I have a video on my phone of him singing Shebangs with Alfonso Rivera, which is just I don't think I could top that for this year. Hey channel insiders, welcome to our channel insider quarterly review where our editorial team takes a look back on some of the biggest stories, announcements, and trends that came out of the IT channel in Q2 of 2025. As always, I'm your host, Katie Bavoso, and I'm thrilled to be joined once again by my colleagues. We have managing editor of Channel Insider, Victoria Durgen, and Channel Insider writer, Jordan Smith.
Welcome, friends. How's it going? >> Great to be back. >> We're two for two on not getting kicked off of the of the show that you run. So, I'm doing good so far. >> This is good. Does this add more pressure knowing that you're going to come back every quarter or does it make you feel like, "Oh, good. We can expect this now." Maybe by the end of the year I'll I'll feel comfortable. You know, >> I think that's the best thing I could do is get two writers in a room and say, "Get on camera." And that's probably your worst nightmare.
So, thank you very much for coming back and trusting me. >> Oh, wait. >> So, I want to start out talking about some fun stuff because we were kind of like all over the place this this quarter. We were on the road several different parts of the country. Uh, Victoria, tell us about where you were this quarter. Where did we find you in the US of A? Yeah, I kicked off quarter 2 um in April, which candidly feels a lot longer than two months ago now. But in April, I was in Palm Springs at Nerioon.
So I spent three days immersed in the broader Nerdio ecosystem. They've got, you know, tons of partners who feel very passionately not just about what they do with Nerdio, but what they do for their customers in the ever evolving world of Microsoft related solutions. So, it was a great opportunity to meet some people on the road, which was always fun and not really any skin off my back to spend three days in very sunny, pretty California when it was rainy and miserable here on the East Coast in the US. >> Jordan, talk to us about where we found you in the past quarter.
Where on the road were you? >> Uh, yeah. So, earlier in May this year, I was in Orlando, Florida at SAS Innovate, put on by SAS, a data and AI solutions company. Uh, that's SAS, not to be confused with software as a service or Scandinavian airline systems. >> I was down there learning popped in my head. >> That was Yes. The colloquial the the Kleenex of the SAS. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Hey, that's, you know, SAS Scandinavian Air is what pops up when you Google it at first.
But hopefully we can change that with our coverage. Yeah. learning about what they're providing to their partners uh in terms of opportunities with AI and and data and a a few very special guests that were in attendance there. Um they had an afternoon panel featuring the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff and uh Alfonso Rivero. Um, for the youths out there, DJ Jazzy Jeff is one half of the DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince rap duo from the '9s. Uh, the Fresh Prince aka Will Smith.
Ever heard of him? Um, and then Alfonso Rivero played Cousin Carlton on one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, The Fresh Prince of Belair. So, it was very funny to see them there helping host this panel. Alfonso interviewed the SAS CTO um in a like late night talk show stage sort of situation and for reasons that are still unexplained to me William Hung was there as well. Again this is I'm dating myself here but back in the early as here the early part of this century there was this show called American Idol just starting out and William Hung was one of the people who was auditioning for this program.
He famously sang She Bangs by Ricky Martin, I believe. >> Yes, >> that's who sings it. Yeah, this was viral before viral was a thing. Like everybody knew about this. Millions of people watched um American Idol. This was what we used to call cable television. Um it was on there. So he was there and he I have a video on my phone of him singing she bangs with Alonso Rivero, which is just I don't think I could top that for this year. >> Learn about SAS. you know, I I just started using the program for my work in academics.
It's amazing. >> It is amazing. It is amazing. And you are amazing. Um, you know, back in the day when you when you did that that song, I mean, it listen, the world knew you from everybody knew you, right? I I remember you. And so, is is is there a way that maybe, you know, you could um, you know, do a a little something for us >> here right now? You you you can do it? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Here you go. I'm going give you I don't never give by the mic.
I'm going give you the mic. Go. >> She moves. She moves. I go crazy cuz she lo every girl in history. that lived rentree in my head all that week when you came back and told us because then I went in May to Las Vegas to scale computing platform 2025 and I got to introduce a speaker during the partner power hour uh and introduced Terresa Caragle who's a fantastic writer and author at a book all about partnerships. I got to introduce her and I went up and the first thing I said was, "Hey, you know, my colleague Jordan Smith last week got to meet Alonso River and William Hung.
They had him, those two I should say, at an event out out in a a different tech event. And you guys get me. You are welcome." So that's how I kind of kicked it off. So that was hysterical. No, no necessarily uh sightings for me like that. Although platform did have the founder of Shazam, that music app. So that was really cool to see. But for me, it was really exciting to be there in Las Vegas talking with folks about partnerships and about virtualization and edge computing and how important that is in an AIdriven world uh and the importance of applications as well and how we need to make those at the ready for everybody.
So let's go in now and talk about work. Let's talk about the channel in Q. I really want to start out with what was the biggest story of Q2 2025 for each of you and Victoria, why don't we go back over to you and have you get us started. What stood out to you the most? >> Yeah, absolutely. I was reviewing our quarter 1 recap um to see kind of where we landed on things last quarter and the big story then right at the end of the quarter was Fred Vola stepping down from his CEO role as CASSA to shift into the chairman position.
And one of the biggest stories arguably of this quarter is that they found their new leader, right? Cassaya has appointed a new CEO in Rana Sukar. Um I think what is most interesting to me about her appointment is not just the fact that Cassaya has a new leader but that she has a wide breath of SMB focused experience but might be a new name to many channel partners specifically. So, it's interesting to me to see a legacy brand like that that's so entrenched in the channel specifically and has been around for so many partners for so long to tap leadership a little bit outside the sphere of influence.
Maybe people were expecting a familiar name and the way we also tend to see people bounce around between companies quite a bit. So, I'll be interested to see kind of where she starts to take the company. she obviously just started is just getting her foot out the door, getting introduced to people, but it'll be interesting now moving forward to see where she takes Casaya. She's got some big names behind her. I believe McKenzie was one, Mel Lynch, we also saw uh Intuitit in there and Google.
So, while those were, you know, those are two names that you do do see in the channel, Google and into a QuickBooks, um I will say she worked more on the customerf facing sides for those. So channel, like you said, is new to her, but she does pack a punch. Um, I have to say I I maybe I'm biased, but I'm just really excited to see a woman at the helm of CASA and excited to see where she takes the company and just generally in that position. I think it's awesome to have that kind of visibility.
She's also only the fourth CEO that the company has had in its 20-year run. So depending on your perspective, that could be many CEOs or just a few. Uh, so I am excited to see how she's going to leave her mark on the company. We should also point out they do have a new CPO at the same time too in Jim Lippy. So there's lots of changes going on over at CASSA. Uh I do wonder if we're still going to see Fred out on the road, but I do imagine that was part of his he has talked about how that was part of his stepping back where he wanted to be a little less of a road warrior.
But uh Fred, we hope to see you out there still. Now Jordan, as far as big stories for you, what was the biggest story that stood out to you in Q2? This is a story that kind of started back in Q1. Uh in mid-Marchch, Google, they announced a just massive $ 32 billion acquisition of Biz uh cloud security platform. But with that acquisition, here comes the Department of Justice. Um they're sticking their heads into review the deal uh for antitrust purposes and whether that would illegally, this deal would illegally limit competition in the marketplace.
Google is, as we've covered in Q1, um already under the DOJ's microscope, um after they ruled that the tech giants online search and advertising practices violated antitrust laws. So, following this acquisition in April, uh a federal judge ruled that Google violated antitrust laws to hold a monopoly over online advertising technology. This ruling could, if prosecutors pursue this, seek a potential breakup of Google's advertising products. Um, nothing yet on whether or not they are going to make them forget about this Whiz acquisition.
They'd have to pay Whiz like 10% of what the actual deal was if they were forced not to make this acquisition. Um, so we shall see in the in the coming months of the year to see if that's something that happens to to this giant uh massive deal that they were trying to make. >> Google is always on my mind because I'm constantly hearing about that there's different divisions that the government wants to break up within it. So, this is kind of piling on to it for that reason.
Um, it also sounds very familiar to what we saw last year where the government came in and said, uh, hold your horses to HPE with their Juniper Networks acquisition. So, really interesting to see how we're kind of layering on to more channel news where companies that are trying to merge or acquire one another are getting kind of that stop gap and hitting the wall once again. So, I do look forward to seeing where that's going. By the way, that HPE acquisition of Juniper Networks, it is still up in the air.
Hey channel insiders, Katie here. I'm cutting in to make a quick update. We recorded this episode on the last Thursday in June, but wouldn't you know it, a surprise announcement rolled out over the following weekend. HPE and Juniper Networks closed out the second quarter by announcing the companies had quote reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice that subject to court approval resolves the DOJ's lawsuit challenging HPE's acquisition of Juniper and clears the way for the transaction to close.
End quote. And on July 2nd, HPE's $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks closed after a contentious 18-month process. effectively doubling HPE's networking business in addition to HPE Aruba networking. In a statement, HPE said, quote, "The combination positions HPE to capture the growing AI and hybrid cloud market opportunity by creating an industry-leading cloudnative and AIdriven IT portfolio, including a full modern networking stack." End quote.
Okay, now back to the episode. For me, I think one of the biggest stories was one that actually just happened. And and I don't know if it was necessarily as loud um as some of the other ones that we've gone over, but as you know, I've been really invested in following Intel for the last uh the last quarter, the last 6 months. Honestly, Lip Boutan who became the newest CEO of Intel following Pat Gellzinger's prompt exit from the company last quarter started which kicked off this year uh Pat Gellzinger's exit followed by at the end of quarter 1 Lip Bhutan came in to take the CEO helm.
He recently announced that he would be laying off or that Intel would be laying off up to 20% of its foundry workers. This is rather I hesitate to use the word disappointing to me, but uh I think that there was so much fanfare around the foundry and the factories that were going to build chips homegrown in Ohio here in the US. There was just so much investment in that and it's really kind of going out with a whimper. Um and we're seeing it quietly kind of lose the speed that it had and the the momentum that it had when Pat Gellinger was at the helm.
Um, this is this is definitely the MMO of Lipu. He's somebody that has wanted to come in and kind of flatten out management, flatten out bloat, get rid of bloat, I should say. Uh, so I do look forward to seeing what this means and if this means it's just, you know, a slight restructuring, not necessarily they're going to trash the the foundry plans altogether, but I will look forward to seeing just how that's going to play out into Q3. So, rather disappointing news.
I don't necessarily want to start a show off talking about layoffs, but we'll see what happens there. All right, let's move on to some more uh stories that we saw over the past quarter. So, as far as predictions from Q1, now I told each of you go back and listen to yourselves in the first episode uh that we did for the year. So, why don't we talk about to see if those predictions came true or not. Was there anything that you saw kind of come true or fall apart might be the even better question there?
And what were each of those for you? Jordan, you you ended us last time, so let's have you start us off on this question. >> Yeah, so I'm not sure if my sort of prediction came true. It's just the fact that we've kind of seen a consistent trend of channel enterprises partnering on solutions. I guess more specifically though, we've seen them start to partner more specifically on security, resilience, and recovery. uh especially as AI agents and tools start to proliferate the channel a little bit more.
Um we have big names like Convault, Kindra and Pure Storage partnering on cyber solutions for hybrid cloud environments. Cohesity and 11-11 systems uh partnering on recovery services. Crowd Strike I mentioned that I'd wanted to keep an eye on them to see how they were kind of moving in the shadows now trying to keep it a little bit more low profile. They're partnering with Nvidia on LLM, life cycle protection, and then there are some others that are partnering on threat detection, security ops, AI security, just things like that going on throughout the channel.
Um, which is not necessarily a prediction um coming to fruition, so to speak, but just a consistent trend that we've seen persist through the second quarter of the year. I think it's always a safe bet when AI is in the conversation to say, "Yeah, that'll do a thing next quarter. We'll see something happen with that." So, I do agree. Uh, and interesting to see how the channel has kind of played out in that same vein. Uh, Victoria, for you as far as predictions that you made in the first quarter of the year, anything come true or completely fall apart for you?
I feel like I was I was pretty conservative in my prediction, which is that I just kind of put out a blanket statement that I thought partner program structures might be due for some refresh and some new ways of thinking given that MSPs and other providers in our space continue to diversify their portfolios for a variety of reasons. That has largely come true because in total transparency that was already happening and so I just predicted something in motion a bit.
But we've seen even as recently as this week of the time of us recording that HPE has made some pretty significant changes to how its programmatic efforts with its partners are shaped. And I think it's just a sign whether it's a big enterprise like them or even a smaller player just entering the partner program space that a lot of these vendors are trying to find ways to maintain sticky relationships with partners in the US and around the world. Whether that's because AI enabled solutions are all the rage now or whether it's just because maybe as I said in our recap the three tiered pick a metal type program systems are just no longer working uh the ways the partners want them to and they're no longer engaging in the same ways in terms of channel business opportunities.
So definitely something that will probably continue and I think we'll maybe build a little more nuance on throughout this next quarter. Yeah, I remember talking to Frank Roush back in February after he announced his retirement. He really spoke a lot about the tiered system just not working anymore. So, I I am interested to see where that continues as far as how that restructuring will take place within those partner programs, but that is something that the the veterans of the channel did see coming.
So, looking forward to seeing more of your coverage on that on channelinsider.com, Victoria. So, thank you very much for sharing. As far as surprises go, uh, surprises over the last three months. Uh, definitely in the channel, things don't move quite as quick as maybe it in general, but feel free to go outside of that realm if you'd like. What were your biggest surprises in Q2 of 2025 this year? Victoria, do you want to continue? >> Sure. I'll I'll kind of meld this a bit to be maybe less of a shock factor surprise and more of just an ongoing, okay, this is interesting.
And what I mean by that is I think increasingly we're having conversations about what even is an MSP. Again, something we talked about in our quarter one recap a bit, but this quarter alone we saw Pax 8 really strong at its flagship Beyond event introduced this idea of a managed intelligence provider. We've seen companies like Yukon and Cork come together on what they're calling the risk advisors of the future. So really just a a kind of inflection moment in which it never surprises me frankly how many new acronyms and names we come up for things that we've spent decades in this space talking about.
But I do think the underlying theme there is that this is a new world whether we're talking about the technology solutions that end users are demanding from partners we're talking about how partners stay profitable and become profitable in the new realm of M&A and private equity within our space. And we're starting to see vendors and marketplaces in the channel try to guide their partners into what they think the next best option is going to be for them long term.
It's funny the the term MSPI, managed service and platform integrator has something I've heard start to emerge. Um, and I encourage those listening who are saying, "Hey, I fall into that category. We've actually been calling ourselves this new sort of offshoot of an MSP." please reach out because these are these are things that are happening in real time that we want to learn more about and why you chose to choose that title. So going on from there, Jordan, biggest surprises of the quarter to you so far. >> Yeah, so my biggest surprise to uh bringing back to the technology of it all is the slowing of AI. um in that I feel like it's slowed down in becoming this all-encompassing entity with a doomsday clock on everything becoming run on AI.
Um I think companies are starting to realize more and more maybe that there's some limitations on AI that should be addressed first um rather than just plugging it in to handle all of their systems because they're asking questions like how do we secure this? what kind of data do we put into this? What sort of tasks do we actually want this AI to do? So, um, currently, agentic AI tools are more likely to be all the rage, um, because again, people are I don't think they're ready to just turn over their entire data systems to AI um, because of data governance regulations.
Uh, even things like AI hallucinations. Back in Q1, we had the whole Deep Seek phenomenon, and we thought maybe that that was just the start, the spark that um was going to propel us into this AI, here we go, light speed. We're not coming back from this, but we are taking a few bit more steps in between there before we get to that point. And who knows, maybe by Q3 AI is starting to it gets another injection of life. But right now, we're taking more small, delicate steps like an arthritic dog. >> Like an arthritic dog, if you will. >> That's a new girl reference for all you out there. >> Oh, great.
Okay. There's a lot of lot of uh pop culture from the as that Jordan is dropping today, but it's very on brand for you, Jordan. So maybe we don't get movies today, but we will get a lot of TV show references from cable. >> Uh the podcast isn't over yet. So >> yeah. >> Was that a promise or a threat? >> Yeah, >> it's a threat. >> Well, Jordan, I do think that there's still a few things coming down the pipeline that we have unanswered at the moment when it comes to the AI conversation and how that's going to impact it through the rest of the year.
Immediately I go to just the tools that are literally going to be built with AI. Your AI phones, your AI laptops, the actual ones that are powered by AI. We're still waiting on them. Uh so I do wonder if those happen to emerge sometime this year if that's going to play into that conversation and how it'll affect the future of AI in the workplace. So going from there, uh speaking of AI, let's talk more about trends. What trends have emerged over the last quarter that have really grabbed your attention?
Jordan, I want to start with you for this one because you are now our go-to for quantum. If you're reading Jordan's stories, you're seeing the word quantum really pop up nice and big in the word bubble. That is Jordan's subject matter. So Jordan, what is it about quantum that is something that we're seeing just kind of all over the headlines right now? >> Yeah. So right now it is we are in a world of preparing for quantum. Um, I've written a couple stories recently about a few companies, F5 and Comvault.
They are introducing postquantum cryptography solutions um to kind of get ahead of the quantum computing. That is we're staring down the barrel of this right now. I'm going to try to explain quantum a little bit. Um, basically all all you really need to know is that quantum makes things go faster. It makes computing go faster um quicker. It can handle um factoring and simulations faster than classical computers can handle them. More recently, actually, I believe the Government Accountability Office actually released a report to Congress highlighting the cyber threats from quantum computing.
This report essentially warns that quantum could dismantle today's encryption standards if it's in the wrong hands. It's kind of bringing about the fears of what we thought AI might be able to do and that we all were like AI is this entity that's going to take over and only Tom Cruz can save us. Um >> there it is. >> You're following along on your bingo card at home. We have hit the movie reference for the day. >> We're going for blackout bingo though here.
Um, so this report also said that quantum will soon be able to blow through encryption, hijack sessions, and poison AI classifiers, which could potentially slow down this adoption of AI even further. Um, and also put cryptocurrency at risk. So, um, that's something to look out for. But luckily, we have some companies in the channel who are already looking ahead. They're putting solutions out there that can help with uh making sure your systems are still online and protecting you.
Gartner also released a report. They said by 2029, adopting postquantum cryptography grounded in the fact that advances in quantum computing will make asymmetric cryptography unsafe. That's a lot of jargon. I apologize for that. because right now threat actors are using AI and other means to harvest large swats of data in preparation for quantum decryption. So um security companies like F5 and Combalt are kind of they're trying to remain in lock step with these cyber criminals who are preparing for quantum and I think over the next quarter over the next year we'll hear more and more about this um technology solution. >> Well I'm terrified.
Thank you very much for that. Victoria, how about for you? Any new emerging trends that came out in Q2 that caught your attention. >> Yeah, I've spent a lot of time um talking with technology partners and service providers in the space about what they're hearing from customers in terms of their cloud spend, their cloud optimizations, and ultimately where their workloads thrive the best. This again is not new. We touched on this a bit in our Q1 recap, but it does seem to have taken um an even further deeper level approach this quarter into everyone starting to look over what their systems are and what they need them to be.
Some of this is spurred by AI, some of it spurred by security. Uh some of it's spurred by compliance and regulatory rules specific to the EU, but also increasingly in US markets as well. And really ultimately what we're looking at is just customers and partners together trying to come to the conclusions of where things need to live, whether public cloud maybe jumped the gun a bit to use the metaphor in terms of all systems go migrating everything in one clip.
Uh we're seeing some repatriation conversations begin to happen more of the hybrid conversation, the multicloud deployment systems. Uh there's been some research that we've covered from GTT and others that show that this is happening at a much quicker rate than I think I thought was going to happen when we talked about this in Q1. So it's something I continue to talk about and that does not by any means mean that public cloud is dead on arrival. There will continue to be massive, massive deployments from the hyperscalers and from smaller competitors.
It's just a market that I think is maturing in a way that it wouldn't have been able to two or three years ago. Something else that you had brought up to me, Victoria, when we originally met uh to discuss what would be in today's show was that you've spoken to a lot of different vendors that are joining the channel. They they've developed partner programs and that means that they are now a channel vendor. What is the impetus for that that you can talk to me about that you've kind of gathered?
Why do you think more vendors are joining the channel? Now, >> what I hear most frequently when I talk to those vendors when they launch those programs, and I'm very grateful that I get to be able to say that sentence, right? So, thank you to all who who trust us with their stories there. But it's a scale question on the vendor side right now. They know that they need to be in more markets. They either need to move up into the enterprise space or they can serve the enterprise space quite well, but they want to move downstream.
And SMB and mid-market clients require a hand from a partner more often than not. So for customers in those spaces, they want to know that they have partners that they can work with and that means that vendors need to go find those partners and ensure that they are on those partners' line cards. We've spoken quite heavily, especially in the security space this quarter with companies new to the channel um who have found that channel partners are the way to get more customers ultimately.
And so we're then seeing those new vendors be a little more willing to experiment with the program front, which I think is also why we're then starting to see the larger vendors have to adjust their programs as well to compete because it's no longer a space governed by the kind of top five big guys, you know, and the legacy tech that maybe five or six years ago you could probably name on one hand the vendors that every partner had in their line card.
And I don't I don't think that's the case nearly as often anymore. And there's been plenty of Gartner forecasts and canalis and and IDC reports that kind of show the splintering in a few key areas of the market. And I think we'll continue to see that as these newer vendors learn what the channel is, want to target the channel more and find ways to get partners on their side. >> I'm curious to know if there was anyone in there, any company that is in there that surprised you to see its its entrance into the channel, its channel debut.
Were there any that stuck out to you as like, "Oh, that is not one I imagined would try to enter this space." >> I don't know if there are specific vendors that surprised me necessarily, but I think the degree of complexity in solutions that are now targeting the channel is, if not surprising, definitely interesting. So, we're not just seeing the kind of traditional PSA RMM plays, right, that that kind of gear towards MSPs and others pretty easily, but we're seeing developer tools that maybe previously only needed to sell to a few developers or had open licenses to just, you know, form a community online.
Um, these are companies that are now getting really serious about their sell through motions to larger internal IT teams and need partners to get them there. So that's kind of what seems to be shaping up also is that a lot of these vendors are going from the we developed a thing and and put it on GitHub for free for you are now going okay we'll continue to do that but if we want to get you know a little more serious about our scale we need to start thinking through what that's going to mean and increasingly it seems that means the channel.
I also think as we see more AI tools or AI being built onto tools emerge in solutions, there needs to be more uh people that are actually telling those customers how to use it and what to do with it. So I think as we continue to see AI uh grow and really become ubiquitous across the portfolio of nearly every vendor, there needs to be a partner involved because they have to literally be able to talk the customer through. It's confusing now. It's so there is so much and I think that they need to know that they can lean on a trusted adviser to help them work through and get the best out of those tools and solutions.
I had spoken to Jeff Rei, the CEO and co-founder of scale computing and he had told me he was like I feel like the channel is cool again right now like exact words that he used because there is so much need with the tools that we're seeing emerge for trusted advisors to walk their customers through the launch and deployment and and management of these specific uh applications of these solutions. So I do look forward to seeing how that continues to become to grow because I remember just a few years ago we saw giant vendors like Dell starting to pull away from the channel and now I think we're really seeing that sort of 180 where we realize it's just going to come back around.
So that's why this particular industry has been around for the last 40 years 50 years depending on who you ask uh because it's been needed uh with the w even with the waxing and waning of that necessity it has been needed that entire time. So, with that said too, I'm noticing a lot more uh companies are also appointing like an AI executive to their teams. They have a specific AI exec on their sea level teams, whether that be a chief AI innovation officer or something related to that.
And I think it's also um not necessarily a performative position. I think these people are very accomplished in what they're doing, but I think it's telling customers out there, hey, we do have somebody on staff that is directing the vision with our AI strategy and goals and how we're moving forward with that. I want to turn to both of you kind of with that subject actually. Are you seeing any of that in real time when you look out into the channel space?
Kind of an off-the cuff question here, but I'd like to know like are you seeing AI become manifested in a person with a specific brand when you think about that company, whether it be PAX or any of the the ones that we see out there? Yeah, I'm sure you could probably pull the leadership pages at most of the major vendors, major marketplaces. Um, look through those and somebody whether a chief or to your point a VP or another position like that will have the letters A and I in that title.
I think for some of them it's just an expansion of product focused roles that have been in place for a while but are increasingly AIdriven. Um, I've also spent some time talking to service providers and thirdparty adviserss within our space who are telling their clients and are telling organizations at large that even if you don't name a chief AI officer, you need to at least have a go-to person on your staff and in your leadership who can manage AI deployments across the organization.
And the reason that we're hearing that so much is that AI isn't just touching it anymore, right? This is a technology that every department wants to be able to use. So HR is involved and legal's involved and marketing's involved and you know there are all of these disperate organizations departments within an organization who are probably already going off and and deploying some of these tools without it knowing without security knowing. And so having a a point person who can sit on all of those calls and sit centrally to say, "Hey, five of your departments have chat GPT licenses.
Why don't you, you know, let's collaborate on those? Let's get those things in order." Um, so I think that'll be increasingly common whether you see it in the formality of a title on a page or not. Just to build on what Victoria said in in complete agreement too is that um yeah you're either seeing AI become part of Seuite's executive level people's job description um or they're like you said manifesting uh AI into an entire person to help um people manage it throughout their companies because you have a lot of um even if AI is not your chief product or um something that you're developing specifically, you do you do see a lot of like as somebody in the sales department or somebody in the marketing department using an AI tool that is either licensed by the company or unlicensed by the company and it's helping to I guess make sure that you are keeping things under control making sure that your data is safe within your company and um yeah making that AI is not running a muck amongst the the lower ranks. >> I hope that by now for everybody listening, you've checked to make sure that people aren't just like, "Yeah, I got an AI working on that." without there being any sort of company policy on it.
So, at this point in time, halfway through 2025, you need some sort of policy. Even if that policy is blanket, hey, don't do it at all. Do not download it to your computer unless we tell you. Do not go on and create an account that is not workrelated, whatever that be. Uh, I do think that by this point you need to be talking to your employees about it. You can't just be saying like don't do anything. You have to be specific. So interesting to kind of think about where that is in the workplace because I think at this point we've matured enough in the AI journey to say do not just dump all data into it.
So at this point, if you're still doing that, please stop. Oh my god, please stop doing it. Before we wrap up today, I do want to talk more about the current events that we're seeing impact the channel space right now and it in general specifically. I'm thinking about the rising tensions in the Middle East between Israel and Iran now. And tariffs are another thing to talk about and I sound a little out of sorts with that because they are so all over the place.
By this time tomorrow after we record this, I don't know if tariffs are going to be a totally different conversation or a non-existent one because we have not been able to pin down um what the thoughts of the administration are on that. Let's start with the latest news with the latest coming out of Iran where Israel and the US have jointly uh attacked the nuclear facilities on Iran soil. I'm curious to know and Jordan, I want to turn to you for this one.
Where do we think that any of this, if at all, might impact the channel? >> Iran has always been a kind of major cyber security threat to the US, you can lump them in the same category as North Korea, China, Russia. Um so if you are a channel partner, if you have government contracts, um if you are working in any sort of like telco capacity, um those are some areas where you might want to, you know, maybe double down on some of your security protocols or be on high alert.
Um we've already seen CISA release some statements about hey make sure that um you are keeping everything uh secure. Uh we are kind of always um the US as a whole um especially from the government side kind of in this ongoing cyber cold war um with different um adversaries across the world um and Iran has always been one of them. They've always also been a long-term threat actor. I guess we are seeing because of the escalations. Now, we're expecting more of an immediate retaliatory response, but um they're definitely a nation state who's always played sort of the long game on these sort of situations.
So, um one thing to keep an eye out will be, um have they already gotten into some sort of system? Um are they kind of just waiting there? Um, I had heard like a rumor about Iran saying they're going to activate some sleeper cells in the US. That might just have been wild social media speculation that evolved into reaching the news cycle. But at the same time, those sleeper psych um sleeper cells might not be these like cold war Russian spies that we think of. we it might actually be they have somehow a remote access tool or something into different systems um that could impact the United States.
Um, last time we did this podcast, I had mentioned the NSITSP and how they were concerned about the defunding of SISA and how they provide kind of the centralized location for information on threats, especially as they come from outside the United States. Um, so recent budget cuts to that department within DHS, um, is something to keep an eye out for as well, especially as tensions start to escalate. Hm. So, I'm hearing really make sure that you know what your cyber security stack looks like and and what your your strategy is when it comes to that across the board.
Interesting on that. Victoria, kind of punting it over to you to talk about tariffs. Those are something that have been really hard to pin down because they have changed every day with who and what and how and how much uh will be affected. Talk to us about how the channel has responded to kind of the whirlwind that we've seen economically uh with tariffs here in the US and across the world. Yeah, absolutely. I've spoken a lot to partners this quarter, including um XTM and Trusted Tech quite a bit who, you know, have raised the flag and said, "Yeah, it's kind of an uncertain time, right?
There are tariffs, there aren't tariffs, they're impacting certain deals with certain countries, then they're not, then maybe they are." And that back and forth, especially in the moment, especially in the news cycle, can feel um incredibly exhausting, frankly, and just a a very kind of wrench in the game of of complexity. But it behooves partners, I think, to encourage their customers to think on a long-term scale and not have to react so suddenly to short-term changes.
Right? If you have your plan in place for the year and you can stick to that plan, then you're going to be in better shape than somebody who is impacted so quickly by a back and forth economic cycle like this. Now, that's not to say that if you have plans in place for 25 that you haven't had to reconsider them or at least think about reconsidering them, especially when we talk about the Windows 10 refresh cycle that's coming up for many people still, right?
If you didn't have your hardware and device plan in place before now and then you suddenly thought that prices might skyrocket in Q3, that was concerning for you, right? And for partners, maybe that's an opportunity to frankly take that back to the customer and say, "This is why we asked you to do this two years ago, right? You can't predict the future, but you can stay on top of things as much as humanly possible." And I think those are the conversations that are going to stay with us this year now that we've kind of cooled the news cycle around tariffs a little bit.
There have been some renegotiated deals, some things have been put on hold, etc. take that back to your customers and say to the degree that you never want to feel like this again, let's talk about what long-term solutions might look like and let's talk about what might set you up the best for success to avoid some of these back and forth changes. And so that's certainly not to minimize the uncertainty and the Wall Street of it all, right? It was a very uncertain time, especially throughout April and May.
But I think now that we can maybe breathe a little bit more, we have an opportunity um to see the channel really come forward as that strategic partner that I think many MSPs want to be in the first place. >> I think that's very well put. I think the key to that is to show that everybody was worried about it and nobody was making any sort of hard and fast movement towards making a solution or trying to shore up what they what they were anticipating to be potentially rising costs.
So you didn't see any pricing models suddenly fluctuate very hard. you didn't see anybody sort of start to say we're no longer going to have those flexible models of pay what you use. It stayed very much the same because everybody just needed to wait. And I think having said that, it's going to be a lot more of the same until we have something, for lack of a better term, in writing when it comes to to tariffs. Um, so moving on from there, folks, as we start to wrap up today, let's uh talk about where you're going to be on the road in Q2.
Where can we find you out in the world? Uh, Victoria, you you recently found out you're doing a little bit more. So, why don't you get us started talking about the trips and the states that you'll be in? >> Yeah. So, I will be at Channel Con in Nashville July 29th through the 31st. Very excited again to be on site. I know we sound like broken records at this point, but anytime we get to see people face to face and in person, it's a wonderful opportunity for me to learn from you as service providers and as vendors who support you uh what you're thinking.
Right? So, if you watch this and go, she's totally off base and does not know what she's talking about. I would love to have a conversation. come and find me on site, find me on LinkedIn, find me in my email inbox, and more than happy to set up some time there to talk, but very excited to see where uh people think that the future of of our space is headed. And I think those conversations are going to happen quite a bit at Channel. >> Jordan, where can we find you on the road in Q3? >> Uh, to be determined yet.
Um, Victoria said there's a potential that in a few months they're going to send me to Vegas. Um, for >> Oh, no. Um yeah, if if not um you know I'm gonna go to Vegas anyway. I I think Danny Yoshin needs an extra for his crew. Um but if you do need some coverage at your event and you're listening to this, particularly if your event is going to be somewhere tropical, maybe somewhere out of the country, that would be great. My services are open to you and I would love to come and help you spread your message to the channel. >> Same here.
I am uh waiting for my next assignment on the road. So now is the time folks to reach out. We do have some openings. I know it is the summer months, but things are about to get crazy once we head into the latter half of Q3. So think about it now, right before you go on your vacation. Call us, work with us, and we'll get it going while you're out enjoying yourself. So we look forward to seeing everybody out on the road and excited to see you in person or talk to you or see you virtually.
For both of you, where can we get in touch with you? Uh, as always, if we want to reach out and send you a story or just get to know kind of what you're what you're looking for inside of this space, Victoria, where can we reach you? >> I'm online probably more than I should be. So, find me on LinkedIn. I'm Victoria Duran, during N. Um, always happy to talk there. You can learn a little bit more about us by following the Channel Insider LinkedIn page or feel free to shoot an email over to news@ channelinsider.com.
Jordan and I both review that inbox quite a bit. So, that's the place to go if you want to hear a pretty quick response from an editorial team perspective. >> And Jordan, where can we reach you? >> Go ahead and find me on LinkedIn. Um, you might have to just type in Jordan Smith channel insider, all of that. Um, Jordan J O D an okay, not O, everyone. Um, and you can email me as well, jordan.smith smith technologyadvice.com. Um, send anything uh channel news related that you want us to coverage, any potential interviews.
We'd love to field those. And follow me for my random rantings on Blue Sky if you want. It's Jordan Smith27. >> Very nice. So, I am on the internet as well. Katie Bavoso on pretty much all platforms, LinkedIn as well as X as well as Instagram if you'd like to follow me there. Uh, Katie Bavoso and I am also Katie.bavoso. B-av as in Victor Oso at technologyadvice.com if you'd like to reach out. We also have several uh inboxes that you can reach out to if you'd like to send us your story pitches.
We do have partner POV at channelinsider.com if you'd like to learn more about partner POV both for editorial offerings as well as custom offerings. And we also have news at channelinsider.com for any story pitches or questions that you would like to send in. But thank you both so much for your time today. I'll see you right back here at Q3 at the end of Q3. What do you think? >> Sounds like a plan. >> Both of you look super unenthusiastic about it.
So >> you're going to break us in eventually. I know it. And thank you for watching. Once again, you can check us out on channelinsider.com or YouTube at youtube.com/ channelinsider_news and trends. We're also available on all the major podcast platforms. So, wherever you get your podcast, you can listen to us. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow to never miss an episode. Once again, I'm Katie Bavoso, and I'll see you next time.
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