Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

Elie Y. Katz, Founder, President & CEO of National Retail Solutions (NRS), joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, for a wide-ranging conversation about what’s changing right now for independent convenience stores—and why technology partners should be paying attention.

Katz opened with a candid, real-world story from home that set the tone for the episode: small-business life is relentless, unpredictable, and personal. “I’m here, ready to roll… and tell them about National Retail Solutions and how we could help them make more money and put more money in their pocket,” he said—framing NRS as both a technology provider and a support system for business owners who are often juggling everything themselves.

NRS serves the “onesies, twosies” of retail: independent convenience stores, bodegas, and similar single-operator businesses. Katz said NRS has deployed more than 40,000 point-of-sale registers across the U.S., supporting stores that compete daily against national chains with far deeper resources. The discussion highlighted how these stores—often located at street level in dense neighborhoods—are increasingly becoming the preferred option for shoppers who want convenience, familiarity, and a sense of safety.

A key theme was how consumer behavior shifts can quickly reshape revenue. Katz noted that many NRS-supported stores are seeing strong growth in e-commerce and delivery, enabled by POS integrations that connect store inventories to their own websites and to marketplaces like DoorDash and Grubhub. In his view, this is a repeatable pattern: during COVID, convenience stores went from shutdown panic to becoming essential community hubs, and those that embraced digital ordering surged. “The ones that were smart enough to be hooked into online ordering and the marketplaces… they thrived,” Katz said.

Green and Katz also explored what Katz called a “quiet revolution” inside these neighborhood businesses—moving from cash-first operations to modern payment methods, loyalty programs, and digitally enabled workflows. Katz argued that the next generation of customers expects to order, pay, and interact through mobile experiences, and retailers that resist change risk getting left behind. “If you don’t want to embrace the technology… you’re going to wake up like Blockbuster, Kodak, Yahoo,” he warned.

The conversation also covered safety and risk reduction, especially for stores operating in high-crime environments. Katz pointed to a patented feature built into NRS registers: a “panic alarm” workflow that can silently alert police in the event of a robbery while opening the cash drawer to comply with demands. “We have a patented alarm system embedded in our point of sale register… the drawer opens up and a silent alarm goes to the police department,” he said.

Beyond POS, Katz positioned NRS as a broader financial and operational services provider for small businesses, including credit card processing, cash advance services to help with cash flow, and payroll services. His message to the channel was direct: technology resellers already have trusted relationships with Main Street businesses, and those relationships can translate into new revenue streams. “They’re leaving money on the table by not taking advantage of the fact that they’re trusted already by their customer,” Katz said.

Finally, Katz emphasized that NRS wraps these capabilities with what he described as “white glove, back-of-house assistance,” helping store owners navigate programs, compliance issues, and operational setup—critical for owners who are often, as he put it, “the employee of the month, the pot washer, the HR person, head of legal, head of purchasing.”

To learn more, visit https://nrsplus.com/. Katz also noted there is a “contact the CEO” option at the bottom of the site for direct outreach.

Jason Beal, President, Americas, and Danielle Skipper, HR Business Partner at Exclusive Networks, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss one of the most pressing challenges facing MSPs and VARs today: the shortage of qualified cybersecurity talent and the need for practical, scalable solutions.

Beal opened the conversation by describing Exclusive Networks as a global go-to-market specialist and value-added distributor focused on cybersecurity and security-adjacent technologies. As the company worked closely with vendors and channel partners worldwide, a consistent theme emerged—partners were struggling not only to attract skilled cybersecurity professionals but also to retain them. “We heard over and over from our partners and vendors that they were really struggling with attracting the right talent and retaining that talent,” Beal said, noting that this feedback prompted Exclusive Networks to develop a structured response.

That response is CyberFarm, a university-based workforce development program launched at Cal Poly that combines hands-on experience with real-world channel exposure. Skipper explained that the program began four years ago with just three students and has since grown to support more than two dozen at a time, with over 100 students having passed through the initiative overall. “Imagine having someone who’s spent two years learning the channel, working with vendors, earning certifications, and supporting real partners—by the time they graduate, they’re ready to hit the ground running,” Skipper said.

Unlike traditional internships, CyberFarm students work for at least 12 months—often two years or more—supporting both Exclusive Networks and its ecosystem of partners and vendors. Participants gain experience across a wide range of functions, including SOC analysis, business development, marketing, content creation, and sales operations. For MSPs and VARs, this creates access to a proven talent pool with significantly reduced ramp-up time and risk compared to traditional hiring.

The discussion also highlighted how CyberFarm enables partner growth. Skipper shared examples of MSPs using CyberFarm talent to scale operations rapidly, adding capacity in engineering, marketing, and renewal management at critical growth stages. “For some partners, CyberFarm has been the difference between staying flat and scaling their business two, three, or four times,” she said.

Beyond talent development, Beal outlined Exclusive Networks’ broader enablement strategy for the channel. This includes pre- and post-sales technical services, go-to-market support, authorized training and certification programs, and CloudRise, a security services organization acquired by Exclusive Networks to act as a virtual engineering bench for partners. “Enablement isn’t just a buzzword for us,” Beal said. “It’s about putting MSPs in a position to succeed—technically, operationally, and now from a talent perspective as well.”

As the conversation wrapped up, both guests emphasized that while AI and automation are reshaping cybersecurity, human expertise remains essential. Exclusive Networks’ approach blends “AI and AIR”—artificial intelligence alongside authentic human relationships—to help partners grow sustainably.

More information about Exclusive Networks and its channel programs is available at https://www.exclusive-networks.com/.

HP Makes the Case for AI-First Collaboration Built for the Long Term At ISE 2026, HP Poly Mission Series,  lineup features AI-based noise cancellation, super wideband audio, and multiple microphone configurations across the 400, 600, and 800 Series

@Doug Green

“Hybrid work only works when the technology disappears into the background,” said Brian Phillips, Product Marketing Leader at HP. “By combining AI-driven audio and video intelligence with platform longevity and centralized management, we’re helping organizations deliver consistent, high-quality collaboration experiences anywhere people work.”

That statement captures HP’s message at ISE 2026 in Barcelona, where the company rolled out a broad set of Poly audio and video updates designed to address one of the most persistent challenges in hybrid work: how to deliver reliable, high-quality collaboration experiences at scale without increasing complexity for IT teams.

Rather than positioning AI as a standalone feature, HP is embedding intelligence across its collaboration portfolio, pairing AI-driven audio and video enhancements with longer platform lifecycles, sustainability considerations, and centralized management. The strategy reflects a clear focus on enterprise buyers who must balance user experience with operational consistency and long-term planning.

A key part of the announcement is the new HP Poly Mission Series, a family of corded USB headsets designed for mission-critical use cases. The lineup features AI-based noise cancellation, super wideband audio, and multiple microphone configurations across the 400, 600, and 800 Series. HP is also simplifying procurement and deployment with a single model certified across Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, and Google Voice, reducing the friction often associated with managing large headset fleets.

On the video side, HP Poly VideoOS 5.0 signals a more strategic shift. Built on Android 13, the platform introduces architectural improvements designed to support future innovation while extending the usable life of HP Poly video systems. With support planned through 2032 and a roadmap toward Android 17, HP is directly addressing enterprise concerns around frequent hardware refresh cycles as collaboration software evolves.

VideoOS 5.0 also delivers immediate enhancements, including smarter camera framing, enhanced AI noise blocking, multi-microphone audio mixing, and faster touch controller performance. Just as importantly, it establishes the foundation for upcoming capabilities such as DirectorAI multi-camera automatic switching, reinforcing HP’s intent to evolve collaboration intelligence over time rather than through disruptive replacements.

HP also used ISE 2026 to focus on a practical challenge facing many hybrid offices: Bring Your Own Device meeting rooms. The combination of the HP Poly Studio V12 video bar and the HP Thunderbolt 4 180W G6 Dock enables a single-cable connection that provides instant access to room displays, cameras, microphones, speakers, and network connectivity, while keeping laptops charged. The solution is designed to support Windows, Mac, and Chromebook users and is managed through HP Poly Lens, giving IT teams centralized control over settings, firmware updates, and device health.

At the high end of the collaboration spectrum, HP continues to push toward more immersive experiences with HP Dimension with Google Beam. The AI-powered 3D video communications system combines six-camera capture, spatial audio, adaptive lighting, and real-time processing to create lifelike meetings without headsets or wearables. HP and Google are demonstrating the solution at ISE, offering a glimpse into how AI may redefine presence in future work environments.

Taken together, HP’s announcements at ISE 2026 reflect a clear direction. The company is betting that the next phase of collaboration will be defined not by novelty, but by intelligence that fades into the background while delivering durable, manageable, and high-quality experiences for both users and IT teams.

Brian Phillips, Director of Product Marketing at HP, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, on opening day of ISE to discuss HP’s latest collaboration announcements and the strategy unifying its product portfolio around AI-enabled hybrid work.

Phillips explained that HP’s collaboration roadmap is centered on enabling effective communication across a wide range of work environments—from home offices and hoteling desks to meeting rooms, training spaces, and immersive collaboration settings. Rather than deploying AI for its own sake, HP is embedding machine learning and cloud-based intelligence into collaboration solutions to tangibly improve meeting quality, clarity, and engagement. “We’re putting AI into action in collaboration in a way that makes meetings more effective and more lifelike,” Phillips said, emphasizing HP’s focus on real-world value.

A key highlight at ISE was the introduction of next-generation HP Poly Mission headsets, designed to support hybrid and high-noise environments with advanced AI noise reduction. Phillips noted that the new headsets can isolate a speaker’s voice even in challenging settings such as cafés or open offices, while maintaining strong privacy protections. “AI is being used to deliver better experiences, but we’re not tracking conversations or personally identifiable information,” he said. The new lineup also reflects HP’s effort to streamline its headset portfolio, reducing SKU complexity and making it easier for resellers to quote and recommend the right solution for each user.

On the meeting room side, HP unveiled advancements in Poly VideoOS 5, the collaboration operating system that powers HP Poly video devices. The update brings support for Android 13, extended certification with partners such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, and lays the foundation for long-term investment protection with support planned through 2032. New capabilities include multi-camera experiences that dynamically frame participants from multiple angles, ensuring everyone in the room is clearly seen and heard.

Phillips also highlighted HP Dimension with Google Beam, a hyper-realistic 3D collaboration solution designed to deliver an “across-the-table” experience for remote participants. The system combines spatial video and audio to create an immersive, lifelike presence suited for executive meetings, negotiations, and high-impact conversations. Live demonstrations were available at ISE, with broader availability planned later this year through HP and Google experience centers.

More information about HP’s collaboration portfolio and hybrid work innovations is available at https://www.hp.com/us-en/home.html.

Dan Rosenrauch, CEO of Viirtue, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss Viirtue’s newly released AI voice agents and why compliance—not demos—is the real differentiator in AI voice.

Viirtue is a white-label VoIP platform built specifically for service providers, MSPs, and telecom resellers. Its core strength is a quote-to-cash platform that automates the operational realities of selling voice services, including usage-based billing, tax automation, USF contributions, FCC compliance, and required filings such as Form 477.

Rosenrauch explained that many AI voice tools entering the market overlook the fact that voice is a federally regulated industry. While AI agents may work in isolation, providers are often left to manually stitch together billing, compliance, and reporting—creating risk as they scale. Viirtue’s AI voice agents are integrated into the same lifecycle that has long supported UCaaS, from quoting and provisioning through billing, taxation, and audit-ready reporting.

“AI voice doesn’t change the rules of voice,” Rosenrauch said. “If you’re not doing compliance right from day one, you’re setting yourself up for problems that can kill your business—or its value—later.”

The platform’s multi-tenant design allows partners to deploy AI voice agents quickly across customers of any size, while still enabling hands-on tuning and optimization—an area where resellers can deliver meaningful differentiation and better customer outcomes.

Compliance, Rosenrauch noted, is no longer just a regulatory issue but a business equity issue, as acquisition deals increasingly fail when unresolved tax or regulatory gaps surface during due diligence. Viirtue’s goal is to remove that risk by making compliance automatic, scalable, and built in from the start.

Learn more: https://viirtue.com/

Dennis Thankachan, Co-Founder and CEO of Lightyear, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss how Lightyear is redefining enterprise telecom management through AI-native automation, data transparency, and end-to-end lifecycle control.

Thankachan explained that Lightyear positions itself as a “telecom operating system” for the enterprise, automating the full lifecycle of telecom services—from procurement and installation to inventory management, expense tracking, renewals, and decommissioning. The platform integrates with enterprise systems via APIs and provides a single system of record for services, circuits, costs, and contracts. In 2025, Lightyear expanded this vision with the launch of its AI-native telecom expense management offering, designed to modernize a category long dominated by legacy, invoice-centric tools.

Telecom billing, Thankachan noted, remains uniquely complex and error-prone, with multi-carrier invoices, usage-based charges, taxes, and frequent discrepancies obscuring true costs. Lightyear’s AI-native approach goes beyond invoice digitization by categorizing charges, reconciling invoices against verified network inventory, auditing discrepancies, opening tickets, and enabling natural-language queries such as cost analysis by site or service. “We’re not just answering questions,” Thankachan said. “We also take the action—buying circuits, managing installs, paying invoices, and handling tickets.”

By combining AI tooling with first-principles software design and a large, continuously growing dataset spanning quotes, carrier performance, and billing history, Lightyear delivers both operational automation and actionable intelligence. Enterprises typically see meaningful ROI within the first year, with ongoing savings driven by reduced manual effort, improved visibility, and proactive cost control.

The conversation also highlighted Lightyear’s strong business momentum. Following record customer growth and product expansion, the company secured additional funding at a higher valuation, enabling increased investment in engineering, AI-driven R&D, customer support, and go-to-market efforts. According to Thankachan, this capital ensures that “everything we do for the enterprise will get better and stronger.”

More information about Lightyear’s platform and its AI-native telecom expense management capabilities is available at https://lightyear.ai/.

Ori Bendet, Vice President of Product Management at Checkmarx, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss how the acquisition of Tromzo strengthens Checkmarx’s agentic application security strategy and reflects a broader shift in how organizations secure software in an AI-driven development era.

Bendet explained that Checkmarx, a pioneer in application security with more than two decades of experience, has traditionally focused on helping organizations identify vulnerabilities early in the software development lifecycle (SDLC). However, the rapid adoption of AI-generated code has fundamentally changed the AppSec landscape. “The industry used to be fixated on finding vulnerabilities,” Bendet said. “Now the real challenge is fixing them at scale, in context, and without slowing developers down.”

The Tromzo acquisition builds on Checkmarx’s existing family of agentic tools, Checkmarx Assist, which already provides real-time remediation inside the developer IDE. Tromzo extends these capabilities deeper into the SDLC, enabling automated remediation at the repository and pull-request stages. Together, the technologies aim to “complete the loop” by delivering consistent, trusted remediation from early development through later stages of deployment.

Bendet noted that AI is widening the gap between development velocity and security oversight, as significantly more code—and therefore more vulnerabilities—is being produced. At the same time, the application footprint itself is evolving to include AI components such as large language models, agents, and third-party AI services. “There is now a new AI element inside the application,” he said, “and organizations need AppSec solutions that understand and protect that expanded footprint.”

Auto-remediation, once viewed skeptically by developers, is now gaining acceptance as AI agents gain a deeper understanding of application context. According to Bendet, modern agentic tools can remediate vulnerabilities while preserving business logic and minimizing disruption. “Developers no longer need to spend days undoing fixes that broke functionality,” he said. “The agent can understand the blast radius and refactor automatically.”

Looking ahead, Bendet described a future where AppSec becomes more autonomous, with agents continuously testing, fixing, and validating applications while developers shift toward higher-level architectural and review roles. With proper guardrails in place, this evolution promises to reduce alert fatigue and allow teams to focus on innovation rather than remediation backlogs.

More information about Checkmarx and its agentic application security approach is available at https://checkmarx.com/, with additional developer-focused resources at https://checkmarx.dev/.

Chris McHenry, Chief Product Officer at Aviatrix, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss the launch of Aviatrix 8.2 and how the company is redefining zero trust security for modern cloud-native environments.

McHenry explained that as critical business data and AI workloads increasingly reside in public clouds such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer sufficient. Aviatrix has spent the last decade building its Cloud Native Security Fabric, a platform designed specifically for cloud operational models rather than retrofitted on-premises approaches. With release 8.2, Aviatrix significantly expands its “zero trust for workloads” capabilities, focusing on Kubernetes, serverless environments, and AI-driven applications.

A central theme of the conversation was the evolution of zero trust from a networking concept into a workload-centric security strategy. McHenry noted that recent supply-chain attacks have shown how quickly cloud-native environments can be compromised if basic network controls are missing. Aviatrix 8.2 introduces deeper Kubernetes awareness, policy-as-code integration, and initial native support for securing AWS Lambda, allowing organizations to apply micro-segmentation and least-privilege access directly to modern workloads.

McHenry emphasized that cloud security must also evolve operationally. Security teams can no longer rely on slow, ticket-based firewall processes while developers deploy infrastructure at machine speed. Aviatrix 8.2 supports a DevSecOps-friendly model that enables developers to manage zero trust policies within guardrails defined by security teams. As McHenry put it, “If your workloads get more modern but your controls don’t, security gets worse without you touching anything.”

The discussion concluded with guidance for CIOs and CISOs preparing for the next wave of cloud and AI-driven threats: assess whether existing network security tools truly understand cloud-native workloads, modernize security operations alongside development practices, and prioritize platforms that unify cloud, network, and security teams.

More information on Aviatrix 8.2 and the Cloud Native Security Fabric is available at https://aviatrix.ai/.

Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Jonathan Homa, Senior Director of Solutions Marketing at Ribbon Communications, about how artificial intelligence is reshaping carrier network design, funding priorities, and long-term infrastructure investments in 2026 and beyond.

Homa explained that while Ribbon is widely known for its heritage in voice and telephony, the company has evolved into a broader networking provider serving service providers, enterprises, governments, and critical infrastructure operators. Following its acquisition of ECI Telecom, Ribbon now spans IP, optical, and voice networks, with software, automation, and AI increasingly acting as the connective tissue across its portfolio.

AI is fundamentally altering traffic patterns on global networks. Instead of primarily “north-south” traffic between users and data centers, AI workloads are driving massive “east-west” traffic flows between data centers for training and inference. This shift is forcing carriers and data center operators to invest in higher-capacity optical networks, greater agility, and continuous optimization. As Homa noted, “AI is increasing traffic volumes, changing traffic behavior, and demanding thicker pipes with far more flexibility than traditional networks were built for.”

Homa outlined four key trends accelerating in 2026: ultra-high-speed coherent pluggable optics, IP and optical convergence, optical network disaggregation with open line systems, and AI-driven automation with closed-loop control. Together, these trends are flattening network architectures, improving economics, and enabling operators to dynamically adapt bandwidth and performance in real time. Ribbon, he said, is positioning itself at the intersection of all four trends as the industry moves toward autonomous, AI-driven networks.

Summing up Ribbon’s direction, Homa emphasized the company’s long-term vision: “Our focus is giving customers a clear path to autonomous networks—bringing together advanced optics, converged IP and optical platforms, and AI-powered automation to meet the demands of an AI-driven internet economy.” For more information, visit https://ribboncommunications.com/.

Recorded live at Cloud Connections, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Kevin Nethercott, CEO, and Robert Galop, Chief Product Officer at Tresic, following the company’s first public debut after operating in stealth mode.

Nethercott and Galop described Cloud Connections as the ideal venue for Tresic’s introduction to the market, noting strong engagement from CSPs, MSPs, and channel partners eager to understand how AI can be applied practically to communications. Drawing on decades of industry experience, the Tresic team positioned its mission at the intersection of communications, AI, and monetization—helping partners unlock new revenue using assets they already own.

At the core of Tresic’s offering is the Tresic Intelligence Cloud, a platform designed to treat conversations—across voice, messaging, chat, and social channels—as first-class business data. Rather than delivering generic AI summaries or call detail records, Tresic focuses on transforming unstructured conversational data into actionable intelligence that directly drives business outcomes.

Galop explained that recent advances around “beacons” enable conversations to be analyzed in real time and after the interaction concludes. Tresic’s After Call Co-Pilot and First Alert Co-Pilot address two critical business questions: what actually happened in a conversation, and what commitments or signals now require action. The platform automatically surfaces follow-ups, obligations, sentiment, and key moments that would otherwise be lost—routing that intelligence directly to the right people inside an organization.

By doing so, Tresic effectively closes the gap between communications and systems of record such as CRMs. Every conversation becomes a source of structured actions, alerts, and insights without relying on manual data entry or post-call administration. This gives businesses a 360-degree view of customer interactions while accelerating revenue-generating workflows.

Both executives emphasized that Tresic’s AI is not generic. Models are trained using partner and customer data, enabling vertical-specific insights that reflect how each business actually operates. This approach allows CSPs and MSPs to differentiate their offerings with intelligence tailored to their customers’ industries, rather than one-size-fits-all analytics.

In closing, Nethercott and Galop underscored Tresic’s partner-first strategy. The company goes to market exclusively through CSPs, MSPs, and channel partners—organizations that already own the customer relationship. Tresic’s goal is to help those partners add a new intelligence layer on top of existing services, enabling them to double or even triple revenue without replacing their current platforms.

More information about Tresic and its partner-driven AI communications platform is available at https://www.tresic.cloud/.