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Congratulations to the companies recognized on our inaugural AI Innovators list! You can learn about them all here: bit.ly/4B6SZ6e.
The first edition of the AI Innovators list spotlights North American solution providers such as managed service providers (MSPs), value-added resellers (VARs), systems integrators and consultants for overall excellence and technical acumen in delivering AI-focused solutions to end customers.
ALT CRN's 2026 AI Innovators badge, a vertical rectangle that says, "The Channel Co: CRN AI Innovators 2026," against a dark blue, purple, and magenta background with glowing multi-colored rays and circles that form the outline of a silhouette of a head.
The full impact of the ConnectWise Cloud Backup breach may remain unknown. In the latest episode of CRN In Depth, @CRN Executive News Editor @StevenJBurke tells @CRN Associate Managing Editor @GeeNarcisi what managed service providers (MSPs) are saying about the attack, and why CyberDrain CEO Dustin Bolander believes some compromised Microsoft 365 tenants may not know they were breached. You can watch the entire episode here: bit.ly/488l2F8.
Paco Lebron’s journey from running a managed service provider (MSP) part-time to leading MSP Owners Group has taught him that building a successful business requires more than technical expertise. It takes accountability, the willingness to learn from mistakes and a community of people who understand all those challenges.
Lebron, CEO of ProdigyTeks and now CEO of MSP Owners Group, spoke at XChange NexGen, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Orlando, Fla., about his 13-year entrepreneurial journey, including the struggles of leaving corporate America, finding his first clients, building a profitable business and eventually exiting his MSP while remaining involved in its future.
Success, he stressed, was never something he achieved on his own. The relationships he built with fellow MSP owners, mentors and business partners helped him work through tough decisions.
CJ Fairfield has the details, including perspective on Lebron’s message from Marcial Velez, CEO at Xperteks Computer Consultancy, here: bit.ly/4jEL3D1.
Employees are using AI tools regardless of whether their employers are ready for it. With the inevitability of shadow AI, solution providers are working to balance safeguarding clients’ data and IT estates with enabling AI use and experimentation.
@CRN Senior Associate Editors CJ Fairfield and @WadeMillward and Senior Editor @DylanOnChips asked the following solution providers at XChange NexGen 2026, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Orlando, Fla., “How big of a concern is shadow AI, and how are you helping customers manage it?”
How are you approaching shadow AI at your MSP?
- Kelly Yeh, president, Phalanx Technology Group
- Marcial Velez, president and CEO, Xperteks Computer Consultancy
- Wayne Roye, CEO, Troinet
- John Medaska, CEO, JMXi
- Dylan Borden, vice president, operations, growth, Four Winds IT
- Hani Eshack, founder and CEO, Critical IT Solutions
- David Yates, founder and managing principal, Geeks-r-Us
crn.com/events/2026/shadow-a…
Tonight, Friday, Oct. 23, at 11:59 PM PST, is your last chance to apply for our 2027 Channel Chiefs list! ⏰ Submit your application here: bit.ly/4shk4zw.
This is your last chance to apply for consideration to be recognized on the 2027 edition of our annual Channel Chiefs list for your commitment to your channel partners. If you are selected for the comprehensive Channel Chiefs list, you will also be eligible for consideration for our 2027 Most Influential Channel Chiefs list.
We hope you take this opportunity to demonstrate why you belong on this coming year's @CRN Channel Chiefs list!
ALT Text on a dark blue, purple, and magenta background with glowing rays of light in lighter shades of those colors emanating from the center says, "The Window Is Closing: Submit your application before the deadline; The Channel Co: CRN Channel Chiefs 2027."
The threat of attackers potentially exploiting a pair of critical-severity PHP vulnerabilities could persist for some time, even though the initial evidence of exploitation of the PHP2Shell flaws appears to be modest, according to Justin Timothy, threat intelligence consultant at @GuidePointSec.
@KyleAlspach has the details:
crn.com/news/security/2026/p…
Time's running out! ⌛ Applications for our 2027 Channel Chiefs list are due tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 23! Apply here: bit.ly/4yBkEKg.
We are still accepting applications for the 2027 edition of the annual @CRN Channel Chiefs list, which will be published in February.
Channel chiefs, this is your chance to be recognized for your commitment to your channel partners, and if you are selected for the comprehensive Channel Chiefs list, you will also be eligible for consideration for our 2027 Most Influential Channel Chiefs list.
Deadline to apply for the 2027 CRN Channel Chiefs list ⏰: Tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 23, by 11:59 PM PST
ALT Text on a dark blue, purple, and magenta background with glowing rays of light in lighter shades of those colors emanating from the center says, "The Window Is Closing: Submit your application before the deadline; The Channel Co: CRN Channel Chiefs 2027."
Microsoft said the China state-aligned group Storm-0940 used agentic AI to launch 2,900 sign-in attempts per minute on Microsoft tenants in the ConnectWise Cloud Backup breach.
Microsoft said the ConnectWise attack shows how threat actors are scaling their operations “exponentially” by “integrating agentic AI” into their attacks.
Here are more details Microsoft shared in a security research blog on the “AI-Driven Large-Scale Nation State” attack, plus insights and perspective from Dustin Bolander, a managed service provider (MSP) and serial entrepreneur who is a partner and CEO of CyberDrain, a Microsoft 365 management platform, @HuntressLabs Principal Security Operations Analyst Jonathan Semon and ConnectWise Chief Technology Officer David Raissipour:
crn.com/news/security/2026/c…
Ignacio Guillen is @OpenAI’s new partner director in charge of go-to-market.
OpenAI’s hiring of the former Amazon Web Services (AWS) partner sales leader is yet another example of the top channel partner executive talent its been continuing to hire from cloud leaders like Google Cloud and AWS.
Here are more details on Guillen and his new role with OpenAI:
crn.com/news/ai/2026/openai-…
Congratulations again to the winners of our second annual Best of the Channel Awards! 🏆 🎉
Some of the channel's best and brightest stars gathered at an awards gala at @TheFoxTheatre in Atlanta, Ga., last week to celebrate the winners. Here are snapshots from the night, featuring channel executives, awards winners, finalists and judges, with details from @jfollett:
crn.com/events/2026/crn-2026…
Two critical vulnerabilities in PHP are facing active exploitation attempts, creating an urgent need for widespread patching, according to cybersecurity researchers from @wiz_io, @watchtowrcyber, @HuntressLabs, @CrowdStrike, and @SentinelOne.
The vulnerabilities, together known as “PHP2Shell” and considered a “critical” risk with severity ratings of 9.2 out of 10.0, can enable attackers to execute code remotely without authentication. PHP is a key technology behind numerous web platforms including WordPress and Drupal.
@CRN cybersecurity reporter and Senior Editor @KyleAlspach breaks down five key things to know about the “critical” PHP vulnerabilities and exploitation activity:
@_JohnHammond @0xAmit
crn.com/news/security/2026/5…
ConnectWise is aiming for the end of this week to get access back for its thousands of managed service providers (MSPs) to ConnectWise Cloud BackUp for Microsoft 365 and other services impacted by a security breach, ConnectWise Chief Technology Officer David Raissipour said.
As for the potential data exfiltration impact on MSP Microsoft 365 tenants, Raissipour said ConnectWise is continuing a full-court press offensive to work with its MSPs to see if there was any “access to data” from Microsoft 365 tenants.
Here are more details from Raissipour, @HuntressLabs Principal Security Operations Analyst Jonathan Semon and Keith Nelson, CEO of ConnectWise customer and MSP @VistemSolutions:
crn.com/news/security/2026/c…
In tomorrow's edition of CRN Channel Essentials, @CRN Executive Editor @jfollett explores what our first-ever AI Innovators list reveals about the future of the channel. Subscribe here to find out: bit.ly/4Blg2KJ.
Our inaugural AI Innovators list spotlights solution providers who are putting AI to work in their own operations and turning that firsthand experience into smarter, faster and more secure solutions for customers.
ALT Text next to CRN's 2026 AI Innovators badge, a rectangle that says, "The Channel Co: CRN AI Innovators 2026," says, "What CRN's AI Innovators Reveal About The Future Of The Channel;" CRN Channel Essentials by Jennifer Follett, Executive Editor, CRN.
In an update today following its Oct. 17 shutdown of access to ConnectWise Cloud Backup, SaaS Security and Cloud Management for more than several thousand managed service providers (MSPs) as part of its response to a breach, ConnectWise said “service availability” will “return in stages” and take several days.
@CRN Executive News Editor @StevenJBurke spoke with ConnectWise CTO David Raissipour, Jonathan Semon, a principal security operations analyst for @HuntressLabs, and the following MSP executives for their perspective and insights:
- Robert Cioffi, co-founder and CTO of MSP Progressive Computing
- Dustin Bolander, an MSP and serial entrepreneur who is a partner and CEO of CyberDrain, a Microsoft 365 management platform
- Jason Wright, CEO of @AvatarMSP
- Keith Nelson, CEO of @VistemSolutions, which provides managed services for the Port of Los Angeles and a number of aerospace clients
- David Stinner, founder and president of managed security service provider (MSSP) US itek
crn.com/news/managed-service…
Solution provider @Ahead has hired hundreds of @VMware-focused employees to drive @vmwarevcf for customers as its VMware sales have skyrocketed 80 percent year over year.
“We’re very focused on growth of our traditional resale @Broadcom and VMware licenses and a massive implementation team,” Stephen Ayoub, co-founder and executive vice chairman of Ahead, told @CRN.
“So we’ve hired over 300 people, industry experts to help architect, design and implement some of the largest, most complex VCF 9 platforms in the industry,” he said.
Here’s what else Ayoub shared about the move:
crn.com/news/cloud/2026/ahea…
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing $18 billion in Germany to build out its AI data center and infrastructure in the country as Amazon continues to pour billions of dollars into global AI infrastructure expansion amid some public backlash.
crn.com/news/ai/2026/aws-bet…
As AI agents begin to work across a variety of browsers and IT systems, a massive challenge is arising for businesses whose identity security controls were designed around humans, according to @1Password CTO Nancy Wang.
Wang tells CRN Security or Else! podcast host @KyleAlspach that the stark differences between how agentic and human workers will operate is creating a major need for identity security to adapt across the industry and channel. You can watch or listen to the latest episode of the podcast here: bit.ly/4k3OlQi.
A recent survey by @GTIAofficial found that many managed service provider (MSP) clients have not adopted “very basic” security measures such as multifactor authentication (MFA) on critical systems. @DylanOnChips has the details from #XChange NexGen:
crn.com/events/2026/gtia-ai-…
Not doing a Quality of Earnings (QoE) analysis to find a managed service provider (MSP)’s true adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) is “basically selling a house without knowing what the square footage is,” Jay Jung, founder and managing partner of Embarc Advisors, told MSPs at XChange NexGen, hosted by our parent company, @TheChannelCo, this week in Orlando, Fla. Learn why:
crn.com/events/2026/msps-cou…
David Raissipour, CTO of @ConnectWise, told @StevenJBurke that the company has made “significant progress” in its bid to restore ConnectWise Cloud Backup access for Microsoft 365 to more than several thousand managed service providers (MSPs):
crn.com/news/security/2026/c…
Arrow Electronics Global Enterprise Computing Solutions President Eric Nowak will be retiring, with former Cisco and Microsoft channel executive Rodney Clark named to take over leadership of the global distribution business. Here's what you need to know:
crn.com/news/channel-news/20…
