News in the Channel - issue #24

REVIEW

That was the year that was As 2024 comes to an end, a variety of commentators from across the channel give their verdict on the year and how it was for them and the wider sector. It is the end of another year, and it has been a busy one in the channel. While there haven’t been the sort of global events that have coloured many years recently – thank goodness – there have nevertheless been plenty of challenges and opportunities for those in the channel in 2024. Here, a variety of businesses from the channel give their take on how 2024 was for them.

Lance Williams , CTO, Distology 2024 has been a year of opportunity and challenge. We’ve seen the economy through uncertainty thanks to the political stage; we’ve seen the cybersecurity landscape through another year of novel attacks, with the most high profile coming through non-IT environments; and, once again, the channel has shown real resilience and agility in adapting to the challenges and making the most of the opportunities. We reflect the cybersecurity market and the channel – both have shown real appetite and ability to deliver innovation to customers. 2024 has been another year where end customers have shown rigour in their cybersecurity purchasing. They are not willing to take a punt, they want to know that their investment will return value, and they’re willing to wait to decide if they’re not satisfied. We have also seen an increase in OT cyber customer requests reaching IT channel partners.

a great sign that, despite the ongoing global economic uncertainty, the cyber community collectively stays focused on defending and responding to threat actors. Of course, AI is everywhere and being put to great use in cybersecurity tech. I anticipate the trends of 2024 to carry on in 2025. The AI steam engine continues down the track and will move through innovation after innovation to bullet train speed and beyond throughout 2025. This will bring an increasing pressure on organisations to be better organised and clear with their data security strategy and identity security strategies will need to incorporate machine identity management alongside human identity management. Seeing the rise of agentic AI and the slowing of GenAI, buyers will likely slow their unbridled enthusiasm seen in 2024 and be more considered and intentional with their application of AI technologies for fear of overinvesting too early. AI innovation will continue and become more helpful (in defences) and increasingly challenging (in attack) in cybersecurity.

Lance Williams

distology.com

We’ve seen more innovation in the cybersecurity market and a surge of

innovative and emerging cyber tech vendors compared to the same period last year. This is

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