The content team at the MSP Summit site tracks stories of interest to the managed services provider community. Anyone selling managed services or partnering with MSPs will want to know about these developing stories or catch up on stories they have missed. All links are current as of Sept 21.
GTIA and ASCII Tie the Knot in MSP Trade Association Consolidation
Global Technology Industry Association acquired the ASCII Group, merging two managed services provider communities. ASCII will continue to hold its ASCII Edge regional events and its members were automatically admitted to GTIA, according to an FAQ about the deal. ASCII lists more than 1,300 companies among its members, while GTIA has roughly 2,800. Read the Channel Dive story.
OpenText and Hatz AI Partner to Support MSP AI Readiness
With AI rapidly moving from experimentation to expectation, customers are turning to their MSPs for guidance. To help partners meet this demand, OpenText launched a referral partnership with Hatz AI focused on helping MSPs move from AI interest to practical adoption and delivery. Read the ChannelE2E story.
Gemini 3.8 Live Transforms Conversational AI
Google introduced two new audio models that enable enterprises to deploy intelligent AI agents with reasoning depth, more interactivity and conversational speed. Gemini 3.8 Live and Live Extended Thinking let developers build voice agents that can reason and execute tasks while maintaining the flow of the conversation, Google said. The models’ key capabilities include performing API and tool calls while continuing to stream audio responses to users, providing live visual inputs that help agents understand what users say and see, and supporting more than 97 languages. Read the AI Business story.
NinjaOne Adds Browser Management Tool
NinjaOne Browser Management extends the cybersecurity vendor’s Unified IT Operations Platform to cover the layer of the endpoint where modern work happens and that traditional IT management cannot reach: the browser. Read the NinjaOne news release.
Identity Attacks Expose Scary, New Gaps in MSP Security
The modern workplace has moved well beyond the endpoint. Employees now operate across email, browsers, SaaS applications, cloud platforms and a rapidly expanding collection of AI tools. That has created an attack surface that traditional endpoint security alone was never designed to protect. Read the ChannelPro Network story.
OpenAI Investors Discuss New Round at $1.2 Trillion Valuation
OpenAI may be headed toward another massive private-market valuation well before its eventual IPO. Investors have approached OpenAI about a possible new round that could value the company at about $1.2 trillion, but formal fundraising has not begun. That distinction matters. OpenAI has not announced a new raise, but investor interest alone suggests the market may already be testing a valuation far above the company’s most recent financing. Read the Channel Insider story.
MSPs Can Help Keep Schools Secure
Research from cybersecurity vendor Barracuda Networks detected 58.8 million phishing emails targeting 536 education institutions over three months — equivalent to approximately 1,200 per institution each day. The volume underscores the difficulties IT teams face supporting large, diverse user populations with limited security resources. It also provides an opportunity for MSPs. Read the Channel Dive story.