Cloud Reseller News - issue #2

issue #2

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COMMENT

Let’s Avoid the Walled Gardens

Reading through this issue, I don’t know if you’d agree with me that the prevailing theme is one of trust. Whether it’s trusting the hyperscalers to maintain a competitive industry, trusting whether or not your data is stored in the right place, or trusting that you have the right strategy to move forward in a changing world. It feels like insecurity is all around us. That may well be a reflection of the world around us. Given that wars are being waged, prices are rising, which then typically stifles innovation and sales. It only seems natural that we would become a little more insular and make sure that any kind of damage that we saw in 2020 can’t be repeated. But that seems counterproductive and not in line with what has made the technology industry in general such a success. I don’t know whether it’s because Tim Cook announced he would be stepping down as CEO of Apple earlier in the month, but my social feed has been filled with clips from the Steve Jobs movie. As I watch Michael Fassbender perfectly portray the arrogance of Steve Jobs and his determination that the Mac, with its closed system, was better than the Apple II, which was sustaining the company, I can’t help but see the attitude of the world around us. Obviously, it’s worth noting that Job’s only focus was the consumer. But the point still stands that this industry works best when enterprises and innovators alike have a myriad of paths to explore rather than be confined to a walled garden. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. In writing this issue, I was able to once again see how many businesses are using cloud technologies to innovate and grow at the AWS Summit (page 12). I was also happy to see a modicum of hope in those reacting to the Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation into Microsoft Cloud on page 24. It was also great to sit down with Dan Tomaszewski from Kaseya, who took me through the latest state of the MSP report (P20), as well as Shannon Bell from Open Text, who discussed data management in a world dominated by artificial intelligence on page 34. As always, it’ll be great to hear from you! So please reach out and let us know what you think! X

Elliot Mulley-Goodbarne Editor

...this industry works best when enterprises and innovators alike have a myriad of paths to explore rather than be confined to a walled garden.

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EVENTS

DATE: 19-22

May 2026 VENUE: Berlin Congress Center

DATE: 17-18 June 2026 VENUE: Tobacco Dock, London REGISTER

DATE: 14-15

October

VENUE: Excel, London

DATE: 21-22 October 2026 VENUE: Barcelona, Spain

DATE: 22 October 2026 VENUE: London

INFORMATION

CLOUD RESELLER NEWS

CONTENTS

NEWS Cloud News – p8

page 12 AWS demonstrated how AI significantly accelerates overall business efficiency. This vital transformation requires modern cloud infrastructure, AI capabilities, and skilled personnel.

AWS SUMMIT LONDON Acceleration, investment, and a little bit of magic p12 INTERVIEW Dan Tomaszewski, Kaseya p20 REGULATION The decison to investigate Microsoft p24 FORTINET Evolution over replacement p30 OPENTEXT Managing AI data p34

page 20 Kaseya’s 2026 report reveals that

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are struggling to acquire new customers and demonstrate value as IT spending drops.

page 24 How should resellers react to the decision from the Competition and Market Authority to investigate Microsoft?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Rise of the Micro-Edge p38 PEOPLE Cloud Careers p42

page 34 As AI adoption accelerates, managing its underlying data is critical for data sovereignty and security.

Advertising Sales Martin Jenner-Hall 07824 552 116 martin@ucadvanced.com

Editorial Editor

Publishing Director Justin Penn 07816 573 186 justin@ucadvanced.com

Written permission from the publisher is required before any part of Cloud Reseller News can be reproduced. © 2026 In the Channel Media Ltd. Market Analyst Wickus Bester wickus.bester@ stockinthechannel.com

Elliot Mulley-Goodbarne elliot@ucadvanced.com

Published by: In the Channel Media Ltd Company registration number: 14363401 Registered office address 14-18 Heddon Street, Mayfair, London, United Kingdom, W1B 4DA

In conjunction with:

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NEWS

Arrow Electronics signs EMEA-wide agreement with Motorola

Arrow Electronics has officially signed a comprehensive distribution agreement with Motorola Solutions spanning the EMEA region. This strategic partnership is set to expand Arrow’s portfolio, strengthening its offerings across physical security, cybersecurity, and cloud-based intelligent services. Arrow will distribute Motorola Solutions’ access control and video security technologies, which are delivered through Motorola’s subsidiary, Avigilon. The available portfolio features advanced video surveillance cameras, alongside AI-powered, cloud-based, and hybrid video management platforms specifically designed to support operational resilience, modern security needs, and enterprise IT architectures. Mike Worby, head of strategic alliances at Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business in EMEA, emphasised the importance of the partnership: “This agreement with Motorola Solutions is a strategic step for Arrow. Through Avigilon, Motorola Solutions brings a sophisticated portfolio that moves physical security beyond passive monitoring into intelligent, AI-enabled platforms that integrate naturally with enterprise IT and cybersecurity architectures. By onboarding Motorola Solutions, we are positioning Arrow to address growing customer demand for integrated physical and digital security capabilities”. Through this new agreement, Arrow plans to heavily support channel organisations by providing technical enablement, solution design, and go-to- market expertise. This support will help channel partners address new and emerging use cases where cloud services, cybersecurity, and physical security intersect. The extensive distribution agreement covers a wide range of EMEA territories, including the United Kingdom and Ireland. X

Mike Worby

arrow.com

avigilon.com

Wasabi joins Brigantia by Elovade’s Vendor Portfolio

Specialist distributor, Brigantia by Elovade, has announced cloud storage provider, Wasabi, as the latest vendor to join their portfolio. Wasabi has an established reputation for delivering simple, secure and affordable cloud storage. Created to help organisations store, protect and access large volumes of data, Wasabi is a leading provider in the market, and Elovade is one of its largest global partners, trading as EL Storage powered by Wasabi. As Wasabi joins Brigantia’s portfolio, Brigantia partners across the UK & Irish markets have the opportunity to add the leading cloud storage solution to their offering, with channel partners benefitting from features like flexible billing models, S3 compatibility and scalable storage. Angus Shaw, Managing Director of Brigantia by Elovade, commented: “We’re excited to announce the launch of Wasabi as the latest vendor in our portfolio. As more and more businesses rely on cloud solutions, Wasabi’s high- performance, secure and cost-effective storage is a fantastic opportunity for our

Angus Shaw

brigantia.com

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NEWS

partners to deliver real value to their customers in the cloud storage space. “Adding Wasabi, which will trade as EL Storage powered by Wasabi to our offering, allows us to further strengthen our portfolio with a solution that allows channel partners to simplify cloud storage and help customers manage and protect data more effectively than ever before.” X

wasabi.com

A new survey commissioned by Red Hat reveals a significant gap between artificial intelligence preparedness and operational resilience among UK organisations. The findings, released in April 2026, indicate that while AI adoption is surging, many businesses remain highly vulnerable to disruptions from their primary AI providers. The study, conducted by Censuswide across several European nations, shows that 67% of UK IT decision-makers have a defined “exit strategy” ready to deploy if their primary AI provider restricts access. However, 43% of these organisations admit that executing this switch would still have a moderate to significant impact on business continuity. This highlights that AI sovereignty is now a major operational priority rather than just an aspiration. The survey also uncovered a worrying governance deficit surrounding advanced AI. While 87% of surveyed UK enterprises are already utilising agentic AI, only 25% report having strong governance frameworks in place. Another 43% possess some governance but acknowledge gaps, and 17% have only basic or minimal oversight. Data visibility remains an ongoing hurdle for full AI sovereignty, with 45% of UK organisations reporting only partial visibility over where their AI data is stored, processed, and potentially accessed. To combat these issues and avoid vendor lock-in, 80% of IT decision-makers view open source as a foundation for greater control over how AI is built and where it runs. Looking ahead over the next three years, respondents identified transparency, easier auditability, and increased customisation as the most valuable benefits of open source for building trust in AI. The UK is also emerging as a strong advocate for policy-driven standards. A striking 89% of UK respondents want public policy and regulation to actively mandate open source principles, such as transparency and auditability, to support AI sovereignty. This figure places the UK significantly ahead of the EMEA average of 77%, as well as France (70%) and Germany (72%). Hans Roth, Senior Vice President & General Manager EMEA at Red Hat, said, “The survey results show strong support for open source principles and for clear policy frameworks that embed transparency and auditability into AI. That tells us organisations are not looking for another closed, one-size-fits-all stack; they want the freedom to combine different models, accelerators and clouds while staying in control.” X Red Hat Survey Exposes “AI Sovereignty Gap” Threatening UK Businesses

Hans Roth

redhat.com

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NEWS

Pax8 Launches Global Partnership with NinjaOne

Pax8 has entered into a partnership with NinjaOne designed to support managed service providers (MSPs). The collaboration between the two companies is expected to improve efficiency gains and user satisfaction while bolstering security for SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses), which are targeted with cyber attacks four times as often as larger enterprises, according to Pax8 research insights. Through the agreement, Pax8 will introduce MSPs to NinjaOne when partners are seeking unified IT operations, including remote monitoring and management. NinjaOne will engage directly with referred partners and manage the customer lifecycle, while Pax8 supports opportunity identification and strategic guidance. “This collaboration reflects our commitment to meeting partners where they are and connecting them with proven solutions that align with their business goals,” said Oguo Atuanya, Corporate Vice President of Vendor Experience at Pax8. “By working with NinjaOne, we’re expanding the options available to our partners and maintaining a flexible, partner-first approach.” Pax8’s partnership with NinjaOne is designed to streamline introductions and accelerate conversations between MSPs/MIPs and NinjaOne’s team. It builds on the existing relationship between Pax8 and Dropsuite, following NinjaOne’s acquisition of the SaaS backup and archiving provider in 2025. NinjaOne is one of the fastest-growing vendors in the RMM market, according to Canalys. According to Pax8 Pulse research, 84% of small businesses say they would trust an external technology advisor to help implement AI, underscoring the growing role MSPs play as strategic partners. “Our top priority at NinjaOne is customer success, and that means making it as easy as possible for MSPs to find and adopt tools that simply work and build their businesses,” said Erzan Uygur, VP of Strategy and Operations at NinjaOne. “Globalising our partnership with Pax8 allows us to engage with partners who are actively exploring solutions and have trusted guidance throughout that journey.” The Pax8 and NinjaOne collaboration is active globally, with regional points of contact supporting MSPs in North America, EMEA and APAC. X

Oguo Atuanya

pax8.com

ninjaone.com

Dropbox has announced the introduction of three new applications integrated directly into ChatGPT, designed to help end users maintain their workflow and complete tasks without needing to switch between different tools. The new offerings include a core Dropbox app, a Dropbox Dash app, and a Reclaim AI calendar app. The standard Dropbox app, which is available globally to customers on any plan, allows users to access and preview their files, share links, and save AI-generated content straight to their Dropbox accounts without ever leaving ChatGPT. By referencing relevant files already stored in Dropbox, ChatGPT can generate Dropbox Launches Three New ChatGPT Apps

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NEWS

drafts and answer questions with the appropriate context, eliminating the need for manual file uploads or copy-pasting. Importantly, Dropbox’s existing access controls and sharing permissions remain fully intact to ensure data security. Building on this, the Dropbox Dash app brings organisational knowledge from over 30 connected workplace apps straight into ChatGPT conversations. Rolling out in the coming weeks, this app allows ChatGPT to surface highly personalised, actionable answers based on a user’s connected enterprise data, all while respecting existing security permissions. Finally, the Reclaim AI calendar app simplifies schedule management for Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook users. Available globally in English, the tool lets users add events, find meeting times, resolve scheduling conflicts, and view their daily plans entirely within the ChatGPT interface, putting an end to manual scheduling back-and-forth X

Infor has announced major updates to its Velocity Suite and introduced the limited availability of its enhanced Agentic Orchestrator, aiming to help enterprises turn their artificial intelligence ambitions into measurable business value. The launch directly addresses findings from the new Infor Enterprise AI Adoption Impact Index, which surveyed 1,000 business decision-makers across the U.S., UK, Germany, and France. The research highlights a stark contrast between AI confidence and execution: while 80% of leaders believe their organisation can manage an AI implementation, 49% remain stuck in pilot phases, paused, or haven’t even started. Respondents cited data security and compliance (36%), a lack of internal AI talent (25%), and unclear ROI (23%) as the primary barriers preventing them from advancing their AI strategies. Additionally, the survey revealed that nearly half (49%) of AI-generated insights currently require manual review by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy and regulatory compliance. To overcome these hurdles, the updated Infor Velocity Suite now provides a comprehensive package featuring specialised Industry AI Agents, “Value+” pre-built automations, and prescriptive use case packs tailored to specific roles and industries. To further ensure quick returns on AI investments, every implemented Velocity Suite solution now includes a complimentary year of CareFor Managed Services. The suite also introduces a new machine learning add-on for the Infor Warehouse Management System that optimises picking paths, reducing worker travel distance by up to 25%. At the infrastructure level, the new Infor Agentic Orchestrator allows businesses to move beyond isolated AI tasks to fully coordinated workflows. It utilises “Supervisor Agents” to handle complex processes while maintaining transparency and keeping a human in the loop when necessary. Furthermore, it uses open-standard Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to securely access data across both Infor and third-party applications, addressing integration challenges that typically consume 30-40% of enterprise budgets. X Infor Launches New Agentic AI Solutions to Bridge the Enterprise AI Scaling Gap

Kevin Samuelson

infor.com

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AWS SUMMIT

Building Something Remarkable AWS rolled into London for their annual Summit with a message of acceleration, investment, and a little bit of magic. At the AWS Summit London, AWS demonstrated how AI significantly accelerates overall business efficiency. This vital transformation requires modern cloud infrastructure, AI capabilities, and skilled personnel. While UK AI adoption is growing rapidly, organisations must modernise legacy systems to unlock billions in future productivity gains. To combat widespread skill shortages, AWS is investing heavily in new training programs. Furthermore, AWS demonstrated Kiro, an advanced AI agent acting as a full- stack engineering partner to rapidly generate, test, and deploy production-ready code.

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AWS SUMMIT

If anyone were to come to you and say that they had found a way to make your company 80% more efficient, I imagine your response would be either “please, tell me more” or “you’re talking rubbish.” When the person making these claims is the VP & Managing Director of AWS UK & Ireland, you might be willing to listen more. “At AWS, we needed to completely rebuild the inference engine behind Bedrock from scratch,” said Allison Kay at the AWS Summit London. “Now, if you’d asked me two years ago what that would have taken, I would have said 40 engineers, 12 months and a whole lot of coffee. “Six engineers did it in 76 days. How? Because they weren’t working alone, they were working alongside Kiro agents that wrote code, tested it, found bugs, fixed them, and deployed it around the clock. While the engineers slept, the agents kept building.” This message around AI is one that we have come to familiarise ourselves with over the last year or so. On stage, Kay said that the speed AI can bring could be described as “magic” before scuppering her chances of entering the magic circle by revealing the foundation of how AWS are making businesses more efficient. “Today, we are here to demystify the science behind the magic,” said Kay. “We’ve distilled it down to three building blocks. “The first is a modern cloud infrastructure, the foundation that unlocks the full digital potential of every business. The second, well, it’s AI, the capability that transforms possibility into reality. And the third is skills, the people who know how to harness the infrastructure and the AI to create the magic.” One of the fundamental ways AWS encouraged its customers to embrace AI is to modernise the services they use and go deeper with AWS in order to get the best out of the hyperscaler. Or as Kay put it: “You can’t build advanced AI on outdated foundations. “The real transformation is not in the migration, it’s in the modernisation. Modernisation is about optimising workloads built, breaking down monolithic barriers, eliminating the technical debt and building for the future. It’s what helps data to stop being trapped in legacy platforms. It becomes accessible, queryable, and actionable. “Modernisation makes systems move faster, more resilient, secure and cost-efficient, and importantly, it unlocks the transformative power of AI. Now, interestingly, our research shows that 64% of UK organisations have now adopted AI, up from 52% only a year ago. That’s the equivalent of one UK business adopting AI every 40 seconds; however, only one in four of those adopters are using AI at its most advanced levels. “Most organisations are still in the early stages of adoption, employee productivity, basic automation and experimentation, and our research shows that the UK could unlock 35 billion pounds of productivity gains by 2030 if Basic adopters moved to advanced AI.”

Allison Kay

aws.amazon.com

“

Modernisation

makes systems move faster, more resilient, secure and cost- efficient, and importantly, it unlocks the transformative power of AI.

13 continued

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15 continued

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AWS SUMMIT

continued

“

We know science, it’s only powerful when it’s in the hands of people who know

how to use it... ...Our research shows that

almost 50% of UK organisations cite skill shortages as the biggest single barrier to their ability to adopt AI.

Investing in Future In the opening keynote, Kay said that the building blocks of infrastructure AI and skills can “unlock extraordinary customer outcomes, but these results don’t happen in isolation” before acknowledging the role partners have in “translating the technology into real business outcomes.” Throughout the opening keynote, attendees were able to hear about these business outcomes. Attendees were told how Evri uses AWS generative AI to automatically analyze over 90 million delivery photos per month to detect mis- deliveries and ensure parcels arrive at the right place, how Experian has built a transformative data and analytics platform on AWS to unify fragmented data and accelerate new product launches from months to weeks, and how the Jane Goodall Institute uses Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker to digitize decades of handwritten notes and film into an AI-powered research platform for chimpanzee behavior. But the potential for AI to do incredible things isn’t something up for debate. The biggest question to answer is how to implement it best. “We know science, it’s only powerful when it’s in the hands of people who know how to use it,” said Kay. “Our research shows that almost 50% of UK organisations cite skill shortages as the biggest single barrier to their ability to adopt AI. “At AWS, we are committed to creating the conditions for organisations in the UK and Ireland to succeed through investments in skills, in training and in support programmes. Take, for example, the AWS skills to Job Tech Alliance, which we announced here on this stage last year. It has a goal to prepare at

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AWS SUMMIT

least 100,000 learners with AI skills by 2030, and we are well on our way. “We’ve now prepared over 60,000 students on Cloud skills and AI, and we all know that skills initiatives are critical, and we are continuing to invest in training in order to unlock the full potential of this technology.” First Frontier One of the first ways that AWS is helping businesses unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence is with its AI agent, Kiro. “What used to take years can now be done in days and sometimes even minutes within Amazon,” said Kay. “Agents are being used across every single job, function and family, and the results are incredible. “Our legal teams are able to synthesise Complex Regional requirements using a single prompt. Our Amazon account managers have transformed from spreadsheet warriors to trusted advisors with the ability to generate international expansion strategies on demand, and one of our most distinguished engineers was able to ship more code in five months than in the past 10 years with agents. We’re completely reimagining the way that we build software.” Instead of just spitting out snippets, Kiro works like a full-stack engineering partner, turning natural-language prompts into user stories, acceptance criteria, technical design docs, and architecture diagrams, then generates, tests, and applies it to production-ready code according to an organisation’s patterns and steering files. “AI-powered software development tools evolved rapidly over the past year, from inline tab completion to authoring entire functions to completing multi-step tasks,” continued Kay. “But as these tools became more powerful, we’ve noticed a gap. They were generating code, but builders couldn’t guide the process or ensure it aligned with their team’s standards. “We wanted to take everything that is exciting about AI-powered software development and add the structure that our developers really need. Kiro works with developers, turning your prompts into detailed specs and those specs into working code.” X

“

What used to take years can now be done in days and sometimes even minutes within Amazon... ...Agents are being used across every single job, function

and family, and the results are incredible.

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INTERVIEW

Preparing for Change

With AI set to make an impact on the MSP business model, how can service providers stay profitable?

Kaseya’s 2026 report reveals that Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are struggling to acquire new customers and demonstrate value as IT spending drops. To remain profitable, MSPs must secure healthy margins before scaling. Instead of purely selling technology, they should become strategic partners by aligning services directly with their clients’ business goals. Additionally, MSPs are testing AI internally to better advise clients, while relying on peer groups as a “board of directors” to navigate market shifts.

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INTERVIEW

For the MSPs who are questioning the path they are currently going down, market reports can often provide the guidance needed to ensure future success. Certainly, once the financial year has come to an end, the message to the sales team will be to get selling before the summer holidays slow down any progress. The 2026 State of the MSP Report from Kaseya is one such report where MSPs can get an overview of the market they operate in. Drawing on survey responses from more than 1,000 MSPs globally, the key finding, according to Dan Tomaszewski, Executive Vice President of Channel at Kaseya, is that “winning new customers is harder than ever before.” “MSPs have talked for years about how hard it is to get customers, but it’s becoming clear in this year’s report that they’re struggling to demonstrate their value to close the business.” According to the report, customers spending over $25 thousand, dropped from 75% to 41% year-on-year, with 24% of MSPs saying customers are reducing their IT spend. Nearly three-quarters of MSPs (71%) say acquiring new customers is their biggest challenge, with more and more finding it harder to demonstrate value. “The advice I give to every MSP is that you can’t just look at the sales,” said Tomaszewski. “You also have to look at the profitability side. Is what you’re charging profitable? “If your margins aren’t good, you have to start fixing the shop. Get the margins in line, get profitability in line so that, as the company grows, it can scale and grow with you. That’s a hard thing, it sounds easy, but it seems to be where a lot of MSPs get stuck.” Try Before You Sell Flicking through the report, the one technology that is expected to come up is AI. Without wanting to give away spoilers, AI is yet to become a consistent revenue generator, with only 15% of MSPs citing AI as a revenue source. That’s not to say that the AI boat is being missed. Forty eight percent of MSPs recognise that AI is a need for clients, and are looking to implement it within

Dan Tomaszewski

kaseya.com

their own businesses before rolling it out to customers. “You can’t sell something if you don’t know how to do it yourself, right?” said Tomaszewski. “I think it’s important that MSPs understand how AI can play a role in the environment, how it is playing a role in the environment that we’re dealing with today. “MSPs are currently trying to use AI in their help desk, within their tools. I talked to a lot of MSPs who said they weren’t trying to replace their employees, they are trying to make them more effective and more efficient, but I’ve also heard MSPs say they’re using AI to lower head count, so we’re hearing both worlds right now.”

continued

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INTERVIEW continued

While the solution providers are working out the best ways to introduce AI into their own businesses, clients are free to make mistakes with AI. Since the first wave of ChatGPT insanity, reports coming from all kinds of organisations have shown a fundamental lack of understanding of how each AI model works, which leads to personal and proprietary information being intentionally leaked onto the World Wide Web.

“The role of an MSP as a strategic advisor has never been bigger. They play such an integral role in advising customers on the best way to use the technology in a secure and compliant way to drive efficiency and effectiveness in a business. “I think a year from now, we’re going to have a totally different answer as people figure AI out, but that’s kind of where everybody’s sitting right now. A lot of MSPs are trying AI internally, so they know how to go to their customers and deliver a proper service. But the MSPs that are already delivering AI are

the ones taking business from those that aren’t. “I do see that this is a big opportunity, because it is fresh for a lot of companies. It is a real problem for a lot of companies. As an MSP, you’ve got to be prepared to solve it and deal with it.” Your place at the table While keeping up with customer demand is a constant challenge, throwing AI into a package without being able to justify the added cost isn’t necessarily the answer. In fact, Tomaszewski compared the recent AI boom to other new technologies that have hit the market and have been seen as an added expense when businesses initially hear about them. “Customers are saying to MSPs, ‘it’s just ChatGPT, I’m fine, just like before when they said ‘I don’t need cyber insurance, I’m good’, or ‘I don’t need antivirus’. We’ve all heard that. “That’s the reality of the world of the MSP spaces, we’re used to having people tell us, no, I don’t need it, I’m too small, I don’t have the budget.” According to Tomaszewski, MSPs will naturally face this friction when selling into businesses, but can overcome this by “demonstrating the value they bring. “So many MSPs struggle to demonstrate the value they bring, so when they have a conversation with an end customer or a prospect, they’re looked at as a cog. But the reality is MSPs that go into businesses and find what success looks like for their customers are then seen as an ROI.” Flipping the script With a fresh perspective instilled into the customer, the attitude towards new technologies and solutions “flips”. However, with larger contracts and average annual spend on the way down, according to The 2026 State of the MSP Report, getting an opportunity to get a foot in the door in the first place is a challenge.

“

That’s the reality of the world of the MSP spaces, we’re used to having people tell us, no, I don’t need it, I’m too small, I don’t have the budget.

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INTERVIEW

Speaking from experience, Tomaszewski added that focusing on outcomes for the customer rather than the technology that is provided was a good way of standing out from the pack. “I go back to my MSP days, I would go to a boardroom against three or four other MSPs who would go in and say, I can do security, compliance, backup, we’re going to be like your in-house IT department. If everyone says that they all sound the same, the customer will pick purely on price. “I would ask one question: What does success look like? What are the KPIs, the goals, the metrics? What’s your vision this year? And they would look at me like, ‘Dude, we brought you here to do IT’.” By aligning himself and his company to the goals of the customer, Tomaszewski said that the relationship becomes a partnership rather than just a cost for services provided on the balance sheet.

“

The world is changing in the MSP space. We’re about to make a major shift with AI and so many MSPs, before they get to a peer group, are spending a lot of time trying to figure out what to do.

As a result, customers keep MSPs abreast of the overall goals and KPIs that it is pursuing, which then means that introducing new services is received as a helping hand or shortcut to success rather than just trying to fleece the customer for more monthly revenues. While he was running an MSP himself, Tomaszewski says that this approach was one of the ideas he was able to share with people in peer groups. These groups, comprised of fellow MSPs targeting different industries, act as an area where MSPs can bounce ideas off each other.

“I’d encourage everybody as an MSP to be a part of a peer group, I think it’s vital today.” said Tomaszewski. “The world is changing in the MSP space. We’re about to make a major shift with AI and so many MSPs, before they get to a peer group, are spending a lot of time trying to figure out what to do. “In our peer group, we have frameworks and we teach MSPs how to go to market, and how to run a successful, high performing MSP. So when you come into the group, you’re spending time on implementing rather than figuring it out. “When you’re in a group of nine or 10 like-minded individuals in non competing markets, you can share and look at it like your board of directors who guide and support you through changes in your business. “I looked at my peer group as my board of directors, and I know that a lot of our MSPs in our programme feel that same way now about their groups. It truly is about helping them consistently see the right levers to pull for their business.” X

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REGULATION

How should resellers react to the decision from the Competition and Market Authority to investigate Microsoft?

Policing the Skys The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating Microsoft’s potential cloud monopoly, focusing on licensing practices that create structural dependency and lock customers into the Azure ecosystem. Critics warn that excluding AWS from similar scrutiny creates a regulatory imbalance and an uneven playing field. Furthermore, this market concentration harms resellers and MSPs by squeezing margins and limiting their ability to differentiate. Experts urge the CMA to mandate structural reforms, fair licensing, and enforceable interoperability standards.

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REGULATION

As of the last quarter of 2025, according to Synergy Research Group, Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud accounted for nigh-on two-thirds of the worldwide cloud infrastructure market. Now, obviously, if you hold shares in Amazon, Microsoft, or Alphabet, you’d be pretty happy with this situation. Hell, even if you tied up some of your money in the S&P 500 or top tech stocks or bonds, you’d be asking why I care. You could certainly make an argument, for example, that the fact that we are talking about three companies is proof that the cloud market is competitive. Whether you agree with this sentiment or not, on the 31st of March, the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK announced a “strategic initiative” to investigate the cloud market and specifically whether Microsoft has a monopoly. “The CMA’s focus reflects growing concern that licensing practices and commercial models may make it harder or more expensive to run Microsoft software on competing platforms,” Rob Arnold, Chief Digital Officer of The Bunker, part of the Cyberfort Group. “That risks limiting flexibility at a time when organisations are trying to build more resilient and adaptable IT strategies. “This means that the issue is not dominance alone. It is dependency. When customers are too closely tied to any single provider, it can reduce visibility, increase risk and restrict innovation.” That dependency that Aronld describes comes from the influence Microsoft has across the entire enterprise world, not just in the Cloud. As Raphael Auphan, chief operating officer at Proton, says, it’s no surprise Microsoft has a dominance in cloud. “Our own research found that 88% of publicly listed UK companies use US- owned email providers, and email is rarely a standalone choice. It’s the gateway to the whole tech stack: cloud storage, collaboration tools, identity management. “That number tells you everything you need to know about the structural dependency we’re dealing with. Microsoft’s licensing practices have been deliberately structured to make it look cheaper and easier to stay within the Azure ecosystem than to choose an alternative. That’s not competition but lock- in dressed up as convenience. “The CMA is right to investigate, and the question shouldn’t be whether Microsoft has too much influence. It clearly does. The question is what we’re going to do about it.” Partners in Crime? While the announcement of an investigation doesn’t declare that Microsoft has a monopoly, the fact that there is an investigation at all shows that Azure has significant influence in the cloud marketplace. But while Microsoft is being investigated, AWS seems to be getting away with a lot less scrutiny despite also holding a significant portion of the market.

Rob Arnold

thebunker.net

Raphael Auphan

proton.me

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REGULATION

“The decision made by CMA to investigate Microsoft is encouraging,” said Mark Boost, CEO, Civo. “But the decision to exclude AWS raises practical concerns with both providers being structured in the same way from a structural lock-in perspective, which could create a regulatory imbalance between the two parties that would keep one side unchallenged. “Regulatory credibility depends on consistency,” added Auphan. “The CMA’s own cloud investigation found that both Microsoft and Amazon hold significant unilateral market power. Accepting voluntary commitments from AWS while launching a formal investigation into Microsoft creates an uneven playing field that neither protects UK businesses nor restores genuine competition. “We’ve seen what voluntary commitments look like in practice: they’re slow, hard to enforce, and easy to roll back. If the CMA is serious about a fair cloud market, it needs to apply the same scrutiny to both dominant players. Anything less risks fixing half the problem while leaving the structural issues intact.” “The actions proposed in Point 33 provide evidence of the desire to address such market imbalances; however, it is important that ambition is met by additional, enforceable measures being implemented,” continued Boost. “Voluntary arrangements made with parties outside of the SMS framework will not provide real impact, and by delaying its final decision regarding Microsoft and excluding AWS altogether, there is a risk for the CMA to unnecessarily prolong uncertainty and miss an opportunity to future-proof the UK’s digital infrastructure. “The current announcement does not provide adequate solutions to solve the serious issues surrounding the dominance of these key foreign-based hyperscalers. There needs to be a fair digital market in which domestic innovation is encouraged, alongside continuing to help build opportunities for international collaboration and trade.” Feeling the Pinch In the context of resellers and MSPs, the “issue” that arises from a monopoly or duopoly is that there is less differentiation and innovation within a marketplace that is so crucial for almost any organisation to operate. As Arnold explains, this then has a knock-on impact on a reseller’s ability to make money. “In a duopoly environment, resellers and MSP’s often become more reliant on the commercial models, pricing structures and partner programmes of a handful of providers. That can limit their ability to differentiate, as many are effectively working within the same frameworks and selling similar services built on the same platforms. “Margins can also come under pressure. As hyperscalers continue to expand their direct relationships with customers, particularly at the enterprise level, resellers and MSPs can find themselves pushed further down the value chain, focusing more on implementation and support rather than strategic advisory. “There is also less flexibility when it comes to offering alternative solutions. If

Mark Boost

civo.com

“

The current announcement does not provide adequate solutions to solve the serious issues surrounding the dominance of these key

foreign-based hyperscalers.

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REGULATION

customers are already heavily invested in one ecosystem, resellers and MSP’s may have limited scope to recommend different providers, even where it might be beneficial.” “Resellers are caught in the middle of a market that was never designed with their interests in mind,” added Auphan. “When two companies control the majority of cloud infrastructure, resellers have very little negotiating power on pricing, very little flexibility on licensing terms, and very little ability to differentiate their offering. “Through 2025 and now into 2026, we’re seeing massive portions of the internet go offline because of outages at a single hyperscaler. That’s not just a reliability problem; it’s a warning about what over-concentration does to an entire ecosystem. Resellers need a genuinely competitive market to build sustainable businesses. Right now, they’re building on over-concentrated foundations they don’t control.” BSP With margins, reliability, and the ability to stand out from the pack at stake, the MSPs and resellers who rely on these services will be keeping an eye out for the finding of the CMA’s investigation. With that being said, according to Arnold, the Best Solution Possible is one that “delivers genuine choice, transparency and flexibility for customers. “That means addressing the barriers that make it difficult to switch providers or run workloads across multiple platforms. Licensing models should be fair and consistent, without penalising organisations for choosing alternative clouds. Pricing should be clearer, particularly around areas such as data egress, so businesses can make informed decisions without unexpected costs. “Crucially, the outcome should not restrict growth or investment from the major players. Hyperscalers play a critical role in advancing cloud capabilities. The aim is to ensure that scale does not come at the expense of customer control.” “The ideal outcome isn’t just a fine or a set of recommendations that gather dust,” said Auphan. “Real change means structural reform to Microsoft’s licensing practices so that running Windows Server or SQL Server on a non- Microsoft cloud provider doesn’t cost five times more than running it on Azure. “It means enforceable interoperability standards, not voluntary commitments that can be quietly walked back. And it means creating the conditions for European and UK-based alternatives to compete on merit, not to be structurally disadvantaged before they even start. “When users, and businesses, can freely choose privacy-focused, independent alternatives without artificial barriers, everyone benefits. That’s not an anti-Microsoft argument. That’s an argument for a market that actually works. The CMA has the tools under the DMCCA to deliver real change. The question is whether it will use them with the urgency this moment demands.” X

Real change means structural so that running Windows Server or SQL Server on a non-Microsoft cloud provider doesn’t cost five times more than running it on Azure. “ reform to Microsoft’s licensing practices

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FORTINET

Evolution Over Replacement: Fortinet’s Pitch to Resellers

Fortinet’s accelerated cloud strategy presents significant revenue opportunities for UK resellers and MSPs. With its differentiated, FortiOS-based SASE platform, partners can seamlessly extend existing customer infrastructure into the cloud without ripping out their prior legacy system investments. Fortinet is actively recruiting new partners with cloud expertise, offering structured onboarding, modern commercial models, and specialised training like “Enter the Dojo” workshops. By equipping partners to deliver cohesive cloud solutions, Fortinet drives long- term recurring revenue and market leadership throughout 2026. On the prowl for new Partners, James Greenham, Growth Solutions Director, UK& I, Fortinet runs us through how partners can embrace cloud security

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FORTINET

Q Fortinet has been accelerating its cloud strategy significantly. What does that mean in practice for UK resellers and MSPs right now? Cloud isn’t a future conversation for our partners – it’s happening on every customer call right now, and this indicates it’s a prime opportunity to add an intelligent Point of View and deliver value to our joint customers. What’s changed is the rapid acceleration of the market adoption of Cloud technologies, and the requirement to secure these, and also the maturity of what Fortinet offers in this space. Fortinet’s Security Fabric now extends seamlessly across hybrid and multi- cloud environments, which means partners can have genuine, end-to-end conversations with customers rather than stitching together point solutions from different vendors. For UK resellers in particular, the shift to cloud-delivered security represents a significant revenue opportunity – not just in net-new logos but in expanding existing accounts and our ability to secure and encompassing their adoption of cloud platforms and hosted services. Customers who initially might have come to us for Firewall protection are now asking about securing their cloud workloads, their remote workforce, their OT environments. Partners who have built cloud specialisations are finding they are winning larger deals and achieving better margins while doing so. We want to accelerate that by making it as easy as possible for the right partners to develop those cloud security skills and go to market with confidence alongside us. Q SASE has become one of the most talked-about areas in security. What’s Fortinet’s differentiated position – and what does that mean for the channel? The market is crowded with SASE claims, but Fortinet’s position is genuinely differentiated – and independently validated. Fortinet has been recognised as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platforms, which you can explore in full at fortinet.com, and that recognition reflects something real about how we’ve built our SASE capabilities. FortiSASE is built on FortiOS – the same single Operating System that underpins the entire Security Fabric – which means it isn’t a bolt-on or an awkwardly integrated acquisition. It’s additive – customers can extend their

James Greenham

fortinet.com

The market is crowded with SASE claims, but Fortinet’s position is genuinely differentiated — and independently validated. “

continued

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FORTINET

continued

existing security posture to cover remote users and branch locations without ripping out infrastructure they’ve already invested in. They can leverage their Fortinet (and FortiOS) footprint and expand out the services that can be accessed from this to better service their needs. For the channel, that’s a powerful conversation. You’re not asking a customer to start again; you’re helping them grow their security architecture in a way that makes sense. Partners who understand how to position SASE as an ‘expansion play’ rather than ‘a replacement’ are finding they are opening doors on opportunities with existing customers that might otherwise have gone to a competing vendor. We’re investing heavily in helping our partners to clearly articulate that story. Q You’ve recently launched new initiatives to bring cloud-focused partners into the Fortinet ecosystem. What does an ideal new partner look like – and what can they expect? We’re actively recruiting partners who have strong cloud practices and ambitions in this space – whether that’s MSPs with a managed security offering, resellers who are transitioning their business model, or specialist cloud consultancies who’ve not traditionally worked with Fortinet. The ideal partner doesn’t need to have an existing Fortinet relationship – what we’re looking for is cloud expertise, customer relationships in the mid-market and enterprise space, and a genuine appetite to build a security practice with long-term recurring revenue. What they can expect from Fortinet is a structured onboarding process, access to specialisation programmes that differentiate them in the market, and – critically – commercial models that reflect the way cloud business is done. We recognise that subscription and consumption-based selling requires a different kind of partner support, and we’ve built our programme to reflect that. The opportunity for new partners entering the Fortinet ecosystem right now is significant. Q Cloud security skills gaps are a real challenge across the industry. How is Fortinet helping partners build the expertise they need? This is something we feel very strongly about at Fortinet. Technical skill, credentials and credibility is what separates partners who win complex cloud deals from those who lose them on capability grounds, and we’re not willing to leave that to chance. Through our specialisation programme – and practically through initiatives like our ‘Enter the Dojo’ workshop series – we’re giving partners hands-on, structured pathways to build real expertise in areas like Cloud Security, SASE, SecOps, and OT. These aren’t theoretical certifications. They’re practical, immersive experiences designed to make engineers and pre-sales teams genuinely capable of architecting and demonstrating cloud security solutions. We’ve seen a measurable uplift in partner confidence and deal conversion among those who’ve completed specialisation tracks. These are really adding

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Through our specialisation programme — and practically through initiatives like our ‘Enter the Dojo’ workshop series — we’re giving partners hands- on, structured pathways to build real expertise...

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