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SPRING 2026 AI & AUTOMATION 8 Trust issues 8 Anthropic’s channel 10 Telco’s AI usage 12 AI Outpacing Defenses By Martin Vilaboy 14 Balancing Back AI workload repatriation gains steam By Garald Baldino 18 ChatGPT: Friend or Foe for Technology Advisors? A question of advisor value By Chris Torbit CYBER PATROL 22 Data Breaches Drop as Infostealer Infections Surge By Martin Vilaboy 24 CISO’s in the Room As cybersecurity gains importance, so does CISO influence in the buying circle By Martin Vilaboy 30 Q&A with New SilverSky CEO Gary Conrad CORE COMMUNICATIONS 34 Sandler Email Lookup 35 Call center seats cut 36 The 7-Year Refresh Infrastructure growth in a sweat-the-assets era By Todd Hemenway 38 Building Resiliency Complex environments push demand for disaster recovery among U.S. manufacturers By Martin Vilaboy 40 Curbing Complexity TitanNGN streamlines enterprise communications with a single platform for UC, CX and connectivity By Gerald Baldino 42 Kings III Revolutionizes Emergency Communications By Gerald Baldino CHANNEL MANAGEMENT 44 YCL Opens Doors for the Next Generation of Innovators 46 The Channel’s Next Test Winning outcomes, not just solutions By Glen Nelson 48 What to Expect from Granite Channels in 2026 By Charlie Pagliazzo 50 A Blueprint for Growth C3’s partnership model helps MSPs enhance offerings, drive recurring revenue By Gerald Baldino EDGE TO CLOUD 52 State of the VMware Migration By Martin Vilaboy 54 A New Chapter for Adaptiv Networks Scale Computing’s acquisition strengthens edge networking portfolio By Gerald Baldino 56 Demystifying Colocation Colocation America helps customers navigate complexity By Gerald Baldino MOBILE & WIRELESS 58 Full Speed Ahead ConectUS Wireless and The NASCAR Experience go to Channel Partners Expo By Rick James Stapp 6 Editor’s Letter 60 ICYMI 62 Ad index CONTENTS Volume 25 – Issue 2 4 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
This past March, AireSpring hosted an online roundtable of executives from the six major technology solutions distributors (TSDs), which according to industry analyst and moderator Jay McBain, collectively account for about 70 percent of the communications and network services indirect channel. The roundtable included representatives from AppDirect, Avant, Bridgepointe Technologies, Intelisys, Sandler Partners and Telarus. A recurring theme during the roundtable discussion – in addition to “you should source more stuff from us” – centered around how great a time it is to be in the channel, or specifically, how this is an opportune time to be a technology advisor. The basic premise being that business IT departments and decision makers have their hands full, arguably more than ever. That’s not a hard argument to make. Just think digital transformations, AI disruption, multi-faceted network infrastructures, increasingly technical-savvy customers and cyber attackers … we could go on. And these customers, argued Telarus CEO Adam Edwards, look to leverage the expertise of advisors in these times of chaos and complexity. Overly burdened with the tasks of running their day-to-day businesses, customers simply don’t have the time to evaluate vendors, compare product sets and breakdown data points of what might or might not be on the horizon, Edwards continued. What they do realize, added Sandler Partners senior vice president, Ryan Yakos, is that the complexity curve outpaces their ability to stay educated on everything that will impact their IT stacks, and the advice of informed advisors, in turn, can help. It’s partly why analysts such as McBain expect the already massive $16.6 billion channel to grow by as much as 14.5 percent this year. Of course, not all channel partners and technology advisors are so optimistic. While 46 percent of partners expect revenue growth in 2026, according to fresh data from Omdia, 58 percent expect profit decline, including 51 percent forecasting a double-digit drop, reported McBain. Apparently, partners see a stacked set of barriers in front of them, ranging from supply chain disruptions, trade disputes and cost input pressure to delayed customer decisions and a flurry of vendor program and pricing changes, McBain continued. In other words, partners and advisors are facing their own complexities and chaos. As Yakos pointed out at the recent roundtable, Sandler’s top partners educate themselves as much as two years out in terms of what they might be selling or facing in the marketplace. So, while there is not much we at ChannelVision can do about political instability or extreme margin compression, we remain dedicated to our objective of helping technology advisors and vendors navigate the challenges of operating within the channel, through both our content and our educational sessions every November at CVxEXPO. You can rely on our expertise through the chaos. Your Partner Through Complexity LETTER Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Gerald Baldino Contributing Editor gerald@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2026 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media 6 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
Friction out. Momentum in. Let’s win more deals together. Last quarter, one of our partners brought us into a complex multisite rollout across the U.S. The customer needed reliability, carrier diversity, and a single point of accountability—fast. Together, we simplified the process, coordinated rollout with dedicated Project Management, and continue to delivery on-time turn-ups of multiple sites per day. No stalled approvals. No confusion. Just a smooth path to a signed deal and a happy customer. That’s the Granite difference. We remove friction so you can focus on selling, not managing complexity. Book a Co-Sell Strategy Session Today What this means for you: • Fewer barriers to closing deals • Nationwide and Canadian coverage with multiple carrier options • A trusted team that moves at your speed If you’ve partnered with Granite before, now is the time to accelerate. If you haven’t, there’s no better moment to start winning together. Let’s hit the ground running. GRANITENET.COM/PARTNERS
Already, more than 70 percent of employees report using AI for work related tasks, according to a new survey by HR company Howdy. But how workers use it suggests more trust must be built before AI becomes truly strategic. Three quarters of workers that use AI for work related tasks said they trust AI output quality, and half said they trust AI’s intentions. All the while, a full 62 percent of AI users said they don’t trust AI to do sensitive work. Among technology workers – 90 percent of whom use AI – a quarter said its use has led to “major problems,” such as bad code or deleted data. Up to this point, AI at work is mostly being used for writing and data analysis, showed the survey. Most Trusted GenAI Platforms Gemini 65% Perplexity 60% ChatGPT 56% Copilot 51% Claude 44% When asked what would make them trust AI outputs more, consistency was the top answer, named by 58 percent of respondents. Next was a desire for a system based on analysis rather than probability, named by 22 percent. Uptycs, a cloud-native cyber threat hunter, announced a strategic partnership with SAP to deploy verifiable AI analysts that augment enterprise security teams, enabling analysts to concentrate on advanced threat hunting and deeper attack path analysis while improving overall security coverage and resilience, said the company Uptycs’ AI analyst platform, Juno, was originally built to hunt threats across cloud-native and on-premises environments. In collaboration with SAP, early adopters are discovering its value as a strategic consultant, delivering actionable insights that go beyond standard threat detection. The result is strategic risk reports produced in minutes, not weeks, with every deployment generating hyperlinked citations tied to each organization’s private telemetry to ensure insights are both verifiable and actionable. With a unified ontology of 150,000 telemetry columns - a structured map that explains what everything means and how it relates to everything else - Juno provides a level of verifiable accuracy that allows security leads to act as business strategists rather than technical responders. Across the automotive and financial sectors, teams are using Juno to perform forensic investigations that previously required senior architects. By asking simple and clear questions, teams receive diagnoses verified against external references like CVE databases, ensuring AI guidance is never hallucinated. “The industry is tired of ‘Security Slop’ and AI that guesses,” said Ganesh Pai, CEO and founder of Uptycs. “This partnership demonstrates how we can safely combine human and AI capabilities, moving from reactive security to strategic transformation.” Anthropic officially announced the Claude Partner Network at its inaugural Partner Summit in early March. According to the company, a significant portion of Anthropic’s initial $100 million investment will be allocated directly to partners, supporting training and sales enablement, market development and co-marketing for joint campaigns and events. Anthropic is also expanding its partner-facing team to support the initiative, providing dedicated “Applied AI engineers” to assist partners working on live customer deals, technical architects to scope more complex implementations and localized go-to-market support in international markets. New partners will have access to a partner portal that includes Anthropic Academy training materials and other co-marketing resources. Qualified partners will also be added to the organization’s Services Partner Directory, where enterprise buyers can find firms with Claude implementation experience. Anthropic also announced its first Claude technical certification. Claude Certified Architect, Foundations, is a technical exam for solution architects building production applications with Claude. Later in 2026, Claude will also introduce additional certifications for sellers, architects and developers. Partners who join the network now will receive priority access to new certifications as they roll out. In addition, the new Code Modernization starter kit gives partners a straightforward starting point for migrating legacy codebases and remediating enterprises’ technical debt. Any organization that is bringing Claude to market is eligible to join the Claude Partner Network. Membership is free of charge, and applications are now open. AI Adoption Near Universal, but Trust Not So Much Uptycs Looks to Tame Chaos of AI Cyber Threats Anthropic Launches Claude Partner Network AI & AUTOMATION 8 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
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As organizations scale their use of AI, security teams are confronting two converging challenges: AI sprawl, the rapid proliferation of AI services and autonomous agents, and agent sprawl, the uncontrolled growth of individual AI agents that can act independently, traverse systems, access sensitive data and execute actions with far-reaching consequences. The result is critical blind spots for security teams; they can’t see what AI agents are running, what permissions they hold, what data they can access, or which applications they touch. Reco AI Agent Security was developed to address these blind spots. Reco’s first-of-its-kind capability gives security and risk teams complete visibility and control over all AI agents operating across their SaaS ecosystems. The new capability is available immediately as part of the Reco unified SaaS security platform. “Enterprises today don’t just have hundreds of connected SaaS apps — they have thousands of connected AI agents operating in the background,” said Ofer Klein, CEO and co-founder of Reco. “Unlike traditional SaaS plugins, AI agents can act autonomously and span identity, data and systems, exponentially increasing risk when misconfigured or unmanaged. Reco AI Agent Security gives security teams the visibility and control they need — all from the same platform they use to govern their SaaS estate.” Traditional SaaS security tools provide visibility into applications and user identities, but they were not built to account for autonomous AI agents — which can act without direct human interaction, possess broad permissions to sensitive systems, connect across multiple SaaS platforms and operate outside the visibility or control of IT and security teams, explained Reco executives. Reco AI Agent Security inventories every AI agent, maps its access, permissions, connections and risk posture and enables security teams to determine which agents should be sanctioned, restricted, or blocked before they introduce risk. While recent trends in AI security focus on posture management and runtime protections across cloud and AI models, those capabilities do not directly address the risk introduced by autonomous AI agents embedded in SaaS workflows — even when they have broad permissions and cross-system reach. Reco is not an AI-only security tool; Reco secures applications, identities and now AI agents across the entire SaaS environment — bringing agent security into the same framework used for SaaS security governance. Global telecom operators currently use AI most extensively for customer service and support, followed by cybersecurity, showed figures presented by the World Broadband Association. Significantly fewer telcos are applying AI to network automation and design. Analysts at WBBA, however, argued that moving forward, network enhancements carry the biggest potential for AI among telcos. With business either starting cloudnative or migrating over to cloud-based platforms at the same time as the demand for AI services has increased rapidly, the shape and speed of network growth has changed too, said WBA. Most data‑center networks were never built for the scale, performance or resiliency that AI workloads demand. In turn, “this provides a major opportunity for communications service providers to refresh their networks and to reposition for optimal AI usage,” said WBBA. Reco Tackles AI & Agent Sprawl Across SaaS Stacks How Telcos Use AI AI & AUTOMATION Source: Splunk CISO survey, 2026 How has your contact center operations head count changed over the past 12 months? Source: Execs in the Know Which risks related to AI are most pressing for your organization? Source: JumpCloud survey of IT leaders, 2026 In which areas of your organization are you using (or planning to use) AI the most? Source: WBBA; Omdia survey of global telecoms. Incident reduction Improved MTTD Improved MTTR 4% 13% 14% 80% 5% 74% 33% 38% 29% 2023 2024 2025 29% IN-HOUSE AND OUTSOURCED COMBINED 46% 25% 19% 42% 39% 43% 42% 48% 38% 39% 38% 46% 36% 42% 28% 41% 26% 33% 24% 32% 41% 39% 31% 22% 21% 17% 11% Unauthorized access to sensitive data AI-generated phishing or malware Data leakage or compliance violations Unregulated use of AI tools AI attacking AI Model inaccuracy or hallucination Shadow IT via AI apps Lack of AI explainability/ auditability Customer service and support Cybersecurity & treat detection Cloud & IT operations Sales, marketing, and customer insights Today In two years Network automation, operations, and design Product development & innovation Corporate functions Increased Kept same Decreased 10 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
The future of IT and network management is here. AireSpring empowers global enterprises with fully managed, best-of-breed IT and network solutions, delivering seamless connectivity, security, and uni ed communications. At the heart of our solutions is AIreCONTROL, our AI-powered IT Service Management platform, designed to consolidate IT, security, and connectivity into one intuitive platform. With real-time visibility, proactive automation, and AIOps intelligence, you gain complete control over your entire network ecosystem. AI-driven ITSM: Automate network management and security in real-time. Seamless Connectivity: Integrated SD-WAN, SASE, UCaaS, rewalls, and global circuits. AIrePOD Tier 3 Support: Expert engineering for guaranteed performance. Global Reach: Thousands of providers, including Starlink business internet. Why AireSpring? Learn more at https://airespring.com/airecontrol/ Telephone: +1- 888-389-2899 Email: sales@airespring.com AireSpring’s AI-powered ITSM platform, AIreCONTROL, puts real-time visibility, automation, and control at your ngertips. Unify IT Secure Networks Simplify Management
AI Outpacing Defenses The most persistent vulnerability associated with AI is the blinding speed of its adoption, suggested the findings of JumpCloud’s Q1 2026 IT Trends Report. Six out of 10 IT professionals polled by JumpCloud agree that AI is outpacing their organization’s ability to protect against threats. That number remained nearly the same for this third year in a row that the question was asked. What’s more, these feelings of failure in keeping pace with threats is highest among AI mature organizations (66 percent). These are sobering signals suggesting that IT departments are no closer to a solution than they were when ChatGPT made its public debut, and organizations that are most experienced with AI recognize the existential security gap most clearly, said JumpCloud executives. Currently, three-quarters of organizations are at least somewhat concerned about the security risks introduced by AI, and AI mature organizations again are 30 percent more likely to be very concerned than less mature organizations. Even when AI helps get a lot more done, it isn’t an easy road to get there, showed JumpCloud’s findings. More than a third (38 percent) of the IT leaders who find AI helpful in their jobs also admit that it adds more complexity to their work. It’s not just about external threats or wider attack surfaces. Traditional software operates more predictably than AI, JumpCloud researchers pointed out, responding directly to commands in a binary fashion. But AI – especially in the form of autonomous AI agents – introduces a new software behavior; it makes choices on its own volition. It accomplishes multi-step tasks with multiple decision points along the way. “This is why it’s so hard to integrate AI into more critical work,” argued JumpCloud executives. “IT leaders are grappling with this right now. How do you incorporate these powerful, autonomous tools without losing control or visibility?,” they continued. “How do you keep confidence in the integrity of the process?” So, it’s no wonder that integrating AI into existing IT workflows is the number one gap challenging IT teams related to AI adoption, named by 50 percent of respondents. Close on its heels is how to manage risk, compliance and legal exposure (46 percent). “The more ready an organization is for AI adoption, the more likely these challenges arise,” said JumpCloud executives. All the while, the use of agentic AI is rising rapidly. More than eight in 10 respondents reported to already using it, and nearly half that many (37 percent) said unauthorized access or privilege escalation by AI agents was a serious security threat. On top of that is the ever-present issue of shadow AI, which often leads to risks of data leaks and exposing intellectual property. “The biggest security and governance gap that hurts a company’s AI readiness is the unsanctioned use of AI tools by employees,” said the JumpCloud report. When IT leaders were asked to name the top barriers to secure adoption as they scaled its usage, “limited oversight of AI usage and permissions” and “limited visibility in AI usage” landed as the top two answers, ahead of both the lack of staff expertise and budget or tooling limitations. “The data is clear: AI maturity isn’t measured by how fast you deploy but by how securely you scale,” said Joel Rennich, senior vice president, product management, JumpCloud. “The maturity illusion exposes a dangerous reality – you cannot secure a dynamic AI layer on a fragmented operational base. As shadow AI and autonomous agents expand the attack surface, organizations must bridge the gap between their perceived capabilities and their actual infrastructure readiness” The path to scaling AI safely lies in IT unification, argued Rennich, consolidating identity and access controls for both humans and bots to turn AI from a potential liability into a sustainable engine for growth. o AI & AUTOMATION By Martin Vilaboy How has your contact center operations head count changed over the past 12 months? Source: Execs in the Know Which risks related to AI are most pressing for your organization? Source: JumpCloud survey of IT leaders, 2026 In which areas of your organization are you using (or planning to use) AI the most? Source: WBBA; Omdia survey of global telecoms. How AI is Impacting Security Postures New threats: AI-driven threats have forced us to adjust our security approach New attack surface: Business uses AI, we have to protect our organization New compliance requirements: Auditors require proof of data security and privacy in AI-based systems Stronger defenses: Cybersecurity AI tools improved detection and response capabilities Not sure / too early to tell Time and effort savings: Offloaded some workload from our IT/security team to AI We implemented cybersecurity AI tools and are still assessing their impact We have not implemented AI tools, but we are considering them 37% 30% 29% 28% 23% 20% 19% 30% 33% 38% 29% 2023 2024 2025 29% IN-HOUSE AND OUTSOURCED COMBINED 46% 25% 19% 42% 39% 43% 42% 48% 38% 39% 38% 46% 36% 42% 28% 41% 26% 33% 41% 39% 31% 22% 21% 17% 11% Unauthorized access to sensitive data AI-generated phishing or malware Data leakage or compliance violations Unregulated use of AI tools AI attacking AI Model inaccuracy or hallucination Shadow IT via AI apps Lack of AI explainability/ auditability Customer service and support Cybersecurity & treat detection Cloud & IT operations Sales, marketing, and customer insights Today In two years Network automation, operations, and design Product development & innovation Increased Kept same Decreased 12 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
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The race to the cloud, accelerated by the pandemic, left many organizations running workloads in hyperscaler environments — often with consumption-based pricing that’s difficult to predict. That model is beginning to change, with production-scale AI adoption reshaping how and where workloads run. As organizations move beyond AI pilot projects, they’re increasingly prioritizing hybrid and on-premises infrastructure. According to a recent benchmark study from Cloudian, 93 percent of enterprises are now engaged in some form of AI workload repatriation, whether actively moving workloads or evaluating a shift away from public cloud. Of course, even as some workloads move away from public cloud, overall demand for hyperscaler services continues to accelerate. According to McKinsey, AI remains the primary growth engine for data centers in the United States, with hyperscalers expected to capture 70 percent of the capacity in the U.S. market between now and 2030. As Cloudian noted, “This does not signal an abandonment of cloud – rather, it reflects a maturing understanding that different AI workloads have different infrastructure requirements, and that on-premises deployment is increasingly the right choice for many of them.” Key Drivers of AI Repatriation Data Sovereignty: Cloudian’s survey revealed a growing tendency to migrate AI workloads involving sensitive data, mission-critical operations or regulatory compliance. This trend coincides with rampant “shadow AI,” or the unauthorized use of cloud-based AI tools. For example, employees may run sensitive data through tools such as ChatGPT without formal oversight or governance. In the study, 74 percent of respondents viewed shadow AI as a critical or significant data security concern. Almost one in four reported incidents where employees ran confidential data into cloud AI tools. And almost half of respondents have implemented controls to restrict sensitive data from flowing into AI cloud services. When asked how they would deploy new AI applications, 91 percent of respondents said they would choose on-premises infrastructure, a private cloud or hosted environment or a hybrid approach while processing sensitive data on-premises. Meanwhile, only 8 percent would select a public cloud with enhanced security, while just 1 percent would use public cloud with standard configuration. Cost predictability: While many enterprises initially migrated to the cloud to reduce costs, consumptionbased models have made spending more difficult to predict. Forty percent of enterprises reported that actual cloud By Garald Baldino AI workload repatriation gains steam as organizations seek improved security, cost, predictability and performance Balancing Back AI & AUTOMATION AI Workload Repatriation from Public Cloud (Past 24 Months) Repatriated significant workloads from cloud 26% Moved some workload or in process 53% Actively evaluating repatriation 13% No plan to move from the cloud 5% Not applicable 2% Source: Cloudian’s 2026 Enterprise AI Infrastructure Survey 14 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
AI spending has exceeded their initial projections. Nearly half cited cloud-specific cost unpredictability, including difficulty forecasting total cost of ownership and consumption-based pricing fluctuations as barriers to expanding AI adoption. For many organizations, there is now a mismatch between workloads and pricing models. “The hyperscaler model works brilliantly for certain workloads – the dynamic, unpredictable ones that need to scale instantly,” explained Telarus vice president of cloud, Chad Muckenfuss, in a recent post. “But the truth is, 80 percent of most companies’ workloads are stable and predictable. Running those on consumption-based pricing is like paying for a hotel room every night instead of signing a lease.” Performance demands: Enterprises also are now gravitating toward on-premises infrastructure to support AI use cases that involve real-time processing, such as manufacturing quality control and video surveillance. These workloads often have latency requirements that can be difficult to meet in cloud environments. In Cloudian’s study, 75 percent of respondents identified AI workloads that would benefit from on-premises deployments. And only 4 percent of respondents said their AI use cases don’t have performance requirements that require on-premises infrastructure. Repatriation Realities: Challenges and Tradeoffs Cloudian predicts that AI repatriation will continue throughout the near-term. More than seven in 10 respondents (73 percent) said they intend to move AI workloads or adopt and expand a hybrid approach within the next 24 months. But technology advisors and IT leaders should approach this trend with caution. Repatriation is more complex than it appears, and organizations that move too quickly risk making the same mistakes made during the initial rush to the cloud. Rising infrastructure costs: Hardware costs are rising in 2026, driven by memory shortages and surging AI demand. As a result, enterprise buyers should be prepared for longer lead times and higher prices for critical components. AI workloads also place greater demands on power and cooling infrastructure. Moving AI workloads on premises may require additional upgrades, which can drive costs up even further. As such, IT leaders must be realistic when it comes to repatriation costs. Organizations may need to absorb higher upfront costs, with the understanding that returns are more likely to materialize over the long term. Operational complexity: Repatriating AI workloads also means taking on additional infrastructure responsibilities including maintaining servers, storage and networking. Making matters more complex, organizations still face a growing talent gap, with AI-related infrastructure roles becoming more specialized and harder to fill. Security and compliance: While running sensitive AI workloads on premises can offer greater control and protection, it also introduces new challenges. Organizations must take on greater responsibility for protecting infrastructure, data and workloads from evolving threats — securing on-premises environments, managing access controls and regularly auditing infrastructure. Vendor selection: Organizations that previously relied on VMware infrastructure now face a very different reality following recent changes to Broadcom’s licensing and pricing models. Broadcom’s shift toward bundled, subscription-based offerings has introduced new cost and operational considerations, causing many customers to reevaluate their on-premises virtualization strategies. For technology advisors and customers, this means reduced flexibility in how VMware products are purchased, along with higher costs in many cases. Organizations exploring alternative options may consider Nutanix, Hyper-V, Proxmox or Red Hat. Turning Challenges into MRR Technology advisors have a growing opportunity to turn repatriation challenges into long-term recurring revenue through partnerships and managed services. Asking probing questions around AI workload cost and performance can lead to broader infrastructure discussions and open the door to substantial MRR. It’s important to remember that success in this market doesn’t require deep or specialized infrastructure expertise. It starts with engaging customers in quality conversations — asking the right questions and getting them to share insights around resource constraints, pain points and goals. o Expected AI Infrastructure Strategy Evolution (Next 24 Month) Shift AI workloads to on-prem or private infrastructure 22% Adopt/expand hybrid with increased on-prem capacity 51% Maintain current infrastructure balance 12% Increase public cloud usage 10% Uncertain, strategy still being determined 5% Source: Cloudian’s 2026 Enterprise AI Infrastructure Survey Top Factors That Would Increase Likelihood of On-Premises AI Deployment Stronger data privacy and sovereignty guarantees 53% Better performance for latency-sensitive apps 43% Improved total cost of ownership vs. cloud alternatives 40% Vendor-managed support reducing internal staffing requirements 22% Turnkey solutions reducing implementation complexity 17% No interest in on-premises AI infrastructure 4% Source: Cloudian’s 2026 Enterprise AI Infrastructure 16 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
AI & AUTOMATION By Chris Torbit A Question of Advisor Value Artificial intelligence has officially gone mainstream. Tools such as ChatGPT are no longer experimental. They are embedded in how businesses research, evaluate and make technology decisions. Procurement teams are using it. IT leaders are using it. Even your clients’ CFO is likely using it. For technology advisors, this raises an important and uncomfortable question: is AI making you more valuable or quietly making you less necessary? The short answer is both. And if you don’t understand the difference, you may be putting yourself out of business without realizing it. For starters, your clients now have the same starting point as you. For years, technology advisors built their value on access to information. Clients relied on advisors to answer key questions such as what solutions exist, which suppliers are credible, what a customer should expect to pay, or how a deal should be structured. That advantage was built on information asymmetry. You knew more than your client. Today, that advantage is shrinking. A client can now simply open ChatGPT and quickly discover a list of the top UCaaS providers, what a telecom RFP should include or even the “fair market rate” for internet service. Within seconds, they receive structured, confident answers. Are those answers perfect? No. Are they good enough to influence decisions? Increasingly, yes. And that, in and of itself, is a significant shift. 18 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
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However, at the same time, it is an illusion of complete intelligence. Since ChatGPT gives strong answers, people assume it has full visibility into the market. But this is a misconception. ChatGPT operates on generalized knowledge, not real-time market intelligence. It does not, for instance, have actual supplier pricing or deal structures or contract concessions or negotiation leverage. There is no realtime visibility into what deals are really closing at nor is there insight into supplier performance across real deployments. The is no access to promotions, incentives or non-public offers. In other words, generative AI tools tell your customers what should happen; they do not tell them what actually happens. That gap is where advisors have always created value. The biggest threat to technology advisors is not AI replacing them. The biggest threat is advisors becoming indistinguishable from AI. If you and your clients are using the same AI, asking the same questions and getting similar answers, then what exactly makes you different? At this point, you are no longer the advantage. You are a layer, and layers can get removed. Consider a real-world scenario, which is already happening. A mid-market procurement team is preparing for a network refresh. Instead of reaching out to an advisor, they begin with ChatGPT to map out requirements, generate a draft RFP, identify potential suppliers and establish baseline pricing expectations. By the time they engage an advisor, if they do, the most valuable part of the process may already be complete. At that point, the advisor is no longer shaping the strategy. They are reacting to it. And that is where margin compression, reduced influence and lost opportunities begin. Friend and Foe To be clear, ChatGPT is a powerful tool. Advisors are using it to accelerate research, draft proposals, analyze large data sets and prepare for meetings. Used this way, AI enhances productivity and allows advisors to manage more opportunities without adding headcount. It makes you faster and more efficient. But efficiency is not differentiation. ChatGPT becomes a threat when it replaces your perceived value. If a client believes they can research suppliers, compare options, build an RFP and evaluate pricing without you, your role becomes optional. And if you are relying on the same tool to deliver your value, you’ve just reinforced that belief. In today’s environment, access to information is no longer valuable. What matters is what you bring beyond it. The advisors who win will operate in three areas AI cannot replace: • Proprietary intelligence – real pricing, real deals, real outcomes; • Execution – managing the process end-to-end; and • Validation – ensuring decisions are correct and complete. This is the new standard. Indeed, the role of the technology advisor has changed. You are no longer just a provider of answers. You are a translator of reality. Your client needs to understand that ChatGPT is a starting point, not a decision engine. It lacks real market visibility. It cannot execute or negotiate, and It does not guarantee outcomes. If you don’t educate them, they will assume they already have what they need. And once that happens, your value becomes optional. Not All AI Is Created Equal Here is the reality many advisors are beginning to recognize: you cannot outwork or outpace AI, and you cannot compete using the same tools as your client. But there’s a deeper issue most advisors haven’t considered: not all AI is created equal. Most advisors, and their clients, are using a single AI model with generalized knowledge and fixed limitations. That’s not a strategy. That’s a dependency. To stay relevant, advisors need more than access to AI. They need the right AI, applied the right way and built specifically for their role. Tools such as Clarus Resolve represent a new category of advisor enablement: purpose-built AI designed specifically for how technology advisors sell, advise and operate. Recognized for AI-driven business transformation, Resolve is built to extend the capabilities of the advisor, not replace them. Rather than relying on generic AI tools, Resolve provides digital teammates specialized in supplier research, contract analysis and billing review. It offers structured workflows aligned to the full technology lifecycle, as well as tools that allow advisors to seamlessly move from research to RFP to validation. But what truly separates Resolve is what powers it behind the scenes. Resolve is built on a multi-model AI architecture, leveraging multiple leading large language models (LLMs) in the background. This means advisors are not locked into a single AI engine or limited by the strengths and weaknesses of one provider. Instead, Resolve continuously evolves as AI evolves. As new models emerge, improve and specialize, Resolve adapts without forcing advisors to change platforms, workflows or processes. In a rapidly changing AI landscape, that matters. Because the risk isn’t just using AI, it’s using the wrong AI or getting stuck on one that can’t keep up. Resolve future proofs the advisor by ensuring access to the most advanced AI capabilities as they emerge and the flexibility to adapt without disruption. It provides consistency in how work gets done, regardless of underlying model changes. On top of that foundation, Resolve also enables advisors to engage earlier in the buying cycle, deliver deeper, more accurate insights, validate clientdriven strategies before mistakes are made, and increase speed without sacrificing quality. Resolve is often described as “ChatGPT on steroids.” More accurately, it is AI built specifically for the trusted advisor, powered by the best intelligence available today and ready for what comes next. Generic AI Scan the code for a trial of Resolve 20 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
gives generic answers. Resolve delivers advisor-level intelligence, structured execution and a future-ready platform that evolves as fast as the market itself. Visibility & Revenue Protection for Advisors While AI is transforming how advisors sell, it is also exposing a different challenge: what happens after the deal is closed. As advisors move faster and manage more opportunities, operational complexity increases. Without visibility, revenue can be lost. ForgeOS, for its part, is built to solve that problem. It provides real-time visibility into contracts, services and billing; consolidated tracking across customers, locations and suppliers; identification of billing discrepancies and missed commissions; and a clear, unified view of financial performance across the customer lifecycle. ForgeOS ensures that deals are properly tracked, revenue is not lost due to operational gaps and advisors maintain control of their business outcomes. In a market where margins are tightening, this is not a back-office issue. It is a business-critical function because growth without control leads to leakage, and leakage erodes profitability. ForgeOS gives advisors the ability to protect what they’ve already earned and operate with confidence as they scale. Together, Resolve and ForgeOS are not the same, and they are not meant to be. Resolve helps advisors win, be more efficient and drive opportunities. ForgeOS ensures those opportunities translate into real revenue. One strengthens the front end. The other protects the back end. Both solve problems that generic AI cannot touch. AI is not going away. Your clients will continue to use it. They will get smarter. They will move faster. The advisors who succeed will be those who engage earlier before AI shapes the strategy and bring insight that clients cannot access on their own. True technology advisors will use purpose-built platforms to extend their capabilities, while focusing on execution, validation and outcomes. In a world where everyone has access to information, value belongs to those who bring what others cannot. AI tools such as ChatGPT can make you faster, smarter and more efficient. But they can also make your clients more independent and more selective about when they need you. And if you and your client are using the same AI in the same way, you are no longer differentiated. The future advisor doesn’t compete with AI. They bring what AI cannot access. That’s the difference. And that’s the opportunity. o Chris Torbit is managing partner at TDM/Clarus Communications. With no direct sales force, our success depends on your success. Partner with a provider who's truly delivers for you! Partner with SolEx: The One Stop Partner for Agents and MSPs Email partner@solexp.com to schedule a meeting at Channel Partners Conference & Expo VSA CHANNEL PROGRAM OF THE YEAR 2023_2024_2025 VSA MULTI-LOCATION DEPLOYMENTS OF THE YEAR 2024_2025 VSA MOST RESPONSIVE SUPPLIER CHANNEL TEAM OF THE YEAR 2023_2024_2025 April 13-16, 2026 Venetian, Las Vegas NV Why Partner with SolEx Partner Centric Approach: Your Success is our #1 Priority Comprehensive Versatile Portfolio: Data Connectivity, SD-WAN, SASE, UC&C, SIP Trunking, POTS Replacement and more! Extensive Portfolio of Best In Class Providers: we have you covered, whatever you need. Multiple Solution Choices from the multi-vendor, multi-location expert. Tailored Pricing, Commissions and Spiffs Award Winning Service & Support: 30-year pedigree Single Customizable In-House Billing Join forces with SolEx and lets turn challenges into triumphs, and aspirations into business outcomes! MEET US AT Channel Partners Conference & Expo 21 SPRING 2026 | CHANNELVISION
Data breaches have long been the most visible measure of cybercrime. But while breach numbers appear to be trending in the right direction, a quieter and far more personal threat has been growing in the background, showed new findings from cybersecurity company NordVPN. Infostealers are a type of malware that silently harvests everything stored on a victim’s device. And according to NordVPN, as the number of compromised databases dropped by 36 percent between 2024 and 2025, infostealer logs jumped in the same period by 35 percent, from 19.5 million to more than 26 million. “Data breaches going down might sound like progress, but it really means criminals have found a more efficient way in,” said Mantas Sabeckis, senior threat intelligence researcher at Nord Security. “A single infostealer infection can silently grab saved passwords, cookies, autofill data and even session tokens. It’s less dramatic than a breach, but for the individual, the damage can be just as severe.” In 2025, compromised databases leaked nearly 34 million passwords. Infostealers harvested 624 million. That’s more than 18 times as many. For email addresses, breaches exposed 542 million while infostealers captured 380 million, and the gap is closing in the past few years. “When a company gets breached, they notify users, reset passwords and contain the damage,” added Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN. “With infostealers, nobody sends you a warning. Your credentials end up on the dark web, and you only find out when your accounts are already compromised. Companies still lose data in breaches, but now criminals don’t even need to wait for that. They can take it straight from your device.” Infostealers are most commonly spread through pirated software, fake downloads and phishing emails. Once installed, they run silently in the background. The users affected most by infostealers are usually the ones whose devices contain a dense mix of saved passwords, synced logins and open tabs with active sessions. “Across a large number of cases, the same types of users keep showing up, shaped by what they do online and which tools they use,” said NordVPN executives. That includes the “always-logged-in” profile, meaning mostly Windows users who stay signed in to their accounts and spend a lot of time on social networks, paid media and streaming platforms, online shopping sites and personal finance services. These users tend to save passwords and keep sessions active because they use their accounts daily and rarely log out. From an attacker’s perspective, that’s low-hanging fruit. And as surprising as it may sound, the “IT pro” profile is another prime target for bad actors. “Infostealers hit IT professionals hard because their endpoints (mostly PCs used for engineering or IT administration) concentrate high-value credentials and admin access in one place,” NordVPN executives warn. IT professionals often store admin logins, API tokens and remote access credentials alongside everyday browsing data. “If an infostealer lands on a device like this, stolen browser data can become the first domino toward accessing internal tools and infrastructure,” they continued. The good news is, the basics go a long way. Using a password manager instead of saving credentials in a browser, keeping software up to date and having a reliable anti-malware tool all make a device a much harder target. “Most people know what a data breach is. Very few have heard of infostealers,” said Briedis. “That’s part of the problem. You can’t protect yourself from a threat you don’t know exists. Start with the basics: stop saving passwords in your browser, turn on multi-factor authentication, and think twice before downloading anything from an unofficial source.” o By Martin Vilaboy CYBER PATROL Data Breaches Drop as Infostealer Infections Surge 22 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
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CISO’s in the Room As cybersecurity gains importance, so does CISO influence in the buying circle According to new findings from IANS Research, chief information security officers with executive-level titles now outnumber those with vice president or directory-type titles. It’s a trend that has been building for a few years, said the cybersecurity advisory firm, but this is the first time one of its surveys showed the majority of security leaders holding an executive-level title. It’s also a trend that appears across business sizes, as IANS “State of the CISO 2026 Benchmark Report” found that 47 percent of large enterprises have raised security to the executive ranks, up from 33 percent in 2023. Among companies with annual revenue of less than $100 million, 52 percent of businesses now give their security leaders an executive or senior vice president CISO title. “This year was a major turning-point year where it became a sufficiently large part of our sample that we were able to say are thought of as executive CISOs,” By Martin Vilaboy CYBER PATROL 24 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026
said Nick Kakolowski, senior director of CISO research at IANS. And as the role of CISO evolves, it also expands. Just shy of 80 percent of CISOs surveyed recently for Cisco’s Splunk division said their role has become “significantly more complex.” “They are now architects of trust and resilience for the entire organization, responsible for data privacy, regulatory compliance, third-party cyber risk and so much more,” argued the Splunk study. “The cybersecurity function continues to rise in prominence, expand in scope and gain visibility. Consequently, CISOs are increasingly expected to serve not just as technical leaders, but as enterprise-wide strategists,” concurred IANS researchers. As CISO responsibilities transform from hands-on technical experts into strategic leaders influencing business decision-making, it becomes incumbent on partners and providers of business technology to understand the growing influence of CISOs within the entire IT buying circle. Even when a seller may not be speaking directly to the CISO or specifically discussing cybersecurity, they often still must speak to a CISO’s concerns and objectives. “The CISO role is undergoing a seismic shift – they are no longer just security leaders but are increasingly pivotal business strategists,” noted Kakolowski. The IANS study categorized CISOs into three distinct segments based on their organizational influence and executive access. For this year, it found that 28 percent of CISOs were “strategic,” described as leaders who excel in both C-suite access and boardroom influence, frequently engaging with top executives to align cybersecurity with broader business goals. Half of CISOs were categorized as “functional,” meaning they have “significant influence” in either the C-suite or boardroom but lack consistent visibility in both areas. The smallest group, at 22 percent, was listed as “tactical.” These CISOs face limited access to senior leadership and infrequent engagement with the board. Not surprisingly, the senior executives that CISOs interact with most regularly are CIO and CTO types. According to the IANS survey, 91 percent of CISOs reported that they CISOs with at Least Monthly One-to-One Meetings, by Type Title Executive-level CISO Director-level CISO CIO/CTO 90% 90% Head of Legal/General Counsel 59% 43% CFO 40% 22% CEO/COO 45% 21% Business unit/P&L Leaders 39% 26% Head of Products 46% 30% Head of HR 39% 21% Head of Sales 28% 13% Head of Marketing 24% 11% Source: IANS State of CISO Report Frequency in Which CISOs Have Direct, One-on-one Meetings Title Weekly Monthly Quarterly Ad-hoc No need CIO/CTO 71% 20% 5% 4% 0% Head of Legal/General Counsel 23% 31% 19% 25% 2% CFO 9% 25% 29% 33% 5% CEO/COO 11% 21% 29% 34% 4% Business unit/P&L Leaders 11% 23% 23% 39% 4% Head of Products 16% 24% 16% 33% 12% Head of HR 9% 23% 21% 43% 4% Head of Sales 6% 15% 16% 45% 18% Head of Marketing 4% 15% 15% 47% 18% Source: IANS State of CISO Report 25 SPRING 2026 | CHANNELVISION
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