Managed Services Journal

Trustifi Collaboration Shield is a security platform designed to extend email-grade protection across Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint collaboration environments. The solution addresses growing security and compliance gaps created as sensitive data, files and threats move beyond the inbox into everyday collaboration workflows.

Lexful, an AI-native, secure IT documentation platform built exclusively for managed services providers (MSPs) to create an always-up-to-date system of record and bring order-of-magnitude operational efficiencies, today announced general availability. The Lexful platform enables providers to create a continuously updated system of record that transforms documentation into a strategic operational asset.

Ask an SMB client to inventory its cloud applications and the first list will probably include Microsoft 365, its line-of-business software and a few collaboration tools. The bigger issue is what will not appear - AI assistants, project platforms, design tools and other services employees adopted without a formal review. That visibility gap is more than an IT inconvenience. It creates unnecessary spending, unmanaged access and compliance exposure.

An MSP may discover its next virtual chief information security officer (vCISO) client in an unglamorous place: a cyber-insurance renewal questionnaire. The client may have multifactor authentication, backups and endpoint protection, yet still struggle to produce policies, an incident response plan or evidence that controls are reviewed. That gap can't be closed with another security tool.

Earlier this week, during the general session of the opening day at RSPA RetailNOW 2026 in Las Vegas, the RSPA announced the winners of this year's Vendor Awards of Excellence.

"The day that the business no longer needs the owner is the day that business goes up in value exponentially." -Tom Bronson That was one of the clearest messages Tom Bronson delivered during "M&A Playbook for VARs & ISVs: A Practical Guide to Buying and Selling" at RetailNOW 2026 in Las Vegas. It also explains why M&A preparation should matter to owners who are years away from selling - or who may never sell at all.

The best AI advice at RetailNOW 2026 didn't involve a clever prompt trick. It didn't require a data science team, an enterprise platform, or a plan hammered out in a boardroom, either. It required something simpler: Pick one workflow employees already complain about, decide what data is safe to use, put one person in charge, measure performance before and after, and expand only if the results earn it.

As an MSP leader, your days are consumed by cybersecurity alerts, client escalations, technician utilization, AI adoption and finding new ways to grow recurring revenue. It's easy to become consumed by day-to-day operations, but a much greater challenge quietly threatens the long-term success of your business: the growing shortage of skilled IT talent.

SoftPOS, software-based point of sale, gives merchants a way to accept payments anywhere, right on the mobile device they already own. But for merchants who understand the gravity of PCI compliance and growing threats to payment data, there may be concerns about security. Independent software vendors (ISVs) and value-added resellers (VARs) can put their clients' minds at ease by educating them about what SoftPOS is and answering these seven common questions. What is SoftPOS?

A retailer can invest heavily in next-generation firewalls, endpoint protection and advanced email security, yet a single stolen password can still provide attackers with the keys to the business. Today's cybercriminals increasingly don't break in - they log in. As businesses embrace cloud platforms, AI-powered applications, and hybrid work, identity has become the new security perimeter.