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People MovesTop L to R: Melanie Webb, Florian Roth, Alex GradonBottom L to R: Stephen Donovan, Zack Bland, Niesn Tavernier, Lyndsey McFarland
Melanie Webbis back at AllPoints Fibre Networks in the position of Account Director.
Florian Rothhas been appointed Chief Information Officer at Nokia.
Alex Gradonhas joined Hammer Distribution as a Senior Partner Manager.
Stephen Donovanhas joined Rubix Data Centers as Senior Vice President Delivery (EMEA).
Zack Blandis now Partner Sales Manager at Comcast Business.
Niesn Tavernierhas been promoted to Senior Account Executive at Verizon Business.
Lyndsey McFarlandis now Head of Sales – Stacked Workplace Solutions at Stacked.
If you, or someone in your company, in the IT channel, has recently been promoted or joined a new company, do let us know: info@newsinthechannel.com
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Product NewsNutanix has launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for its Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP), designed to help customers securely harness AI tools to automate everyday cloud operations.
The MCP server for NCP is an open-source software that implements the Model Context Protocol specification and enables AI agents and developer tools to interact with NCP through the Nutanix Prism v4 API.
With the launch of its MCP server, Nutanix customers can build agentic AI applications that have access to a robust tools layer to power secure actions on NCP, enabling IT teams to speed up daily operations across large hybrid multicloud environments without losing visibility or control.
Operating modern hybrid multicloud environments traditionally depends on deep technical expertise and strict access controls. Although AI assistants can drastically speed up how these systems are managed, enterprises need the certainty that AI actions are safe and authorised. This level of security is necessary for everyday operations, from executing major system upgrades to tracking network performance across the entire business.
The new MCP Server for NCP solves these challenges by acting as a secure passthrough between AI assistants, such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and Cursor to safely translate plain-English requests into precise infrastructure API actions for an organisation’s hybrid multicloud environment.
The solution translates everyday language requests into precise, safe system actions while automatically enforcing existing corporate security and access policies. By creating a dedicated safety passthrough around AI tools, the solution allows IT teams to confidently automate routine operations and build custom AI-driven workflows.
Thomas Cornely, executive vice president, Product Management at Nutanix has said:
“Nutanix has a long history of using automation to simplify complex cloud operations. The MCP server is an exciting next step on our journey, allowing us to bring the power of autonomous AI agents to cloud management. By creating a secure gateway between AI tools and our platform, we are giving customers the confidence to safely use AI to operate and govern their hybrid multicloud environments.”
The MCP server allows connected AI tools to inherit the native governance and access controls of NCP. Rather than risking unassisted changes to production environments, IT operators can safely use AI assistants to analyse system health, surface diagnostics, and accurately stage automation workflows while maintaining operator oversight through ‘human-in-the-loop’ capabilities.
Architectural Governance and Developer Capabilities
The Nutanix Prism V4 API Gateway strictly handles all execution, governance, and security controls, enabling the MCP Server to provide a highly secure and predictable environment for enterprise AI operations.
It is designed to support:• Fine-Grained Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Confines autonomous agents to executing calls only on specific APIs for which they have been granted explicit, granular authorisation.• Throttling and Metering: Implements built-in traffic regulation to help prevent agent swarm attacks while natively tracking API usage across automated workflows.• Comprehensive Auditing: Generates detailed system logs to maintain visibility into which AI agent initiated which specific command.• Asynchronous Task Management: Offloads long-running operations as asynchronous tasks, allowing autonomous agents to efficiently track progress and execution status until completion.
For developers, the MCP server makes building automation tools faster and more intuitive. By giving AI coding assistants exact system blueprints up front, developers can instantly generate platform-ready scripts in their preferred languages – including Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, PowerShell, curl, or any REST and JSON-compatible format. This allows teams to configure precise security permissions through a single interface, or build their own custom AI agents to automate and govern their Nutanix infrastructure from end to end.
Customers can download the MCP server for NCP from developers.nutanix.com and use it with any of their own AI agents.
Related Post: Nutanix Agent Gateway is now Available
The post Nutanix Brings Agentic AI Automation to Enterprise Cloud Operations first appeared on News in the Channel.
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Channel NewsThe latest issue of Print in the Channel magazine is OUT, and its packed full of
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS:
PFU (EMEA) recently launched their new scanners and next phase of PaperStream at the Vatican, as the company completes its transition to being a capture-first company. Brian Fortune, general manager sales EMEA tells us more.
Gary Organ, Head of Sales – Device Technology (Office) at Fujifilm, reflects on the company’s rapid European expansion, growing partner network and plans for the future following its Partner Conference in Vienna.
PRODUCT LAUNCHES & EVENTS:
Xerox has introduced the Xerox® C240 and Xerox® C255a, and Xerox® C300 and C305ae colour printers and multifunction printers, which bring the combined strengths of the Xerox and Lexmark brands to the fast-growing small workgroup segment.
Ben Lake, Sharp Europe’s senior product manager, introduces the Sharp MX-B428W.
Fujifilm Europe GmbH expands its Apeos office portfolio with the C3567 series and C3061 series.
Stockies are Back!! Stockies 2026 Printing Solutions categories have been announced. Nominations for Personality of the Year and Reseller of the Year (3 categories) are open – so tell us who you think deserves to win a Stockies this year.
EXPERT OPINION, INSIGHTS & ADVICE:
Discussing the barriers that SMBs face when embracing cloud print management, and how MSPs and resellers can play a role, are Louella Fernandes from Quocirca, Stuart Brookes from PaperCut and Paul Vogt from Loftware.
Mark Kouwenberg, director of sales at MPS Monitor discusses how businesses can consider whether their printer fleet management platform is still earning its place, with some helpful insights.
Greig Millar, chief revenue officer at Brother UK, reflects on how sustainability really influences buying decisions
Cloud print security is becoming popular for SMBs as businesses move away from on-premises solutions, and adding insight is Stuart Miller from Canon, Nick Taylor from Epson and Greig Millar from Brother UK.
EKM Global discusses how Managed Print has changed, and tips to check regarding software updates.
Toner recycling can cut business waste while helping resellers support customers’ ESG goals, and giving us the insight are Peter Cowan from Data Direct, Maxime Furkel from Xerox, Cinzia Gandini from Katun and Ben Mills from Konica Minolta.
When organisations look to migrate to the cloud, print infrastructure is often left behind – but this could be a mistake, as Matthew Lee, product marketing manager at PaperCut, explains.
This issue’s front cover features Xerox: Easy, Ready and Compact. Find out more about Xerox’s latest compact printers designed for small workgroups and hybrid environments, and discover their capabilities and early reviews.
Print in the Channel Magazine – packed full of Insights, Advice and Tips for Resellers plus People Moves & Latest News – OUT NOW!The post The latest Print in the Channel Magazine is OUT! first appeared on News in the Channel.
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People MovesTop L to R: Bart Donkersloot, Margaret Adam, Ryan McElvaneyBottom L to R: Dan Brizell, Katy Sjogren, Jörg Hartmann, John Newson
Bart Donkersloot Msc.has been appointed Managing Director Benelux at AVI-SPL.
Margaret Adamis now Senior Vice President – Global Partner Marketing at SAP.
Ryan McElvaneyhas joined POLAR Integrated Solutions as a Business Development Manager.
Dan Brizellhas been appointed Regional Sales Director UK&I at Belkin.
Katy Sjogrenis now World Wide Retail Experiences Lead at HP.
Jörg Hartmannhas been promoted to Senior Sales Manager – CE Display Solution Channel Sales at Samsung Electronics.
John Newsonhas joined Cloudwick in the position of VP Alliances and Channels, EMEA.
If you, or someone in your company, in the IT channel, has recently been promoted or joined a new company, do let us know: info@newsinthechannel.com
The post People Moves in the Channel first appeared on News in the Channel.
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New ProductsHP has debuted PCs built for the next wave of Windows PC experiences powered by NVIDIA RTX Spark. The unified portfolio delivers preconfigured tools and secure local processing to accelerate AI workflows for creators, developers and gamers.
Demands on PCs are ever-increasing from their professional users, be they creators or developers, especially as more are now utilising the power and potential of AI functionality.
This means PC manufacturers are racing to launch new devices that can deliver what users need now and in the future. The latest to announce new devices and solutions is HP Inc, which is releasing a raft of products designed to enable developers of all types to create new experiences using AI.
New solutions include the latest notebooks and desktops powered by NVIDIA’s RTX Spark platform. RTX Spark is designed for creators, gamers and AI developers, bringing NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform and suite of RTX technologies to slim laptops with all-day battery life. Beginning later this year, HP will bring RTX Spark to its HP OmniBook Ultra 16 and HP OmniBook X 14 laptops, and will be the world’s thinnest RTX Spark, built for powerful performance.
HP is also planning to expand its RTX Spark offerings with a compact desktop, bringing new choice to creators, AI enthusiasts and developers.
Intelligent edge platforms powering AI innovation
HP also unveiled a new class of developer PCs for the agentic AI era: systems designed not just to use AI, but to help developers build it. The company’s portfolio now ranges from IT-managed, high-performance workstations to self-managed, off-the-shelf devices available at retail. These PCs are designed to support practical AI development and creation across Windows and Linux, with systems tuned for local agents, hybrid AI workflows, open-source tooling and fast setup.
By pairing compact, powerful hardware with pre-packaged developer environments, command-line workflows, OpenClaw-based starter kits, and support for agent frameworks such as Hermes, HP will make it easier for developers to move from idea to working agent without stitching the stack together from scratch.
The new HP OmniDesk Mini Desktop PC is the world’s first Mini AI PC with Thunderbolt Share. Powered by Intel® Core Ultra Series 3 processors and built-in AI capabilities, it replaces bulky towers with a sleek footprint and enables seamless workflows with support for controlling two PCs with a single keyboard and mouse, plus fast file transfers between projects. Build the ideal desk setup that allows you to do your best work with versatile ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 connections and support up to four 4K displays.
HP is also expanding its advanced compute offering by bringing the latest AMD Ryzen AI PRO 400 series processors to the HP Z2 Mini G1a and integrating the validated AMD Ryzen AI Halo developer software stack, featuring the Ryzen AI Developer Center, AMD ROCm, pre-installed AI frameworks, models and guided playbooks, so developers can start building and running advanced AI workloads instantly. Expected to be available in select retail channels later this year, this workstation will provide everyday developers with powerful, accessible tools.
Fast and flexible
HP’s latest launches are aimed that those taking advantage of AI. “Developers are moving from experimenting with AI to shipping agentic applications, and they need PCs that are as open, fast, and flexible as their workflows,” said Samuel Chang, senior vice president and division president, Consumer Personal Systems at HP Inc.
“Our expanded portfolio pairs compact, powerful hardware with pre-configured environments and open-source toolchains to eliminate setup friction and accelerate the path from idea to execution. Whether it is a device optimised for hybrid Windows workflows, creators, gamers or AI practitioners or powerful workstations for edge development, we’re giving builders a clear, practical path to run local agents and scale hybrid AI with confidence.”
Jim Nottingham, senior vice president and division president, Advanced Compute and Solutions, HP Inc, added that more than 70% of enterprise PCs run Windows. “Our customers have asked for AI supercomputing power that can seamlessly integrate into their existing environments,” he says. “We plan to add support for Windows in the HP ZGX Fury GB300 and remain committed to expanding our portfolio to meet evolving customer needs through strong collaboration with our partners.”The post HP Brings NVIDIA RTX Spark to New OmniBook AI PCs first appeared on News in the Channel.
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People MovesTop L to R: Aaron Dailey, Jade Feliciano, William DosterBottom L to R: Henry Levak, Jennifer Lewis Cheek, Scott Kipphut, Jay Chiu
Aaron Daileyis now a Sr. Solutions Architect at WEKA.
Jade Felicianorecently joined NiCE as an Analyst Relations Coordinator.
William Dosterhas been appointed Sr, Sales Rep Engineer, CSP – Global Tier 1 at Lenovo.
Henry Levakis now VP & General Manager (Team Workspace Solutions Business Group) at Logitech.
Jennifer Lewis Cheekhas been appointed Continuous Improvement & Business Process Manager at Jabra.
Scott Kipphut, CTShas joined AVI-SPL in the position of Senior Project Engineer – XTG.
Jay Chiuis now a Business Development Manager with Yealink.
If you, or someone in your company, in the IT channel, has recently been promoted or joined a new company, do let us know: info@newsinthechannel.com
The post People Moves in the Channel USA first appeared on News in the Channel.
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People MovesTop L to R: Jaclyn Patnella, DP Venkatesh, Kelsey BoyleBottom L to R: Eric Chen, Ellie Proudler, Victoria Lee, Larry Druien
Jaclyn Patnellahas joined TP-Link Systems Inc. in the position of Distribution Sales Manager.
DP Venkateshhas been appointed to VP – Global Strategic Alliances at Cisco.
Kelsey Boylehas been promoted to Director, Americas Field Marketing at Yubico.
Eric Chenrecently joined Shure as a Senior Solutions Engineer.
Ellie Proudleris now a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Nozomi Networks.
Victoria Leehas been appointed Vice President, Strategic Sales at Avathon.
Larry Druienhas joined ADI Global Distribution in the position of Sr. Account Manager.
If you, or someone in your company, in the IT channel, has recently been promoted or joined a new company, do let us know: info@newsinthechannel.com
The post People Moves in the Channel USA first appeared on News in the Channel.
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Awards & AccreditationsThe graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Red Hat.
For the third consecutive year, Red Hat has been named a Leader for its hybrid cloud application platform: Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, announced that it has been named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Native Application Platforms for Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s comprehensive hybrid application platform powered by Kubernetes.
The recognition marks the third consecutive year that Red Hat has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant, based on the company’s “Completeness of Vision” and “Ability to Execute”.
As organisations modernise complex legacy systems and embrace artificial intelligence (AI), Red Hat believes the need for an agile, secure and unified application platform is becoming increasingly important.
Gartner evaluates vendors in the report based on their offering strategy, innovation, overall viability, business model, and more, helping software engineering leaders evaluate cloud-native application platform vendors and find the best fit for their organisation.
The Red Hat platform is natively integrated and available as a managed service including Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA), Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO), Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Google Cloud Platform and Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, while also supporting flexible, self-managed deployments on-premises or in private clouds.
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, a native feature of Red Hat OpenShift, helps organisations migrate traditional VMs to a modern, unified application platform on their infrastructure of choice, whether on-premises or across major cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud, allowing IT teams to manage containers, VMs and AI workloads through a single operational workflow.
Mike Barrett, vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Platforms, at Red Hat commented:
“Organizations today are focused on building more agile, cloud-native environments while simultaneously scaling next-generation AI workloads. Plus they are challenged by AI finding issues in their application services at an unprecedented rate causing a need for solutions that help them rebuild and redeploy faster. We believe Red Hat’s third consecutive recognition as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Native Application Platforms highlights our commitment to delivering a trusted, consistent application platform that brings security and operational discipline to containers, VMs and AI workloads, no matter where they run.”
Related Post: Announcing the Red Hat AI Factory with NVIDIA and Red Hat AI Enterprise
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AIIn a recent blog post by Anna Matthai, marketing researcher at CompTIA, entitled “AI Adoption Is Accelerating. Are Workforce Skills Keeping Pace?”, Matthai highlights a growing disconnect between the rapid adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) technologies and the skills required to use them effectively.
The blog points to the recent CompTIA survey results from 1,036 business and technology company employees conducted in June, assumedly across the United States, aptly named the AI Skills Tracker© July 2026, now almost in its fourth year of production. The survey explores the familiarity of the respondents with AI models and LLMs, the frequency of use and so on.
What is of interest in the summary, is the insight that:
“some signs of disillusionment are emerging. Along with imprecise productivity gains and rising costs, the question of workforce skill is one that many organizations are chasing.”
Another observation is that:
“Training formats to date have focused on informal options, but the demands for better security, clear use cases, and hands-on learning will drive more robust offerings, with proof of AI fluency becoming a valued asset for career growth.”
Indeed, just over half (52%) of those surveyed responded they would be “more likely to seek AI training if they see a clear connection to job role.”
AI awareness to AI competence
The findings suggest the problem is shifting from AI awareness to AI competence. Employees are experimenting with AI, but experimentation alone does not necessarily translate into measurable productivity, safe use, or skills that employers can rely upon.
Where does AI Training Responsibility Lie?
Perhaps responsibility for AI training needs to be shared between employers, employees and the wider technology industry.
Employers
Work or task-specific AI capabilities means employers should bear responsibility for identifying where AI can genuinely improve particular roles and then train people around those workflows.
Employers should:
Establish clear AI policies: All employees need to know which tools are approved, what information can be entered into them, and when AI-generated work requires human verification.
Provide hands-on training: Sometimes asking an employee to watch a podcast or read a presentation does not equate to full capability transfer. Employees need opportunities to use AI on realistic tasks and understand where AI succeeds and fails. Deploying Copilot, ChatGPT or an AI PC does not automatically create an AI-enabled workforce.
Measure outcomes: Rather than counting licences, prompts or training completions, organisations should ask whether AI actually saves time, improves quality or enables work that could not previously be done. If the goal is to “save time”, effectiveness could be measured by comparing how long it takes to complete a task without AI against the time taken to complete the same task using AI. The issue comes in when measurements such as “improved quality” and “more productive” are assessed.
As organisations refresh their hardware, the question regarding AI computers, laptops, servers and other AI-enabled IT equipment deployment, and workforce enablement, need to be considered together.
Employees
Employees also have responsibility for developing their own AI literacy, and “AI literacy” should not simply mean being good at prompting. Employees need to understand when to use AI, when not to use it, and how to judge its output.
That includes learning how to formulate effective requests, verify answers, recognise hallucinations and bias, protect confidential information and understand the limitations of different AI tools, thus the employee becomes an active participant in identifying useful applications. In many organisations, the people doing a job every day will discover valuable AI use cases before management does, and because the technology is evolving rapidly, AI literacy increasingly needs to be viewed as continuous professional development, rather than a one-off course.
The Broader Channel
There is arguably an equally important role for the technology industry, and particularly vendors, distributors, resellers and MSPs, to bear some responsibility.
The industry needs to become better at selling outcomes rather than AI specifications.
The PC market illustrates the problem particularly well. Consumers and business buyers are now confronted with terminology including AI PCs, NPUs, TOPS, Copilot+ PCs and different generations of AI-capable processors. None of those terms necessarily tells an end user what they can actually do differently.
Perhaps the channel should:
Translate technology into use cases: Explain what AI functionality enables for particular workers (by sector, by work function) with more use cases.
Reduce terminology and complexity: Greater consistency around AI-PC terminology may make purchasing decisions easier. The Open Semantic Interchange (OSI) is an open-source, vendor-neutral standard designed to let different AI, business intelligence, analytics and data platforms share the same business definitions and metadata. Its goal is to ensure that every tool interprets metrics and business concepts consistently, regardless of vendor.
Connect hardware, software and skills: An AI-PC sale could increasingly include adoption, training and workflow consulting rather than ending when the device is delivered.
From partner to AI adviser: Resellers and MSPs are well positioned to identify use cases, recommend appropriate devices and provide ongoing training and governance.
Develop credible skills credentials: If, as the CompTIA report suggests, proof of AI fluency becomes valuable for career development, then recognised and practical certification will become increasingly important too.
Demonstrate ROI: The emergence of what CompTIA describes as “imprecise productivity gains and rising costs” makes evidence increasingly important. Vendors need to demonstrate where AI delivers measurable benefits rather than relying on the general proposition that “AI makes you more productive.”
The bigger opportunity for the channel
For the IT channel, the arrival of AI adoption potentially represents a significant change in the value proposition.
For decades, much of the PC conversation has effectively been:
device → specification → price → deployment
AI creates an opportunity for that conversation to become:
role → use case → device/software → skills → adoption → measurable outcome
That potentially moves a reseller or MSP away from simply supplying an AI-capable PC towards answering a much more valuable question:
“What should this employee be able to do with AI that they cannot—or do not—do today?”
CompTIA’s finding that 52% would be more likely to seek training when there is a clear connection to their job role makes that particularly compelling. The challenge may therefore be less about persuading people that AI matters and more about demonstrating where it matters to them.The post CompTIA Research: AI Adoption vs Workforce Skills first appeared on News in the Channel.
