{"id":243188,"date":"2026-07-14T14:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/cybersecurity-is-rewriting-the-technology-advisor-playbook\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:15:26","slug":"cybersecurity-is-rewriting-the-technology-advisor-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/cybersecurity-is-rewriting-the-technology-advisor-playbook\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity is rewriting the technology advisor playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity is rewriting the technology advisor playbook<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.channeldive.com\/news\/cybersecurity-is-rewriting-the-technology-advisor-playbook-avant\/825112\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-14 14:56:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.channeldive.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

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AI security fears and booming MSSP sales are pulling technology advisors into cybersecurity, as telco-focused holdouts weigh whether to jump in.
\nCybersecurity vendors have historically gone to market through resellers, but TAs and tech services distributors are increasingly gaining share with their brokerage model. AI governance concerns, momentum for TA-aligned managed security service providers and ballooning TSD sales volume are drawing both customers and vendors to the agency motion. Devan Adams, principal analyst at Omdia, Channel Dive’s sister company, estimated that TSD security billings grew by 40%, from about $200,000 in 2021 to roughly $800,000 in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a few years ago, we were launching security with practically no sales,\u201d Avant Chief Strategy Officer Alex Danyluk told Channel Dive. \u201cNow we have hundreds of trusted advisors engaging in security opportunities.\u201d
\nIt has been a long journey for the commission-based, vendor-managed\u00a0route to market model that originated in telecom, and many TAs are still resistant to security.\u00a0
\nIt doesn\u2019t make sense to Cynthia Ferrell, who has been sourcing security since she founded Team KC Telecom in 2020.
\n\u201cI just cannot believe that you’re out here like, ‘I’m gonna get this client’s circuits and their voice and all these other things, but I’m not gonna help them protect their house,\u2019\u201d Ferrell said. \u201cThat just is mind blowing to me. I see that as my personal responsibility to protect them.\u201d\u00a0
\nThe cybersecurity adoption gap highlights the generational differences in the TA market. The oldest remaining TA firms, born in the 90s and early 2000s, were almost all founded by former employees of telco carriers and ISPs, who carved out a lucrative niche selling long-distance telephone services, hosted voice and now unified-communications-as-a-service.\u00a0
\nA telco background is no longer a given for TA leaders. Accelerate Partners CEO J.P. Panzica, for example, was the CRO at MSSP Thrive before starting his agency in 2020. The newest crop of partners aren\u2019t beholden to nursing a large base of declining network revenue and aren\u2019t solely known by their customers as the telco partner.
\nMany legacy firms have chosen to be sold to a national TA platform rather than pivot into cybersecurity and AI. Others have hired security experts and lined up strategic partnerships to catch the security wave.
\nFor ChoiceTel, a ShoreTel reseller that evolved into a TA and a consultancy, hiring engineers was a key step in the journey that not all partners are willing to take.
\n\u201cYou really need to have some security expertise for sure,\u201d ChoiceTel CEO Diane Smith said. \u201cJust like when we resold ShoreTel as a reseller, we brought out engineers to our team to support it.\u201d
\nOther firms, like Team KC Telecom, have leaned on their TSD partners to augment their engineering capabilities. Ferrell has counted on Intelisys sales engineers to help her with customer discovery.
\n\u201cYou ask the questions, you get copies of their bills, take it back to your internal sales engineer or your TSD, and they’ll know exactly what to do with it,\u201d Ferrell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trick is pressing hard enough, Ferrell said. TAs may ask the client if they have cybersecurity needs and be told no. Partners needn\u2019t be afraid to challenge customers, because many don\u2019t fully understand their own security posture, he said.
\n\u201cYou really have to push. You have to say, ‘No, man, I would really like to talk to you about it, see what you have and do a free audit for you,\u2019\u201d Ferrell said. \u201cI don’t have a cybersecurity background. None of my clients have a cybersecurity background. That is a statement of fact. That’s not an insult. When they think they \u2018got it,\u2019 99% of the time they don’t.\u201d
\nFerrell\u2019s SMB and midmarket clients often underestimate the cyber threats facing them. Intelisys security evangelists are good at delivering the bad news, while Ferrell can be positioned as the helper.
\n\u201cThe almost weekly narrow escapes that I hear from my clients is unbelievable,\u201d she said.
\nFrom AI to security
\nMarching orders from the C-suite for generative and agentic AI projects have raised security concerns for IT leaders.\u00a0
\nMatt Caponi, cybersecurity architect for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Opkalla, said his team is trying to ground clients in core ideas about identity, data and zero trust.
\n\u201cTrying to understand how to secure AI can feel cumbersome,\u201d Caponi said. \u201cIt can feel very intimidating because of how fast it’s changing, but if we can bring it back to principles that we’ve been working around within frameworks like zero trust architecture\u2026 those are principles that people can understand.\u201d
\nAccelerate Partners\u2019 cybersecurity practice is interwoven with its AI practice. The firm developed professional services to help clients build acceptable use policies for, secure and fact-check LLMs. The firm is now earning pro services revenue that\u2019s rare in the TA market, but the services often help grease the wheels for procurement.
\n\u201cWe’re getting professional services revenue now as a TA for doing this work, and at the end, it’s resulting in a sale,\u201d Panzica said. \u201cMaybe it’s a point solution, maybe it’s a managed service, but it’s really interesting to go down that route and figure out how they could use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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