Congratulations to the following winners of our second annual Best of the Channel Awards! You can learn about all of the 2026 winners on our website here: bit.ly/4AXWWtU. Together with our parent company, @TheChannelCo, we hosted an awards ceremony last night in Atlanta to spotlight these exceptional leaders helping shape the future of the IT channel. - Best Emerging Leader: Stacie Nadeau​, @IngramMicroInc - Best Solution Provider CEO: Jon Groves​, @LogicalisUS - Best Solution Provider Channel Visionary: Jim Keller​, @Quantiphi - Best Vendor Channel Visionary: Gordon Lord​, @SchneiderElec - Best Channel Achiever: Brook Lee​, @rev_io_hq - Best Channel Chief: @wademcfarland43​, @Lenovo - Best AI Solution Provider: @Ahead - Best AI Vendor: @cyera_io - Best Channel Marketing Team: @zscaler - Best Solution Provider Team: @GuidePointSec - Best Channel Team: @TDSYNNEX - Best Security Solution Provider: @wwt_inc - Best Security Vendor: @AWNetworks - Best Vendor: @HaloPSA_ - Best Solution Provider: Quantiphi - Lifetime Achievement Award recipient: Felise Katz, PKA Technologies -- @SchneiderNA

The planned acquisition of publicly traded data security vendor @varonis will enable @proofpoint partners to deliver a “comprehensive data security solution to their customers,” which is primed for combating AI and agentic risk, Proofpoint CEO @sumit_dhawan tells @CRN. crn.com/news/security/2026/p…

🚨 Today is the deadline for @CRN 2027 Channel Chiefs applications. You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your application to be considered for the 2027 Channel Chiefs list. If you’re making an impact on the channel, now is the time to make sure your work is recognized. Apply before midnight. bit.ly/4AMeDN6

Amazon Web Services (AWS) worked with partners for a year to create its new Business Value Realization Competency and framework to drive partner post-sales revenue and AI business outcomes, while incentivizing partners with new funding, toolkits and $50,000 in marketing development funds (MDF). “A lot of people think that, hey, once you’ve sold the deal, that’s where it ends,” @awscloud channel chief Ruba Borno told @CRN. “But actually, in the agentic era, post-sales are more critical than they ever have been before.” @AWS_Partners crn.com/news/ai/2026/aws-giv…

Caylent has built its relationship and business with AI developer @AnthropicAI by moving quickly, starting customers with shorter @claudeai engagements and adapting as the vendor’s channel strategy evolves, the @awscloud Premier Tier Services Partner and Anthropic Preferred Services Partner’s CEO, Valerie Henderson, said. The company became the first North American systems integrator with an official Anthropic partnership and now has about 1,400 Anthropic certifications, Henderson told an audience of solution providers who attended XChange Best of Breed, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Atlanta, Ga. Henderson explained how @caylentinc accelerates Anthropic growth through short Claude engagements, rapid adaptation, AI expertise and customer enablement while navigating Anthropic’s continuously evolving channel strategy and partner programs at scale. @ChannelWritrGuy has the details: crn.com/events/2026/you-have…

AI might be changing the rules of the game, but the channel winners will be the solution providers that can translate that disruption into real business outcomes for customers, according to vendor executives who spoke at XChange Best of Breed, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Atlanta, Ga. From new AI trends to views on the competitive landscape, @CRN Executive Editor @jfollett and CRN cybersecurity reporter and Senior Editor @KyleAlspach have rounded up 10 takes on what’s next for AI and security in the channel from the following experts at the conference: - Tim Barton-Wines, CCO, Halo - James Mignacca, CEO, Cavelo - @Scottjbarlow, chief evangelist, global head of community, @Sophos - Jonathan Gould, director, business development, software, @SchneiderElec - David Langley, senior director, sales engineering, channels, North America, @Commvault - Bill Brandel, executive vice president, president, North America, @IngramMicroInc - Rob Allen, chief product officer, @ThreatLocker - Mike Adler, vice president, chief technology, product officer, @Nable - Christian Goffi, vice president, Americas channel sales, @nutanix - Andy Syrewicze, principal security advocate, @proofpoint @SophosPartners @NutanixPartners crn.com/events/2026/what-s-n…

Proofpoint announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire @varonis in a $6.3 billion deal that aims to turn the vendor into an even bigger force in the red-hot data and AI security market. @CRN cybersecurity reporter and Senior Editor @KyleAlspach breaks down five key things to know about @proofpoint’s acquisition of Varonis, including managed service provider (MSP) perspective from Brian Betzen, founder and chief technologist at veraTECH Solutions: crn.com/news/security/2026/5…

In the wake of its @sanalabs and C1 acquisitions, @Workday is increasingly leveraging agentic AI to redefine HR and finance business processes. That's changing the game and creating opportunities for the company's channel partners, channel chief Bronwyn Hastings tells @CRN. crn.com/news/channel-news/20…

Wipro will continue investing in acquisitions, engineering capabilities and AI services even when those investments create near-term pressure on margins, according to @Wipro CEO and managing director Srini Pallia. During Wipro’s second-quarter FY27 earnings call this week, Pallia said the company is beginning to see tangible returns from strategic investments made in recent quarters. These investments are strengthening Wipro’s position in existing sectors, opening new markets and expanding its engineering and AI capabilities. Aaron Raj, editorial director of our sister publication @CRN_Asia, has the details: $WIT crn.com/news-network/wipro-c…

AI is becoming a bigger business for partners, but security gaps, ROI concerns and escalating token costs continue to slow adoption. @Cisco says its agentic AI strategy and Cloud Control platform can help partners capitalize on the opportunity while tackling the complexity. Alex Pujols, Cisco’s vice president of solutions engineering for global partner sales, spoke with CRN Associate Managing Editor @GeeNarcisi about the company’s latest AI readiness findings, the security and ROI hurdles still confronting customers, Cisco’s end-to-end AI advantage and how Cloud Control could help partners build new managed services and recurring revenue streams. You can read Gina’s interview with Pujols here: @CiscoPartners crn.com/news/networking/2026…

CEO of @nutanix @RajivRamaswami didn’t hold back when asked about the difference between his company’s and VMware’s R&D innovation strategy. “At a fundamental level, we are investing for growth,” he said during an onstage interview with @CRN Executive Editor @jfollett and Executive News Editor @StevenJBurke at #XChange Best of Breed, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Atlanta, Ga. “We are not in the business of just milking legacy products. We are investing for the future.” Here’s what else Ramaswami had to say: @NutanixPartners crn.com/news/ai/2026/nutanix…

GuidePoint Security announced today that it has promoted vendor partnerships leader Mark Thornberry to the role of chief business officer, as the cybersecurity powerhouse aims to accelerate its work with top AI platforms, hyperscalers and emerging startups, the solution provider told @CRN exclusively. In an interview with CRN cybersecurity reporter and Senior Editor @KyleAlspach, Thornberry said the promotion represents an expansion of the role he’s held for the past four years leading @GuidePointSec’s vendor relationships group. As chief business officer, he is aiming to boost GuidePoint’s partnerships in key segments in the AI and hyperscaler market, as well as relationships with venture capital firms. Read Kyle’s interview with Thornberry to learn more about Thornberry’s new role and what it means for GuidePoint: crn.com/news/security/2026/g…

With its new Revenue Enablement Velocity (REV) channel growth platform, @torq_io is offering services margin protection, expanded enablement resources, and more for partners who can work with the company’s next-generation agentic security operations center system. “It’s partners that can deliver high-value outcomes. And increasingly, in this AI world, it’s high-value AI outcomes specific to the [Security Operations Center],” Sheldon Muir, Torq head of global channels and alliances, said in an exclusive interview with @CRN. crn.com/news/security/2026/t…

The dramatic shift to AI-driven security operations now underway is creating an opportunity to build a vendor on the scale of the cybersecurity industry giants—an ambitious goal that agentic Security Operations Center (SOC) startup 7AI is pursuing by focusing its growth strategy fully on the channel, 7AI Co-Founder and CEO Lior Div told @CRN. Without a doubt, the opportunity to create a “generational company” in the agentic SOC space requires a strong commitment to the channel from the get-go, Div said during an interview with CRN Executive Editor @jfollett and Executive News Editor @StevenJBurke at #XChange Best of Breed, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Atlanta, Ga. “If you are a founder that wants to create a generational company—a company that actually will change the world—then there is no other way [than] to standardize yourself 100 percent on the channel community,” Div said. Read CRN cybersecurity reporter and Senior Editor @KyleAlspach’s coverage of the interview to learn more: crn.com/events/2026/7ai-ceo-…

Slide Co-Founder Austin McChord is now the interim CEO of the business continuity and disaster recovery vendor, succeeding co-founder Michael Fass who stepped down effective immediately, the company said on Tuesday. For managed service providers (MSPs) who worked with McChord during his time leading Datto, his appointment as interim CEO of Slide brings back memories of a company that built a loyal following among partners. CJ Fairfield has the details: crn.com/news/channel-news/20…

Congratulations to Felise Katz, Co-Founder and CEO of PKA Technologies, who is our 2026 Best of the Channel Awards Lifetime Achievement Award recipient! Read CJ Fairfield’s story to learn about Katz, who has spent decades building lasting customer relationships, adapting to technology’s biggest shifts and proving that success in the channel is about far more than selling products. CJ’s story features insights and perspective from Katz’s colleagues, channel executives she’s worked with and her son, Eli Katz: - Ricky Liber, vice president of operations, PKA Technologies - Frank Rauch, who has known Katz for about 25 years through his work as a channel executive at @HP and later VMware - Brian Demay, former divisional vice president of IT, Coach - Terry Richardson, who met Katz after joining HP in 2010 crn.com/news/channel-news/20…

Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 @CRN Best of the Channel Awards! 🏆 🎉 Stay tuned for more photos and details on the winners of the second annual awards tomorrow morning 👀 We announced and celebrated the following stand-out channel leaders, teams and companies within the IT channel tonight at an awards ceremony at @TheFoxTheatre in Atlanta, Ga.: - Best Emerging Leader: Stacie Nadeau​, @IngramMicroInc - Best Solution Provider CEO: Jon Groves​, @LogicalisUS - Best Solution Provider Channel Visionary: Jim Keller​, @Quantiphi - Best Vendor Channel Visionary: Gordon Lord​, @SchneiderElec - Best Channel Achiever: Brook Lee​, @rev_io_hq - Best Channel Chief: @wademcfarland43​, @Lenovo - Best AI Solution Provider: @Ahead - Best AI Vendor: @cyera_io - Best Channel Marketing Team: @zscaler - Best Solution Provider Team: @GuidePointSec - Best Channel Team: @TDSYNNEX - Best Security Solution Provider: @wwt_inc - Best Security Vendor: @AWNetworks - Best Vendor: @HaloPSA_ - Best Solution Provider: Quantiphi -- @SchneiderNA

Nutanix CEO @RajivRamaswami sees the company’s broadening ecosystem of storage, cloud and server partners as central to expanding its total addressable market and the opportunities available to channel partners. Ramaswami told an audience of solution providers today at #XChange Best of Breed, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Atlanta, Ga., that @nutanix remains rooted in hyperconverged infrastructure. “We’ve got HCI, but today we work with all forms of external storage in a much broader cloud platform,” he said. “We work with @Dell storage. We [will be working] with @NetApp. We work with @EverpureData. And what’s important about this is that there’s massive amounts of infrastructure deployed out there that can all be modernized with Nutanix software without requiring any hardware updates.” That storage support changes the market equation, Ramaswami said. Here’s why: @NutanixPartners crn.com/events/2026/nutanix-…

Nutanix CEO @RajivRamaswami says VMware migrations are a 10-year opportunity for channel partners, that he wants partners to embrace @nutanix on public clouds, and is “surprised” that VMware deauthorized solution provider powerhouse Insight Enterprises. “From a business perspective why do you want to alienate your big partners? It just doesn’t make sense from my perspective,” Ramaswami said onstage during an interview with @CRN Executive Editor @jfollett and Executive News Editor @StevenJBurke at #XChange Best of Breed, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Atlanta, Ga. Ramaswami said there’s still “anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000” VMware by Broadcom customer opportunities for Nutanix to go after as partners will have a decade to win over concerned VMware clients. From Nutanix’s acquisition of Ryax Technologies to its AI hopes, here’s what else Ramaswami shared with Jen and Steve about his vision, strategy and more: @NutanixPartners crn.com/news/computing/2026/…