If there’s one truism in life, it’s that you will rarely get everyone to agree on something – or anything. When you live in an age where there are still people who dispute an incontrovertible fact such as “the Earth is round”, and many others who claim climate change is a hoax, achieving unanimity on anything appears impossible.
So, you’d hardly expect a blanket response when MicroScope asked people in the industry to give their views on 2024. But there are some places where views were fairly consistent when answering the overall question of how they viewed 2024.
Did 2024 live up to expectations?
According to Ashish Devalekar, senior vice-president and head of Europe at Mphasis: “2024 largely met our expectations, but there were mixed results depending on the sector. Growth was driven by a strong demand for cloud services and cyber security, which have become critical as organisations navigate an increasingly complex digital landscape. Some of the aggressive growth targets we set earlier in the year faced headwinds, but overall the results were positive, especially when we look at long-term trends.”
Yoram Novick, CEO of Zadara, describes it as a transformative year for technology, both meeting and exceeding expectations in artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically in edge AI, adding: “The rapid adoption of edge-based AI inference across diverse industries exceeded forecasts, driven by advancements in software for RAG, AI agents, and small language models.”
Danny Hemminga, vice-president of partner sales EMEA at Tanium, uses the same description, claiming 2024 has been transformative for the channel. “Rapid evolution of technology, particularly around AI, generative AI [GenAI], and automation, has made this year completely live up to expectations,” he says. “These technologies were not just buzzwords – they were central to reshaping how vendors and partners approached problem-solving, service delivery and value creation. This year has presented amazing opportunities to organisations that embraced forward-thinking strategies to stay ahead of the curve.”
Aron Brand, CTO of CTERA, states that expectations were met and defied in surprising ways: “Significant advancements in hybrid cloud adoption and cyber security demonstrated that enterprises remain committed to investing heavily in technologies that fortify data and streamline operations. However, macroeconomic pressures forced many organisations to scrutinise IT budgets, slowing the adoption cycles of some emerging technologies.”
David Primor, CEO of Cynomi, simply states that 2024 “surpassed our expectations”. Meanwhile, Jonathan Wright, director of products and operations at GCX, says: “2024 was a great year, considering the high expectations set by the strong foundation we built in the previous 12 months. Key network security solutions like SD-WAN and SASE saw a lot of progression, but SASE remains a challenge in terms of market education.”
Sam Giggle, managing director at Nebula, is also in the “great year” camp, stating: “We’ve had the opportunity to work on some really exciting integration projects and initiatives with our partners, giving them a unique selling angle into vertical markets.”
Greg Jones, senior vice-president of MSP enablement EMEA for Kaseya, says 2024 was a good year with a buoyant market. “For Kaseya and many of our partners, it was a phenomenal year of exceptional growth. Our own success is always very closely linked to that of our channel partners, and it definitely felt like we were all winning.”
What was the best tech of the year?
There are some interesting points of divergence when it comes to identifying the best performing technologies over the past 12 months, however. As you would expect, AI, cyber security and the cloud dominate.
Anthony Dobson, regional director of sales for Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business in the UK&I, highlights the rise of AI-driven solutions and the continuing migration to the cloud. “Cyber security remains a top priority, with AI playing a part in both enabling more complex and sophisticated attacks, but also providing the solutions to protect against them,” he says.
While echoing Dobson’s emphasis on those technologies, Devalekar at Mphasis adds edge computing and green tech and sustainability to the mix as areas that provided unexpected growth. Meanwhile, Zadara’s Novick describes AI as “the standout performer in 2024” and identifies edge AI as one of the rising stars, adding: “The ability to expand the power and capabilities of AI to the edge enabled various new use cases that were not possible before.”
AI has been the word of the year in the channel, but cloud technologies – while perhaps not as glamorous – have been the real heroes
Danny Hemminga, Tanium
Meanwhile, Taylor Brown, COO and co-founder at Fivetran, says that 2024 was a turning point for GenAI, transitioning from theory to practical application: “Enterprises invested heavily in infrastructure and architecture to tailor models to their unique needs. GenAI exceeded expectations in 2024, emerging as a powerful business tool with measurable results. Data integration played a central role in this success, as high-quality, centralised pipelines became essential for AI projects.”
Aron Brand, CTO at CTERA, agrees: “GenAI continues to make a major impact by connecting disparate data sources and using advanced language models to deliver strategic recommendations, deploy corporate AI agents, and enable autonomous intelligent systems.” But he notes that while the potential to uncover patterns, generate insights and drive efficiency is undeniable, “challenges like data fragmentation and governance have slowed adoption”.
Tanium’s Hemminga says: “AI has been the word of the year in the channel, but cloud technologies – while perhaps not as glamorous – have been the real heroes. Adoption of cloud services continued to accelerate in 2024, enabling businesses to scale operations efficiently and giving them the flexibility and cost-effectiveness required to succeed in such turbulent economic conditions.”
Primor at Cynomi says: “AI-related cyber security technologies were clear leaders this year – both AI-driven technologies and technologies that protect from AI risks.”
Pete Wilson, director of channel sales EMEA at Illunio, says that cyber security demand was at an all-time high as attacks grow in number and impact: “New regulations like NIS2 and DORA have shifted the focus towards cyber resilience, driving appetite for zero trust and microsegmentation.”
Johnny Carpenter, vice-president of channel and alliances EMEA at 11:11 Systems, is a rare dissenting voice on AI. “Although Open AI and ChatGPT applications have become increasingly popular and more mainstream in 2024, these applications remain relatively new to the industry,” he says.
“Real-world AI will ultimately expand its reach to have a major impact on the industry, but – as with all new services – it will take more time for these applications to feed into the workplace and day-to-day operations. Many expect the impact to be immediate, however, the true impact may be delayed by two to three years.”
Kaseya’s Jones offers a similar note of caution. “Given the buzz in the industry around AI and machine learning, some might say those technologies have fallen slightly short of expectations – at least so far,” he says. “While demand is huge, many organisations are still in an early stage of the adoption curve, so it may be a little while before those technologies make a real impact in the wider business and technology arena.”
He is in no doubt, however, that artificial intelligence will unlock “truly exciting opportunities” once AI solutions become more commoditised and more readily implemented.
How did the channel fare in 2024?
Aside from expectations and technologies, what about the channel itself?
Novick describes it as a year of growth and opportunities, “albeit with challenges”. While growing demand for AI and edge-based AI created new avenues for channel partners and managed service providers, the rapid progress in AI required significant upskilling and investment. “This presents challenges for just keeping up with the rapidly changing landscape of customer requirements and available technologies for channel players,” he adds.
Primor characterises it as “a year of transformation” for channel partners, as many pivoted to include advanced security services and support to their clients. “The challenges of cyber security presented new revenue streams and a way for MSPs and MSSPs to build trust and deepen relationships with their clients. Looking forward, they’re better equipped than ever to provide meaningful cyber security services to businesses of all sizes,” he says.
Hemminga says that 2024 stood out from a partner-enablement perspective: “Vendors prioritised equipping their channel with tools, training, and co-marketing opportunities to make these cutting-edge technologies [AI, GenAI and automation] accessible. This fostered stronger collaboration and empowered partners to drive real results in competitive markets.
“The reseller market is transforming, driven by the growing adoption of hyperscaler marketplaces like those of Microsoft, AWS and Google. Customers expect simplicity – an easy-to-buy and easy-to-use experience – which requires us to prioritise their needs above all else. To remain competitive, we must rethink how we engage and collaborate with our partners to deliver value in this fast-changing landscape.”
The challenges of cyber security presented new revenue streams and a way for MSPs and MSSPs to build trust and deepen relationships with their clients
David Primor, Cynomi
Wilkes at Agilitas summarises it as a year where resilience, collaboration and innovation have been commonly recurring themes for the channel. By leveraging data, strengthening partnerships and committing to their sustainability goals, the channel “has not only navigated a challenging year, but also laid the foundations for future success in 2025”.
Nebula’s Giggle acknowledges that 2024 has not been the easiest year for the channel, adding that “there’s definitely been a squeeze on margin”. Channel partners have responded with a value-add approach, diversifying portfolios, requesting additional features to add to customer offerings and with sizeable interest in custom integrations.
Sara Wilkes, CEO at Agilitas, points out that budget constraints had a clear effect on sustainability. “2024 continued to throw the IT channel challenges – higher interest rates, inflation and geopolitical uncertainty have significantly constrained budgets, and this has a knock-on impact on the supply chain. But 2024 also presented an opportunity,” he says.
“Economic pressures and supply chain disruptions created significant barriers to prioritising green initiatives. Events like the devastating floods in Spain this year have also highlighted the growing impact of climate change and highlighted the need for businesses to do more to protect the environment.
“By aligning sustainability goals with internal processes, adopting energy-efficient hardware, minimising e-waste and exploring circular economy models, the channel can drive positive change while building resilience for the future,” she concludes.
Carpenter at 11:11 Systems makes the interesting point that as a year of elections, “there was much uncertainty, complexity and stagnation in the market, and it had a major impact on the channel”.
It has been difficult for organisations to navigate the uncertainty around costs and budgets. “Macroeconomic pressures have caused confusion and complexity in the market, which delayed decision-making as companies adopted a wait-and-see approach to investing in technologies and services,” he says. “Cost cutting was a key priority for many organisations, placing further pressure on the channel to heed the call for new options, solutions, and seek alternatives, leading to more time and effort required to source these with no guarantee of a return on investment.”
Martin Hesler, head of EMEA and LATAM partner and alliance at Black Duck, considers 2024 to be “a mixed bag” for channel partners: “Some have done well and some have remained flat to declining. Those that are very dependent on selling hardware, across a number of different areas, seem to have experienced softness in their business at some point during the year.”
Jones at Kaseya concedes that some MSPs have had a bumpy ride given the political and economic factors, but states that, overall, its channel partners performed well. “We can’t deny that it was a hard year for some, yet many experienced accelerated growth,” he adds.
Jones believes that more money is being spent in the technology sector than elsewhere, which translates into big opportunities for MSPs. “In times of challenging economic uncertainty, IT is the best industry to be in as many SMEs are leaning into technology to drive more automation and efficiencies to truly give them a competitive advantage in the market,” he says.
While the consensus is that 2024 has been a successful year, most people aren’t sad to see it go, preferring to focus on the opportunities that will emerge in 2025. “Excited” seems to be the most common word they use to describe their feelings about the year to come.
As Jones puts it: “I am never sad to see the end of a year. I am more excited about what the next 12 months will bring.”
