SMB Nation | SMB IT Professionals
The Place to Start-up and Start Over!
When you reach complete taking at looksy at the wonderful affirmation and accolades from SMB MSP community leader Karl Palachuck, I encourage you to reflect on how we built a thriving grass roots community that is very rate these days. The motion we engaged in has built life long relationships where we have laughed, cried, hugged and even fought over 20 plus years.
Michael George discussed the evolution and future of Syncro, a company he joined in early 2024. Syncro aims to create a world-class RMM and PSA combined platform, leveraging the significant market share of Microsoft in the small to medium business sector. George highlighted the upcoming announcement of a new product category at the Kaseya conference, focusing on simplifying IT stacks and enhancing security. He emphasized the importance of AI in cybersecurity and the need for MSPs to stay ahead of evolving threats. George also mentioned Syncro's presence in Austin, Texas, and his personal experiences living between Boston and Naples, Florida.
At the recent Px8 Beyond 2025 event, I found a few moments to meet with Carolyn April, Vice President, Research and Market Intelligence at GTIA (formerly CompTIA). She gave me the following advanced insights into her latest research on SMB Tech Buying Tech Trends. Her work is ongoing and her final research will be released at the GTIA ChannelCon event in Nashville in late July (join me!)
Let’s get started with SMB fun facts and then the top five takeaways.
With 2025 in full swing, take a deep breath, assess and appreciate the gifts you have. It’s also an opportunity to appreciate others (even if they are different from you).
Case in point is my life-long friendship starting in Alaska with award winning and accomplished writer Charles Wohlforth. Who woulda thunk it that we’d both grow up and dance with wolves in Alaska and words. But we took two different pathways. Charles has made a career of non-fiction writing books for major publishers on a range of topics from outer space destinations that mankind could some day colonize to a book on whales and super computers. Words flow easily for this chap and his services are in-demand such as collaboration and coaching. You should track him via his site and sign-up for his newsletter at
Harry Brelsford interviews Oguo Atuanya, Corporate Vice President of Vendor Experience at PAX8, following the PAX Sait conference in Denver. Atuanya discusses PAX8's strategy to shift towards outcome-based solutions for SMBs through MSPs, emphasizing the importance of complete portfolios and leveraging AI to improve productivity and security. Atuanya brings 22 years of experience from Microsoft, where he managed go-to-market channels for SMBs in the Americas.
Time keeps marching onward and speaking only for myself, I have a sense of urgency to get more sh*t done sooner rather than later.
In October 2024, well-known community leader Chris Wiser hosted a three day quarterly conference in San Antonio, TX. Living nearby in the Austin-area, I attended to gathering and was impressed with ‘dat thang.
On the second day, the mid-day keynote speaker was entrepreneur and author Dan Martell featuring his book “Buy Back Your Time” and heck, afterwards we all received a signed copy and a grip-and-greet pic with Martell.
I dove into this book head first and got myself headstrong to make changes for 2025.
Welcome to 2025! I'm in more conversations with our ecosystem about what's ahead is nearly everyone is talking about future plans. Fellow SMB SBS geek shares what he as done to invoke personal and professioal change over the past decade. And there it a wee bit of humor tossed in to looks at vendor swag from yesteryear. Let's get started!
Richard Kenyon
Harry Brelsford catches up with Richard Kenyon in Albuquerque, New Mexico, discussing Richard's move from Michigan 10 years ago for a better climate and to be closer to family. Richard's wife, also a tech enthusiast, works as a project manager at Meta's data warehouse in Las Lunas.