The Changing CyberSec Sales Cycle Saas Budget Sprawl SUMMER 2026 Sponsored by AI CERTIFICATION Volume 25 Issue 3 | channelvisionmag.com Use Promo Code CVx26 to Wave Registration Fee MSP TIMELINES
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SUMMER 2026 AI & AUTOMATION 8 “Mostly platform” buying 8 Funding failures 10 Transition to transactional 12 The Certainty of AI Certification SMBs need AI advisors, and certified product training sets an advisory firm apart By Martin Vilaboy 16 The Right Side of AI AI is creating a divide in the MSP market, and the gap is widening by Christian Nagele CYBER PATROL 20 The Changing CyberSec Sales Cycle Shifts in attacks are altering how and what security is being purchased By Martin Vilaboy 26 Legacy Marketing Remains Steady By Martin Vilaboy CHANNEL MANAGEMENT 30 The Trust Barrier in Finance AI By Nancy Sperry 32 Ideas to Increase Partner Engagement By Jason Gazaway 34 A Matter of Timeline MSPs are solving project issues too late; fix this before work begins By Becca Campbell 36 The Channel’s Next Test Can we actually own the outcome? By Glen Nelson EVERYTHING-AAS 38 SaaS Budget Sprawl Usage-based pricing could put strain on your customer relationships By Martin Vilaboy CORE COMMUNICATIONS 40 Voice Reset Lumen’s pivot from voice opens doors for advisors to guide transformation discussions By Gerald Baldino 44 Extend, Don’t Spend How channel partners can help customers survive the memory price surge By Jim Elder 46 Seeing the Bigger Picture Aditum Connect helps partners turn tenant connectivity into building-wide recurring services 6 Editor’s Letter 48 ICYMI 50 Ad index CONTENTS Volume 25 – Issue 3 4 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
Research across a number of sources suggests that attending conferences such as CVxEXPO26 – taking place this November in Phoenix, Ariz. – not only helps channel partners better serve their customers, but it also leads to being a more successful technology advisor. For starters, IT buyers say “vendor vetting” is a top value provided by technology advisors. For its soon-to-be-released “2026-27 Tech Trends Report,” Telarus asked IT buyers to rank the values that TAs deliver. “Stronger vendor vetting,” along with “project management,” topped the list with 48 percent of respondents, ahead of “integration planning” (43 percent), “faster decision making” (41 percent), and “cost savings” (21 percent). At CVxEXPO26 attendees can vet more than 100 vendors of telecom, security, AI, CX, cloud and other network services. IT buyers also want integrated strategies to drive innovation and simplify complexity instead of buying solutions in silos. Telarus found that advisors who grew revenue 20 percent or more last year were two times more likely to report that more than half of their revenue comes from multi-solution deals. CVxEXPO always is a great place to expand your solutions portfolio via the expo floor or any of numerous educational breakout sessions. Research also suggests that the future of the channel is ecosystem selling. A full 90 percent of channel partners surveyed for GTIA’s “2025 IT Industry Outlook,” expressed intent to participate in partnering with other channel firms to fill gaps in portfolios or co-deliver adjacent services. In turn, CVxEXPO26 offers many networking events and peer group meet-ups for like-minded attendees to share ideas and create partnerships. Of course, we can’t forget AI. Ample research and anecdotal evidence prove SMBs need trusted AI advisors. KPMG surveys, for instance, found that AI implementation and acceleration are the primary reasons why business utilize managed services, in general. AI certification shows prospects that an advisor has validated knowledge rather than just general familiarity, so Palomarr AI Academy will be hosting AI certification classes during CVxEXPO26. These certification classes join the return of the Palomarr AI Pavillion and the AI Demo Café, located in the CVxEXPO26 expo hall. And as businesses reconsider their infrastructure under the demands of AI, “network” is sexy again. According to Cisco research, 97 percent of IT leaders view modernized networks as critical, and 91 percent are actively increasing network investments. CVxEXPO’s primary focus is selling network services through indirect channels. Tongue out of cheek and in all seriousness, CVxEXPO was built from the ground up to be the most efficient, cost-effective, value-packed and least annoying conference and expo in the channel. Come check it out, and I’m sure you’ll agree. You can register for free using promo code CVx26 at cvxexpo.com. We hope to see you this November. Studies Show Advisors Should Attend CVxEXPO 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 | SUMMER 2026
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As enterprises implement more complex AI workflows, they are moving more toward a “mostly platform” model for their application procurement as opposed to buying mostly points solutions or single integrated platforms. This approach can be complicated by a piecemeal approach to software, suggest findings from Futurum. According to its survey of 830 IT decision-makers, the best-of-breed procurement philosophy has fallen to 20.7 percent, down 3.6 percentage points from 2H 2025, as enterprises consolidate onto integrated platforms to meet the data demands of AI. All the while, the “mostly platform + point solution” model surged from 60 percent to 65.9 percent. Reinforcing the trend, 41 percent of organizations are actively planning to reduce or consolidate their application count, said Futurum researchers, with the most common strategy targeting the elimination of one to four applications in favor of a suite or platform. “What is driving platform consolidation in 2026 is not cost-cutting, but the increasing use of AI and agentic workflows,” said Keith Kirkpatrick, vice president and research director for The Futurum Group. “Effective AI deployment requires clean, consolidated data that flows across business functions, and organizations that stitch together 10-to-15-point solutions face an integration tax that makes enterprise-wide AI strategies nearly impossible. Platform consolidation eliminates data silos and creates the unified data fabric that AI models need to deliver actionable results.” Consolidation timelines are aggressive, showed Futurum’s data. Among organizations planning to reduce their application stack, 50.9 percent are targeting a four-to-six-month implementation window, reflecting urgency rather than gradual migration. U.S. companies routinely keep funding transformation and AI projects that are failing, often long after the warning signs are clear, according to new research from management consultancy Emergn. The study of 700 senior leaders found that politics, sunk costs and a reluctance to admit failure keep failing projects alive when leaders know they should be stopped. The waste is substantial – organizations lose an average of 2.3 percent of annual revenue to transformation and AI work that fails to deliver – but it is not inevitable, the research suggests. The problem is not ambition; it’s a failure of governance. “Organizations find it hard to spot failing programs early, harder still to stop them and harder again to hold an honest view of how the work is really going,” said the study. Less than a third of U.S. leaders said that stopping an underperforming program is a normal part of how their organization works. More than four in ten (43 percent) act only after significant time and money have already gone in, while more than one-fifth (22 percent) have watched a program carry on for no reason other than the amount already spent on it. A quarter admit that decisions to stop a project are driven more by politics than by evidence. The pattern starts at the front end, with just 16 percent of new ideas, on average, formally rejected before real money is committed. U.S. organizations run an average of 6.8 transformation and AI initiatives at once, and more than half (51 percent) are running seven or more. One in 10 operates with no formal tracking or governance at all. “None of this is a technology problem, and none of it is solved by spending more. The organizations that get real value from AI share one habit,” Emergn researchers concluded. “They have introduced a product-centric operating model that gives them the discipline to focus on the most valuable ideas and, from there, allows them to maintain a live view of every initiative.” The Move to ‘Mostly Platform’ Buying Lack of Governance Funds Failures AI & AUTOMATION Enterprise Application Procurement Strategy 2H 2025 1H 2026 Mostly platform + point solutions 60% 65.9% Best-of-breed (point solutions) 24.3% 20.7% Single integrated platform 15.7% 13.4% 0% 20% 40% 60% 70% SOURCE Futurum Research, February 2026 8 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
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The traditional consulting partner model – defining the scope of technical work, delivering against that statement of work and billing by milestone or hour – has long been under the pressure of a changing market landscape. It’s no secret how customers are looking for partners to be strategic collaborators rather than transactional sellers. Businesses want outcomes, not just implementations. Even so, the transactional model still describes how a large chunk of tech advisors and MSPs engage with prospects and customers. But surveys and executive interviews performed by AWS show a decisive shift in what enterprises are asking from partner consultants and how they engage with those channel partners. And it seems the pressure to move from transactional models has only been compounded by the emergence of AI. The study, conducted by AWS’s Business Value Realization (BVR) Motion team in early 2026, found that 80 percent of customers interviewed reported moving toward value-based, outcome-tied commercial models and away from time-and-materials and milestone-based contracts. “Some are doing so in response to internal cost pressure. Others are funding ambitious AI agendas and need to ensure those investments translate into business results,” said AWS researchers. In short, customers increasingly expect their partners to share accountability for business outcomes rather than focusing on just the completion of a defined technical scope. They want partners “who think like owners of their business.” They want partners that proactively identify ways to optimize the impact of technologies, suggest pathways to innovative and digital transformation, and contribute to success long after implementation. “We are looking for more outcomebased models, so the provider has skin in the game,” said one director of IT strategy for a major automotive company, who was interviewed for the study. “We no longer rely on models where a PO is sent out, and the supplier gets invoices paid irrespective of success or failure.” The AWS study identified two ways in which AI is accelerating the shift from transactional selling to transformational partners. For starters, enterprise customers are making substantial AI investments as part of their broader transformation agenda. In turn, they face significant pressure to demonstrate returns, and that pressure flows all the way down and through to their consulting partners. “Customers want partners who can convert AI investments into measurable business impact, not partners who simply deploy AI tools into production,” said AWS researchers. At the same time, AI compresses the technical effort required for many implementation tasks, reducing the share of engagement value tied to pure technical execution. “From customer interviews, we learned customers want partners who can deliver a comprehensive set of capabilities to help them achieve value realization and ROI,” said the study. “They want partners who connect value targets mapped to use cases to the people and process changes needed to deliver on them, driven by continuous tracking and optimization across the entire customer success engagement and beyond.” The “customer success engagement,” they continued, rests on three core capabilities, which collectively distinguish partners that deliver implementations from partners that drive business impact. These include “value mapping” to help customers envision the use cases that will accelerate their AI transformation vision and identify specific outcomes; “adoption and change management” to ensure the people, process and organizational readiness needed to optimize new capabilities are in place; and “monitoring and business value determination,” which continuously tracks outcomes after go-live, adjusting as needed for further optimization, and demonstrates ROI. According to AWS researchers, several customers described screening partners out of consideration or not advancing to pricing discussion if these types of customer success initiatives were absent from a proposal. On the flip side, when customer success capabilities such as the above are provided and credibly presented, enterprises are willing to pay a premium for consulting services, ranging from 10‑20 percent above the baseline price for an implementation-only engagement of similar scope. “The driver is risk reduction: a partner that contractually and operationally commits to value realization absorbs uncertainty that would otherwise sit with the customer,” said the study. The AWS study combined a quantitative survey of 292 consulting partner decision makers globally with 35 in-depth executive interviews with partner and customer leadership. AI Accelerating Transition from Transactional AI & AUTOMATION “We no longer rely on models where a PO is sent out, and the supplier gets invoices paid irrespective of success or failure.” 10 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
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12 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026 There are a lot of reasons why the major foundation model companies have invested a lot of money into teams of forward deployed engineers (FDEs) to help enterprise customers scale their AI initiatives. Many of those same reasons are why technology advisors and MSPs should spend time on AI certification designed to help SMB customers move forward with their AI efforts. In the unlikely event that you missed the headlines, AI companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Google, AWS and Microsoft all recently announced go-to-market and/or partner initiatives that include millions of dollars going toward FDEs. Palantir, for its part, is credited with inventing the concept of embedding FDEs into the integrations of its government and enterprise customers. These AI-specialist engineers work closely with businesses and their technology leaders, as well as frontline staff, to integrate AI models into existing systems, reconsider critical workflows and solve security and governance issues, among other tasks. The ultimate idea is to help customers move from identifying AI opportunities to building systems that deliver measurable results. That’s the stage where enterprise customers reside in their AI maturity. They’re no longer experimenting with AI or questioning where and whether it matters. Conversations are shifting from adoption of AI to execution, governance and measurable outcomes. The need for FDEs stems from the realization that most enterprises simply lack the expertise to execute the shift and realize AI’s true, and company-specific, potential. The SMB customers that reside in the channel’s wheelhouse may not be as far along on their AI journeys as their enterprise counterparts, but they certainly have moved past the experimentation stage to actively looking for measurable results. They don’t need to be sold on AI. Similar to enterprises, they are shifting from user adoption to business-wide adoption. And at that stage of the journey, SMBs need help deciding on the most effective places to invest in AI and finding ways to measure its effectiveness. By Martin Vilaboy SMBs need AI advisors, and certified product training sets an advisory firm apart The Certainty of AI Certification AI & AUTOMATION
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In turn, technology advisors need to bring a deeper product-level understanding of the AI-enabled solutions they represent. “Partners have a pivotal role to play in the AI and platforms landscape,” said Gartner senior principal Arunasree Cheparthi. “Those who position themselves as the economic control plane, deciding which AI capabilities to deploy, monitoring performance, ensuring policies and optimizing costs are set to capture the most long-term value.” Unlike traditional SaaS solutions, which tend to provide a predefined purpose, AI models often are about a capability that customers must adapt to their own businesses. And since every deployment is different, companies need technically proficient advisors who can bridge engineering with customer needs. That doesn’t mean technology advisors need to get deep into the weeds, as an FDE would, or attempt to come across as some type of machine learning engineer. Rather, conversations with customers should focus less on large-scale AI transformation and more on translating AI capabilities into business outcomes, such as productivity or employee efficiency, as well as governance and adoption strategy. AI certification signals that an advisor has validated knowledge rather than just general familiarity, instilling confidence with SMB customers that they are recommending realistic solutions instead of trend-driven ones. Formal AI education helps advisors identify risks earlier and, with some understanding of the customer’s workflows, spot higher-value opportunities. It’s also not uncommon for buying circles to include representatives from multiple departments within a business. In turn, certification classes often include information pertaining to security controls, compliance standards, governance, disaster recovery and ethical standards, arming advisors with answers to questions that could arise from multiple directions. With all this in mind, AI marketplace Palomarr will be hosting a series of training and certification courses at the upcoming CVxEXPO26 this November in Phoenix, Ariz. The 1.5-hour product training sessions within the Palomarr AI Academy will be led by dedicated, expert instructors and conclude with online testing for certification. Each of the breakout rooms of the Palomarr AI Academy at CVxEXPO will have a specific theme such as customer experience or cybersecurity. The product training sessions will cover AI readiness, deployment scenarios, use cases and conclude with a certification quiz. At the end of each session, attendees will receive a badge to show they have been certified in a specific AI category. Attendees also will be able to follow up with corresponding vendors in the expo hall for further information and instruction. “It’s a classroom, but it will be a bit hands-on, as well. These are interactive sessions,” explained Aarde Cosseboom, founder of Palomarr. “You’re going to learn a lot in these sessions, so I wouldn’t anticipate people just sitting in the back of the room on their phones answering emails.” The Palomarr AI Academy takes place all three days of CVxEXPO26 – offering up to 16 individual training sessions for participants to choose from – available at no cost to all CVxEXPO26 registered attendees. o 14 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026 AI capability indicators: Training has become a talent lever Senior leaders need AI training as much as junior staff Received substantial, ongoing AI training (last 12 months) AI skills will matter more than formal qualifications Would change jobs for better AI training 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% SOURCE Emergn survey of senior leaders Senior leaders in my organization need AI training as much as, or more, than junior employees. 67% 16% 17% Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree SOURCE Emergn survey of senior leaders AI capability indicators: Training has become a talent lever Senior leaders need AI training as much as junior staff Received substantial, ongoing AI training (last 12 months) AI skills will matter more than formal qualifications Would change jobs for better AI training 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% SOURCE Emergn survey of senior leaders Senior leaders in my organization need AI training as much as, or more, than junior employees. 67% 16% 17% Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree SOURCE Emergn survey of senior leaders
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining the SMB market. From automating administrative tasks to improving customer service and decision-making, the promised gains in efficiency and productivity have left businesses eager to capitalize on AI. Yet whilst AI adoption is accelerating among SMBs, not all MSPs have responded to this demand by productizing AI as a service. MSPs vary widely in scale, technical capabilities and maturity. Now, AI is creating a further division, drawing a line between providers that are evolving into strategic AI advisors and those that remain focused solely on traditional IT support. The most successful MSPs are providing customers with support by helping them navigate the complexities of AI adoption, guiding them through security, governance and user enablement, while others are struggling to adapt to increasing demand, taking a more hands off approach to AI. For SMBs seeking real value from AI, that distinction now matters more than ever. SMB customers, quite simply, need more than deployment. Purchasing a Microsoft Copilot or other AI platform license is fairly straightforward, yet the real value lies in how these licenses can unlock long-term business value. Most SMBs can see the potential benefits of AI, but they lack clear understanding of how they can optimize rollout, implementation and ongoing usage of it. Practical questions that extend beyond AI implementation often lie unanswered. How should AI be used within different departments? Which business processes should be priorities? What data can AI safely access? by Christian Nagele The Right Side of AI AI is creating a divide in the MSP market, and the gap is widening AI & AUTOMATION 16 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
With no dedicated AI specialists or data governance teams, SMBs now look to their MSP for what they expect to be expert guidance. An opportunity therefore opens for MSPs that are willing to expand their role beyond infrastructure management. The MSPs gaining traction in the AI era are those which are positioning themselves as trusted advisors, focusing on helping customers understand how these tools can align with their wider business on top of just enabling AI tools. They provide strategic guidance, implementation support, user training, governance frameworks and ongoing optimization. By contrast, those MSPs that merely deploy the technology and move on are risking being viewed simply as license resellers rather than strategic partners. Security at the foundation One of the most significant concerns around AI adoption is security. If organizations have little visibility into their data or poorly manage access permissions, AI can expose previously hidden risks. With employees having access to sensitive information, data can be inconsistently stored across the organization. This results in new vulnerabilities being exposed. Again, an opportunity opens for MSPs. MSPs now have the chance to demonstrate genuine expertise by leading their AI implementation conversations with security readiness. To ensure secure and successful AI rollouts for customers, MSPs need to assess data governance practices, review identity and access management controls and evaluate compliance requirements. This approach positions the MSP as a critical enabler of safe AI adoption. As organizations become more aware of the risks associated with AI, security-led guidance will become one of the most valuable services MSPs can offer. Responsible AI Beyond the realms of security, SMBs must also be mindful of how AI is used responsibly. While many view AI outputs as completely reliable, in reality AI can generate inaccurate responses, misunderstand context or simply produce content that requires diligent human review. Without acknowledging or recognizing these limitations, businesses leave themselves open to operational and regulatory risks, ultimately putting their reputation on the line. Responsible AI adoption requires clear policies and governance, as well as effective ongoing employee education. Users must gain a full understanding of when and where AI can assist, and where human judgement should take precedence. Whilst traditionally, MSPs have provided little support in this area, it is rapidly becoming essential components of successful AI strategy. Providers that gain the upper hand will already be developing AI governance services which help customers establish clear rules around AI usage. This can include acceptable-use policies, employee training programs and direction in how businesses can implement policies which encourage innovation and simultaneously reduce risk. MSPs that provide practical guidance on responsible AI can then differentiate themselves from those which fail to do so, thereby gaining the upper hand in a crowded market. Productivity is not autonomous Many businesses assume that once AI is implemented into their operations, productivity will follow suit. The reality is not so simple. Achieving measurable AI enhanced outcomes requires planning and training, as well as ongoing optimization. Employees may be left struggling to identify the most valuable use cases of AI, meaning adoption becomes inconsistent. Businesses may see fragmentation in how well various teams have used AI, with some fully embracing it and others failing to incorporate it into their day-to-day work. MSPs which address this challenge before it even arises will see the strongest results. MSPs should work alongside customers to identify practical use cases, create adoption plans and deliver training based on measurable outcomes. Whether it is reducing administrative workload or improving operational efficiency, they can help organizations understand how AI can improve specific business functions and support individual employees. By holding a focus on business outcomes as much as technical implementation, MSPs can demonstrate clear value and strengthen customer relationships. AI will redefine, not replace MSPs While automation will undoubtedly reduce time spent on routine IT tasks, the growing speculation that AI could eventually replace some traditional MSP services is misplaced. AI is not eradicating the MSP but rather is raising the bar for customers’ expectations. The increasing automation of routine support activities will leave space open for MSPs to focus on advisory services, which in turn are becoming even more valuable. Customers will be expecting partners to guide them through AI readiness and optimization, rather than simply managing infrastructure. MSPs best positioned for long-term success will be those which provide technical expertise with strategic guidance. They will help customers navigate not only the technology itself, but the organizational changes required to achieve meaningful results. The acceleration adoption of AI is drawing a clear divide in the MSP market. One side sees providers investing in AI readiness assessments, governance frameworks, security services and user enablement, defining themselves as trusted advisors by creating new opportunities for growth. These are the MSPs that will become indispensable AI partners for their customers. The other side leaves those providers which continue to focus solely on traditional IT support and software deployment and will likely struggle to retain value in an increasingly competitive space. o Christian Nagele is chief strategy officer at inforcer. 18 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
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The Changing It’s understandable that an IT decision maker might be resistant to dire warnings coming from a sales rep regarding an impending cyberattack on their infrastructure. That’s less a matter of “crying wolf” and more a matter of “Yeah, we’ve heard that many times before.” Nonetheless, a cavalier approach to cybersecurity often leads to tragic consequences. There’s no denying that AI-enabled attackers are smarter and faster than ever, while AI applications, cloud services, SaaS sprawl and remote workers and their devices are introducing new exposures at speeds and distances that traditional security approaches weren’t always expected to handle. So, it’s also completely understandable that security leaders are responding to the new realities of dynamic risk with changes to how they source security solutions, what they buy and where their priorities lie. Indeed, many organizations are currently reviewing and rethinking their security stacks and the vendors that provide them. According to one survey of cybersecurity decision makers by technology marketing company The Hoffman Agency, three in five respondents are looking either for By Martin Vilaboy Shifts in attacks are altering how and what security is being purchased CYBER PATROL CyberSec Sales Cycle What factors drive the need to purchase new cybersecurity technology? (Top 5 responses) Technology advances 65% Keep up with increasingly sophisticated threats 62% Response to an attack 49% Expansion into new business area or geography 48% Regularory demands 47% Source: The Hoffman Agency; Coleman Parkes Research What cybersecurity products are being bought? Past 12 Months Next 12 Months 20 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
a new provider or to switch a provider in the coming year. The top reason cited by those preparing to switch was “the need to respond to threats,” cited by 55 percent of respondents and compounded by the 38 percent that said it was “the need to secure AI systems.” As the Hoffman Agency noted, both responses were chosen at a higher rate than the need to reduce costs or cope with talent shortages. Also worth noting, while 31 percent of organizations said they are looking to change providers because their current provider isn’t good enough, dissatisfaction was the least popular driver for new cybersecurity purchases. This tends to suggest that a provider often may get little indication when a customer is about the churn, emphasizing the importance of proactive customer service and quality control. When asked to consider the attributes that have the biggest impact on the selection of a vendor, the top answers included “value for the money” and “simple and easy to integrate,” both named by nine out of 10 respondents, followed by evidence of delivering for similar business (87 percent) and flexible in adjusting to needs (84 percent). In terms of investment moving forward, the survey revealed some significant shifts in priorities. Of course, “AI security,” which only 8 percent invested in last year, was the top area of intended purchase for the coming 12 months, cited by 30 percent of respondents. Likewise, data security posture management took a leap in importance, while network security and email security, and to a lesser degree endpoint security, went from top priorities to the bottom of the list. Certainly, some of the dip in those key areas of protection is due to assumptions that prior investments have taken care of those threat vectors. Even so, partners and providers cannot assume that a high-demand or low-demand service last year will have the same demand during the next 12 months. Any shift in security product selection moving forward will be commensurate with the shifts in how bad guys are now attacking corporate resources. A traditional approach to dealing with emerging threats has been to deploy another point tool, argued Jeannine Edwards, senior director, Cynet Community, in the company’s Global AI Security Readiness Report. “This leads to more noise, alert fatigue, tooling customization and fragmented defense,” she continued. “Today’s attacks are paths, not points.” Modern attacks, as Cynet executives pointed out, are now comprised 21 SUMMER 2026 | CHANNELVISION
of coordinated chains of strikes, engineered to find the path of least resistance across an ever-expanding attack surface. And identity has become the most prevalent path for attacker success, research suggests. During the past year, identity weaknesses played a material role in 90 percent of the security breaches investigated by Unit 42, the research arm of Palo Alto Networks.”In our caseload, identity shaped intrusions end to end. It served as the way in, the path to privilege escalation and the mechanism for lateral movement using valid access,” said Unit 42 in its most recent Global Incident Response Report. As organizations move deeper into SaaS, cloud and hybrid environments, the network perimeter matters less, argued the report. Identity – or the linkage between users, machines, services and data – has become the practical perimeter. “In many cases, threat actors don’t need a sophisticated exploit chain. They log in with stolen credentials, hijacked sessions or mis-scoped privileges,” said Unit 42 researchers. These types of “authenticated accesses” let adversaries move faster, blend into normal activity and expand their area of impact with fewer obstacles. “This trend is accelerating as machine identities, embedded AI applications and fragmented identity estates expand the number of access paths attackers can exploit,” the report continued. Unit 42 case data shows that 65 percent of initial access is driven by identity-based techniques. Which security capabilities are important to your organization today? (Among in-house IT teams) Identity security 93% Email and phishing protection 92% Cloud and SaaS security 91% Incident response readiness 90% Compliance and reporting 88% MDR / 24x7 monitoring 84% Source: Cynet What are you doing differently or plan to do differently for threat detection to combat the use of AI by threat actors? Select all that apply. What cybersecurity products are being bought? Past 12 Months Next 12 Months Endpoint security 36% AI security 30% Network security 35% Security operations 29% Email security 32% Identity access management 28% Identity access management 29% Data security posture management 26% Data security 25% Application security 25% Security operations 24% Threat intelligence 24% Application security 23% MSSP 23% Security analytics 23% Security analytics 22% Cybersecurity training 22% Fraud prevention 19% MSSP 21% Cybersecurity testing 15% Threat intelligence 20% Endpoint security 14% IoT security 19% Governance, risk & compliance 13% Fraud prevention 18% IoT security 12% Cybersecurity testing 16% Cybersecurity testing 11% Governance, risk & compliance 15% Deception technology 8% Deception technology 14% Data security 6% Data security posture management 11% Network security 6% AI security 8% Email security 5% Source: The Hoffman Agency; Coleman Parkes Research 22 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
This new reality has not gone unnoticed. Identity security was repeatedly cited among the top three security priorities among both the MSSPs and in-house IT teams surveyed by Cynet. Researchers also have noted, in response to accelerating threats, a rebalancing of investment from traditional detection/response solutions that work downstream after an event has occurred to preemptive and predictive threat intelligence that can get ahead of AI-driven attacks. Newer, smarter preemptive security works to identify externally exposed and high-risk assets before an attack, prioritize exposures based on realworld threat activity and disrupt malicious invasions earlier in the attack lifecycle. According to surveys of cybersecurity professionals performed for Infloblox, nearly half of organizations expect to allocate security tools toward preemptive controls during the next 12 months, expecting an almost even split between preemptive security (49 percent) and traditional detection/response (51 percent) within that same time period. Compared with the past year, the share of preemptive tools has risen by an average of 12 percent, as 82 percent of respondents report increasing their use of preemptive security tools year over year. “Organizations are no longer choosing between detection and prevention,” said Infoblox researchers. “They are seeking ways to connect digital risk intelligence, exposure management and foundational controls into a more continuous, proactive approach.” Crunch Time In addition to changes in what businesses are buying in reaction to faster, smarter and more dynamic threats, they are adjusting how they purchase, showed The Hoffman Agency surveys. Most notably, the buyer journey has shrunk as the usual process of awareness, longlisting, shortlisting and decision-making is being streamlined in order to make purchasing decisions more quickly, said Florie Lhuillier, head of cybersecurity and senior vice president at The Hoffman Agency. MDR / 24x7 monitoring 84% Source: Cynet What are you doing differently or plan to do differently for threat detection to combat the use of AI by threat actors? Select all that Implementing AI-powered detection tools 58% Enhancing monitoring and data logging 52% Leveraging new forms of intel like predictive threat intelligence 52% Build out threat profile (type of actors, campaigns) we can expect 41% Proactive threat hunting using DNS 37% Source: Infoblox How long from need identification to vendor selection? Less than 3 months 15% 3 - 6 months 40% 6 - 12 months 29% 13 - 18 months 11% 18 months + 4% Source: The Hoffman Agency; Coleman Parkes Research apply. OBSERVABILITY PLATFORM Vergepoint is compact, secure, and intelligent edge device you place at each site to collect high-fedility telemetry, run realworld diagnostics, and feed the results into the Netverge platform for instant visualization and AI-assisted troubleshooting Included Agents Pricing & Access QOE Techmate Monitoring $49/month per device $299 Platform fee waived * Agentic AI Triage 4-Way Monitoring End-to-End Encryption Client Knowledge Graph IT Document Management * Waived for 3 months End-to-End Path Probe SNMP Monitoring Scout Web Browser Emulator www.netverge.com info@netverge.com MSP Benefits Contact Us: VERGEPOINTS PUT A VIRTUAL ENGINEER AT EVERY LOCATION Recurring revenue stream Multitenant platform MSP branded client portal Immediate visibility & sanity check “Netverge is moving fast, solving real operator headaches” - Joe Fancher, IT Director Based in US & Canada 23 SUMMER 2026 | CHANNELVISION
Looking at the time from when the need for a cybersecurity solution is identified to deciding what vendor can deliver, purchases take seven months, on average. And some outliers are skewing that number up. The majority of respondents (55 percent) said they take less than six months, while just 15 percent take more than a year, on average. An additional 15 percent claim to take less than three months. Given the complexity of the category, the level and importance of the investment and a buying circle that can include both technology and C-level decision makers, these are fast decisions being made. But buyers clearly are feeling a sense of urgency created by today’s evolving threat landscape. That sense of urgency, and the resultant compressed buying journey, may be pushing more businesses to seek the help of outside technology advisors and consultants to identify and select vendors, The Hoffman Agency surmised. Just 1 percent of buyers surveyed did not employ an outside agency – whether analysts, advisor, MSP or consultant – at some point in the buying process. According to findings from Cynet, about six of every 10 internal IT teams surveyed plan to involve an MSP when adopting new security tools. That includes 64 percent when it comes to cloud and Saas security and 61 percent in the case of agentic AI. “The preference for adopting new tools through either a hybrid approach or MSPs is becoming more pronounced, reflecting a strategic shift in how organizations manage their cybersecurity needs,” said Cynet researchers. This trend is at least partly driven by the fact that MSPs are further along the AI learning curve, with a significant portion of MSPs already integrating AI technologies into their security operations, showed the Cynet data. Indeed, MSPs had higher rates of AI usage (60 percent, on average) compared to in-house teams (44 percent on average) across every AI-related security product listed. “While running AI security in-house at an SMB will technically be possible in 2026 and beyond, strategically it will be hard to defend,” Cynet researcher argued. “MSPs have the delivery channel, are 13 to 16 percentage points ahead on every AI capability and have the scale which most in-house teams lack.” The good news for partners and providers is that businesses are not shifting dollars around to deal with an evolving threat landscape; the majority are increasing security budgets. In addition to the 60 percent of organizations that increased their budget in the last 12 months, 67 percent expect to see an increase in the next 12 months, showed The Hoffman Agency figures. Cynet, for its part, found that 78 percent of internal IT teams expect cybersecurity budgets to grow. Those estimates could even be conservative, considering that 96 percent of security professionals surveyed by Infoblox reported challenges managing threat exposure, driven by rapid expansion in cloud services, SaaS applications, IoT/OT systems and shadow IT. Cloud exposure alone is the top priority for more than half of security teams, reflecting how quickly risk is shifting beyond traditional enterprise boundaries, said the Infoblox study. Put together, research suggests that many organizations will be reviewing and rethinking their security stacks and the vendors that provide them. Partners and providers that can articulate and understand the challenges presented by today’s dynamic and morphing threat landscape stand the most to gain. o How do you currently use/plan to use AI or LLM-based technology in your security operations 2026? MSPs Internal IT Team Automated remediation and response 64% 48% AI copilots/assistant for analysis 61% 46% Customer-facing reporting or summarization using AI 61% 45% Embedded AI within security platforms (EDR/XDR/MDR) 59% 43% AI-driven threat intelligence or enrichment 58% 43% AI-assisted alert triage and investigations 58% 41% Source: Cynet Proactive threat hunting using DNS 37% Source: Infoblox How long from need identification to vendor selection? Less than 3 months 15% 3 - 6 months 40% 6 - 12 months 29% 13 - 18 months 11% 18 months + 4% Source: The Hoffman Agency; Coleman Parkes Research 24 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
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With the usual process of awareness, longlisting, shortlisting and decision-making being streamlined to make cybersecurity purchase decisions more quickly (see “The Changing CyberSec Sales Cycle,” page 20), getting messages out and fast has never been more important for marketing teams. That might lead to assumptions that AI and LLMs are the de-facto go-to when it comes to new product research, vendor discovery and technology decision making. But some traditional content marketing methods are holding up quite well, thank you very much, at least when it comes to buyers of business cybersecurity solutions. Global B2B marketing firm The Hoffman Agency recently released the results of a survey examining the impact AI cyberattacks have had on the cybersecurity buying landscape and what now influences vendor selection. Conducted by Coleman Parkes Research, the survey of 500 cybersecurity decision makers found that 67 percent of organizations have plans to increase cybersecurity investment in the next 12 months, while 62 percent are looking either for a new provider or to switch their current provider. When it comes to the cybersecurity buying journey, buyers certainly are relying on LLMs for both initial research and final selection, as these AI tools already have leapfrogged some longstanding pillars of B2B marketing, such as webinars and banner advertisements. But the top four sources of information for initial awareness are familiar channels and largely unchanged from years past. Following the tried-and-true top method, direct peers (35 percent), were industry analysts (32 percent), industry trade events (28 percent) and trade media (26 percent). When it comes to final selection of vendors, the top sources of information were similar. Industry analysts (23 percent), industry events (23 percent) and direct peers (22 percent) made up the top three, with LLMs was selected by 20 percent of respondents, followed closely by trade media (18 percent). Getting more granular, the study looked at the specific content types that have the biggest influence on the selection of a cybersecurity vendor. Again, LLMs are featured here, ranking higher than popular marketing techniques such as email marketing but below the more personal, faceto-face reality of a session or panel presentation at an industry trade show. Currently, just 8 percent of buyers say that they use LLMs “all the time.” Arguably, the biggest takeaway was that there is no marketing “silver bullet,” as even the least influential content type listed, vendor blog posts, is seen by 13 percent of buyers as having an effect on their final buying decisions. “A mix of different approaches and content types is the only guaranteed way to reach everyone,” argued the study, “especially as LLMs become more important and pull in information from all different sources. o Legacy Marketing Remains Steady Which channel/content types influence awareness in your buying journey? RANK INFLUENCE SHARE 01 Direct peers 35% 02 Industry analysts 32% 03 Industry trade events 28% 04 Trade media 26% 05 Networking groups 24% 06 Management consultants 23% 07 Business technology media 22% 08 LLM 20% 09 Industry consultants 18% 10 Vendor material 17% 11 Online ad/marketing in trade media 17% 12 Paid vendor campaign in LinkedIn 15% 13 Direct marketing 15% 14 Vendor activity on broader social media 14% 15 Above the line advertising 13% 16 Webinars 12% 17 Business/National media 11% 18 Indirect peers on LinkedIn 10% 19 Internal business analysts 10% 20 Industry podcast 10% 21 Substack 8% SOURCE The Hoffman Agency; Coleman Parkes Research CYBER PATROL 26 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2026
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