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 April 6.
How the Channel Shapes Cybersecurity Industry
Cyber incursions have become an everywhere problem, afflicting small and midsize businesses that once hid safely behind a veil of anonymity, as well as larger, more obvious enterprise targets. A growing need for robust defense capabilities agile enough to keep pace with evolving attack modes has already left an impression on the channel, where the line between general managed services and specialized managed security services is quietly eroding. The channel, in turn, is shaping the vendor landscape, as providers roll out partner-friendly platforms and lean on partners to lead the sales and distribution charge. Channel Dive dives deep into these developments.
Drone Strikes, Infrastructure Disruptions, and Cyber Surges Stress-Test MSPs
Drone strikes took out AWS infrastructure in the UAE. MSPs activated disaster recovery plans they hoped they'd never need. This is the new normal MSPs are operating in. The Middle East escalation is already showing up in places MSPs care about. Security teams are logging spikes in cyber activity. Drones are striking data center facilities, and some organizations are rerouting workloads and spinning up disaster recovery plans on the fly. This is not a drill. This is real life. Read the ChannelE2E story.
Security Market Shifts to MSP, Identity and Infrastructure
The security world is evolving to move away from traditional protection measures towards focusing on securing identity and infrastructure via a managed services model. Evolution is a common event in the security world, with one of the last major ones being the move away from reacting to listed threats towards a more proactive zero-trust agenda, and the industry is shifting again, according to market watchers Context. Read the Microscope story.
Edge Market set to Surge … if Connectivity can Keep up
The edge compute market has been a slow burn for decades, but many view the surge in AI traffic as a catalyst toward that market finally catching fire. This transition was top of mind during a panel at the recent Connect | New York event put on by SDxCental and sister publication DCD, where speakers noted AI-fueled edge workloads are set to drive significant revenue opportunities if challenges can be surmounted. SDxCentral has the story.
MSPs Reap Hybrid IT Rewards While Grappling with Growing Complexity
As hybrid IT becomes the norm, businesses are leaning on MSPs to integrate existing systems with cloud without sacrificing security or risking data breaches. The situation creates a clear divide between partners that are up for the challenge and those that are not, according to Westcon-Comstor. MSPs that package integration, identity and policy enforcement into repeatable, governed services are better positioned to generate predictable recurring revenue and defend margins, the distributor found. Providers that remain focused on one-off projects are losing out. Read the Channel Dive story.
Behind the Curtain: Altman’s Superintelligence New Deal
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is doing something no tech titan has ever done: He's publishing a detailed blueprint for how government should tax, regulate and redistribute the wealth from the very technology he's racing to build and spread. Axios interviewed Altman about the paper, Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First, and the threats and benefits AI can bring. Read the Axios story.
Changes in the Channel: People Moves and Shakeups March 30 – April 03
ChannelE2E tracks people changing roles in the channel. Last week’s changes included a new Xerox CEO and a new CRO at Snowflake. Read the ChannelE2E roundup.
Box Consolidates AI Tools, adds Super Agent
Box released an AI super agent to premium subscribers, which can gather data and create new files in formats including PDF and Microsoft 365 docs, spreadsheets and slide decks. Enterprise Plus and Enterprise Advanced users now have access to Box Agent, which can interpret plain-language questions to search across their enterprise data, analyze document sets such as contracts or reports, and concatenate reports after extracting information. The ability to spin up files in Microsoft 365 and PDF formats is currently in beta for Enterprise Advanced users. Read the TechTarget story.
MCP is Alive, but Faces Challenges
Eighteen months after Anthropic introduced its Model Context Protocol and four months after the vendor donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation, which is part of the Linux Foundation, the AI community is grappling with challenges in using the open standard. When the generative AI vendor launched MCP as an open-source standard to connect AI models and external data sources or tools, questions arose in the AI world whether the protocol could really stand as the standard. Despite skepticism, adoption of the tool grew with all major cloud providers accepting MCP as the standard for connecting AI agents. Read the AI Business story.