CRN

🧵 Here's where you can vote throughout our 2026 Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs: okt.to/pelQcX. -- 1/4

Channel Madness Semifinals update 👀: Acceleration regional winner, @CrowdStrike's Michael Rogers, came out hot and has built a solid lead over Transformation regional winner, @HP's Scott Lannum. Evolution regional champion, @Sophos' Scott Barlow, is also out to a fast start over Innovation regional winner, @Lenovo's Wade McFarland. @jfollett has all of the Round 4 details so far ↓ Reminder: Round 4 ends next Monday, March 30, at 12 PM ET ⏳ okt.to/JGUzTQ

.@NVIDIA tells @CRN, "Despite several efforts, the would-be smugglers failed to clear our diligence process and did not receive GPUs from us." This after a 2nd DoJ indictment in 2 weeks for attempts to smuggle @Supermicro servers w/ Nvidia GPUs to China. tinyurl.com/2n78vbkb

And then there were FOUR!!!! Who are *you* sending to the final round?! 🤔 Vote in the 2026 Channel Madness Semifinals now: okt.to/w207Jo. Best of luck to our four remaining channel chiefs 🫡: - Scott Lannum, @HP vs. Michael Rogers, @CrowdStrike - Wade McFarland, @Lenovo vs. @Scottjbarlow, @Sophos @SophosPartners

The 2026 Channel Madness Quarterfinals results are in!! 👀 In the Transformation region, @HP’s Scott Lannum started slow but engineered a comeback in his matchup with Arctic Wolf’s Bob Skelley. In the Acceleration region, @CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers orchestrated some late-game dramatics to pull out a solid win against F5’s Lisa Citron. In the Innovation region, @Lenovo’s Wade McFarland was able to fend off a strong push from Nutanix’s Christian Goffi. And in the Evolution region, @Sophos’ @Scottjbarlow kept his foot on the gas against Veeam Software’s Kevin Rooney. @jfollett has all of the Round 3 details before Semifinals kick off today, Thursday, March 26, at 4 PM ET: @SophosPartners okt.to/NX0Ld9

You have 1 HOUR LEFT to vote in the Channel Madness Quarterfinals! Vote before polls close today, March 26, at 12 PM ET: okt.to/ehrN8L. Former Channel Madness champ, @Veeam's Kevin Rooney, and @Sophos' @Scottjbarlow face off in the Evolution region 💪 @SophosPartners

The 2026 Channel Madness Quarterfinals end in 2 HOURS!! If you want your chief to make it to the next round, then keep voting: okt.to/aiRDdk. @nutanix's Christian Goffi and @Lenovo's Wade McFarland are battling it out in the Innovation region 👀 @NutanixPartners

New tomorrow: In this week's edition of CRN Channel Essentials, @CRN Senior Editor @DylanOnChips explains why OpenClaw represents a new Wild West for solution providers, and why, he thinks, that in addition to @nvidia, it's something many more vendors will discuss as a key part of their AI strategies in the coming months. Subscribe to receive CRN Channel Essentials in your inbox: okt.to/yGc0XY. Dylan's edition will feature insights from Nvidia's Americas Channel Chief, Craig Weinstein, and takeaways from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's @NVIDIAGTC 2026 keynote. CRN Channel Essentials is a weekly newsletter written by a CRN editor on a particular news story, topic or trend that is pertinent to the channel community.

The tightest matchup so far in @CRN’s 2026 Channel Madness Quarterfinals is in the Acceleration region, where @F5’s Lisa Citron is ahead of @CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers 👀 After an exciting come-from-behind win in Round 2’s Innovation region, Channel Madness rookie, @Lenovo’s Wade McFarland, has come out strong against @nutanix’s Christian Goffi. @jfollett breaks down how all of the Round 3 contenders are faring so far: @NutanixPartners okt.to/brZXpv

While AI remains the dominant theme at @OneRSAC 2026 as it has been for the last few conferences, the aperture has widened this year as organizations of all sizes grapple with a pressing challenge: how to secure AI agents. @CRN cybersecurity reporter and Senior Editor @KyleAlspach breaks down 20 of the coolest new AI and #security products being showcased at RSAC 2026 from these vendors: - @CrowdStrike - @cyera_io - @HuntressLabs - @HPE - @HPE_Networking - @torq_io - @SentinelOne - @PaloAltoNtwks - @okta - @TenableSecurity - @wiz_io - @proofpoint - @AWNetworks - @orcasec - @Cisco - @rubrikInc - @1Password - @Netskope - @chainguard_dev - @NetRiseInc - @aurascape_ai   @gcloudpartners @CiscoPartners #RSAC okt.to/GnVrth

Channel Madness Quarterfinals: @CrowdStrike's Michael Rogers and @F5's Lisa Citron are going head-to-head in the Acceleration region! Choose your chief and vote before Round 3 ends tomorrow: okt.to/nDJhEY.

Intel executive David Feng confirmed to CRN this week that the company has raised CPU prices for OEMs in part because of the chipmaker’s ongoing supply constraints. crn.com/news/component…

Who are you sending to the 2026 Channel Madness Semifinals⁉️ Keep voting in Round 3 before polls close tomorrow, Thursday, March 26, at 12 PM ET: okt.to/dIL5kN. @HP's Scott Lannum and @AWNetworks' @ChannelSkell are facing off in the Round 3 Transformation region 🤝

CRN cybersecurity reporter and Senior Editor @KyleAlspach spoke with these five cybersecurity executives about the AI- and agentic-focused products their companies launched at @OneRSAC 2026 this week in San Francisco: - George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO, @CrowdStrike - Lee Klarich, chief product and technology officer, @PaloAltoNtwks - Tomer Weingarten, co-founder and CEO, @SentinelOne - @sumit_dhawan, CEO, @proofpoint - Nick Schneider, CEO, @AWNetworks #RSAC okt.to/0iXcu3

Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the Middle East have been disrupted, once again, by ongoing drone activity in the region as the war between the U.S., Israel and Iran disrupts Amazon infrastructure. Here’s what you need to know: okt.to/RV8S6v

Intel’s push to sell its new Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” chips for commercial PCs will help it regain share in the broader market segment, a company executive told CRN. "We believe we’re well positioned." Details on Panther Lake w/ vPro launch: crn.com/news/component…

The Trump administration has banned the import of foreign-made consumer and small-business routers, a move that puts Chinese vendors, including TP‑Link, in the crosshairs, and potentially U.S.-based companies that produce their consumer and small-business routers in foreign countries, such as Netgear. okt.to/ubafvy

The 2026 @CRN Channel Madness Quarterfinals start now 🔥 Vote for your chief here: okt.to/rFpQNv. Quarterfinals end this Thursday, March 26, at 12 PM ET.

For more on Nvidia's expectations for Vera CPU and Groq LPU adoption in the enterprise, check out my full story here: crn.com/news/component…

Channel Madness Round 2 results are in 👀: @Lenovo’s @wademcfarland43 pulled off a come-from-behind win at the buzzer against 1Password’s Larissa Crandall, another tournament newcomer, in the Innovation region! @jfollett breaks down all of the results from Round 2 before Quarterfinals kick off today, Tuesday, March 24, at 4 PM ET: okt.to/5TYV9F

At this week’s HP Imagine 2026, @HP Inc. is showing how its commercial workstations, mobile PCs, LaserJet printers and software help businesses meet new workforce challenges around AI, cybersecurity, and the need for collaboration. Details @CRN $HPQ tinyurl.com/mr42dz3s