Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers:
- Canadian cyberattacks surge. Canadian enterprise cyberattacks jumped 80 percent over the past year, with the average organization hit by 342 incidents – up from 191 the previous year – and 52 percent reporting an actual breach, according to new research from CDW Canada and IDC. Cloud infection rates hit a record 53 percent, up from 41 percent the year before. Security spending is at a five-year high at an average 20 percent of IT budgets, yet breaches continue to climb – what CDW Canada’s CTO calls a “security maturity paradox.”
- Microsoft’s AI bundle overhaul lands Friday. Microsoft is launching two new products on May 1: Microsoft 365 E7, a new enterprise bundle above E5 that includes agentic AI capabilities, and Microsoft Agent 365, a packaged AI agent offering for business customers. Microsoft is also updating its Frontier Badge and Frontier Distributor partner designations to align with the new agentic AI-focused lineup.
- OpenAI goes channel. OpenAI has hired Colleen Kapase, a veteran channel executive with senior roles at Google Cloud, Snowflake, VMware, and Citrix, as VP of Strategic Global Partnerships. Her mandate is to build out OpenAI’s partner and reseller program, focused on its Codex AI coding agent and broader channel go-to-market models.
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Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Monday, April 28, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today.
Up first, A new report should be required reading for anyone in the Canadian IT channel selling security services. CDW Canada, in partnership with IDC, surveyed more than 700 Canadian IT and security professionals, and the numbers are stark.
Cyberattacks on Canadian enterprises surged 80 percent in the past year, with the average organization recording 342 incidents – up from 191 the year before. More than half of respondents – 52 percent – reported an actual breach.
Where the attacks are landing is the important detail for solution providers. Cloud infection rates hit a record 53 percent, up from 41 percent the previous year. Organizations are moving workloads to the cloud without necessarily securing them properly, and attackers have noticed.
The uncomfortable wrinkle in the data: security budgets are at a five-year high, averaging 20 percent of total IT spend. More money going in, more breaches coming out. CDW Canada’s CTO describes it as a “security maturity paradox” – organizations are buying tools, but not necessarily deploying or managing them effectively.
For MSPs and solution providers, that gap between investment and outcome is exactly the conversation your customers need to be having – and now there’s Canadian data to back it up.
Second, If you’re a Microsoft partner, you’ve got roughly three days to get your head around some significant changes to the 365 product lineup – because new bundles are landing this Thursday, May 1st.
Two things to know: Microsoft 365 E7, and Microsoft Agent 365. E7 is a new top-tier enterprise bundle that consolidates advanced security, compliance, and agentic AI capabilities into a single license tier above the existing E5. Microsoft Agent 365 is the company’s packaged answer to selling AI agents to business customers.
There’s a structural channel piece attached to this as well. Microsoft is updating its Frontier Badge and Frontier Distributor designations to align with these new agentic AI products – so if you’re holding or working toward a Frontier badge, the criteria are shifting along with the launch.
The practical reality: your customers are going to hear about this from Microsoft’s marketing engine very shortly, if they haven’t already, and they are going to ask you what it means for them and what it means for their bills. Thursday doesn’t leave a lot of runway, so the time to do your homework on these new SKUs is right now.
And finally, One hire can tell you a lot about where a company is headed. OpenAI has brought on Colleen Kapase as Vice President of Strategic Global Partnerships, and if you’ve been in the IT channel for any length of time, that name is going to ring a bell.
Kapase spent years in senior channel leadership roles at Google Cloud, Snowflake, VMware, and Citrix – consistently building partner ecosystems and go-to-market models that work through resellers and solution providers rather than around them.
Her mandate at OpenAI is to build the company’s partner and channel operation, with a focus on Codex – OpenAI’s AI coding agent – and on creating what the company is calling an “epic” go-to-market model with partners.
This matters because OpenAI has historically moved to market through hyperscaler partnerships and direct enterprise relationships. Bringing in someone with Kapase’s background signals a deliberate shift toward a real channel program – the kind that resellers and MSPs can actually participate in and build practices around.
Whether that ultimately includes meaningful opportunities for Canadian partners remains to be seen – but the direction of travel is worth paying attention to.
Later today on In The Channel, we take a look on the value of the GTIA’s new Innovate Awards as a measuring stick for real, meaningful AI projects in the channel.
And if you missed it on Friday, check out my interview with Erin Gertner on how the company’s big Cisco 360 program update is landing one quarter after its debut.
That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening.
