The Buzz: Acronis launches IaaS for MSPs, Citrix rethinks secure access, and Upwind brings agents to cloud security

Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Thursday, May 14, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today.

Acronis has launched Cyber Frame, a new hyperconverged infrastructure and infrastructure-as-a-service platform built specifically for managed service providers. The launch comes at a critical time for the channel, as many service providers are actively seeking alternatives to legacy virtualization platforms following recent industry shakeups and pricing model changes. Cyber Frame allows MSPs to build and deliver infrastructure services with native, seamless integration into Acronis’ existing cyber protection and remote monitoring and management tools. Rather than dealing with the unpredictable costs of hyperscale public clouds or the complexity of managing disparate vendor stacks, MSPs can use Cyber Frame to consolidate their service delivery. Acronis says the platform is designed to give service providers significantly better margin control and simplified management. It offers flexible deployment options, allowing partners to choose between a fully hosted model managed by Acronis, or a partner-hosted deployment running on the MSP’s own hardware in their local data center. By combining compute, storage, networking, and security into a single unified platform, Acronis is positioning Cyber Frame as a way for MSPs to scale their infrastructure offerings profitably while maintaining the tight security posture that modern SMB clients demand.

Citrix has introduced Citrix Platform Flex, a new persona-based secure access model intended to help organizations move away from static, one-size-fits-all IT delivery. In today’s hybrid work environment, the access requirements for a call center employee, a traveling executive, and a remote software engineer are vastly different. Citrix built Platform Flex to recognize these distinctions, allowing IT teams to align resources, security controls, and application delivery specifically to the varying needs of different worker profiles. The new platform delivers secure application access, managed services, and comprehensive observability under a model designed for more flexible and predictable pricing. By shifting away from rigid licensing structures that often force companies to over-provision resources for basic users, Citrix aims to help enterprises optimize their cloud and infrastructure spending. Platform Flex also incorporates advanced analytics and security policies that adapt in real-time based on user behavior and location. For channel partners, this persona-driven approach provides a clear framework to help enterprise customers rationalize their IT investments, simplify the management of distributed workforces, and ensure that security protocols do not impede productivity for end users who require high-performance access to specialized applications.

Upwind has launched its new AI Agentic Pack, adding autonomous, agent-driven capabilities to its cloud security platform. As cloud environments grow increasingly complex and security operations centers face unprecedented alert fatigue, the cybersecurity industry is rapidly shifting toward agentic AI to help manage the load. Upwind’s new tools are specifically designed to help security teams autonomously investigate threats, validate whether theoretical vulnerabilities are actually exposed to active exploitation, and prioritize remediation efforts based on real-world risk. Instead of simply generating more alerts for human analysts to sift through, the Agentic Pack leverages artificial intelligence to actively investigate the root cause of an incident, map the attack path across cloud infrastructure, and propose actionable fixes. This launch leans heavily into the growing necessity of using autonomous agents to drastically compress the window between threat discovery and response. With malicious actors utilizing AI to accelerate their attacks, defenders require matching speed to counter them. For managed security service providers, Upwind’s agentic capabilities offer a pathway to scale their operations, handle a higher volume of telemetry without adding headcount, and provide faster threat containment for their clients.

In brief:

Nerdio vice president of MSP sales Will Ominsky warned in a Redmond Channel Partner interview today that MSPs who figure out how to monetize AI by the end of 2026 will grab massive market share. 

Boomi and Red Hat have announced a strategic collaboration to deliver an integrated stack for deploying agentic AI at scale. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reportedly scrutinizing Instructure after a massive ransomware attack disrupted its Canvas online learning platform. 

And Canadian cybersecurity provider Plurilock has announced 1.13 million dollars in new critical services contracts. 

Later today on in the channel, we’re talking eCrime Reports and Threat Intelligence with Camerous Tousley and Pedro Kertzman of ESET.

And if you missed it yesterday, check out my conversation with Auvik’s Steve Petryschuk on the gap between MSPs’ expectation around AI, and the reality they have realized to date.

That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.