My Boston Celtics are trying to stay alive in the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, attempting to come back from what was a 3-1 deficit to the New York Knicks. After their star player went down to injury, the Celtics rallied to win game 5. Historically, though, in the NBA, teams down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series have come back to win the series only 4% to 5% of the time—not great odds.
In the MSP business, the odds can be similarly daunting if you’re playing from behind. Staying on top of all the latest tools and technologies that you can use to keep your customers safe and help them with their desired business outcomes will give you a competitive advantage and keep you ahead of the game. This week’s channel news roundup has what you need to know about new cybersecurity tools and SaaS management solutions, a just-announced integration that will streamline your workflow, and a new partner loyalty program from one of the big disties. Also, find out what industry heavyweight just cemented a long-term partnership by joining forces.
Happy reading!
Mergers & Acquisitions – Vendors
Kaseya and Pulseway Unite to Deliver Integrated Solutions
Kaseya, a global provider of AI-powered cybersecurity and IT management software, today announced it officially joined forces with Pulseway, a mobile-first RMM solution. MMSOFT Design is the maker of Pulseway, which is now part of the Kaseya 365 Endpoint platform. . Formal integration of the companies marks the next phase in a long-standing partnership, according to Kaseya.
“This is a logical next step in our journey with Kaseya,” said Edgar Zacharjev, GM of Pulseway, in a press statement. “Our companies have worked closely to provide IT professionals the best tools to manage and secure their environments. As part of Kaseya, we have even greater resources to deliver technology innovation and support to our customers.”
MSPs can now leverage integrations, enhanced capabilities, and a unified experience through KaseyaOne, and upgrade to Kaseya 365 Endpoint, which allows them to secure, back up, and automate endpoints in one subscription.
In a press statement, Jim Lippie, chief product officer at Kaseya, said, “Pulseway has been a trusted partner for many years, and this transition is a natural progression of that relationship. By bringing our teams together, we can drive deeper innovation, expand our product capabilities, and deliver even greater value to IT professionals worldwide.”
Proofpoint Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Hornetsecurity
Cybersecurity and compliance company Proofpoint announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hornetsecurity Group, a pan-European provider of AI-powered Microsoft 365 security, data protection, compliance, and security awareness services. The acquisition enhances Proofpoint’s ability to provide human-centric security to small and mid-sized businesses through managed service providers.
Hornetsecurity’s flagship product, 365 Total Protection, is the most comprehensive cloud security solution for M365, giving MSPs a multi-tenant, unified platform to deliver integrated services including advanced email security, backup, security awareness, access and permission control, and domain fraud protection. The Hornetsecurity team will continue to drive innovation across their Total Protection product platform to deliver additional innovative solutions to their partners and customers.
Hornetsecurity’s CEO Daniel Hofmann will remain at the helm of the company.
As attackers grow more sophisticated and people remain the primary target, organizations need security that protects them wherever they work—across email, cloud applications, and every digital channel,” said Sumit Dhawan, CEO of Proofpoint, in a press statement. “With the addition of Hornetsecurity, we’re excited to extend our industry-leading, human-centric security platform to better serve the unique needs of MSPs and SMBs. We look forward to deepening our investment in the European markets as part of our global growth strategy.”
The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Products & Solutions
Cato Networks Unveils SASE-Native Policy Analysis Engine
Cato Networks announced an AI-powered, SASE-native policy analysis engine for its Cato SASE Cloud Platform. The new feature is built to optimize and improve all SASE (secure access service edge) policies—security, access, and networking. It delivers targeted recommendations for eliminating unnecessary security exposure, tightening access control, and proactively improving network performance.
The first use case is tackling firewall rule bloat. Cato’s firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS) already offers a single policy set for all users, devices, locations, and cloud resources. Now, according to the company, with Cato Autonomous Policies for FWaaS, organizations can eliminate policy drift and misconfigurations; refine aero-trust policies using real-time telemetry to maintain effective microsegmentation and least privilege access; and automatically analyze, learn, and adapt to evolving threats, compliance mandates, and operational requirements.
“For years, IT leaders have chased the dream of autonomous networking and security—only to hit a wall of complexity,” said Ofir Agasi, vice president of product management at Cato Networks, in a press statement. “With Cato Autonomous Policies, we finally cross that threshold. Cato automatically transforms complex networking and security policy sets into optimized rules.”
Cato Autonomous Policies is generally available. It is included as a native capability of the Cato SASE Cloud Platform at no additional cost.
Josys Adds AI-Powered Governance and Automation to SaaS Management Platform
SaaS management platform provider Josys launched Josys AI, a suite of advanced capabilities to manage identities, secure access, and optimize cost across an organization’s SaaS footprint.
Josys AI can define user-specific access policies by analyzing common employee SaaS usage patterns across different roles and departments. With identity monitoring enabled, Josys AI detects deviations from these policy baselines—such as unauthorized access or unexpected permission escalations—and can automatically deploy a remediation agent to block access, suggest next steps for manual IT intervention, or trigger exception-based approval workflows.
In addition, Josys AI automates identity classification to more easily codify and manage human and non-human identities (NHIs). Josys AI will automatically assign the appropriate human or NHI tag and provide admins with a classification confidence score to help prioritize necessary follow-up. This new capability will also detect and eliminate duplicate identities that are found across an organization’s SaaS stack.
On the cost optimization front, Josys AI automatically extracts key details—such as license counts and renewal dates—from uploaded SaaS agreements. This data is instantly integrated into each app’s profile, centralizing all contract information in one place.
Looking ahead, Josys plans to roll out agentic ticket resolution. It will feature bespoke ITSM agents that integrate into platforms like Atlassian and ServiceNow. These agents will identify SaaS management tickets that can be resolved by Josys automatically, without IT intervention.
New Lenovo Introduces ThinkShield Solutions to Protect SMBs
Lenovo announced ThinkShield Solutions, security offerings tailored to protect small and medium-size businesses, schools, and other organizations with limited IT resources.
ThinkShield Solutions includes:
- Extended Detection & Response (XDR), powered by SentinelOne.
- ThinkShield Data Defense Select, powered by Cigent. It helps protect data throughout its lifecycle with prevention-based defenses embedded directly into secured storage devices in Lenovo PCs and within the files themselves. Data Defense further protects data with file encryption and MFA for file and storage access, protecting data against incidents on the endpoint and wherever it goes.
- ThinkShield Hardware Defense, powered by Sepio. It allows organizations to gain deeper visibility and control of their hardware assets by helping establish a trusted asset inventory scaled across their network and endpoints down to their peripherals. Hardware Defense also provides up-to-date intelligence on known asset vulnerabilities.
ThinkShield Solutions is available now through authorized Lenovo distributors and resellers.
LastPass Announces General Availability of SaaS Monitoring
Introduced last month at RSAC 2025, LastPass’ SaaS Monitoring is now available as part of the “Business Max” bundle. This new capability provides visibility into the software-as-a-service ecosystem, with no additional agents or integrations required.
SaaS Monitoring runs through the same browser extension that millions of end users use daily to save and autofill passwords, making it simple for admins to gain insights without requiring teams to change the way they interact with LastPass.
To protect user privacy, SaaS Monitoring only captures business application usage when users are logged in with their company email and are working in a browser with the LastPass extension installed. The account administrator can enable the required SaaS monitoring policies.
Distribution
TD SYNNEX Previews Next Phase of “Destination AI”
TD SYNNEX announced the next evolution of its Destination AI program at its 2025 High-Growth Conference in Los Angeles, California, this week. The program is designed to modernize partners’ go-to-market strategies and capitalize on the growing demand for AI-enabled solutions.
A key component of the updated framework is the Destination AI Solution Grid, a visual tool that connects partners with areas of AI opportunity aligned to their current capabilities and strategic goals. The new methodology coordinates with Destination AI’s partner AI profiling, which identifies partners as Aware, Ready, or Expert in AI. It then maps AI-native and AI-enabled solutions from leading vendors and technology verticals onto a grid that reflects both the technical complexity of the solution and the sophistication of the sales play required.
“Partners know they need to invest in AI but identifying where to start and how to scale isn’t easy in the ever-changing market,” said Ed Morales, North America vice president of AI and digital transformation strategy at TD SYNNEX, in a press statement. “By leveraging our deep industry expertise and close relationships with leading AI vendors, we’ve evolved Destination AI to meet the customized needs of our partners and simplify their AI go-to-market journeys.”
TD SYNNEX is also deepening its AI investments internally by prioritizing AI-focused training and upskilling for its co-workers, specifically through its Global Specialized Skills curriculum and newly launched class of internal Destination AI Champions who guide partners through their AI journey by serving as business outcome-oriented AI experts.
Partner Programs
TD SYNNEX Debuts New Partner Loyalty Program
Also at its High Growth Conference, TD SYNNEX announced a new Partner Loyalty program in North America. The initiative connects partners with specialized resources, sales support, and skills-building opportunities. It is available at no additional fee to eligible partners prioritizing growth and leveraging TD SYNNEX’s Advanced Solutions portfolio, consisting of AI, modern infrastructure, security, cloud, and analytics solutions. The program will expand to other partner types later this year.
The Partner Loyalty program positions partners to expand their offerings through a tier-based model that provides them with tailored solutions and market insights based on their business size and portfolio, along with marketing, travel, and learning incentives, according to the distributor.
“Through the Partner Loyalty program, we are not only rewarding partners for the great work they are already doing but also incentivizing new activities that can help us achieve mutual business growth. This demonstrates how much we value their trust in our partnership and shows how we can truly win together,” said Jessica McDowell, SVP, North America marketing and digital customer success at TD SYNNEX, in a press statement.
Inside the Partner Loyalty Program
A key component of the program is the Partner Loyalty digital platform. By integrating with partners’ existing TD SYNNEX accounts, it delivers real-time incentive tracking and consolidated access to partners’ most-used platforms, services, and support teams.
Partners can earn additional benefits by adopting new technology segments and vendor lines, attending TD SYNNEX events, and leveraging TD SYNNEX training services and financing programs. TD SYNNEX said it will expand the range of rewarded activities and associated incentives throughout the year.
Current benefits include earning complimentary MDF, StreamOne account credit that partners can use to purchase new solutions or manage current subscriptions; employee training and certification; travel credit towards TD SYNNEX and industry events, along with exclusive event experiences; and special interest rates or extended term options via TD SYNNEX Capital and Amplify.
RELATED: Sophos also rolled out a new partner program this week. See Inside Sophos’ New MSP Elevate Program: More Profit, Less Complexity
Integrations & Partnerships
Cork Protection and Rewst Integrate Platforms
Cork Protection, a provider of risk insight platforms and cyber warranty, integrated its platform with the Rewst automation platform.
Cork’s risk insight engine analyzes real-time data points across client environments, providing MSPs with an understanding of their security posture and surfacing actionable intelligence on potential threats and compliance gaps.
Rewst’s automation capabilities will receive the risk intelligence via secure APIs. Through prebuilt or custom workflows triggered by Cork’s findings, MSPs can now automate the remediation of identified risks. This includes tasks such as patching vulnerable software, isolating compromised devices, enforcing security policies, and automatically triggering compliance event remediation—or creating detailed tickets when manual intervention is needed.
This integration is available immediately to mutual customers of Cork Protection and Rewst.
Industry
IT Nation Announces PitchIT Class of 2025 Contestants
IT Nation, a global community of peers, thought leaders, and experts, announced the companies selected to compete in the annual PitchIT program, a startup incubation competition that allows innovators to showcase potential offerings that can be built or integrated into the ConnectWise ecosystem.
The cohort will participate in a 16-week business transformation course and co-marketing efforts with IT Nation through webinars aimed at the MSP space.
The 2025 class includes: ABC Solutions, AP2T Labs, BlackSmith InfoSec, Cavelo, ChannelFalcon, Everykey, GetinSync, Giant Rocketship, Hirexe, HitWit, Mizo, MSPX, Nayak, P2P Global, Palisade Technology, Plumber, Smart Eye Technology, Strategy Overview, TheComplianceAide, ThreatCaptain, Threatmate, TurboDocx, TopLeft Technologies, and Xamplify.
Throughout the competition, thought leaders within the MSP space will serve as “Cameo Coaches” to provide guidance and feedback to participating companies. The judges will evaluate each solution based on product innovation, value proposition, go-to-market strategy, contribution to the industry, and likelihood of success.
The finalists will present their solutions at IT Nation Connect, November 5-7, 2025. The first-place winner will receive $70,000 in prize money and the second-place winner will receive $30,000.
People
Barracuda Networks appointed Michelle Hodges as senior vice president of global channels and alliances. Prior to joining Barracuda, Hodges served as senior vice president of global channels and alliances at Ivanti. She has also held senior leadership roles overseeing global channel and alliance strategy at GitLab, Gigamon, Riverbed, Apptio, Intel, VMware, SAP, and Microsoft.
By the Numbers
Do Your Customers Know What Their “Phish-prone Percentage” Is?
KnowBe4’s just-released 2025 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report shows a drop in the global Phish-prone Percentage (PPP) to 4.1% after end users have 12 months of security training. The PPP measures the percentage of employees likely to fall for social engineering or phishing attacks, indicating the organization’s overall susceptibility to phishing threats.
This year’s report found a global average baseline PPP of 33.1%, meaning a third of employees interact with phishing simulations before taking part in best-practice security awareness training (SAT).
The data underscores the significant impact of SAT in mitigating risk.
KnowBe4 analyzed 67.7 million phishing simulations globally, across 14.5 million users from 62.4 thousand organizations.
Other key findings from the report:
- Globally, the top three most at-risk industries with the highest baseline PPP were healthcare and pharmaceuticals (41.9%), insurance (39.2%), and retail & wholesale (36.5%).
- Larger organizations faced a higher initial phishing risk, with those having 10,000+ employees showing a global baseline PPP of 40.5%, compared to 24.6% for organizations with 1-250 employees.
- In organizations of 1,000-9,999 employees, three sectors all achieved PPP improvement rates of 91% after 12 months of ongoing training: healthcare and pharmaceuticals, hospitality, and legal.
“The data speaks for itself—security awareness training truly makes a difference,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4, in a press statement. “From 2024 to 2025, the general trend has remained fairly consistent—around one-third of employees click on a simulated phishing link before taking part in training. However, the data shows a slight improvement in 2025. Within a year, we’ve seen a 3.5% decrease in the global baseline PPP, highlighting a positive shift in overall security awareness worldwide. However, there is still significant progress to be made in fully addressing phishing risks.”
