Hey channel insiders, welcome to our channel insider quarterly recap of Q4 2025 and our annual look back on channel happenings that occurred throughout the whole year. This is 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 quarter 4. What were the highest highs and lowest lows of 2025? and maybe even a few predictions about what could happen in the channel and the IT industry in 2026.
As always, I'm your host Katie Bavoso and I'm so happy to be joined once again by my colleagues. We of course have managing editor of Channel Insider Victoria Durgen. Victoria, welcome. Great to see you. >> Hey, great to see you. I'm We made a whole year of you talking Jordan and I into doing this. So, >> I know I'm angling for another one. And speaking of Jordan, we do have Channel Insider writer Jordan Smith. Jordan, welcome back. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me again. >> I made sure to do this not right after you've returned from a trip this time.
So, I hope that you're feeling much more caffeinated than we were in Q3. >> The coffee is flowing this morning. >> Perfect. And we have a new face that I would love to welcome to the video podcast today. We have Channel Insider writer Luis Millierrez. Welcome, Luis. Thank you so much for being here today. >> Thank you, Katie. It's a It's an honor. It's an honor. I'm very happy to be here. >> I don't know who paid you to say that, but I appreciate it.
Thank you for doing that, Louie. Before we jump into everything that has happened over the last quarter and the year, of course, I'd really like to give Louis a chance to introduce himself to the audience and talk a little bit about his channel journey because Louie, how long, first of all, have you been writing? Because I know that channel is fairly new to you. So talk to me about how long you've been writing and what it was like to make the shift over to channel this year.
What was was that a challenge for you? Did it come naturally? Talk to me a little bit about that journey. >> Thanks Katie. So I think I've been writing professionally around three to four years now. I've done some government coms work and also technology work. I I wrote for Tech Republic before I transitioned into Channel Insider. I believe I'm on month four or five if I'm not mistaken of writing in the channel and it's been a really good learning experience so far.
Um been always just trying to make it a point to be a sponge trying to absorb everything from you from Victoria and Jordan. Perhaps uh the biggest shift from transitioning into covering the channel has been actually one of the things I appreciate the most. It's that going back to the benefit side of technology if that makes sense. Um in the past I've covered um tech where there's this new product that can do this this this and that. Most times it ends with that conversation of this these new features.
But what I really appreciate in covering the channel has been going back to the okay this new solution can do this this and this but and actually it can also translate into you know making somebody's life 40% easier like their day 2 hours shorter. So I think that's been the coolest thing the channel has brought to me. Just going back to one of the things that I liked about covering tech, which is, you know, essentially giving you that tangible benefit.
And I I I really appreciate how a lot of the the conversations in the channel really focus and hone in on that. And I suppose in the main challenge that I encounter is just, you know, grasping all the different relationships across uh the different um players in the space. I know that's something that builds up with in time, but it's also been the most rewarding part, I would say, just learning week by week like how things fit, um what relationships are important.
Um so just getting to getting to grow that knowledge over time has been really really uh rewarding. >> I love to hear that. It's rewarding. And don't worry, the confusion continues no matter how long you've been in the channel. There's new acronyms, new positions, new segments, market segments, new verticals that we get to focus on every year. So, like any other year, the rest of us are always at least 10% confused about what's going on. So, that continues throughout the channel career, but it is, like you said, rewarding and exciting to be a part of.
So, let's dig in to the last quarter, which some might call quiet, but I'd honestly compare it more to a slingshot being pulled back and ready to strike. So, I'll kick things off here uh with what I consider one of the biggest stories of Q4. Fred Vakola. He's now chairman and CEO of SRO Group, which is a SAS company that creates software for trade businesses like electricians and plumbers and HVAC workers who go into the field and need to manage their schedules, their crew members, invoices, and so on from anywhere.
We know that over the past year, Fred stepped out of the Caya CEO position, but was still on the board. The company hired a new CEO, Rana Sukar, who was the a newer face in the channel. She did have experience at Inuit it for several years before coming over to Cassaya. It will be interesting to see how the company moves forward into its first year without Fred because he was so closely tied with the company. Now Fred is still the vice chairman of CASA.
He was the co-founder after all, but he's no longer in a day-to-day leadership capacity like he was when he was CEO. So, he is still there at the company to some extent, but he's no longer out in front of the partners and the customers like he used to be since the company was founded. I think it'll be interesting to see how the company sort of quite literally rebrands without him because he was the face of Cassaya. I'm curious to seeing how that's going to impact the company and if they are going to be in a sort of rebranding state and how that's going to go.
This was one of those announcements though, guys. I feel like he was waiting for our Q3 episode to come out because this I'm pretty sure it was October 3rd that he announced this. So, right right at the first possible day that you could announce something in Q4 when it was considered Q4 is when he made that announcement. Well, I'm going to move on because I want to go back to Victoria to talk about another shift that we saw quite literally in Q4.
Uh happened I would say probably within the last 30 days at the time that we're recording this episode. But we also saw new deadlines for VMware. What can you tell us about the channel community's take on the changing and shrinking cloud service provider program from VMware? Was this another huge blow or have partners come to kind of expect these sweeping very stark changes like this from the VMware Broadcom community? >> I think this is an answer for both is probably the the short answer, right? to kind of expand a bit.
We talked in the Q3 recap. There's plenty of coverage on our site and everywhere else in the channel about uh the actions that Broadcom took this fall in terms of shrinking its authorized program um and the partners that are still authorized within those those deals. So, I would encourage anybody to go, you know, to the site for a quick recap or reflection if you missed any of that news. Though, if you work in the channel, I I highly doubt you missed it entirely, right?
But I think what we've spent a lot of time this quarter doing is talking to those providers and partners who are still working within the VMware Broadcom structure, especially in North America and learning ultimately why they have stayed, right? I mean, we spent almost two years now talking about Broadcom and VMware and the partner program changes and and how everyone has felt about it. And I certainly don't mean to diminish the pain uh that it has caused partners as they've been cut from the program.
I do not mean to diminish the the ripple effects that the deal continues to have, but I do think ultimately we end 2025 at a point where some customers on behalf, you know, because of their partners and for their own reasons have migrated off of VMware. Some end users remain very committed to their VMware deployments. That is not going to change, right? I we talked about this last quarter. Broadcom's not going anywhere. VMware is not going anywhere.
So for those partners who remain in the ecosystem, I think they've really doubled down and committed to following Broadcom's vision forward, which as they've said very publicly multiple times, contains a smaller crew of partners that are much more specialized and dedicated resourcing wise when it comes to support and enablement for those end customer deployments. So I think where we are now is a real moment of we've all said our piece about it. many times.
I mean, I'll be the first to say that channel editorial has kind of feasted on this story for two years and it's been a an ongoing thing we can always pluck out, but I think those who have left have left. We've covered plenty of migration stories this year as well. Those who stay stay and we have a bunch of stories on the site, partners who help other partners, right? And I think that's the real story now is the partner to partner ecosystem connection is blossoming and MSP or other partner who can't service VMware themselves directly can partner with one who can retain the customer that they have on the other services and offerings that they provide them and just bring in the partner for VMware.
That concept of trust of I'm bringing you into my customer in the hopes that you don't then frankly screw me six months later and and take them out from under me is probably the next phase of ecosystem development in many ways whether it's with Broadcom VMware or with security and specialized security practices. So I think that's the the story ending 25 and going into 26 in in Broadcom world is that they have their their group. They're excited about what they're doing with that group.
And I think the rest of of the channel at large has had now a whole year to really think about what this means, think about what it's taught them. We'll talk later on about, you know, vendor neutrality and this kind of growing don't put all your eggs in one basket feeling. Um that I think you can largely tie back to this deal, but ultimately I don't think we're going to talk about this as much next year. Now, those are probably famous last words.
So, sorry in advance if I just, you know, jinxed us all, but um I think it's just a new normal and this is how they move forward. >> We'll call that a medium confidence prediction from Victoria Duran about VMware. Uh but I do agree with you and and speaking of next phases for that Victoria I am actually starting to see that this sort of um you know for lack of a better word callulling of the VMware partner ecosystem uh the shrinking of it becoming um a new opportunity for existing partners who are still within that ecosystem being able to build bridges for other partners who have lost that ability to access and transact with VMware but still have customers on the system.
So rather than bring them on and uh put them onto an entirely new vendor provider for that, there is now a way for example 11-11 Systems a very dedicated VMware partner has created a bridge to be able to continue other service providers being able to support their customers on VMware. So, it's interesting how this has not only turned into something that the channel has had to adapt to and that this is sort of news that is expected to a certain extent by this point, but they've also began to build new business opportunities just simply around the the transpiring of what's going on inside of the VMware ecosystem, whether it be the cloud service providers or the greater uh programs at large, partner programs at large.
So, an interesting conversation there. I disagree. I'm sure we'll be having more conversations about it uh just considering what I just said. But I do think that we are probably past the shock and awe that we saw originally uh what is it about 2 years ago now when the company was initially acquired by Broadcom, but we'll there's always a pin to go back to when it comes to the VMware conversation. Uh let's move on from that. Jordan, this quarter saw two powerhouse vendors join forces, VH and Service Now.
What can you tell us about this new venture? >> Yeah, so the two companies here, they've partnered to launch uh the VH app for Service Now. Um, this application is going to uh enable automated policydriven backup and recovery uh within Service Now workflows. Um, this will just help boost resilience, visibility, and compliance. um three key components of um people's technology infrastructure that I think is going to be very important over the course of the next year.
Um it will work within the service now AI platform. Uh it will enable Service Now users to monitor, orchestrate and automate the empowered data protection tasks uh without having to leave that Service Now AI platform which is nice. Um, it'll also serve kind of as the bridge between the organizations's um, beam infrastructure and their IT service management workflows. >> Interesting. Yeah, applications are something that I'm hearing come up a lot more.
Once again, I don't it's nothing new, but as we continue to have the AI conversation, I am noticing that driving those applications and creating them for in-house work has become a lot more prevalent within the channel. It'll be interesting to see where that goes as we shift into 2026. Before we start thinking about 2026 though, I want to look back on 2025 and kind of dive into some of the trends that we saw really driving the conversation. Starting with, hold on to your hats, artificial intelligence.
I don't think we can continue the conversation without talking about AI, particularly the conversation around are we in an AI bubble? Now, there are plenty of other podcasts that will talk about this more directly. So I want to focus on the channel focus for AI and what the attitude around it is collectively within the ecosystem. So Louie you just wrote a story on this actually. What are you seeing as far as channel providers providers attitudes that is towards AI?
What's changing? What's not changing? Talk to me a little bit about what the overall focus has been for AI in 2025. >> So I got a chance to consolidate some of the AI sentiments across the channel. um both uh with how they how they're seeing the technology this year and also how moving into a little bit of the predictions of what they see uh it's going to look like in 2026. There are a few key themes. One of course is the inevitable expectation and reality of aentic AI sort of being everywhere. either it's seeing the transition from generative AI to having more agents in play in different organizations or having it augment teams to take on bigger task sort of having them serve as this proxy for a a big team internally or it's the usual adding in automation across workflows to make lives people easier frankly um you also have to the expectation of AI being a central priority in terms of in terms of IT budgets um this year and in the coming year um West Monroe actually did a report that found that AI now accounts for 12 to 15% of enterprise IT budgets uh so it's it's pretty clear now that AI has become sort of a new piece of the pie that software vendors can v for uh and no longer the case that it's this no novelty thing that's tacked on that hey maybe let's let's invest in AI because it's the it's the the new cool thing.
It's it's now clear that it's it's a priority for many organizations. But what what stood out to me personally is um this emphasis on AI governance and regulation. It seems like the conversation this year and going into the next has really shifted from AI being this thing that's pretty cool and innovative to hey, we have a we have a few questions on whether or not this can actually break our organization. Um, especially since a lot of these AI systems and solutions deal with a lot of um sensitive company information, whether it's internally or customer data.
I actually really like what um Shelman CEO Avani Desai said. I don't know if she coined the term, but she said that responsible AI is going to be a global headline. um and that organizations are going to have to demonstrate and show that their AI systems are are governed, they're tested and monitored and that it's going to be a differentiating factor uh for organizations to to give proof to customers to partners uh that their AI systems or AI workflows are actually trustworthy.
And diving a bit deeper into that, she predicted that um AI assurance or and AI governance are going to be standards that are going to occupy sort sort of a similar role to how we see cyber security or financial audits right now. >> Very much so. I've noticed that there has been that gradual shift over 2025 from try using everything to how do we lock this down in house to be something where we all know exactly what our employees are using. I don't think that it is a smart idea to not use AI at all.
I think if you want to continue to keep up in the market and get get ahead, you have to use it to some extent, but we are seeing much more guardrails, many more guardrails I should say, around the use of AI. I'm also seeing less of a focus on how does this make us money and more of a focus on how does this help us increase efficiency, which technically are one and the same. If you want to increase efficiency, that usually is a good way to make more money.
But they're not putting a return on investment number or expectation on AI used in house right now. I am curious to get Jordan and Victoria's kind of take on that though. And Jordan, I'll start with you this time. When it comes to artificial intelligence, ruminate for me. What are you seeing in the market? What are you seeing in the ecosystem within the channel? And how have vendors whether it be uh the larger vendor players, some startups or even MSPs and resellers been responding to AI and the kind of changing shift around it?
What are they saying to you? >> Yeah, I had a conversation about this the other day with Ken Farber, uh the president of E+ and we both kind of came to this agreement that we large or even just in the channel aren't necessarily in an AI bubble. Um, I would call it more so of an AI balloon. Um, and not because that evokes images of a lot of hot air being filled into this space, but because I think that this balloon is sort of expanding and it's getting larger and larger.
But over time, what we're probably going to see is a lot of air being let out of that balloon, whether that's through um what we've seen in some areas, which is just straight up consolidation um companies merging together and teaming up um to combine their capabilities or through just the Darwinian aspect of business that not all uh companies are going to survive. Um there's the component of um perhaps maybe at least in the US there's going to be midterm elections next year and this data center um issue is more of a local issue right now but over the course of the next year we could start to see it become more of a national talking point um which can either affect um anybody trying to implement AI um AI companies or just hold people kind of still just to see how things like that play out.
Um you have different um compliance standards starting to take shape next year as well. Um so I I think that yeah with this AI balloon imagery here, I think there's just going to be some air let out of this balloon. It's not going to pop. It's not going to burst. This is kind of I think people in the channel realize this is our new reality right now. But as we learn to um live with AI, not just the benefits, but also the consequences of it, um that it's going to contract just a little bit over the course of the next year. >> I really really like that comparison with a a deflating balloon rather than a bursting bubble.
And it's interesting that you bring up the data center conversation. we do see communities starting to push back and I think that a lot of the AI conversation is going to be dependent on the public's education of what exactly AI is and what it can be used for and what the environmental economical uh job factor implications are when it comes to building those data centers and leaning more into AI. So, it could be uh anybody's game in 2026 when it comes to those grassroots organizations starting to band together or communities say we actually don't want this to become controlling of our entire lives.
We don't want a data center in our town. Uh and here's why. So, I do look forward to seeing how that causes a disruption in in the forward momentum that we've seen with AI. But, Victoria, I really would like to get your take on that. Do you agree that it's more of a deflating balloon rather than a bursting bubble? >> I do like the the kind of metaphor in terms of imagery. I will also say we've heard I think a lot more from service providers and channel partners at large about uh taking everything we learned in 25 and making sure that in 26 AI is this actionable profitable center for partners themselves.
Right? We spent a lot of time this year talking about to Louis's point automating workflows, enabling partner organizations to do more with less, how they then position that to clients from SMB up to enterprise. Right? If you want to use AI, we'll make sure that you're ready for it. Right? We've talked to partners like Thrive a couple times between you and I Katie about how they're building services around that entire life cycle of of AI from data readiness all the way to adoption and implementation.
I think that continues next year, but I think to Jordan's point, the channel is only ever as prepared as it can be for what it ultimately relies on, which is consumer demand and consumer attitude towards technology. Right? If your end users are fighting their employees about whether AI should be adopted in their organization, that's going to impact how they show up with you in QBRS. It's going to impact how they show up with you in terms of forwardthinking strategic technology that they want to invest in.
So, I do think to Jordan's point, next year is is going to show some evolving factors when it comes to how we talk about AI systems. And to Louis point, I think the conversation around compliance and around regulation is going to be critical next year, especially because we've spent a lot of time reporting on this concept of AI for security and security for AI, right? the way those two things intersect because as much as we in business land have kind of you know said oh this is efficient and it's giving us all of these opportunities threat actors get the exact same benefits on their end of the equation about it and they are also now much more efficient and much faster in being able to deploy what they are attacking organizations with.
So I do think it's a big year not just for the tech now but for the conversations around sentiment towards the tech. Thank you all so much. AI is always a fun conversation and we're not done talking about it. I'm sure it's going to come up many more times. But I do want to move on to another subject of what we saw come through in 2025 and that would be the second iteration of the cyber security maturity model certification or as it's known now CMMC 2.0.
That went into effect in November of this year. So it will be a mandatory requirement one year later in 2026. Now is the time when organizations are being encouraged to become CMMC 2.0 compliant. And for those who don't know what this is, CMMC 2.0 requires DoD contractors, so with the Department of Defense, those contractors to have an adequate cyber security training in order to work with the federal organizations or any contractor affiliated with those.
This means that anyone with contracts like that have to start getting fully compliant now in order to meet the requirements by next year. This includes channel providers. So, while this can sound daunting, I've noticed that a lot of providers are actually seeing this as an opportunity to help clients. They've kind of built it into their portfolio of offerings the ability to get their clients compliant as well as some service providers focusing on how they can help other MSPs become compliant.
When it comes to this sort of focus on CMMC, uh they've turned it into a business model in itself. So similar to what we've seen with VMware uh and other service providers saying how can I help other providers be able to continue to transact in a way that's not being a part of the VMware ecosystem and partner program. We are seeing other service providers now who are CMMC compliant sort of form an entire offering around that and offer it to other service providers.
So that's been interesting to see of where there's a will there's a way where there's an opportunity to make money it will be made. But I do look forward to seeing this kind of continue because compliance has become just this year a massive focus. I don't know about the rest of you if you've seen that continue, but I've certainly seen compliance become its own focus away from cyber security and much more into its own priority. I'd like to think about what else has shifted when it comes to the cyber sec cyber security compliance conversation in 2025.
What are you hearing from the channel community? And Lou, I'll put you on the spot right now because I know that you kind of came in this quarter when we saw things like CMMC become solidified. So, what are you hearing as far as cyber security or I guess what is your own take on how that's been shifting in a priority with compliance and cyber security over the last year? I think uh one of the main things I've observed as we talked about is that a lot of the thread actors get the same of the these AI powered benefits that we have like as much as security has been boosted 10fold.
We could also say the same for you've seen a lot of deep fakes, we've seen a lot of more sophisticated uh fishing attempts and that's crucial to fight against if you're an enterprise with x amount of employees. So I think the there's this sort of uh rat race that cyber security has sort of shifted to and trying to keep up with these AI powered um I was about about to say threat solutions uh these AI powered uh attacks at the same time we've also seen with that we've also seen like principles such as zero trust become all the more important these fundamental principles that you know always verify um make sure that your devices are are secure, you you go back to these tenants of cyber security all the more um when these more sophisticated and more and emerging technologies AI technologies um spur up.
So that's one of the main things that I've that I've seen. >> I hate to sound repetitive, so I'm going to turn this into a game for our listeners. Uh from now on, anytime we mention AI for the rest of this episode, take a little drink of that water sitting next to you. you're not hydrated enough. Um, so for me, 2025, just like Louise said, has been really defined by AI and AI security. Um, you know, with AI powered cyber attacks and AI expanding threat vectors, organizations um have really been turning towards bolstering their posture uh so that they can say to threat actors, have fun storming the castle. par for the course when dealing with the trending technology that's still evolving in real time.
Um we have we've seen security providers like Proof Point and Nudge Security uh start to deliver AI security solutions uh expand their platforms for AI governance. Um it's also being impacted by organizations collaborating on solutions and through acquisitions like Crowd Strike acquiring Pangia. So, like I was saying before, um people are adding AI into their security businesses um through acquisition rather than um trying to build that side up for themselves.
I've seen a little bit. Again, it's it's been AI has expanded the threat field um even more significantly. And I I don't think you can really have a conversation about security in 2025 going into 2026 without uh mentioning the impact that AI has on it. Whether that's through um using AI to power security solutions for yourself or to understanding the threat that this emerging well already emergent technology has had. I would say to your point Katie on compliance, I would also think now is a a good time for us to highlight that data sovereignty and cloud sovereignty conversations really saw an uptick in 25.
And I think that's going to be a big conversation going into 26 is this kind of ongoing reflection point of where data is stored, not just within an organization, but geographically speaking. Um, we have recent reporting up on the site as of the time of this recording about AWS's sovereign cloud program that's entering the European market in 2026 and who they are partnering with to bring that to the European market. Tied a lot to the fact that the EU has really started to crack down and regulate where data lives, why it lives, where it lives, and how companies of all sizes within its borders are securing and protecting their data from a compliance standpoint.
So of course there are AI implications because data is the foundation for many AI implementations. But I think even without just talking about AI, the regulatory landscape across the world, depending on where you are, is going to become increasingly complex. And so for regional partners, that's obviously critical. You need to understand what your customers need. You need to understand what you need as a business. for the larger partners who span multiple countries, multiple regions, multiple continents.
That's also going to, I think, splinter how you approach services and ensure that you're building regionality into your planning and into your offerings for next year. >> I'd like to talk briefly about some of the major layoffs that we saw at tech companies across the channel space. There were many. We saw thousands of layoffs at singular companies across the world, but at singular companies, they made those layoffs from major major channel players including Microsoft, AWS, Intel, Google, and many more.
Now, there are, like I've said earlier, plenty [snorts] of other strategists and economists looking at this, having conversations about it that is going to be much more in-depth than what we're going to talk about here. But I would like to kind of dig into the driving forces behind these layoffs. Whether that's the economy, whether it's artificial intelligence, whether it's the tariffs here in the US and the visa insecurity that we've also seen here in the US for foreign workers to be able to come over and work for some of these major players uh that I mentioned earlier.
So I'd like to just briefly touch on this because I do think it's important. I do think that we are seeing this impact the channel in a way that is significant. Um so Victoria I am going to go back to you for this this start. Where are you seeing some of the greatest impacts for for or greatest drivers I should say for these mass layoffs because I know that 10% might not sound like a lot but when we talk about a company like AWS or Google we're talking literally like I said thousands of people when it comes to those layoffs. >> Yeah.
So what I would say is I mean layoffs unfortunately have been I think one of the dominant themes of this year. I can't imagine that a quarter has gone by that we haven't covered two or three substantially large and several smaller amounts of people laid off from work. I think what stands out to me is that they have really occurred across segments within companies as well. This isn't a calling just of marketing or sales, for example, just to name two.
It it seems to really be hitting all facets of some of these major players. I think we could probably spend a whole episode talking about what they have stated as the reasoning behind these things versus what people feel to be true about the amount of of workers that have been cut. I think what is true is that many of these businesses have said time and time again that they are investing in AI to enable and automate workflow processes that are different than they have been in years past.
In some of these cases, there's been a layer of middle management positions that have been reduced significantly from a headcount perspective because the predominant thinking seems to be there is no longer a need for four or five people within an approvals process, for example. What all of that means for those companies is is yet to be seen. I mean, we named people that companies rather that are performing very well financially. So, there's that whole can of worms, too.
Um unfortunately though a very hard year for individual human beings and I think that is what gets lost sometimes in this conversation is that there are a lot of really talented really tenured professionals still looking for work and it's interesting to see the way that channel groups whether that's kind of informal pure networking groups or the more formal uh nonprofits have taken to uplifting those people and helping them find new positions. So I think one of the interesting things to look at next year then is how this reshapes what types of experience are at some of these larger companies and what that means then downstream for the customers and partners that that interact with those teams every day. >> Jordan, you often cover the M&A activity as well as the shifts within leadership uh divisions across the channel companies.
Um you kind of aggregate those those announcements together at the end of each quarter. So would you feel comfortable speaking to what you've seen as some of the the impacts of these massive layoffs? Have you seen a lot of changes? >> Yeah, I think when it comes to the M&A space, there tends to be what hap what follows in the wake of a merger or an acquisition is that there is a reduction in redundancies um within a company. And I trying not to make that sound as like cold and calculating as possible because by redundancies I mean that we are eliminating job positions which means eliminating people from these companies.
But there has been a lot of vendor consolidation um and selective partnerships and with these joint investments they are they are able to go to various shareholders and say hey this is part of our strategy. Um we are becoming leaner by trimming again not to sound cold and calculating but trimming bloat in this company u making us more agile and um you know aerodynamic to move into the future but uh again to Victoria's point it is a lot of uh it's a lot of human lives being impacted um I can't beyond the um reduction of um various positions that are duplicative within a company after a merger or an acquisition.
I can't really speak to um what else might be going on behind the decision making there. I mean again economic vibes right now. the AI of it all. There has been a lot of um we've seen in some cases a lot of overhiring before in the years past and now um people are reducing because either um you know automation has been able to fill some of those lower level duties that um organizations don't need to hire for anymore or retain people for anymore or in some cases AI is just not um achieving the ROI as some people have um been promised that it would um which has caused a lot of slashing of roles as well. >> Well, everyone that brings me to the final point that I want to touch on as far as the annual review goes before we move on to some of our favorite moments and I really want to just have the the very general question posed of what's impacting channel partners' decisions the most right now.
For example, partners have a lot of decisions when it comes to vendors. There have been many new players entering the market. A lot of startups, even a lot of ISVs who are kind of pivoting off of AWS or IBM or Google and building solutions on top of that. There's always new SAS providers. There will never not be new SAS providers. So there's there are a lot of choices and there's a lot more competition. I would like to know are you seeing that impact decisions from the channel or are they sticking with their legacy triedand-true vendors?
We have seen some of the the legacy vendors within this space or I should say legacy MSPs within the space and solution providers who are very large who are very trusted within those Microsoft communities within those SAP communities wanting to continue those relationships of course with those large vendors but they're also understanding that the market is continuing to grow and shift in a way that they might need some fresh blood some new faces in there and they might need the people with the coolest newest tool.
So talk to me about what you've seen and how that's impacting the choices that those providers are making. Uh Victoria, I'd love to to start with you here. >> Yeah, I think it's an interesting question to pose because of course there is a very saturated I think we could all say tech market right now. I if Jordan and Louis and I tried to cover every startup that said that they were operating in the channel, we would frankly have no time for anything and would probably work 24 hours a day.
I think actually though the biggest decision and inflection point that MSPs and solution providers and partners at large are facing now is not techbased, it's business-based. We've seen a lot of conversation this year, whether I've been on site reporting on it, whether vendors have kind of staked a a claim on certain things that the very nature of what a partner is needs to change because of the way that AI has impacted how businesses operate and how they themselves can make money.
PAX 8 in particular has kind of coined this new term the managed intelligence provider as an evolution point from what an MSP used to be to what an MIP in their minds will eventually provide. I spent a lot of time talking to executives on the vendor and partner side this year that more MSPs are positioning themselves as strategic adviserss or trusted adviserss and kind of dropping the tech solutions aspect from their name. And then we could continue to have the same conversation we've had for like a decade now, which is what is a reseller and what is a solutions provider and then how do you become an MSSP if you were an MSP.
Um, so again, a conversation that is maybe not new, but the the weight behind it and the sheer amount of times this year somebody looked at me and said MSPs need to evolve in 26 or they're probably out of business by 27 or 28 is quite loud. And so part of that might be obviously everybody's trying to to do business, trying to sell themselves for the future, but I do think the the biggest thing that MSPs and solution providers need to consider next year is what are you really?
What do you offer customers? Because if your end user customers think of you as a way to provision technology, then some of those customers might be going, hm, with the way that agentto agent connections are going to start forming over the next few years, do I need an MSP if that agent can just go make my purchase for me? And that's something that many people are starting to promise and predict. So, I think partners need to recommmit themselves to the idea that they can provide much more than a license, right?
They can act as adviserss to come into a business and say you want this outcome. You want 20% growth year-over-year. You're you're acquired or being acquired. So you need your you know your ducks in a row. Here's why this piece of technology helps you get to that outcome. Here's how you use tech to drive your business forward. And if partners can't have those conversations in an elevated manner over the next few years, I think there's a real concern that uh we're going to see a shift in whether enduser customers think they need the channel or how they need the channel.
And so I think that's what's really starting to drive decisions forward into next year is just what do I need in my tool stack as as an MSP to show up in a different way in the market to ensure that I exist 5 years from now. Very interesting take on that. Jordan, anything that you would build on with that subject matter? >> Yeah, I think there has been and there's going to continue to be this focus from providers on reducing complexity in their tool stacks with unified platforms uh combining multiple capabilities uh like security and automation and just reducing vendor sprawl as well.
So, um, kind of touching on what Victoria said, I think people are going to have to ultimately decide what they are and what they can provide. There there's also just like I said before, a lot of consolidation um, and selective partnerships through M&A and joint investments. channel uh companies are going to be prioritizing vendors with integrated platforms um broad ecosystem support uh simpler partner engagements over multiple point solutions rather than you know fragmented management.
So, um there could be some just holding on to legacy technology if it works for people, but um modernization is going to be um more so of a a driving force for channel partners. >> Some good points there. Louie, would you like to take a shot at this of what you've been seeing over the last quarter impacting decisions made by channel providers? So I suppose um with my four or five months of serving the channel covering and writing about it, I think the one one unique um concept or thing that stood out to me is this concept of AI readiness.
I'm not particularly sure how how concretely that would impact channel partner decisions. But I believe in the immediate future or in the coming year or so there's going to be a lot of focus on how ready um internally people are on how on using AI solutions. Are is AI expertise going to be a big priority? It it looks like it's going to be uh a big priority. I've seen from covering some of the unfortunate layoffs that uh we talked about earlier that um some of these of course they say that this is the reason whether or not it's true remains to be seen but some of these companies have mentioned that some of these restructuring was because they were reshaping for uh for AI for AI expertise for the specialized AI roles.
So that's one consideration that I think is important. >> Some very good points from all three of you. So, I appreciate it. Now, let's move on to talking about probably some of the most fun that we've had this year, which is our proudest moments for the Channel Insider team. I just want to take a moment to review what we've done. We've gone to several events. We've also had a site relaunch. We've had several awards lists. So, first of all, Victoria, talk to me about where you were on the ground and some of the proudest moments from Channel Insiders journey this year.
Yeah, I mean no wonder it's December 19th as we're recording and I feel like I need a perpetual nap. But um it's been it's been a wonderful year. We have spent a lot of time on the ground. I started my travels in April at Nerdio and throughout the course of the year also went to GTIA's first channel con is the new organization that they are. I spent some time at Ingram Micro one in November as well as Tanium Converge. Uh so a wonderful varied experience which I think really highlights the the vastness for lack of a better term of of the channel from SMB to enterprise to trade association group to distribution to vendor and and everything in between.
So it's always wonderful. I think the best conversations still happen face to face no matter how digital our world gets and it's been lovely. Um, I will also say, you know, as the kind of leader of the editorial team, it's been wonderful to welcome Louie to watch Jordan hit a year officially, though he probably feels like it's been a decade with how much I give him to write about every day. We relaunched the site. We launched two awards lists. We continue to grow.
And that's a testament to how hard the people on this call work. and it's a testament to uh how our audience has has come to us, has stuck by us, and has started to really trust us as a resource. So, my proudest moment is a thank you to everybody on this podcast and to everybody watching and reading our work. Uh that you have truly made this a year of growth and a year of of real excitement. and I'm thrilled with everything that has gone on this year and the multitude of ways you could take that statement um to have some real exciting momentum going into 26 and to what we can continue to build as a team and as a site. >> Thank you so much Victoria and Jordan.
You were also on the ground throughout the year covering at events and bringing Channel Insider to the to the masses to the people that are reading. So talk to me about some of your proudest moments and all the ground that you covered >> earlier in the year. Um, and if you listen to prior episodes, you'll know that I was at SAS Innovate um, which was a very fun um, event to go to. It was very nice to meet um, other people from different channel pubs um, internationally.
Um, there was people from Canada, I've met people from Poland, um, from Denmark as well. it. So, it was just very cool to get a um get a little bit of face- toface time with people within our segment within this uh larger niche segment that is the channel. Um so, that was a lot of fun. Um there was proof point protect in the fall as well. Um and yeah, I I I think I I'm still very proud of our um site relaunch. Um, you know, shout out to everyone at TA who worked on that.
Um, I I think it's the best looking channel publication website there is. So, if you haven't checked it out, go check out channelinssider.com and um and take a poke around. >> Lou, I would venture to say one of your proudest moments was coming over to our team and joining us. >> 100%. I think just um maybe a cop out, but of course my proudest one of my proudest moments would be my first my first story here. Just getting um a bit of a taste of how what the channel world actually is, learning from all of you who have been all so gracious with your knowledge and expertise and also just um week by week growing a bit of confidence in learning the ropes from all of the great reporting that you've all done.
Um, so I hope to uh um build up build upon that as the months go by. >> Now, I'd also like to brag a little bit and talk about our favorite stories that we got to cover. I'm going to kick this off because it's my show and I said so. Uh but even thinking back through the whole year, I've had the most amazing opportunity to speak with the movers and shakers within the channel, the the CTO's, the CEOs, the CRO of these companies that are absolutely legendary, have been around for decades, and I so appreciate the time that they gave me.
So, every single episode is my favorite if I absolutely could tell you the truth. But two that come to mind as far as what really moved me were first of all I spoke with the CTO Michael Gray of Thrive an MSSP based in Massachusetts. What I loved is that they really fully built in an AI managed services offering into their portfolio this year and launched it and they've gotten so much excitement around it. They've gotten so much success with just people calling in and saying what is this and how can we use it?
And I think the great thing about this is that it's one of the first time that I actually saw AI managed services become an offering. There's been some sort of, as we've all seen, a bit of difficulty fully having the channel wrap its arms around AI and how it can benefit and and profit off of artificial intelligence and the offerings that are coming from these vendors. So it was really interesting to hear how Thrive is is able to also build those offerings into its cyber security platform of offerings where it says not only can we make sure that we have you do this the right way, we can secure it for you as well and here's how we do it.
So very interesting. One of my other favorite stories was one that I just did with data 41. uh the the president and founder of that company, Hans Mai, spent some time with me and told me about how they're using AI to be able to help tissue banks, literally organ donation centers, uh go through medical file files a lot faster, automate a lot faster, and essentially be able to get those donated tissues, the gift of life essentially, to the people that need it the most even faster and more efficiently.
And if there's anything that I can think about how AI can do some good, it's helping human lives. And this was such a great example of how it's doing that. And such an interesting use case for it as well. I would have never thought about this. So incredible work being done by the data 41 team. And I hope you go listen to both those stories to learn more about how the channel is able to really take AI and start to run with it because I hope to see a lot more of that in 2026.
So little plug for me too. If you have a use case in which you're you're bringing AI to your customers as a channel provider, please let me know. I would love to be able to highlight you as well. That's very very exciting. Uh Jordan, for you, what was your favorite story or two? Because I cheated. Uh what was your favorite story that you got to cover this year? >> I would have to say that one of my favorite stories was a recent interview that I conducted with the CIO of Level Blue, uh Maria Cardo. despite being a chief information officer, we we talked less about technology and more about people.
Um, which can be refreshing from time to time. Um, but we had a conversation about the fact that cyber security isn't just a technical discipline. Um, that there should be a renewed focus on people for security posture in the era of AI. How's that water going people? Um we discuss the psychology of human behavior within organizations shadow AI um and accounting for uh insider risk so security models don't fail. Um, you know, organizations, they want humans on that wall.
They need us on that wall. But this conversation was a nice refresher on how organizations need to understand the human side and the human psychology of security posture and and not just the the technical aspects of it, too. >> Love that. Louie, I'd love to hear what was your favorite story that you got to cover in the time that you've been with us this year. >> Surprise, surprise. It's another AI story, but this one is is my favorite one. So, I did a story in early October on Canara.
Uh, so they rolled out what they called uh their new AI engine. Uh, where it's essentially designed to transform a professional service firm's data into something that can be usable for AI. So in terms of ingesting projects or maybe it's conversations or deliverables within their uh their data infrastructure, the thing that stood out to me about that was um they made an emphasis on it being tailored to how service firms actually operate it. So um making an emphasis on the nuances of professional services firms, learning every project as it goes, learning every deliverable.
So, it's that tailor made aspect that I think is an illustration of what I feel personally is good AI in that it's supposed AI to me is supposed to be tailored to what you're trying to do, what your business is trying to do, what what your goals are and not the other way around. >> Love to hear that. And Victoria, what was your favorite story that you got to cover in 2025? Yeah, I was going back through everything I've written because I knew you were going to ask and I a forgot how much I had written this year.
So, thanks for that reminder. But I'm actually going all the way back to March and I wanted to highlight a story I wrote in March for uh women's history month, the concept of women in technology. But I spent some time with the founders and the current leaders both of the association of channel women and of cloud girls which are two nonprofits within the channel and within the tech industry that focus on uh uplifting and supporting women and underrepresented groups um in the space and it was lovely.
I mean, obvious statement of the day as a woman in tech myself, right? I think as somebody who has a platform or a website that she kind of manages more or less, it's incumbent on us to share those stories and to share not just, hey, women exist, but to talk tangibly about where they haven't existed, where they should exist more and seats impacting product and impacting services and the way that sales and marketing have maybe caught up a bit in terms of of gender par.
Um, and there are some incredible women who gave me time out of their very busy day in which they probably did not have much time to give to speak to why they feel so strongly about giving back and supporting and uplifting those around them and those coming up behind them. And as a young woman, I've been the beneficiary of others who have shared that time. And so, it felt like my little way to give back a bit. Um, and it was just a wonderful story and a wonderful opportunity to actually to Jordan's point to talk about people and not just tech itself. >> Excellent.
So folks, that brings us to the end of our episode today. But before we go, I'd like to see if anybody has any predictions, high, low confidence, midconidence for 2026 about what we might see. August is kicked off. I feel that 2026 is going to be the year where we actually pivot back from thinking that AI is going to replace jobs and we see it like I said uh earlier in the episode less of an ROI focused tool and more of an efficiency tool and I think that's going to be a wider spread focus across companies as we continue to see the end user market become actually more educated with what artificial intelligence can truly do.
Jordan, do you have any predictions for 2026 about what we'll see in the channel? >> Yeah, I have two predictions. One that I have high confidence in and one is kind of a a wishful thinking um that I hope will happen. Security and compliance is just going to be a bigger focus in 2026. um not because it's necessary because this is something that's already pretty much a non-negotiable with companies but because we will see um benchmarks for regulatory frameworks start to come to the fray whether that's CMMC 2.0 know expanding um the NIS-2 which is an EU cyber directive HIPPA security rule updates uh and the upcoming first enforcement phase of the EU cyber resilience act.
So that's something that um I think organizations are going to have to um put an emphasized focus on. Uh the second one that I kind of hope happens is I would like to see a renewed focus on green IT in the channel and at large um not just greenwashing in the way that we have seen it in the past, but I would like to see organizations bring a renewed focus on their um environmental impacts and how everything that they're doing is affecting everybody else in the world because I I know it's going to be an important issue in the coming um months.
Um and it should already be uh a focus right now, but over the past couple of years or so, I I feel like we've kind of stepped away from that when it got to be a really big focus and the I hate to bring it up, but the mid pandemic years is is green it became a larger focus and I'd like to see us go back to that in 2026. I appreciate that so much. Yeah, and I I can imagine that there is going to be a renewed focus on it again when we think back to data centers and there's been a lot of conversation around how much water, for example, AI uses when whenever you do a prompt.
I know that the statistics around that are kind of all over the place, but people are talking about it and I think that they are realizing that they do care. So, an interesting prediction. Jordan Victoria, any predictions for 2026? Yeah, I think it'll be a super quiet year and we'll have nothing to to talk about. >> Okay, I'm gonna hang up on you right now. >> Yeah, just take a yearong vacation, guys. We're good. No, I do think actually my my prediction is that we start to see the channel lose its bestkept secret moniker a bit.
Um, I know everybody who works in the channel has many stories of talking to family members and when you go, "Oh, I work in the IT channel," they go Chanel because he thinks what they think. Um, but I think increasingly we've seen companies see the channel as a way to scale and see channel partners as an extension of their internal team rather than some kind of floating corner that maybe they need to tap into in certain aspects. But I think the channel is becoming a key strategic lever throughout the technology landscape.
And I think what that means is that a vendor companies have to get smarter about how they engage with channel partners. Right? there are incumbents who have done this for a very long time and there are things that partners expect from their vendors that they will not work with if they don't receive right uh but I think what it also means is that we start to see enduser customers talk about this a bit more as well because they will follow what the larger vendor names are saying and so when AWS and Microsoft and Google Cloud and and all of the big names that you know and love start to talk more about what their partner ecosystems bring especially in an SMB focused arena those SMBs are probably going to start paying a bit more attention to what their service providers are telling them as well.
And so I think that's a very macro prediction. It's like a vibesbased thing more than an impact thing. But I do think people know what the channel is a lot more than they did a couple years ago. And I think that's going to have a lot of maybe niche maybe nuance but still very noticeable ripple effects as we move forward as an industry. And Louie, last but not least, predictions for 2026. >> Yeah. So, I'm I actually wanted to borrow a prediction I saw from Josh Taylor, who's a lead security analyst at Fortra.
He he said that he predicts in 2026 we'll we'll see the first AI liability AI liability lawsuit, which I think is one of the most interesting questions I've seen throughout this whole AI conversation. is in that who's going to be liable when unfortunately like stuff hits the fan when it comes to AI, whether it's um sensitive company information being leaked or maybe it's a compliance uh rule or agreement that's been broken. Are you going to blame the person who used the AI?
Are you going to blame the p the the company that made the AI system? Is it going to be the organization? I know it's sort of a pessimistic view because of course there's going to be somebody that's sort of messed up next year, but I also think it's a very important question to ask with all the AI stuff that we're working on. And there's a med confidence from me that it's going to happen one way or another. And I think it's important that we start talking about that and start answering if if we don't have the answers, start having like a framework of how we're going to get to who's going to be accountable to when AI messes up essentially.
So you mean like an organization or a business saying that AI an AI company is liable because we are seeing that unfortunately happen on the end user side where parents uh of children are actually suing certain companies for the AI tools that their kids are using without any guardrails allegedly. So interesting interesting take there Louie I appreciate that. Um, I hope it doesn't come true, but at the same time, I think that that's actually a pretty pretty big possibility that we could see something like that.
Well, folks, thank you so much for joining me again, not just today, but all year and being a part of this team. Uh, I've loved every second of it, and I appreciate your time being spent with me today. I'd love to just get the final words from you and seeing where we can contact you, where we can find you, where we can read your stories. So, Victoria, would you like to kick us off? Where can we contact you and where can we learn more about the writing that you do for Channel Insider? >> Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you again, Katie, for everything you do for the team, for everything you do for the brand. Uh, if this has tickled your fancy or if you are familiar with us already, but want to get in touch in the new year, you can always find me on LinkedIn. Uh, Victoria dur. I'm pretty pretty findable, or at least I would like to think I am. You can always read my reporting on Channel Insider. can subscribe to our channel insider newsletter and you can stay tuned here whether you're on YouTube, whether you're on our site or whether you listen to our podcast.
Uh, continue to do so. And if you would like to reach out to our team directly, you can email news at channelinsider.com at any point to share formal news, your thoughts, uh, a complaint, yell at us like a man yelling at the clouds, whatever you need to do. Uh, but please reach out and please get in touch. Likewise with Victoria, you can find all all my reporting on the channel insider website. Please do check it out as well as our LinkedIn. I'm also on LinkedIn, Luis Millieres.
And I hope to be able to contribute more to the channel space and hope to serve the realer. >> Yeah, if you have some information for me, some of that sweet Q1 news, send it to me, jordan.smith@technologyadvice.com. Uh again, go check out our revamped website as well, channelinsider.com to see all the great stuff that we've already posted. >> Excellent. And yes, so I'm Katie Bavoso. You can find me on LinkedIn as well as X. You can also find channel Insider on LinkedIn and X as well.
If you'd like to get in touch to be a part of the partner POV podcast, you can reach us at partnerpov channelinsider.com. If you've got a news pitch for any of these wonderful people here, you can reach us at news@ channelinsider.com. And don't forget to watch us on YouTube at youtube.com/ channelinsider_news and trends. Of course, go check out channelinsider.com and listen to us wherever you get your podcast from. So, thank you so much everyone for joining me once again.
Thank you at home for watching, listening, or reading throughout the year. We'll see you in 2026. Have a great day. Heat. Heat. >>
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