world, and the Canadian operation has been a fixture of this channel for decades. But this is a transition moment. Mitch Martin ran the Canadian business for more than 35 years, starting out with Merisel Canada, through the Synnex acquisition, the pandemic, mergers with Westcon, and finally the merger with Tech Data. He retired earlier this year and TD SYNNEX went outside the organization for his replacement. They found Chris Fabes at SHI International, where he was running the Canadian operation. Before SHI, he spent a decade at Lenovo Canada, where as the channel chief he tripled channel revenue to $1.2 billion in three years. And before that, he started his career at a reseller. So, he’s one of the very few people in the industry who’ve held senior leadership roles on the reseller side, the vendor side, and now the distributor side. A 360-degree view that I think is worth exploring. We talked about what he’s seeing in his first two weeks, what partners should expect from TD SYNNEX Canada under his leadership, the Quebec market, which he calls home, AI, program simplification, and why he thinks the Canadian channel ecosystem should be, in his words, “proud and loud.” Let’s get right into it. My chat with Chris Fabes. Chris, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. **Chris Fabes:** Thanks for having me. I also appreciate it. **Robert Dutt:** Pretty epic way to get the distributor side of things on your channel bingo card, having already done the reseller solution provider and vendor side. Congrats on the new gig and I guess in general, your thoughts on taking over the leadership of TD SYNNEX Canada at this moment. **Chris Fabes:** I appreciate that. And look, how could I not be excited? It’s an incredible opportunity. As you mentioned, I’ve been on the vendor side as well as the value-added reseller side, but distribution is definitely not new for me. I’ve been working with TD SYNNEX for many, many years in different capacities. So it’s exciting having known the organization, knowing a lot of the people, and just quickly being pulled into internal and external conversations about, “Hey, what can we go do to go big?” So it’s just really exciting and I couldn’t be happier. **Robert Dutt:** As we touch on there, you’ve had senior leadership roles reseller side, most recently SHI, the vendor side with Lenovo, and now you’re adding the distributor side—a perspective that not many people have at the senior level especially. How has seeing that ecosystem from all three of those sides changed what you think a distributor actually needs to do for partners? **Chris Fabes:** I think it gives me a perspective that is rather unique. I always like to look at what the market is asking of the channel ecosystem and for each of those components, where do we add value and how do we focus on the outcome that our customers, vendor partners, and the ultimate end user are looking for. I think we can all agree that while technology, the whole industry is an exciting place to be—and I think we’d be doing something different if we all wanted things to be simple—the pace of change and the pace of innovation is really exciting. I think with all of the growth and now complexities built into the ecosystem, distribution plays an even more pivotal role in being able to service the demand. That’s what’s really exciting looking at the future. **Robert Dutt:** At Lenovo, one of your signature achievements was tripling channel revenue to $1.2 billion over the course of three years. What was the thesis and the plan behind that growth in that time, and is any of that transferable to the distributor context where you’re one step further removed from the end customer? **Chris Fabes:** I think it absolutely is relevant and it aligns. It all starts with planning around what the expected demand is and making sure that the differentiation and the capabilities are aligned with that opportunity. Even answering your question from the Lenovo side of things, it was: where’s the appetite? Where are the routes to market? How do we pull the levers at the right times? How do we make sure that we’re talking to the customers, being the channel partners as well as the end customers, so that we can pivot as required? Looking at the distribution side of things, it’s really no different. In the Canadian market, it is really: where’s the spend coming from, who is touching those spend requirements, and how do we participate in a meaningful way where we’re adding value to the equation? **Robert Dutt:** You spent a decade at Lenovo on your way up, literally working your way up the organization. How does that kind of ground-level experience shape your leadership style and what are you looking for in the teams you’re building now? **Chris Fabes:** Great question. I’ve always looked at myself as being someone that respects people at all levels. I don’t see myself any different from anyone else in any organization. So I really seek to understand, look to build relationships, and listen first. I lead with trust, which I think allows you to operate with very low friction, allowing people to outperform at their best levels. I make sure that I celebrate success along the way, but also hold people accountable. It’s been fun being able to work for people and then have a flip-side relationship as I was able to grow into different leadership positions. Being humble and respectful of all those relationships has benefited me as I’ve moved into positions where the relationships, even if they might be different now, are very much respectful. I’m happy for them; they’re happy for me. We have a short memory when we want it to be short, but long when it matters. In this channel, being that it’s large yet very small at the same time, leaving those relationships better off has been an important part of the way I’ve looked at people. **Robert Dutt:** I asked you a little while ago your perspective on what you can bring from the vendor side to the distributor side of things. Sort of the same question, but coming at it from your more recent point of view from the reseller side at SHI. A massive reseller—what did your time there teach you about where distribution adds value, where it doesn’t, and what you wanted from distribution when you were in that seat? **Chris Fabes:** Sure. There were a lot of conversations. Most of my conversations at that point were internal around building strategy. I think we’ve touched on that quite a bit, but the other side was just talking with CIOs, CEOs, and VPs that were responsible for technology decisions. The technology decisions almost became the easy part. It was: Where can you help me around optimization? Where can you help me on cash flow? How can you do things that are lower friction? What happens when something might not be going perfectly? Is there an escalation path? So, process—that’s what I started to learn and be able to apply to that business. Again, I think having that lens of those customer expectations and understanding the flow down through the complete channel ecosystem allows me to look at distribution from a strategy and execution lens, combined with the ultimate goal of satisfying those that are ultimately deploying the technology—whether they be SMB, mid-market, enterprise, or large public sector. **Robert Dutt:** Mitch Martin ran this business for 35-plus years. That’s a pretty extraordinary tenure and he went through pretty wild changes in the industry and in the organization in particular. What do you see as the foundation that he left there? And what do you see, especially in your early days, as the biggest opportunities for fresh investment or new ideas? **Chris Fabes:** Respect the legacy. That’s first and foremost. In my first couple weeks of talking with the staff, what I recognize is there was a strong hand on the business. The foundation was strong, mature, and very well operated, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t look at areas of opportunity—the nuances, the incremental spend, and how we bring additional value. So I’ll be spending my time respecting the mature foundation

    Chris Fabes brings three-sided channel view to TD SYNNEX Canada

  8. Jul 22

    Michelle Biase on what HP Canada learned from a year of seeding AI PCs to partners

    Michelle Biase, president and managing director of HP Canada Michelle Biase has now been in the president and managing director chair at HP Canada for eighteen months. In that time, the company has grown its Canadian sales team by fifty percent, moved from siloed PC, print, and Poly sellers to a unified One HP go-to-market model, and watched AI PC sales accelerate to nearly two-thirds of PC volume. In this episode of In The Channel, Biase sits down with Robert Dutt to talk about what HP actually learned from seeding AI PCs into partner hands more than a year ago. The candid answer: “It was early days, so we didn’t have a ton of use cases per se come out of that. But I think it really did help the partners to realize the value of AIPCs and help them think about how they’re going to help their customers deploy those devices.” The partners who are now selling AI PCs well, she says, share three common threads: they are educating themselves through programs like HP’s AI MasterClass, they are thinking about future-ready fleet strategies rather than transactional replacements, and they are using persona-based deployment tools to match the right device to the right worker. On HP IQ, which entered early access this spring, Biase positions it as a better-together play across the entire HP ecosystem – print, PC, and Poly – with AI at the edge addressing latency, token cost, and security concerns. She also points to the Elite Board, a keyboard-integrated PC with no built-in monitor, as a cost-effective and security-minded option for the roughly thirty percent of laptop users who never use their screen because they are docked. The pricing conversation is unavoidably central. With HP operating on 30-day price validity windows and memory costs expected to stay elevated, Biase’s guidance to partners is direct: accelerate the demo-to-close cycle, lean on distribution partners for available inventory, and avoid long configure-to-order cycles that risk price changes during the build. She also makes the case for moving from transactional hardware sales to solution-led conversations anchored in the Workforce Experience Platform, which she describes as a way to “change the conversation from being a transactional hardware conversation to really more of a value-added solution conversation.” 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. On today’s show, we’re catching up with a channel leader who’s now been in the chair long enough to know what’s real and what’s still aspiration. Michelle Biase is president and managing director of HP Canada. She returned to the company in December 2024, just as HP was launching its first wave of AI PCs into partner hands. 18 months later, she’s running a sales team that’s 50% larger, steering a unified One HP go-to-market model, and trying to help Canadian partners navigate memory prices that have made hardware procurement feel like a commodities trading desk. We’re going to talk about what partners actually did with those early AI PCs, how the company’s HP IQ onboard AI assistant is landing in the channel, and the reality of running a hardware business in 2026, and the one part of HP’s portfolio she thinks partners are still sleeping on. Let’s get right into it, my chat with Michelle Biase. ROBERT DUTT: Michelle, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. MICHELLE BIASE: Great to see you again, Robert. Happy to be here. ROBERT DUTT: When we first gave those AI PCs to partners, that was the early days, right? MICHELLE BIASE: Yeah, geez, that seems like a long time ago. So those are really the early days of AI PCs, right? As manufacturers, we were rolling out those AI PCs. And the intent originally was to allow partners to really get those devices in their hands so that they could experience what was possible with those devices and really start to play with them and get comfortable and explore what they might offer their customers. And I would say it was early days, and so people were still sort of figuring out what the use cases were at that time and thinking about what was possible. But we did want them to play with some of the built-in tools that we had offered and we still offer as part of our HP PCs, AI PCs. So we had our Poly Studio tools and at that time we had AI Companion. And so we had some tools built in and we wanted to show the power of those tools with AI PC. We wanted people to experience the battery life and run Copilot and understand how the PC was going to respond and be utilized. And so there was a lot of good conversations around the power of the AI PC at that time and really sparked people to think about, okay, we need to get over the hump of the hardware transition and investment and start thinking about how we’re going to move forward with this. And so we had some good experiences. I would say, to be honest, it was early days, so we didn’t have a ton of use cases per se come out of that. But I think it really did help the partners to realize the value of AI PCs and help them to think about how they’re going to help their customers deploy those devices in their environment. So it was really intended to get people rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands on the product. And I think we did accomplish that. ROBERT DUTT: A year on from that experiment, now, what do partners who are having success in selling AI PCs have in common? What are some of those common threads that you’re seeing? MICHELLE BIASE: Yeah, I mean, we have a lot of partners who are doing well, we’re definitely seeing our AI PC volumes increase pretty significantly. So first of all, I would say that those partners are educating themselves. So they’re completing training like HP AI MasterClass, which is a suite of educational series that we offer to help partners and their sellers in their organizations really understand AI and the value. And they’re also working really closely with us on how to help their customers navigate the current environment and prepare for the future. I think partners who are selling AI PCs are really thinking about equipping their customers to be future ready. You know, we’re still learning all the use cases as an industry right now, and customers are going about different ways of kind of figuring out what those use cases are going to be. But we all know that the adoption of AI is going to happen at a rapid pace, it is happening at a rapid pace. And so having the right hardware strategy in place is really important. And so partners are helping their customers, you know, deploy technology that really sets them up for that future ready conversation. And then I think the other thing they’re doing is really helping their customers and guiding them to think about a persona-based fleet deployment strategy. So as we think about, you know, costs increasing, and the, you know, number of options that are out there in terms of devices, we have tools like WXP, which is our Workforce Experience Platform, which is a single pane of glass IT management tool that when deployed can help customers to see in their environment, who within their organization based on persona and workflows and work streams need what type of devices. So maybe not everyone needs an AI PC today. I think that, you know, this tool then helps them to understand who needs an AI PC right now, who needs a refresh, who doesn’t, you know, and really help them to kind of manage the deployment of those devices, you know, considering cost and AI adoption and all the things that customers are considering. So I think those are some of the things partners are doing is really educating themselves, thinking about being future ready, and then thinking about new ways of fleet deployment and management to help their customers navigate current situation. ROBERT DUTT: So since that initial test run, we’ve had the rollout of HP IQ in early access since the spring. The idea being more onboard capabilities, basically running a full LLM on the machine. How is that landing with partners and their customers so far? Is it one of those… is it a today conversation? Is it early adopter? Or is it in that kind of future ready mode that you were just touching on? MICHELLE BIASE: Yeah, HP IQ is a really exciting advancement for us in terms of our One HP strategy. So I would say it’s early days, we’ve just launched it recently at our event. It’s only available on some PCs, so not available on our full fleet of products at this point. But HP IQ really represents HP’s vision for a true better together connected, intelligent workplace experience. So, you know, when you think about, you know, some of the opportunities it presents, one is around leveraging AI at the edge, right? So, you know, we know that as customers are thinking about deploying AI, and I talked to a lot of customers who are going to a more, what I would say is like a distributed rollout model now where instead of it kind of holding the reins, they’re putting AI tools in the hands of their employees and saying, here’s a tool you figure out, you know, how to make this make sense for you in your day to day job, and then having a reaction to their cloud and token costs as a response to that, they’re quickly sort of thinking, okay, well, how are we going to manage security, cost, latency, all these things. And so having functionality work at the edge on the device is an interesting opportunity and something that we’re talking a lot to customers about. So, you know, that’s one opportunity is around AI at the edge. And then the other is really around what I said around better together. So, HP IQ provides this connected opportunity for all of the HP devices across our entire One HP portfoli

    Michelle Biase on what HP Canada learned from a year of seeding AI PCs to partners
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Cutting through the noise for Canadian VARs and MSPs

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  • Creator
    ChannelBuzz.ca
  • Years Active
    2011 - 2026
  • Episodes
    75
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    Copyright © ChannelBuzz.ca 2026
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