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Shanel Salomon, president of Optima Csonulting For years, Optima Consulting built a successful business implementing OpenText technology for enterprise customers without maintaining a formal partnership with the vendor. Now, under new leadership and with a renewed emphasis on its partner ecosystem, OpenText has brought Optima back into the fold. In this episode of In The Channel, recorded at OpenText World 2026 in Orlando, Optima CEO and founding partner Shaney Salomon discusses what brought the company back, and why OpenText’s partner transformation remains a work in progress. Salomon, a former OpenText executive who built Optima around the intersection of SAP and OpenText technologies, says previous OpenText leadership sometimes viewed implementation partners as competitors for professional services revenue rather than as organizations that could expand the vendor’s reach. That attitude is changing, she says, although aligning field sales teams with the company’s partner-first ambitions remains an important challenge. The conversation also explores the changing economics of enterprise modernization as customers weigh cloud migrations against rapidly evolving AI capabilities. Salomon argues that vendors need to deliver practical AI value even to customers that haven’t completed their modernization journeys, or risk seeing those customers turn to alternative technologies. And she shares lessons from building Optima, including why solution providers must continually evolve their expertise, why change management can make or break technology projects, and how helping customers realize more value from existing investments creates opportunities for deeper, longer-lasting relationships. It’s a candid look at OpenText’s evolving partner strategy from a solution provider that’s both enthusiastic about the opportunity and realistic about the challenges ahead. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello, and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last sixteen years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor at ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’re wrapping up our coverage from OpenText World 2026 in Orlando with a look at what the company’s changing partner strategy looks like for a solution provider that’s built a business around OpenText technology. My guest today is Shaney Salomon from Optima Consulting, a company that operates at the intersection of the OpenText and SAP ecosystems, helping enterprise customers implement, modernize, and get more value from their technology investments. Shaney has an interesting perspective on OpenText’s partner evolution. She started her career with the company, left to build Optima, and after years of working with OpenText technology without being an official partner, has recently brought the company back into the OpenText partner program. And she’s quite clear about why. We talk about how OpenText’s previous approach to professional services sometimes put the company at odds with its partners, what’s changed under new leadership, and why there’s still work to do to make that partner-first approach a reality throughout the organization. We also get into how AI is changing the enterprise modernization conversation, why customers can’t necessarily wait until they’ve completed their cloud migrations to start seeing AI value, and the lessons Optima has learned about building a successful solution provider business around major technology platforms. It’s a useful look at OpenText’s strategy from the perspective of a partner that’s actually putting it into practice. Let’s get right into it, my chat with Shaney Salomon. Robert Dutt: Shaney, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. I’m sure it’s a busy week for you. Shaney Salomon: It is. It’s been a busy week so far, but super happy to be here with you and looking forward to the questions. Robert Dutt: And just starting, too. Let’s start with your story. You started within OpenText and then went out and built out Optima Consulting. What led you to make that leap? What was the opportunity that made you decide that building a partner organization around OpenText was the right move to make back when you made that decision? Shaney Salomon: I came to OpenText through an acquisition, actually, of one of the solutions that SAP considers a solution extension today, Vendor Invoice Management. That was back in the 2004 timeframe. Once I joined OpenText, I worked my way up into leadership, into the SAP Global Services lead, and had a really good run there. But when SAP and OpenText really went to market together around their archiving solutions, and then eventually Vendor Invoice Management, the partner community, the big guys, the Big Four, started coming into the space. And those were the partners that OpenText, I think, thought would be the right level of partners to really work with SAP and OpenText on bringing these solutions to market. I saw that a little bit differently. I saw that as an opportunity to go out into the ecosystem, partner with both SAP and OpenText, and create a company that really focused in that space. Robert Dutt: In that kind of intersection. That’s interesting, because I’ve heard the story of folks who are within a vendor and decide to go out and build a partner organization around that vendor. But it’s an interesting twist to have that be at the intersection of two vendors’ businesses there. Shaney Salomon: I had been in the SAP space for several years and really saw that as the catalyst. OpenText has very, very strong technologies, but SAP had the breadth of reach with enterprise customers. It was really interesting to me. Being able to marry the two, where my understanding of the OpenText products married up with the SAP ecosystem and that enterprise customer breadth, that was really interesting. And the thesis has proved correct. Robert Dutt: I guess an interesting level of insight, especially going into it, into customer needs and customer requests across both OpenText and SAP. Shaney Salomon: Absolutely. Things have changed a lot. I think originally the idea was we were out really just selling and implementing OpenText at the time. We started out with just a product or two, and now we cover everything where SAP and OpenText meet. But our team has expanded, our opportunities have expanded, and we’ve really moved also into the spend management space around SAP and the OpenText Vendor Invoice Management space, accounts payable, that whole procure-to-pay space that we really got good at. Leveraging the OpenText solutions afforded us the opportunity to move deeper into the spend management space with SAP. And now, with SAP really moving all of their customers to cloud, that big S/4 transformation that’s happening in the market today, we see customers really needing to modernize their stacks. And that’s our bias today, helping them modernize so that they can get prepared for AI in a way that makes sense. Robert Dutt: Is that something that you find you’re driving to them, or is it something that they’re coming to you and asking for, looking for? Shaney Salomon: It’s certainly both, but it’s top of mind for everyone. It’s board level, CEO level, CIO level. But bringing it to life is a whole different story, right? And OpenText has a great perspective around that, I think, because without structured content, the context around that, making AI work for a company is really challenging. Both OpenText and SAP are bringing their own technological versions of AI to the table. But customers are really, really trying to figure out which stack makes sense, which AI is the best, how do they combine them, where do we orchestrate all of that kind of thing. So it feels like the Wild West right now, but it is certainly the mandate for all of our customers today. Robert Dutt: It feels like the Wild West, but I think I’m hearing over the course, especially over the course of this year, that we’re getting past the point of customers coming to an organization like you and saying, “CEO says we have to do AI. Don’t really know what that means, but we need to do it.” Sounds like there’s an increased level of sophistication, understanding, and wanting to get to outcomes as quickly as possible in doing that. Shaney Salomon: Absolutely. And that’s where I think we start, and we do really well, is focusing on what is the outcome. Then you can think about what are the inputs and who’s it going to impact and all of that. But if there isn’t a really good reason to do it in the first place, where it’s going to provide ROI, allow a company to do things better, faster, make better use of their resources, all of that, then what’s the point? And that’s our perspective. It has to come with a clean core, good data, good context, a business process that’s going to help them move their business forward. But it also needs to be a trusted place as well. We see our customers finding use cases in spaces where there are outcomes that will make a big difference, but also aren’t too risky right up front. And so the starting point is places where you can really make a business outcome and a big difference. Robert Dutt: Going back to the spin-up and the buildup of Optima over the years, you built a business around a couple of major technology vendors’ ecosystems. What were the biggest lessons along the way? What did you get right about your thesis coming into it, and what did you kind of have to go, “Okay, in reality, this needs to look a little different”? Shaney Salomon: I think the number one lesson is you can’t rest on your laurels, right? You might be knocking it out of the park in one business area, but being able to always be looking forward, seeing where the market is heading, getting ahead of your clients so that you’re there b

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Huntress expands Ingram Micro distribution relationship into Canada Huntress is extending its existing distribution relationship with Ingram Micro into Canada, creating another route for Canadian managed service providers and solution providers to access the cybersecurity vendor’s portfolio. The expansion also includes Latin America and builds on the companies’ existing US go-to-market relationship. The development is particularly relevant as Huntress continues expanding beyond its original endpoint security focus into a broader set of managed cybersecurity capabilities for MSPs. For Canadian partners, the relationship could provide additional purchasing and procurement options through an established distributor. The companies have not yet provided ChannelBuzz.ca with detailed information about Canadian pricing, product availability or the commercial structure of the expanded relationship. ChannelBuzz.ca is also pursuing a joint conversation with Huntress and Ingram Micro about the Canadian opportunity and the evolution of their partnership. Fortinet urges immediate security updates across major products Fortinet is calling on customers and partners to prioritize a coordinated set of security-hardening updates released Thursday for FortiOS, FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer. The updates follow recent releases for FortiMail and FortiAuthenticator. Fortinet says the releases address critical and high-severity vulnerabilities, including issues identified through its frontier AI-assisted security testing program. The company is urging organizations to prioritize internet-facing systems and treat the updates as an urgent security change rather than routine maintenance. Recommended steps include inventorying affected systems, scheduling maintenance windows, backing up configurations and restricting administrative access where immediate upgrades aren’t possible. Detailed public vulnerability advisories are expected November 10. Read Fortinet’s security-hardening announcement. Cycode reports 500% Canadian customer growth Application security vendor Cycode is expanding its Canadian operations following what it describes as 500% growth in its Canadian customer base over approximately 18 months. The company has established dedicated presales, postsales and customer-success resources serving Canada. Canadian customers named in the announcement include Jane Software, Clio, Tenstorrent, Benevity, BDO Canada and theScore. Cycode is also repositioning its portfolio around agentic development security, reflecting the growing role of AI coding assistants and autonomous agents in software development. Its platform is intended to provide visibility, governance and security controls across the development lifecycle, from initial prompts through production. The announcement doesn’t specify the size of Cycode’s Canadian partner network or whether the expansion includes new channel resources. Read Cycode’s Canadian expansion announcement. Also in today’s briefing Huntress documents Microsoft 365 token-replay attacks. New research describes a ten-week campaign affecting 79 organizations, involving more than 200,000 login attempts and 497 confirmed successful sign-ins. Attackers used stolen authentication tokens rather than guessing passwords, sometimes registering their own devices and MFA methods to maintain access. The campaign is distinct from the recent ConnectWise incident. Read Huntress’s research. Climb Global Solutions acquires French distributor NeoVAD. Climb has completed an approximately €16 million acquisition of NeoVAD, a value-added distributor serving about 300 active French reseller partners. The transaction expands Climb’s European presence and strengthens relationships with vendors including Cato Networks, DataCore and Netwrix. Wagepoint finds Canadian small businesses growing and retaining workers. Payroll data from approximately 6,800 Canadian businesses shows average headcount increasing 44% between 2019 and 2025, while annual employee separations fell from 38% to 27%. Gen Z now represents 38% of employees in the dataset, compared with 18% in 2019. Read Wagepoint’s Canadian workforce research. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca. I’m Robert Dutt. Today is Friday, October 23, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. We begin with a development that’s particularly relevant to Canadian managed service providers. Huntress is expanding its distribution relationship with Ingram Micro into Canada. The two companies already have an established go-to-market relationship in the United States, and the expansion will also include Latin America. For Canadian MSPs and solution providers, the announcement means another route to market for Huntress’s cybersecurity portfolio through one of the country’s largest technology distributors. Huntress has become an increasingly significant name in the managed cybersecurity market. The company built much of its reputation around managed endpoint detection and response, but has been steadily broadening its portfolio and the range of security problems it helps MSPs address. And that makes the distribution expansion interesting from both sides. For Huntress, Ingram Micro offers access to an established Canadian reseller and MSP community, including partners that may not already have a direct relationship with the security vendor. For Ingram, the relationship adds another security offering to a portfolio serving partners that are increasingly being asked to provide managed protection rather than simply sell cybersecurity products. And for MSPs, an additional distribution route can potentially simplify purchasing and vendor management, particularly when they’re already doing significant business with Ingram. There are still some details we’d like to understand. The companies haven’t yet provided specifics about Canadian pricing, product availability or how the commercial relationship will operate. And there’s a broader question about where Huntress sees its next phase of growth in Canada, particularly as more MSPs expand their managed security practices. We’re hoping to explore those questions with representatives from both Huntress and Ingram Micro on a future episode of In The Channel. For now, the important development is that Huntress is extending an existing distribution relationship into the Canadian market. Our second story concerns an unusually urgent security update from Fortinet. The company is strongly encouraging customers and partners to prioritize a coordinated set of security-hardening releases across several of its major products. Updates for FortiOS, FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer were scheduled for release yesterday, following recent updates for FortiMail and FortiAuthenticator. And Fortinet is making it clear that these shouldn’t be treated as ordinary maintenance releases. The company says the updates include fixes for critical and high-severity vulnerabilities. Some of those issues were identified through Fortinet’s use of frontier AI models to examine product code, protocol handling and configuration logic. Fortinet says that approach has helped it identify weaknesses more efficiently than traditional testing methods. But there’s another side to that development. The same advances in AI-assisted code analysis could help attackers examine software updates, identify vulnerabilities and develop exploits more quickly. And that means the time between a security fix becoming available and attackers attempting to exploit the underlying weakness could become considerably shorter. Fortinet is recommending that organizations prioritize internet-facing devices, inventory affected systems and schedule updates as quickly as practical. It also recommends backing up configurations and reviewing logs for suspicious administrative activity. For organizations that can’t update immediately, temporary measures include restricting administrative interfaces to trusted IP addresses and ensuring management systems aren’t directly exposed to the internet. Those mitigations can reduce risk, but Fortinet stresses that they aren’t substitutes for applying the updates. Detailed public vulnerability advisories are expected on November 10. For MSPs, this is an operational story as much as a security story. Partners managing Fortinet equipment across multiple customer environments need to understand which versions are affected, coordinate maintenance windows and ensure that systems don’t remain exposed simply because an update hasn’t yet been scheduled. And the broader implication is worth watching. If AI is accelerating both vulnerability discovery and the development of exploits, the economics and logistics of patch management may become increasingly challenging for service providers. Our third main story comes from application security vendor Cycode, which is reporting substantial growth in Canada. In an announcement earlier this week, Cycode said its Canadian customer base has grown by 500 percent over approximately eighteen months. That’s a company-reported growth figure, and Cycode hasn’t disclosed the starting customer count. But the company has also made a more tangible investment in the market, establishing dedicated presales, postsales and customer-success resources serving Canadian organizations. Cycode names several Canadian customers, including Jane Software, Clio, Tenstorrent, Benevity, BDO Canada and theScore. The expansion comes as the company shifts its positioning from traditional software supply chain security toward what it calls agentic development security. The underlying problem is straightforward. AI coding assistants and autonomous development agents are changing how software gets written, tested and deployed. That can increase t

Shannon Bell, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer at OpenText Even the companies building the technology are discovering that the road to autonomous AI isn’t quite as straightforward as expected. At OpenText World 2026, Shannon Bell, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer at OpenText, acknowledged that the company had expected to move toward fully autonomous AI workflows much faster than it has. The biggest surprise? The importance of the human element. In this episode of In The Channel, Bell discusses what OpenText has learned from deploying agentic AI internally, including its global command centre, where human operators and AI agents work together. Those lessons have prompted a more deliberate approach to adoption, with greater emphasis on change management, employee readiness and incremental deployments. For channel partners, the implications extend beyond the technology itself. Bell argues that getting enterprise data ready for AI is an ongoing discipline, not a project with a defined finish line. As customers improve data quality and governance, deploy agents and identify new business processes to automate, partners have opportunities to deliver continuing value rather than one-time implementations. We also discuss OpenText’s evolving AI portfolio, including Aviator and Aviator Studio, and the potential for partners to build repeatable, industry-specific solutions using the company’s technology. Bell acknowledges that partner adoption remains in its early stages, but sees considerable opportunity as customers mature in their AI journeys. And looking ahead, Bell shares her enthusiasm for hybrid agentic AI, which would allow organizations to deploy AI workflows across cloud and on-premises environments while keeping sensitive data where it belongs. It’s a candid look at the practical challenges behind the agentic AI vision — and what those challenges mean for the partners tasked with making it work.

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Zoom outlines new MSP specialization and partner incentives At its Zoomtopia Partner Connect event, Zoom announced updates to its Zoom Up Partner Program, including a new Managed Service Provider specialization expected in December. The specialization is intended to recognize partners delivering managed services, with anticipated benefits including advanced delegated account access, direct Tier 2 support and enhanced service levels. Zoom is also simplifying its performance metrics around monthly recurring revenue growth, introducing new incentives for longer customer commitments in 2027, and expanding self-service capabilities for partners. The company says partners are now its largest source of new enterprise business. In an interview with Channel Dive, global channel GTM leader Nick Tidd said more than 300 partners had signed up to deliver professional services over the previous two quarters. Read Zoom’s full partner-program announcement. SentinelOne expands PartnerOne to support AI security services At OneCon 2026 in Las Vegas, SentinelOne announced a significant expansion of its PartnerOne program, introducing new certifications, assessments and delivery resources intended to help VARs, MSPs and MSSPs build AI security practices. The additions include Implementation Engineer certifications for Prompt Security, endpoint and identity protection, and AI SIEM. Partners can also access an AI Recon Assessment Service, early access to Singularity Agentic Detection and Response, and deployment packages containing scoping guides, statements of work and implementation runbooks. LevelBlue, GuidePoint Security and World Wide Technology are initial launch partners, with broader availability planned over the coming months. SentinelOne separately expanded its Lenovo relationship, bringing Prompt Security capabilities into Lenovo’s ThinkShield portfolio. Read SentinelOne’s PartnerOne announcement. Dell expands AI Factory with NVIDIA At NVIDIA GTC Berlin, Dell Technologies announced new capabilities across its AI Factory with NVIDIA portfolio, including validated AI software solutions, deskside agentic AI deployment templates and modular data-centre infrastructure. New ecosystem additions include solutions involving Mistral, Dynatrace, Fogsphere and Reflection. Dell is also expanding its deskside AI portfolio with reference designs intended to help organizations scale from individual developers to deployments of more than 1,000 systems. On the infrastructure side, Dell introduced plans for modular AI data centres based on NVIDIA’s DSX POD reference design, alongside new PowerEdge platforms. Dell says more than 6,500 organizations have adopted the AI Factory with NVIDIA. Read Dell’s announcement. Also in today’s briefing Ricoh finds a Canadian AI adoption disconnect. New research finds that while 85 percent of Canadian business decision-makers believe their workplace technology is connected, 76 percent of employees say their jobs would be easier if those systems worked better together. Another 43 percent report using non-approved tools at least monthly. Read Ricoh’s research announcement. Barracuda identifies cybersecurity expertise gaps. A new international survey finds 94 percent of organizations report cybersecurity skills gaps, particularly around AI risks and advanced identity and phishing threats. Read Barracuda’s analysis. Tanium brings endpoint management to NVIDIA AI systems. A new collaboration extends Tanium’s management capabilities to local AI infrastructure, including NVIDIA DGX Spark and RTX Spark, with visibility into system configuration, compliance and AI-agent activity. Read the announcement. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca. I’m Robert Dutt. Today is Thursday, October 22, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. We begin with Zoom, which is preparing a new specialization for managed service providers as part of a broader overhaul of its partner program. The changes were announced Tuesday at Zoomtopia Partner Connect, and they reflect Zoom’s continuing effort to make the channel a larger part of how it sells, implements and manages its expanding portfolio. The headline for MSPs is a new specialization expected to launch in December. Zoom says the specialization will recognize partners that deliver managed services, with anticipated benefits including advanced delegated account access, direct Tier 2 support, enhanced service levels and additional incentives. Those are potentially important changes for partners looking to manage Zoom environments on an ongoing basis, rather than simply selling licenses and moving on. The company is also simplifying how partners earn points within its program. Under the new structure, partners will receive one point for every thousand dollars in monthly recurring revenue growth during the applicable assessment period, while new-customer revenue will continue to be measured separately. Zoom is also planning new incentives for longer customer commitments next year. Other changes include expanded self-service access to not-for-resale licenses and a new business process outsourcing program for Zoom Contact Center. And Zoom says the channel is now its largest source of new enterprise business, accounting for 90 percent of its ten largest customer experience deals in its second fiscal quarter. There’s an interesting services story underneath all of this. Speaking with Channel Dive, Zoom’s global channel GTM leader Nick Tidd said more than 300 partners had signed up to deliver professional services over the previous two quarters. But Tidd also suggested that implementation is only the beginning. The next challenge is helping customers actually adopt and use more of the platform. For MSPs, that potentially means a larger role in ongoing administration, integration, optimization and customer adoption. And as Zoom moves further into AI-powered services and consumption-based pricing, how partners participate in that recurring business will become an increasingly important question. Our second story comes from SentinelOne, which is giving partners a more structured path into AI security services. At its OneCon conference in Las Vegas yesterday, SentinelOne announced a major expansion of its PartnerOne program. The goal is to help VARs, MSPs and managed security providers build services businesses around AI security and autonomous security operations. There are several components. First, SentinelOne is introducing new implementation certifications covering its Prompt Security offering, endpoint and identity protection, and AI SIEM. Second, partners will have access to an AI Recon Assessment Service, designed to help them identify customer risks and create consulting and implementation opportunities. There’s also early access to Singularity Agentic Detection and Response, which focuses on discovering AI agents, monitoring their behaviour, enforcing policies and responding to potentially malicious activity. On the security operations side, SentinelOne is introducing additional certifications and assessment services covering data pipelines, AI-assisted investigation and automated response. And perhaps most practically, certified partners will receive delivery packages containing scoping guides, statements of work, project plans and deployment runbooks. Those resources are intended to make it easier for partners to turn technical capabilities into repeatable services. The initial launch partners are LevelBlue, GuidePoint Security and World Wide Technology, with a broader rollout planned over the coming months. That’s an impressive group, but it also raises an interesting question. How accessible will these opportunities be to smaller MSPs that don’t already have sophisticated security practices? SentinelOne clearly wants partners to own more of the services layer. The question is how broadly that opportunity will extend across its partner ecosystem. The company also announced an expanded relationship with Lenovo, bringing SentinelOne Prompt Security into Lenovo’s ThinkShield portfolio. That extends their existing endpoint security relationship into visibility and governance of enterprise AI use. Our third main story takes us to NVIDIA GTC Berlin, where Dell Technologies has announced another substantial expansion of its AI Factory with NVIDIA. Dell says more than 6,500 organizations have now adopted the platform, up from 5,000 last quarter. The latest announcement is focused on helping enterprises move agentic AI beyond experimentation and into production. That includes new validated software solutions and deployment blueprints involving companies such as Mistral, Dynatrace, Fogsphere and Reflection. Dell is also expanding its deskside agentic AI offerings. New reference templates are intended to help organizations move from an individual developer running AI locally to deployments involving more than a thousand systems. The hardware additions include new Dell Pro Precision configurations built around NVIDIA processors. And at the larger end of the market, Dell is introducing modular data-centre infrastructure based on NVIDIA’s DSX POD reference design. These containerized systems are designed to combine compute, storage, networking, power and liquid cooling in factory-integrated deployments. Dell also announced new PowerEdge systems designed for agentic workloads and high-throughput inference. There are services implications here as well. Dell Managed Services for AI, expected in the first quarter of next year, is intended to help organizations manage AI resources, access, consumption and costs. For channel partners, the broader opportunity is in helping customers choose, deploy, integrate and manage increasingly complex AI infrastructure. But it’s also wort

Todd Cione, chief sales officer at OpenText OpenText is rethinking how it reaches and serves mid-market customers, putting partners at the centre of a significant transformation in its commercial strategy. Speaking with In The Channel at OpenText World 2026 in Orlando, Todd Cione, executive vice president and chief sales officer at OpenText, described a “radical pivot” away from a direct sales approach that has struggled to provide sufficient coverage of the mid-market. Instead, the company is increasingly turning to regional solution providers, systems integrators and other channel partners to extend its reach and deliver customer value. The shift is part of a broader transformation under OpenText’s new One OpenText operating model, which brings together the company’s extensive technology portfolio and partner ecosystem around customer needs. For its largest 2,400 customers, OpenText has introduced client executives responsible for coordinating internal specialists and external partners. Cione also sees a substantial opportunity to drive organic growth by expanding adoption of OpenText technologies across its existing base of more than 120,000 customers. But realizing that opportunity requires more than encouraging partners to cross-sell. Cione points to financial incentives, technical and commercial enablement, and simpler programs and systems as essential investments. That includes reconsidering the historically significant costs associated with some partner training. The conversation also explores the role of OpenText’s MSP-focused cybersecurity business, opportunities to extend the company’s portfolio into smaller customers, and the challenge of creating a more consistent partner experience without losing the specialization different types of partners require. OpenText’s existing Accelerate Partner Program illustrates some of the distinct requirements of its cybersecurity channel. Cione says roughly half of OpenText’s revenue is currently influenced by partners, a proportion the company hopes to increase over time. In this episode of In The Channel, Cione discusses what these changes mean for OpenText partners and where the company’s channel strategy goes next. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello, and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the past 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor at ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’re coming to you from OpenText World 2026 in Orlando, where the company is laying out an ambitious vision for its future, positioning itself as a critical provider of trusted information and connected data for the emerging world of enterprise AI. But delivering on that vision is going to take more than technology. It’s going to require some significant changes to how OpenText goes to market, particularly how it works with its partners. That’s where today’s guest comes in. Todd Cione is OpenText’s president of Worldwide Sales, and I had the opportunity to sit down with him shortly after CEO Ayman Antoun laid out the company’s strategy in his opening keynote. Todd describes what he calls a radical pivot in OpenText’s approach to the mid-market, moving away from a predominantly direct sales approach towards one that depends much more heavily on partners to reach and serve customers. We also get into the company’s new One OpenText commercial model, the opportunities for partners to build businesses around more of OpenText’s extensive portfolio, and what it will take to make that cross-selling opportunity a reality. And we discuss where the company’s substantial MSP-focused cybersecurity business fits into the broader strategy, as well as efforts to simplify the experience of working with OpenText across its many businesses. It’s a conversation about some significant changes in how OpenText thinks about its channel, and what partners can expect as those changes take shape. Let’s get right into it, my chat with Todd Cione. Robert Dutt: Well, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. I imagine this has got to be a busy, active week for you and the whole team here. Todd Cione: Thanks for having me, Robert. It’s a fantastic week, and very excited to have colleagues, partners, and clients here at OpenText World. Robert Dutt: So we just sat in on a session where Ayman laid out a pretty ambitious vision for where OpenText goes from here. When you look at that strategy, when you were formulating that strategy, where do your partners fit into making that all a reality over time? Todd Cione: Yeah, I think they play a critical role in the AI stack. I mean, put simply, no one vendor partner can deliver value across the entirety of the AI stack to a client. Shannon’s metaphor of a team sport, I think, is directly applicable. It takes an entire ecosystem working together to deliver the value that clients expect today. Robert Dutt: Let’s talk about that ecosystem. Moving down the stack into the long tail of the channel, when you get beyond the GSIs, the technology partners, and start looking at the regional solution providers, the consultants, the implementation partners who are working directly with customers, large and small, but especially once you get into that mid-market and below size. Todd Cione: Yeah, look, clients expect, whether they’re a large enterprise or they’re in the mid-market, they’re dealing with the same problems. They just have different amounts of resources available to them to solve problems. They need technology, they need expertise, but it’s that combination of technology and expertise where business value comes that they all expect. Partners of all categories play a critical role. As you’re referencing, regional system integrators, resellers that are localized in markets, bring either local expertise on the marketplace or the country where they are serving and operating, or they bring some type of vertical expertise, whether it’s public sector or private sector. In that combination of their expertise and our technology is where I think the value lies for a client. Robert Dutt: How do you see the transition that this whole industry, this whole world is in right now changing the definition of who is, or will be six months, a year, two years from now, an OpenText partner? I’m curious if the kind of things you’re looking for in the partner base are evolving as both the market itself and OpenText’s place within it evolves. Todd Cione: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think if you look back on the last decade, just for context before we look forward, it’s important to recognize that we certainly have invested in a partner ecosystem and a partner channel. However, the expectation of value and scale was different previously than it is now, and it is going forward. Partners unequivocally are core to our entire company, including our commercial model that I’m responsible for. That means large global system integrators and regional system integrators to extend the delivery of professional services expertise. That means cloud service providers to provide the infrastructure layer on that modern AI stack. That means technology providers like SAP, Salesforce, that we integrate into their systems of record. That also means technology providers that build applications, agents on top of our platform as well, and then resellers and distributors that provide scale. Moving forward, this ecosystem is not only critical for clients because no one technology provider can provide the entire stack, but it’s core to OpenText. It is core to what we do. It’s going to be core to our product roadmap. You’re going to see more and more and more tomorrow. It’s core to how we bring value to our shared clients. It’s like an integrated part of our sales force that I’m responsible for. Robert Dutt: How does that go-to-market continue to evolve, especially as that whole ecosystem that you describe gets more complex? We get into situations where it’s you plus an OpenText partner plus any number of those technology partners who may have their own channels, and sometimes there’s going to be overlap between their partners and your partners, but not always. It can create a complex ecosystem, and managing that is a little bit of a different beast. Todd Cione: Yeah, certainly with more providers working together to provide a common solution for a client, there can be complexity. But put simply, our job is to simplify it. Our job is to integrate and work super closely with a partner ecosystem early in a sales cycle, in a value cycle with a client, so that we all have clarity on our roles and responsibilities. What part of the overall solution for a client are we going to provide? And that way there’s kind of a seamless experience, most importantly, for the client. And so we work really, really, really hard on it. We’re not perfect. We’re learning a lot. Our teams are learning, but we’re making big investments, human investments in resources, to be able to bring that simplicity to clients, and then enablement investments for the teams that we do have. Robert Dutt: Is it changing kind of the nature of the sales call, the sales motion, when you’ve got all those different folks potentially in the room to make something that hopefully will reach some of those outcomes that we’re all striving for on behalf of customers? Todd Cione: Simple answer is yes. And the longer answer is, gone are the days where OpenText would show up just with a product specialist to our client by themselves. And here are the days where we’ve launched an initiative, an organizational structure, a program, a model called One OpenText that puts the client at the center of everything that we do and is partner-centric. And with that, for our largest 2,400 clients globally, we have a client executive that we’ve deployed. And this is a new

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: OpenText stakes out its role as the trusted data foundation for enterprise AI: OpenText CEO Ayman Antoun used his keynote at OpenText World 2026 in Orlando on Tuesday to outline a strategy centred on providing the secure, governed enterprise information needed to make artificial intelligence useful in production environments.Rather than attempting to own every layer of the emerging AI technology stack, OpenText is positioning itself as a provider of the trusted data and context connecting enterprise information to AI applications and agents.Antoun argued that the limitations of enterprise data are becoming a major obstacle to AI adoption, suggesting that only about 20 percent of enterprise information is currently usable in agentic AI workflows.His broader argument is that AI models and agents cannot consistently deliver reliable business outcomes without accurate information, appropriate context and strong governance over how that information is accessed and used. OpenText sees an opportunity to provide that foundation across its existing portfolio of information management, business network, IT operations and cybersecurity technologies. The approach also relies on partnerships with companies providing complementary capabilities, including AI models, orchestration platforms and infrastructure. OpenText’s previously announced partnership with Canadian AI company Cohere illustrates that division of responsibilities: OpenText supplies the enterprise data and context layer, while Cohere provides models and orchestration through its North platform. For solution providers, the strategy could create opportunities around preparing enterprise data for AI, integrating business systems, implementing governance controls and helping customers move AI projects from experimentation into production. However, the keynote left questions about how those opportunities will extend across OpenText’s different partner communities, particularly its existing managed services business. ChannelBuzz.ca is covering OpenText World in Orlando this week, including interviews with OpenText executives and partners examining how the strategy translates into channel opportunities. ThreatLocker launches Zero Trust AI Control for AI agents: ThreatLocker has introduced Zero Trust AI Control, or ZTAIC, a new security capability designed to restrict what AI agents can access, execute and connect to within an organization’s environment.The October 20 announcement addresses a growing concern as businesses move from AI tools that generate information to agents capable of taking actions across applications and systems.Traditional AI guardrails typically rely on instructions or policies intended to influence how an agent behaves. ThreatLocker is taking a different approach, applying security controls independently of the AI system itself.ZTAIC is designed to enforce restrictions on application execution, file access and network connections, including when an AI agent invokes other applications, scripts or processes to complete a task. For example, an agent might be authorized to analyze information in a particular folder and generate a report, while remaining unable to access unrelated files or transmit information to unauthorized destinations. The offering builds on ThreatLocker’s existing Zero Trust platform, including application allowlisting, Ringfencing and Web Content Control. Security teams can begin with recommended policies and adapt them to the requirements of individual environments. For Canadian MSPs, the development points to an emerging service opportunity around helping customers deploy AI agents safely. That work involves identifying which agents should be permitted, defining their access requirements, limiting their privileges and maintaining controls as they interact with other software. The announcement does not specify Canadian pricing, availability details or a new MSP-specific commercial program. While the technology is designed to reduce the risks associated with agentic AI, it does not eliminate the need for broader identity security, monitoring and governance. Flexera expands AI cost management into infrastructure and data platforms: Flexera has announced an expansion of its AI Cost Management platform, extending its existing capabilities for tracking AI applications, agents, models and token consumption into the infrastructure and data platforms supporting those workloads.The October 20 announcement adds autonomous optimization capabilities designed to balance cost and performance across cloud infrastructure, containers and AI data services.Flexera is also expanding its ecosystem of integrations with AI gateways, model-routing technologies, observability platforms and economic-control systems.The company’s existing Token Cost Control capabilities provide visibility into consumption across AI model APIs and applications, including identifying the users and agents responsible for spending. Those capabilities can support cost allocation, chargebacks, forecasting and governance. The expansion adds more attention to the infrastructure costs that can accumulate behind AI workloads, including compute resources and data-platform operations. Flexera expects automation for Snowflake environments to become available by the end of 2026, followed by Databricks automation in early 2027. The company is also working with vendors including Revenium and Ascerta, formerly Pay-i, to expand the information available for managing AI economics. A new AI cost-management maturity assessment is available to help organizations evaluate their practices. Flexera partner SoftwareOne is among the companies highlighting growing customer demand for financial visibility and accountability as AI moves into production. For Canadian solution providers, the opportunity extends beyond helping customers select AI technologies. Partners can potentially build services around measuring consumption, identifying inefficient workloads, allocating costs, implementing spending controls and connecting AI investments to business outcomes. The announcement builds on capabilities introduced earlier this year. Some of the newly described automation features remain scheduled for future release rather than being generally available today. In Brief Grafana opens commercial marketplace for partner-developed plugins: Grafana Labs has announced general availability of the Grafana Marketplace, allowing verified technology partners and developers to sell commercial plugins through Grafana’s existing extension catalog.Announced October 20 at ObservabilityCON, the marketplace provides a new way for developers to generate recurring revenue from integrations they build and maintain for Grafana.The initial offering supports trials and monthly subscriptions for Grafana Cloud customers.Grafana Labs handles billing and payment support, while the partners developing the plugins remain responsible for technical support, maintenance and compatibility. Every marketplace listing is reviewed by Grafana Labs and must meet requirements covering security, software signing and handling sensitive information. The initial catalog includes integrations for network and security platforms, storage and virtualization systems, collaboration tools, and infrastructure cost management. Available plugins include connections to technologies from Cisco, Fortinet, VMware, NetApp, Dell, Microsoft, Nutanix, Proofpoint and others. Marketplace participants include Crest Data, Phenisys, Integration Plumbers, Helin Data and KensoBI. The commercial marketplace is an addition to Grafana’s existing plugin ecosystem, not a replacement for its free and open-source extensions. Developers can continue distributing free plugins without participating in the commercial program. For Canadian software developers, systems integrators and specialized solution providers, the marketplace offers a potential way to commercialize expertise in connecting enterprise technologies. Building an integration can require significant ongoing work to maintain compatibility, address security issues and support customers. Grafana’s new model is designed to make that work more commercially sustainable by giving developers access to customers already using the platform. The marketplace was introduced in preview earlier this year. The October 20 announcement marks its general availability. ConnectWise introduces technical webinars as cloud services remain suspended: ConnectWise said Tuesday that Cloud Backup, SaaS Security and Cloud Management remained unavailable while remediation and security validation continued following unauthorized access involving application identities. The company is planning a controlled, phased restoration but has not confirmed a timetable. It has also introduced technical webinars for partners, beginning October 20, to help administrators investigate Microsoft Entra ID logs, application credentials and permissions across their own and customer Microsoft 365 environments. Cycode expands Canadian operations after reporting substantial customer growth: Cycode says its Canadian customer base has grown 500 percent over approximately 18 months. The application-security company has established dedicated Canadian pre-sales, post-sales and customer-success teams, and names Jane Software, Clio, Tenstorrent, Benevity, BDO Canada and theScore among its customers. The company is emphasizing security for AI-assisted software development, although it has not disclosed the starting customer count behind its growth figure or announced a new Canadian partner program. Check Point expands AWS collaboration around cloud and AI security: Check Point has signed an expanded multi-year strategic collaboration agreement with AWS, building on an existing relationship established through a 2024 agreement. The companies will deepen integrations

Dave Baggett, senior vice president and general manager of Kaseya’s Security Suite business Cybersecurity has a complexity problem. And for managed service providers already struggling with limited resources and growing customer expectations, that complexity may be making it harder to deliver the protection businesses need. That’s one of the themes emerging from Kaseya’s new 2026 Cybersecurity Report: Building Security That Survives Human Error, which surveyed more than 1,100 MSPs and IT professionals worldwide. The research finds that 68 per cent of respondents identify human error as their biggest cybersecurity concern. But it also highlights the operational challenges created by security itself, including the time required to manage tools, maintain controls, and support users. In this episode of In The Channel, Dave Baggett, senior vice president and general manager of Kaseya’s Security Suite business, joins us to discuss why stronger cybersecurity may increasingly depend on making security easier to manage. Baggett argues that organizations need to design security around the reality that people make mistakes, rather than expecting users to behave perfectly. That means combining effective controls with systems that reduce the consequences of errors and simplify the work required to maintain protection. The conversation also explores how AI could reshape security management, moving MSPs toward natural-language interfaces, more integrated security tools, and automated assistance with configuration and threat analysis. Baggett explains how Kaseya’s approach to connected cybersecurity fits into that vision. Beyond the technology, Baggett discusses the challenges MSPs face in convincing customers to invest proactively in cybersecurity, the role of compliance in driving investment, and what Kaseya’s research reveals about the security practices of commercially successful MSPs. The result is a discussion about making cybersecurity more effective, more manageable, and ultimately more sustainable for MSPs and their customers. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last sixteen years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’ve spent decades talking about people being the weakest link in cybersecurity, and despite enormous advances in security technology, that fundamental challenge does not seem to be going away. Kaseya’s new 2026 Cybersecurity Report finds that 68 per cent of respondents identify human error as their biggest cybersecurity concern, but the research also highlights another challenge that may be just as important for managed service providers, the growing complexity of security itself. Organizations are deploying more tools, implementing more controls, and facing more demanding compliance requirements. All of those things are intended to make businesses more secure, but they also create additional work for IT teams that are already stretched thin. And it raises an interesting question. At what point does the complexity of managing cybersecurity become a security risk in its own right? Joining me to explore that question is Dave Baggett, senior vice president and general manager of Kaseya’s Security Suite business. Dave and I discuss why building security that can withstand human mistakes is more realistic than trying to eliminate those mistakes entirely, and why simplifying security operations may be one of the most important opportunities for MSPs. We also get into the role AI could play in making security tools easier to manage, the challenge of convincing customers to invest in cybersecurity before something goes wrong, and what Kaseya’s research suggests about the relationship between security maturity and MSP business performance. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about making cybersecurity not just stronger, but more practical for the people responsible for delivering it. Let’s get right into it, my chat with Dave Baggett. Robert Dutt: Dave, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Dave Baggett: Absolutely. Great to be here. Robert Dutt: Let’s start with the headline finding from the report, you know, a little over two-thirds of respondents identify human error as the biggest cybersecurity concern. You know, we’ve talked about people being the weakest link in security for probably as long as security has been done forever. There’s still such a persistent problem, and, you know, have we actually made any meaningful progress on this? Dave Baggett: I think we have. I think one way to think about this is it’s a lot easier to manipulate people if you’re a bad guy than it is to find some vulnerability in a software system or, you know, so in some sense it’s because it’s easier. And you know, social engineering is just, it’s just so easy to be creative there, right? And one of the things that sort of always impresses me is how creative these bad guys are. And I often wish they were working on fusion power or something useful because we probably would have solved it by now. We are making progress though. I mean, it’s certainly true that forever this has been the number one source of breaches as you know, manipulating people. But we have been making progress. One thing we we’ve leaned into with Kaseya with our email security in particular is trying to make the human part of the defense, right? So certainly the AI that we use blocks lots of malicious emails, but we also put yellow banners on some emails and that doesn’t mean we think the mail’s bad. We just want the user to slow down and pay attention before they go buy gift cards or click that link or fire money to somebody. And we found that’s actually really effective. That if you limit the percentage of emails you do this with, so they don’t become blind to it. Number one, and number two, you put in meaningful information, not technical verbiage. When people actually do stop and think for a few seconds and that materially lowers not only the rates of clicking on bad links, but all these other kinds of things that social engineering causes people to do. Robert Dutt: One of the central arguments in the report is that we should probably stop expecting people to make the right decision every time and instead build systems that can survive and get around mistakes. For that smaller MSP who’s managing security across dozens or hundreds of customer environments, what is making that shift look like in practice? Dave Baggett: I think part of it is making the tools easier to use because one of the things that we saw a lot of MSPs report to us in this was, hey, we just don’t have the time to manage all these tools. We can’t hire people who know how to use these tools well enough. So one of the things we think a lot about is how can we use things like AI to make the tools themselves simpler? How do we make the tools work better with each other? Because we heard a lot of feedback from this report, hey, we have to go to 17 different places to do things. We don’t like that. One of the things that I’m really optimistic about actually is we kind of envision the whole user interface for all these tools radically changing. So instead of going to a UI and pressing buttons and clicking stuff, I think you’re going to see MSPs and admins in general using more like Claude Code kind of interfaces or copilot where they’re using a natural language interface and we’re going to expose MCP servers and that sort of thing to make that possible. So that instead of going, you know, imagine, you know, an admin generating a report to show one of their customers. Right now they would go to, you know, a webpage that’s a report generating webpage. Just imagine that being typing, hey, make me a report that has this information. And then on the backend, what we’re doing is building a unified data layer so that everything is stored, everything is queryable via MCP servers and all the information is shared across all the components. The other thing we’re doing with AI is using AI, obviously we use AI to look for threats and we use AI to analyze things. Like for example, in INKY, the email solution we have, we can send an email to the AI and it’ll give you an analysis like an expert, right? It’s like a human expert. So you don’t need to have a human expert. But the other thing that I’m optimistic about is using AI to make recommendations about settings so that the admin doesn’t have to know every one of the thousand settings. I mean, some of these tools are really complicated, EDR for example, there’s lots of settings, the settings are hard to understand. So using AI to recommend to people, hey, you could suppress this noise, you could make these changes and so you’re not placing so much burden on the admin to know everything about the domain. Robert Dutt: The research also talks about having a well trained internal IT or security team is the factor that is I think most frequently associated with coming back from an incident with rapid recovery. Exactly. So it seems like people are at the same time the biggest vulnerability and the most important defense, although obviously AI will be playing an important role there. I guess what I’m getting at is, you know, in this moment, how should MSPs be thinking about that balance between technology, automation, which also I guess follows under technology, but will treat as discrete for the purpose of this question, and human expertise? Dave Baggett: I mean, I think that you’re going to still need to hire really, really good people. There’s no way we’re replacing all humans with AI anytime soon. You know, I think that what we’re looking at is, you know, people, when chess playing programs first came out, there is this funny term centaur chess, where you’d have a human use an AI t

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: ConnectWise works to restore cloud services after Microsoft 365 security incident: ConnectWise continues investigating unauthorized access involving application identities associated with Cloud Backup, formerly known as SkyKick, after attackers used compromised credentials associated with the service to authenticate to customer Microsoft 365 environments.The company discovered the activity October 15 and subsequently disabled seven application identities. It also suspended Cloud Backup, SaaS Security and Cloud Management while conducting its investigation and validating remediation measures. As of Monday evening, the services had not been restored. Scheduled backups, access to affected backup archives and restoration capabilities remained unavailable, along with SaaS Security monitoring and certain Cloud Management functions. ConnectWise chief technology officer David Raissipour told CRN in an interview Monday that the disruption affects several thousand MSP partners worldwide. He said the company has made significant progress toward safely restoring services, although no restoration timetable has been confirmed. The underlying security incident extends beyond the operational disruption. Independent research by Huntress documented unauthorized Microsoft 365 authentication using a compromised ConnectWise Cloud Backup credential, with unauthorized sign-ins confirmed across more than 160 customer tenants. Huntress also identified activity in which a separate ConnectWise Cloud Management application assigned itself Global Administrator privileges in one tenant and added credentials to other trusted applications. That finding is significant because disabling the original affected application does not necessarily eliminate other credentials or permissions established during unauthorized activity. ConnectWise says the affected shared credentials have been invalidated. It has observed no successful threat activity in its monitored environments since October 17 at 1 a.m. Eastern. The company also reports no evidence that its stored backup archives have been accessed. Those findings do not establish whether individual live Microsoft 365 customer environments were affected. ConnectWise has expanded its technical guidance and published additional suspicious IP addresses for partners to investigate. MSPs are being advised to review their own Microsoft 365 tenants and every customer environment they manage, including dormant SkyKick connections. Recommended checks include application sign-ins, credentials, privileged roles, consent grants, policy changes and potentially unauthorized mailbox configurations. Partners should preserve relevant evidence and keep affected applications disabled until ConnectWise provides formal reconnection instructions. The incident highlights a growing security challenge for managed service providers: highly privileged third-party application identities can create exposure across multiple customer environments if their credentials are compromised. Because the investigation and service restoration efforts are continuing, affected providers should consult the ConnectWise Trust Center and live service-status page for developments after Monday evening. Cloudflare expands AI workspace integrations and deployment partnerships: Cloudflare has announced an expanded partner ecosystem for Cloudflare OS, its enterprise AI workspace designed to help organizations build and operate AI-driven workflows using existing business applications.New integrations connect the platform with applications including Asana, Box, Canva, ClickHouse, GitHub, Gong and Notion.Cloudflare OS allows users to describe tasks or automations in natural language, with the platform building workflows and connecting them to approved enterprise systems.Cloudflare says its approach emphasizes centralized security controls, limiting access to necessary data and providing visibility into AI activity. Its AI Gateway can also help organizations manage model selection and consumption costs. The company is working with managed-services and deployment organizations including EPAM, HappyCog and Towards AI to help customers implement the technology. Those partners can assist with identifying useful business processes, connecting enterprise applications, configuring controls and deploying AI agents. For Canadian solution providers, the announcement illustrates a growing services opportunity around AI implementation and governance. Rather than simply supplying AI software, partners may increasingly be responsible for integrating agents into customer workflows, controlling their access and managing their ongoing operation. Cloudflare has not announced a new Canadian MSP program or specific partner incentives as part of this expansion. Rewst makes AI-native MSP automation platform globally available: Rewst has announced worldwide availability of its new automation platform, allowing managed service providers to create workflows, forms, dashboards and client-facing applications through natural-language instructions.The October 13 release builds on capabilities previewed at Rewst’s FLOW conference earlier this year.The Rewst Agent can translate a description of an operational process into an automated workflow, using integrations and permissions already configured within the MSP’s environment.Users can inspect, test and modify the resulting workflows before approving them for deployment. Rewst says the platform maintains separation between customer environments and applies client-specific credentials and permissions to automated processes. The company reports that more than 110 MSPs participated in early access. During one 30-day period, those organizations collectively executed more than 1.25 million workflows and 58 million tasks across 340 integrations. Those are vendor-reported usage figures, rather than independent measures of productivity or cost savings. The platform is also designed to help MSPs create customer-facing applications and portals, potentially extending automation beyond internal service delivery into new billable offerings. For MSPs, the larger opportunity is to make automation accessible to employees who understand business processes but may not have specialized scripting or integration skills. The new platform is available globally to new customers. Existing customers will receive access progressively, while Rewst Classic remains supported. In Brief Ottawa expands funding for Canadian AI adoption: The federal government has added C$500 million over five years to the Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative, bringing total national funding to $700 million. The program supports eligible AI adoption and commercialization projects through regional development agencies. Applications are currently open in southern Ontario, with a January 19, 2027 final deadline and an earlier November 24 deadline for certain projects. Microsoft issues record October security update: Microsoft’s October 13 security updates addressed approximately 1,413 vulnerabilities across Windows, Office, SharePoint and other products. The release includes a Windows Shell security-feature bypass, CVE-2026-96951, that was already being exploited. MSPs should prioritize affected systems according to actual exposure and exploitation risk. Torq introduces new AI security operations partner program: Torq has launched Torq REV, a channel program for resellers, systems integrators, MSSPs and managed detection and response providers. The program includes deal protection, services-margin guarantees, technical enablement and different routes for partners to sell and deliver AI-driven security operations capabilities. Sabiki offers free Microsoft 365 AI-readiness assessments: Sabiki Security has introduced a free AI Readiness Scan designed to help MSPs and MSSPs identify risky Microsoft 365 configurations, excessive permissions and unmanaged non-human identities. The assessment performs more than 100 checks and includes selected automated remediation capabilities. Sabiki is positioning the free service as an entry point to its broader AIRM platform for monitoring and governing AI-agent identities. Canadian CISOs warn AI is accelerating security challenges: Kyndryl’s latest Canadian security-leadership discussions highlight concerns that AI is shortening the time available to identify and respond to vulnerabilities. Separately, Kyndryl’s 2026 modernization research found that only 46 percent of Canadian respondents were fully confident they understood their applications and dependencies before beginning modernization projects. The findings reinforce the importance of asset visibility and foundational security controls as organizations adopt AI. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Tuesday, October 20, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. There’s a major security incident affecting ConnectWise and its managed service provider customers, and as of about nine o’clock Monday evening, the company is still working to restore several suspended cloud services. ConnectWise discovered unauthorized access involving application identities associated with its Cloud Backup service, formerly known as SkyKick, last Thursday. Over the weekend, the company disabled seven application identities and suspended Cloud Backup, SaaS Security and Cloud Management. That means scheduled backups aren’t running, customers can’t access affected backup archives or restore data, and certain security monitoring and cloud management functions remain unavailable. The disruption affects several thousand MSP partners worldwide, according to ConnectWise’s chief technology officer, David Raissipour, who spoke with CRN on Monday. But there’s also a more serious security concern behind the service interruption. Researchers a

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: GTIA launches Managed Intelligence Alliance to establish standards for managed AI services: The Global Technology Industry Association has formally launched its Managed Intelligence Alliance, an initiative designed to help IT service providers deliver artificial intelligence to small and medium-sized businesses securely, responsibly and at scale.The Alliance was previewed at ChannelCon earlier this year and is being formally launched at Pax8 Beyond in Copenhagen.Pax8 is the charter member, with Rob Rae, the distributor’s corporate vice president of community and ecosystems, serving as chair. Founding participants include CrowdStrike, Cynet, F1 Information Technologies, Lyra, Microsoft, New Charter, NinjaOne, Rev.io and Sourcepass. The initiative will focus on four areas: open specifications to improve interoperability, capability standards for managed AI delivery, vendor-neutral accreditation, and research and guidance for the emerging market. GTIA says the resulting standards and accreditation frameworks will be published openly and made available at no cost, including to organizations outside its membership. The effort reflects a growing challenge for the channel. MSPs are increasingly being asked to help customers implement and manage AI, but common practices for delivering those services are still taking shape. GTIA hopes to help providers move beyond individual AI projects toward repeatable, governable managed services. The standards and accreditation programs remain to be developed. The announcement establishes the Alliance and its initial participants rather than introducing completed frameworks. For Canadian MSPs, the initiative could eventually provide a more consistent foundation for building managed AI offerings, demonstrating capabilities to customers and working across multiple vendors. Proofpoint agrees to acquire Varonis for $6.3 billion: Proofpoint and Varonis have entered a definitive acquisition agreement under which Proofpoint will acquire the data-security company in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately US$6.3 billion.Varonis shareholders will receive $49.75 per share. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to shareholder approval, regulatory clearance and other conditions.Proofpoint is owned by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has also agreed to invest in Proofpoint in connection with the acquisition. The combination brings together Proofpoint’s capabilities in email security, threat protection and data-loss prevention with Varonis’ expertise in identifying sensitive data, analyzing access permissions, monitoring data activity and reducing exposure. The companies intend to develop a broader platform for protecting information accessed by employees, applications and AI agents. That strategy reflects an increasingly important security challenge: organizations need to understand not only which information is sensitive, but who and what can access it as AI becomes more deeply integrated into business operations. For solution providers, the proposed combination could eventually create opportunities around data security, AI governance, permissions management and managed security services. However, the companies will remain independent until the acquisition closes. No changes to their respective channel programs or immediate product integrations have been announced. The acquisition follows Proofpoint’s separate announcement last week of new Microsoft 365 security capabilities for its MSP platform. Upstream Works introduces partner-led Totalix contact-centre platform: Woodbridge, Ontario-based Upstream Works has introduced Totalix, a new omnichannel contact-centre platform designed to operate within the business applications employees already use.Totalix is the company’s Version 8 platform, announced October 14, with an expanded channel strategy detailed October 16.Upstream Works says a new Totalix tenant can be provisioned in approximately one minute, without the engineering work traditionally associated with contact-centre deployments. The platform supports a fixed per-agent monthly pricing model and includes Totalix Mobile, which extends customer-engagement capabilities to employees working outside conventional contact centres. The offering will be sold through Upstream Works’ network of more than 50 partners, including resellers, systems integrators, carriers, technology partners and advisors. Partners will be able to resell Totalix or host it for customers. The company is also introducing an enhanced partner program alongside the new platform. Another unusual element is Totalix YOUR, a program under which customers on qualifying three-year agreements can submit an annual feature request for inclusion in the product roadmap, subject to program terms. Early-adopter availability begins in November, with general availability scheduled for December 1, 2026. For Canadian solution providers supporting communications, CRM and customer-experience environments, the announcement represents an opportunity to deliver contact-centre capabilities with simpler deployment and more predictable recurring costs. In Brief Cohere moves to acquire AI cybersecurity specialist AISLE: Toronto-based Cohere has signed a letter of intent to acquire AISLE, a cybersecurity company developing AI systems capable of discovering and helping remediate software vulnerabilities. The proposed transaction would strengthen Cohere’s security capabilities as it expands its sovereign AI platform for enterprises and governments. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the acquisition has not yet been completed. Keeper Security connects Tenable findings with privileged-access remediation: Keeper Security has announced new integrations with Tenable that connect cloud-security findings with credential management and privileged-access controls. Security teams can use the integrations to address selected identity and access risks through actions such as credential rotation, reduced standing privileges and just-in-time access. The goal is to reduce the gap between identifying an exposure and taking corrective action. Researchers warn MSPs about actively exploited Ahsay backup vulnerabilities: Huntress has documented attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in AhsayCBS backup management software, while new research from Bitdefenderprovides additional details about the activity. Ahsay’s earlier patches did not fully address the flaws. Providers running affected installations should apply the current hotfixes—10.3.4.45 for version 10 or 9.15.2.70 for versions 7 through 9—and investigate for evidence of compromise. Qualys expands automated vulnerability remediation: Qualys has introduced TruRisk Eliminate 2.0 with TruConfidence, adding AI-assisted remediation planning, patch reliability scoring, staged deployment and post-remediation health checks. The platform is designed to help security and IT teams address vulnerabilities while reducing the risk that automated fixes disrupt business operations. The update is generally available to existing TruRisk Eliminate customers. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Monday, October 19, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. There’s a potentially significant development for the future of managed services, as the Global Technology Industry Association formally launches its Managed Intelligence Alliance. The initiative is designed to help IT service providers build secure, responsible and repeatable AI services for small and medium-sized businesses. It was previewed at ChannelCon earlier this year, and is being formally launched today at Pax8 Beyond in Copenhagen. Pax8 is the charter member, with Rob Rae serving as chair. And the founding participants represent a substantial cross-section of the industry. They include CrowdStrike, Cynet, Microsoft, NinjaOne, Rev.io, Sourcepass, New Charter, Lyra and F1 Information Technologies. The Alliance will focus on four areas. First, open specifications to improve interoperability between AI systems. Second, capability standards defining what providers need to deliver managed AI services. Third, vendor-neutral accreditation. And fourth, research and guidance to help the industry understand this emerging market. One particularly interesting detail is that GTIA intends to make its standards and accreditation frameworks openly available at no cost. That’s important because MSPs are increasingly being asked to help customers deploy and manage AI, but there’s not yet a common understanding of what that service should include. Every vendor is developing its own approach to AI governance, security and management. GTIA is attempting to help the channel establish some shared practices across those different technologies. Of course, the Alliance is just getting started. The standards and accreditation programs still need to be developed. But the bigger opportunity is clear. If managed AI is going to become a sustainable service category, providers need something more repeatable than a series of individual consulting projects. And GTIA is trying to help establish that foundation. There’s also a major cybersecurity acquisition in the works. Proofpoint has agreed to acquire Varonis in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately six-point-three billion U.S. dollars. Varonis shareholders will receive forty-nine dollars and seventy-five cents per share. The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year, subject to the usual approvals. And there’s an interesting Canadian connection. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has agreed to invest in Proofpoint in connection with the acquisition. Proofpoint is already a major provider of email security, threat protection and data-loss prevention.

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Acronis appoints former WatchGuard CEO Prakash Panjwani: Acronis has named Prakash Panjwani chief executive officer, effective immediately. He succeeds Jan-Jaap “JJ” Jager, who will remain a shareholder in the company.Panjwani previously served as CEO of WatchGuard Technologies and SafeNet. During roughly a decade at WatchGuard, he helped transform the company from a firewall-focused vendor into a broader cybersecurity platform provider, expanding its capabilities in endpoint protection, extended detection and response, and managed security.Acronis is highlighting his experience building MSP-focused platforms, integrating security technologies and expanding businesses through organic growth and acquisitions. The company has increasingly positioned its portfolio around the convergence of data protection, cybersecurity, infrastructure management and service automation. Panjwani’s appointment suggests that strategy will remain central to its next stage of development. For Canadian MSPs, the important questions concern how Acronis will continue integrating those capabilities, simplifying service delivery and supporting partner profitability. No immediate changes to the company’s partner program, pricing or product roadmap were announced. Virtuozzo introduces smaller infrastructure deployments and updated GPU support: Virtuozzo Infrastructure System 8.0 introduces a lite deployment option designed for environments requiring just one or two servers.The new configuration combines compute, management and storage on local disks, eliminating the need for a separate shared-storage network in smaller deployments. Virtuozzo is targeting service providers, smaller businesses, branch locations and customers that need infrastructure running on their own premises.Version 8.0 also updates Nvidia support to R595 and vGPU v20, allowing dedicated and shared GPU resources on the same host. The company has also made its built-in migration tool for VMware vSphere 8 generally available. Virtuozzo says a one-server configuration can deliver approximately 53 percent lower total cost of ownership than VMware, although actual savings will depend on configuration, licensing and workload requirements. The lite deployment is not equivalent to a conventional high-availability cluster. Virtuozzo says customers requiring automatic virtual-machine failover need additional nodes and shared storage. For Canadian MSPs and smaller cloud providers, the release offers another approach to delivering managed infrastructure and localized AI workloads without requiring customers to commit to larger deployments from the outset. Proofpoint expands Microsoft 365 security capabilities for MSPs: Proofpoint’s MSP Platform business is introducing new security and management capabilities designed to help service providers strengthen customers’ Microsoft 365 environments ahead of broader AI adoption.The additions include Tenant Risk Exposure, a new capability within 365 Permission Manager that will highlight excessive sharing permissions, anonymous access, inactive guest accounts, public groups and other potential security exposures across Microsoft 365 tenants.Proofpoint is also introducing greater explainability for AI-powered email-security decisions, allowing administrators to better understand why messages are classified as suspicious or legitimate. Its Security Awareness Service is expanding adaptive training into Microsoft Teams, while a new AI Cyber Assistant inside the management console will help MSPs with onboarding, configuration, product guidance and customer consultations. The developments build on Proofpoint’s dedicated MSP Platform business, established following its acquisition of Hornetsecurity and expanded into North America earlier this year. For MSPs, the opportunity is to address two related problems: securing the data and permissions that AI systems may access, and reducing the technician workload associated with managing those controls across multiple customers. The new capabilities are scheduled to roll out during the fourth quarter of 2026. Canadian availability of individual features should be confirmed. In Brief Commvault adds threat hunting to Microsoft 365 backups: Commvault has announced new security capabilities for Microsoft 365 backup data, including scanning protected Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams content for malware, suspicious activity and other indicators of compromise. The technology is designed to help organizations identify trustworthy recovery points and reduce the risk of restoring compromised data. Early access is expected in the coming weeks, with general availability targeted for early 2027 as paid add-ons. Descope expands identity governance for internal AI agents: Descope has introduced Agentic Identity Hub 3.0, adding controls for organizations deploying internal AI agents and Model Context Protocol servers. The release includes agent ownership and approval workflows, least-privilege access enforcement, authentication and audit trails. The goal is to help organizations govern not just who an AI agent is, but what it is authorized to do. Intermedia expands healthcare communications integrations: Intermedia has expanded its healthcare communications offering with AI-powered patient engagement, appointment scheduling, digital forms, payments and connections to 15 electronic health record and practice-management systems. The company says the enhancements respond to demand from its channel partners for more industry-specific solutions. The development gives partners serving healthcare customers opportunities to connect communications with broader administrative workflows. VanishID targets AI-assisted help-desk impersonation: VanishID has introduced an automated response playbook designed to counter attackers who impersonate corporate help-desk personnel when contacting employees. The company says its platform evaluates exposed identity information and triggers appropriate countermeasures through existing security tools. The new playbook is available to current External Identity Protection customers. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Friday, October 16, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. There’s a significant leadership change at Acronis, one of the largest technology platform providers serving managed service providers. The company has appointed Prakash Panjwani as its new chief executive officer, effective immediately. He replaces Jan-Jaap Jager, who will remain an Acronis shareholder. Panjwani is a familiar name in the cybersecurity business, particularly for anyone who’s followed WatchGuard over the years. He spent roughly a decade as WatchGuard’s CEO, helping transform the company from a firewall-focused vendor into a much broader security platform provider. That included expansion into endpoint security, extended detection and response, and managed detection and response. Before WatchGuard, Panjwani also served as CEO of SafeNet. And that background is particularly interesting given the direction Acronis has been taking. The company has been steadily bringing together data protection, cybersecurity, infrastructure management and service automation. The objective is to give MSPs more of the capabilities they need through a single platform, reducing the number of separate tools and management environments they have to operate. That’s a familiar strategy across the MSP technology market. But the challenge is making the different components work together well enough that partners actually become more efficient. Acronis says Panjwani’s experience integrating security technologies, building channel businesses and driving growth through acquisitions makes him well suited to its next stage of development. For MSPs, there are several questions worth watching. Will Acronis accelerate its expansion into managed security? Will it continue adding capabilities through acquisitions? And how will it balance a broader platform strategy with the need to keep its products straightforward and profitable for service providers? The company hasn’t announced specific changes to its partner program, pricing or product roadmap. But the choice of CEO offers a pretty clear indication of the experience Acronis wants leading its business. And incidentally, if Panjwani’s former employer sounds familiar, yesterday’s In The Channel featured current WatchGuard CEO Joe Smolarski. More on that conversation in a moment. Virtuozzo, meanwhile, is making it possible to deploy its cloud infrastructure platform on considerably smaller systems. The company has released version eight of Virtuozzo Infrastructure System, with a new lite deployment option that can operate on just one or two servers. That may sound like a relatively small technical change. But it has potentially significant implications for the economics of delivering managed infrastructure. Traditional infrastructure deployments can require multiple servers and shared storage, even when the customer’s actual workload is fairly modest. That can make it difficult to justify the initial investment for smaller organizations or individual locations. Virtuozzo’s new option combines compute, management and storage on the same server, using local disks rather than requiring a separate storage network. The company is targeting smaller businesses, branch offices and customers that need infrastructure running on their own premises. Version eight also updates Nvidia GPU support, allowing providers to run dedicated and shared GPU workloads on the same host. And Virtuozzo’s built-in migration tool for VMware vSphere eight is now generally available. That makes the release particularly relevant to partners looking for alternatives to VMware. Virtuozzo says a one-server confi

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