The ChannelNext conference headed to la belle province for its East event in Saint‑Sauveur, Que., where top MSPs and channel partners gathered for two days of insights, networking, and forward‑looking discussions. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity dominated the agenda, but the conference unpacked much more. Here are the key takeaways.
Quebec Matters
The IT industry continues to treat Quebec as a flyover region and it shouldn’t. If you break down the province’s high‑tech ecosystem and the value becomes obvious:
–20% of Canada’s entire IT market is in Quebec.
–Greater Montreal accounts for 77% of that market.
–Sherbrooke is the fastest‑growing tech hub in the province.
-Quebec startups have raised nearly $2 billion.
-More than 500,000 people work in IT, with 200,000 new digital tech jobs projected by decade’s end.
Refresh Cycle May Be Slowing
Despite the momentum behind Intel’s vPro launch, many channel partners noted that the upcoming technology refresh may take longer to ramp up. Pricing for new technology is rising, and partners pointed to ongoing microchip constraints as a major factor.
While the pandemic‑era global shortage has eased, the current crunch is targeted, driven largely by rapid AI demand. AI data centers are consuming enormous volumes of advanced chips and high‑bandwidth memory, pushing manufacturers to shift production toward higher‑margin AI components and leaving fewer wafers for traditional chips.
The Tools for AI
Building the right toolset for AI solutions was another major theme at ChannelNext East, with a strong focus on avoiding conflicts with security frameworks.
A key concern raised: the lack of standardized AI assessment tools or services.
Stephen Nichols, country manager for Acronis Canada, emphasized that with AI, organizations must know where their data resides and how it is secured. Without control, he noted, it doesn’t matter what security stack, policies, or cyber‑awareness training are in place.
Affordable Cybersecurity
Gavin Roberts, CTO of Ireland‑based TopSec Cloud Solutions, outlined why email cybersecurity and archiving must become more affordable especially for SMBs. The company is actively seeking new channel partners in Canada.
TopSec positions itself as delivering enterprise‑grade email security as an affordable, fully managed service, reducing the need for internal expertise or additional staff. This leads to significant cost savings by eliminating the overhead of managing complex email security tools.
Their offering includes managed email security, inbox protection, phishing‑awareness training, archiving, and DMARC.
The SMB Total Addressable Market Is Huge
Allan Weiss, regional lead for Pax8 Canada East, told attendees that the SMB total addressable market has reached $777 billion and is growing faster than the enterprise segment. He called it the largest opportunity available to MSPs and channel partners focused on SMBs in the emerging AI agent economy.
“AI is being built into everything. Times have changed and people no longer want to talk to sales folks,” he said.
Weiss added that customers now conduct their own research and only engage sales to fill in gaps.
This shift is one of the drivers behind Pax8’s Managed Intelligence Provider (MIP) model, which the company describes as the next era of managed services, centered on intelligence, automation, and outcomes. At the heart of MIP are AI agents and autonomous workflows designed specifically for SMBs.
Weiss highlighted the pillars of the model: discover, buy, build, sell, manage, and monetize all essential for partners looking to differentiate in the AI‑driven market, especially the monetize part.
More coverage and video news interviews coming to showcase what happened at ChannelNEXT26 East including a discussion between the 3 emcees of the event! Stay tuned.
Paolo Del Nibletto, eChannelNEWS
