MSP Technology News Headlines for the Week of 1/5/2025 (and a few from over the holidays)
3…2…1… Happy New Year! Lenovo and Dell’s big portfolio announcements at CES 2026 take the top spots this week, but 2026 is off to a strong start with all sorts of interesting channel headlines from the likes of ServiceNow, Barracuda, Seceon, and others. Plus, a pretty interesting (and worrying) study on employee habits to work around security controls to speed things up.
Ready for a quick rundown of this week’s MSP news and partner program updates? Scroll on down!
Lenovo Defines the Next Era of Hybrid AI with Personalized, Perceptive, and Proactive AI Portfolio at Tech World @ CES 2026
At Tech World @ CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Lenovo unveiled a bold set of innovations for the future of Hybrid AI, including a personal AI super agent spanning devices, expanded AI PCs and smartphones, agentic-native wearable concepts, next-gen enterprise AI infrastructure, and strategic industry collaborations.
Key quote from the press release:
“For each of us, AI will boost our creativity, sharpen our intuition, and inspire our imagination, because it now draws from our unique language, habits, experiences, and memories. This is a fundamental shift towards augmenting, elevating, and maximizing human potential. For a business, the transformation is even more profound: AI is going beyond process management and workflow optimization. It now empowers organizations to use proprietary data generated from their own operations and apply their own decision logic to become a self-learning, self-reinventing entity.” — Yuanqing Yang, chairman and CEO, Lenovo
Notable Channel Headlines from Lenovo at CES 2026
➡️ Lenovo Reimagines the Device Experience in the AI Era with Visionary Proofs of Concept at CES 2026
➡️ Lenovo Revolutionizes Real-Time Enterprise AI with New Inferencing Servers
➡️ Motorola unveils new flagship devices and AI-powered innovation at Lenovo Tech World 2026
Dell Technologies at CES 2026: XPS Returns, Alienware Expands and UltraSharp Monitors Set New Standards
Dell Technologies announced a strategic expansion of its consumer and gaming portfolio at CES 2026, reintroducing the iconic XPS laptop lineup with all-new XPS 14 and XPS 16 models and teasing a forthcoming XPS 13, expanding the Alienware gaming lineup with new hardware and displays, and unveiling two industry-leading UltraSharp monitors including a world’s first 52-inch 6K display.
Key quote from the press release:
“We’re getting back to our roots with a renewed focus on consumer and gaming. XPS is back, better than ever, with a complete redesign that delivers exceptional craftsmanship in our thinnest, lightest form factors yet. We’re also bringing XPS 13 back as our most accessible XPS ever. In gaming, we’re building on recent momentum and effectively doubling Alienware’s notebook lineup.” — Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and chief operating officer, Dell Technologies
Expanded ChannelPro Coverage:
➡️ Dell Revives XPS Brand, Broadens Alienware Lineup, and Shows Off Two Eye-Popping New Displays
ServiceNow to acquire Armis to expand cyber exposure and security across the full attack surface in IT, OT, and medical devices for companies, governments, and critical infrastructure worldwide
ServiceNow entered into an agreement to acquire Armis for $7.75 billion in cash, expanding its security workflow offerings and advancing AI-native proactive cybersecurity across all connected devices, managing cyber risk across IT, operational technology (OT), medical devices, and critical infrastructure environments worldwide.
Key quote from the press release:
“ServiceNow is building the security platform of tomorrow. In the agentic AI era, intelligent trust and governance that span any cloud, any asset, any AI system and any device are non-negotiable if companies want to scale AI for the long-term. Together with Armis, we will deliver an industry-defining strategic cybersecurity shield for real-time, end-to-end proactive protection across all technology estates. Modern cyber risk doesn’t stay neatly confined to a single silo, and with security built into the ServiceNow AI Platform, neither will we.” — Amit Zavery, president, COO and chief product officer, ServiceNow
Seceon Announces Strategic Partnership with InterSources Inc. to Expand Delivery of AI-Driven Cybersecurity Across Regulated Industries
This partnership represents a significant expansion of Seceon’s reach into mission-critical regulated industries, including healthcare, financial services, energy, life sciences, and critical infrastructure, by enabling InterSources to deliver Seceon’s award-winning Open Threat Management (OTM) platform as the cornerstone of its comprehensive security and digital-transformation service portfolio.
Key quote from the press release:
“In today’s threat landscape, security cannot be an afterthought—it must be intelligent, proactive, and seamlessly integrated. Partnering with Seceon allows us to deliver what clients desperately need: a unified cybersecurity platform that stops sophisticated attacks in real time, maintains continuous compliance, and scales with digital transformation initiatives. Together, we’re building cyber resilience for organizations protecting our nation’s critical infrastructure, healthcare systems, and financial markets.” — Ankit Shah, CEO, InterSources Inc.
Ingram Micro Is Simplifying and Accelerating B2B Sales Success for Cybersecurity SaaS Leader Proofpoint
Proven AI-powered digital experience platform — Xvantage — enables Proofpoint and channel partners to realize greater efficiencies and deliver better business outcomes.
Key quote from the press release:
“Proofpoint is seeing the power of our AI-powered digital experience platform in action and realizing the positive and growing impact Xvantage will continue to bring to the company, their channel team, and their customers.” — Paul Bay, CEO, Ingram Micro
Threat Spotlight: How phishing kits evolved in 2025
Barracuda’s analysis highlights how phishing-as-a-service kits doubled in number during 2025, bringing advanced evasion techniques, MFA bypass, and generative AI into mainstream phishing campaigns, and enabling even less-skilled attackers to run large-scale, convincing attacks that spoof trusted brands and leverage QR codes, URL obfuscation, and other tactics.
Key findings from the report include:
- The number of known phishing kits doubled in 2025, with 90 percent of high-volume phishing campaigns leveraging phishing-as-a-service platforms.
- Newer kits are sophisticated, evasive, and stealthy, using techniques such as multifactor authentication bypass, URL obfuscation, and CAPTCHA abuse in many attacks.
- Common phishing themes remained familiar—payment and invoice scams, financial or legal document lures, digital signature requests, and HR-related messages—despite evolving delivery and evasion methods.
- Attackers increasingly used generative AI to craft highly convincing emails and embedded QR codes to shift victims from secure desktops to less-protected mobile devices.
- Emerging kits such as Sneaky 2FA, Cephas, Whisper 2FA, and GhostFrame introduced advanced phishing capabilities and anti-analysis measures to challenge defenders.
Accelerating success with the Red Hat Partner Program
Red Hat introduced the latest updates to the Red Hat Partner Program designed to deliver simplicity, predictability and profitability for partners through enhancements to partner incentives, program structure, and digital tooling to drive accelerated growth and expanded market reach.
Key changes and improvements to the program include:
- The program enhancements prioritize co-investment and shift incentives toward predictable rewards for partner activities across the customer lifecycle, including pre-sales engagements.
- New program modules and expanded specialized partner pathways create clearer recognition and growth opportunities, including a Cloud program module for Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Providers.
- Digital experience improvements include automated crediting for marketing activities and a smoother enrollment process to increase partner autonomy and efficiency.
- Overall enhancements are designed to increase partner trust, reduce friction, and drive increased pipeline and revenue for partners and Red Hat in 2026 and beyond.
Flexera acquires ProsperOps and Chaos Genius to expand its FinOps solution with agentic and AI-enabled cost optimization
Flexera is expanding its FinOps leadership position by adding AI capabilities to autonomously optimize costs for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Snowflake and Databricks through the acquisitions of ProsperOps and Chaos Genius, augmenting its FinOps solution with intelligent, autonomous cost reporting, workload optimization and rate optimization.
Key quote from the press release:
“As enterprises adopt AI across their infrastructure, the need for intelligent, automated execution has never been greater. ProsperOps strengthens our ability to deliver on that promise, helping organizations govern cloud spend with precision and scale outcomes that were previously out of reach.” — Jim Ryan, CEO, Flexera
Data Ramp Announces 1lx and the New Zero-Copy Network
Data Ramp, a zero-copy data integration company, announced the release of 1lx, a new technology that enables organizations to clean, identify, and enrich customer data without moving it, and the introduction of its Zero-Copy Network to privately exchange information while keeping data fully under customer control.
Key quote from the press release:
“We fundamentally believe that for precision, security and speed, organizations are only going to use partners that can operate entirely in their cloud, and not the other way around.” — Kim Addington, founder & CEO, Data Ramp
ClickShare Launches Its First Wireless Room System Bundles Certified for Microsoft Teams with Sennheiser
Barco announced new ClickShare Hub room system bundles developed with Sennheiser and officially certified for Microsoft Teams, pairing ClickShare Hub Core with Sennheiser’s TeamConnect Bar S for small rooms and ClickShare Hub Pro with TeamConnect Bar M for medium-sized spaces to deliver secure, flexible, and high-performance hybrid collaboration experiences.
Key quote from the press release:
“Achieving Microsoft Teams certification for our first wireless room system bundles is a strategic milestone for Barco. It strengthens ClickShare’s role in enabling seamless and inclusive collaboration experiences – giving users confidence that their meetings will run smoothly, securely, and without complexity.” — Jan van Houtte, executive vice president meeting experiences, Barco
Amera IoT Announces Breakthrough in Quantum-Proof Encryption Backed by 14 Issued U.S. Patents
Amera IoT unveiled AmeraKey® Encryption, a quantum-proof encryption technology protected by 14 U.S. patents that secures digital communications against current and future computing threats — including quantum computing — by enabling high-quality entropy key generation where keys are never transmitted, mitigating interception and future decryption attacks.
Key quote from the press release:
“For decades, cybersecurity has been a race against ever-more powerful computers. AmeraKey Encryption fundamentally changes that equation. Our patented approach enables quantum-proof security by removing the need to transmit keys or ciphertext at all, providing protection that does not degrade as computing power evolves.” — Tony Valentino, CTO, Amera IoT
New Study: Only 1% of Organizations Have Fully Adopted Just-in-Time Privileged Access as AI-Driven Identities Rapidly Increase
CyberArk’s research reveals a significant gap between organizations’ confidence in their privileged access programs and actual adoption of modern, time-bound access models, even as AI expands the identity-centric attack surface, highlighting widespread reliance on always-on privileged access, shadow privilege, and fragmented tools.
Key findings from the report include:
- Only 1% of organizations have fully implemented a modern Just-in-Time (JIT) privileged access model.
- 91% report that at least half of their privileged access is always-on, providing unrestricted, persistent access to sensitive systems.
- 45% apply the same privileged access controls to AI agents as they do to human identities, and 33% say they lack clear AI access policies.
- Shadow privilege is widespread, with 54% uncovering unmanaged privileged accounts and secrets weekly, and 88% managing two or more identity security tools, creating fragmented control.
- Traditional privileged access reviews delay projects and 63% of employees bypass controls to move faster, underscoring operational and security challenges.
The ASCII Group Announces Speaker Lineup for ASCII Edge 2026 Conference Series
The 2026 series features keynote presentations and sessions covering AI adoption, revenue strategy, and market differentiation along with hands-on workshops and peer discussion.
Key quote from the press release:
“ASCII Edge has always been about bringing the right people into the room. When MSPs come together to share openly and learn from one another, they gain clarity and confidence in the decisions they’re making. That’s what ASCII Edge is designed to deliver.” — Jerry Koutavas, CEO, The ASCII Group
Pax8 Names Avery Moon as Chief Technology Officer
Pax8, the leading cloud commerce Marketplace, announced Avery Moon as its new Chief Technology Officer, where he will drive the company’s engineering vision and strategy to accelerate its product-led transformation and empower small to mid-sized businesses.
Key quote from the press release:
“Pax8’s vision for where the industry is headed, and a corresponding strategy to deliver scalable managed intelligence, inspires and energizes me. We are now at the productivity inflection point for AI, where intelligence is shifting from being embedded in tools to being delivered through autonomous, outcome-driven systems. I’m thrilled to join Pax8 to continue the momentum and technical prowess built over the last decade to deliver the most effective and efficient infrastructure to empower SMBs and managed intelligence providers (MIPs).” — Avery Moon, chief technology officer, Pax8
FrictionlessIT Acquires ZeroDay Strategies to Deliver Unified Profit Intelligence and Operational Maturity Platform for MSPs
FrictionlessIT announced the acquisition of ZeroDay Strategies, creating the managed services industry’s first unified platform combining profit intelligence software with operational maturity consulting and go-to-market execution services, centered on its FITware platform and expanded professional services.
Key quote from the press release:
“This acquisition represents a meaningful shift in how MSPs can approach growth. For the first time, MSPs can access profit intelligence software and consulting that were designed together, tested inside real MSPs, and delivered as a single operating system for scale.” — Steve Martin, chief executive officer, FrictionlessIT
As ChannelPro’s online director and tech editor for over a decade, Matt Whitlock has spent years blending sharp tech insight with digital know-how. He brings more than 25 years’ experience working in the technology industry to his reviews, analysis, and general musings about all things gadget and gear.
Images: Lenovo, Dell, Barracuda, Barco, Pax8
