NEWS
8x8 name 2026 Partner Award winners
8x8, a global business communications platform provider, has named its 2026
Partner Award winners.
The awards encompass nine categories spanning contact centre, unified communications, CPaaS, distribution and technology partnerships. The annual awards recognise channel partners who drive the strongest revenue growth, new customer growth and year-over-year performance. The 2026 award winners included:
Agent Partner of the Year
• NA: Optus
• EMEA: Softcat
Resell Partner of the Year
• NA: Spectrotel
• EMEA: Wavenet
Contact Center Partner of the Year
• NA: UPSTACK
• EMEA: Wavenet
Technology Solutions Distributor of the Year
• NA: Intelisys
• EMEA: Avant
Distributor of the Year
• NA: Scansource
• EMEA: Nuvola
Growth Partner of the Year
• NA: Forge Technology Providers
• EMEA: Croft
• ANZ: Ignite Global Technology Partner of the Year
• Capacity( formerly Creovai) Rising Star Partner of the Year – CPaaS
• One Depot
Emily Masterton, Global Head of Channel Sales at 8x8, said:“ Our partners are at the heart of everything we do at 8x8, and this year’ s award winners represent the very best of what’ s possible when we go to market together. These are the teams who leaned in, pushed hard and delivered real results for our joint customers. I’ m incredibly proud to recognise them, and even more excited about what we’ re going to build together next.”
Check Point advances secure AI transformation for MSPs
Check Point Software Technologies has announced a significant expansion of its Managed Service Provider( MSP) platform, introducing new tools designed to help partners secure AI adoption, streamline operations and simplify managed security delivery.
The strategy was unveiled at the Pax8 Beyond 2026 conference and is being rolled out globally to Check Point partners.
The update combines three key developments under a single platform vision: AI security capabilities for MSPs, a new multi-tenant MSP management platform with Management Control Plane( MCP) access, and unified managed security bundles delivered through a simplified licensing model.
According to Check Point, the enhancements are intended to help MSPs move beyond traditional infrastructure management and become strategic advisors on cybersecurity and AI transformation.
The company said growing AI adoption is creating new security challenges for organisations. Research from Check Point’ s 2026 Cloud Security Report found that while 77 % of organisations have updated their security strategies in response to AI, only 26 % believe they have the architectural capabilities needed to enforce those strategies.
To address this gap, Check Point is extending its Workforce AI Security capabilities to MSP partners. The technology enables organisations to identify AI usage, govern employee interactions with AI tools and protect sensitive data across AI applications and agents. •
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