NEWS
UK & I partners recognised in 2026 Barracuda EMEA Partner Awards
UK & I companies Aura Technology, BSL-IT, Broad Peak Cyber, Giacom, PMD Data Solutions and Qual have been recognised in the 2026 Barracuda EMEA Partner Awards.
The annual awards honour channel organisations that have achieved outstanding customer and business success with Barracuda over the past year, driving innovation, growth and security excellence.
The awards were presented at Barracuda’ s flagship regional partner event, Discover EMEA, hosted this year on Malta in front of more than 200 representatives of managed service providers, resellers / VARs, distributors and hybrid partners.
Aura Technology was named Barracuda’ s Partner Excellence Award of the Year for Support and Services.
“ Delivering the highest standards of service to clients is core to our business so we’ re extremely proud to have been recognised in the Partner Excellence Category for Services and Support. This is a commendation not only of the hard work and dedication of our service teams but also the strength of the partnership we have
Aura Technology team, named Partner Excellence Award of the Year for Support and Services, at Barracuda’ s Discover26, Malta
built with Barracuda,” said Richard Flanders, Commercial Director at Aura Technology.
Other winners included: Broad Peak Cyber, Rising Star of the Year for North & Central; BSL-IT, Data Protection Partner of the Year; Giacom, Distributor of the Year for North; PMD Data Solutions, Regional Partner of the Year UK & I; and Qual, Application Protection Partner of the Year.
Mitel appoints Ben Macdonald as new Channel Chief and Head of Global Channel Go-to-Market
Mitel, a global leader in business communications, has announced the appointment of Ben Macdonald as Vice President, Global Channel Go-to-Market. The hire underscores Mitel’ s commitment to growing with its partners and reflects the company’ s continued investment in the channel ecosystem as organisations worldwide accelerate their shift to hybrid communications solutions.
With more than 6,000 partners globally, Mitel’ s channel community is central to how the company serves customers across demanding industries – sectors where privacy, resilience and flexibility are non-negotiable. Macdonald’ s appointment signals Mitel’ s intent to deepen that community and build on the momentum of its recently launched enhanced Global Partner Programme.
Macdonald joins Mitel with extensive experience building and scaling partnerled go-to-market models across Unified Communications, Security, Networking and SaaS markets. A recognised CRN Channel Chief, he brings a proven track record of transforming transactional, hardwarecentric businesses into recurring-revenue
Ben Macdonald engines – a capability that aligns directly with Mitel’ s strategy to support partners through the growing demand for integrated hybrid communications.
In his new role, Macdonald will lead Mitel’ s global channel strategy, the associated global partner programme and the operational environment, shaping how Mitel and its partners succeed together as the market enters what analysts describe as one of the largest communications refresh cycles in a decade.
“ The partner opportunity in business communications right now is exceptional,” said Macdonald.
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