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. With the help of ChatGPT, Claude, and AI tools developed by our parent company Informa, we're tracking top stories based on web traffic, mentions, impressions, reposts, and social media engagement. All links are current as of Feb. 9.
Is Channel Share Shrinking During IT Boom?
The tech market is booming at a rate not seen in more than a decade. However, most channel partners believe their companies won’t grow as quickly. Despite accelerating IT demand, 81% of partners believe they will underperform the overall market growth, according to Omdia polling of 25,000 partners globally. Infrastructure is the fastest-growing segment of the global IT market, expanding at nearly 30% in 2026, yet much of that growth is effectively off-limits to most partners. Server spending is forecast to grow more than 40%, but hyperscalers and neocloud providers — not channel ecosystems — capture the bulk of this expansion. Read the Channel Dive story.
GenAI Drove $119B Cloud Revenue in Q4
Synergy Research Group estimates that fourth-quarter cloud infrastructure service revenues -- including IaaS, PaaS and hosted private cloud services -- were $119.1 billion, with 2025's revenue reaching $419 billion. The quarterly total increased $12 billion from the third quarter and by $29 billion from the fourth quarter of 2024. Synergy identified GenAI as the primary driver of the growth. Read the TechTarget story.
What MSPs Must Know About Microsoft’s 2026 MS365 Retirements
Businesses are evaluating how Microsoft’s many scheduled feature retirements, replacements, and changes in MS365 throughout 2026 will affect employees and operations worldwide. The retirements and changes span a wide range of MS365 products and services, including Exchange, Azure, Teams, SharePoint, Publisher, Project, Entra, and more. Feature retirements and new feature introductions can be disruptive when configuration changes must be made in advance or when employees lose MS365 features they have relied on for years. This is where MSPs and other channel partners can provide valuable assistance. Read the ChannelE2E story.
Pure Storage Partner Program Prioritizes Outcomes
Pure Storage introduced Solution Practice Designations for resellers to recognize partners that demonstrate specialization in four areas: AI and analytics, cyber resilience, cloud, and application modernization. This partner program overhaul reflects a broader channel move toward outcome-based incentives and tiering tied to technical expertise. A key theme of the refresh is a move away from volume-driven incentives toward verified technical capability and solution specialization. See the Channel Dive story.
Infoblox Adds Service Provider Tracks for GSIs and MSSPs to Its Partner Program
Cloud networking and security vendor Infoblox is boosting its Skilled to Secure Trusted Partner Program by adding new partner paths for global system integrators (GSIs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs). The separate new GSI and invite-only MSSP designations in Infoblox’s service provider track are each aligned to how partners go to market, how they deliver services, and how they scale, according to a blog post by Infoblox VP Chris Millerick. Read about it on ChannelE2E.
Everything's Fine in AI Bubble Land (Please Believe Us)
In this opinion piece, SDxCentral senior editor Ben Wodecki writes “every time one of Nvidia, Oracle, OpenAI, or [insert bubbler name here] posts on social platform X in what appears to be an effort to justify business decisions or avoid investor panic, they keep making things worse.” He goes on to analyze the circular deals in the AI landscape. See it on SDxCentral.