N-able CEO: ‘If I could suggest partners make one decision in 2026, this is it’
CRN’s EMEA editorial director spoke to N-able CEO John Pagliuca on the vendor’s cybersecurity push, and what an MSP will look like in five years
The MSP platform vendor N-able has a new message to the channel: the most important decision to make in 2026 is standardise your processes to be ready for agentic AI.
His answer comes as the vendor itself it adapting its strategy.
Agentic AI for MSPs: what it means for managed services and cyber resilience
Pagliuca tells CRN the managed services market will be wholly transformed over the next year by the proliferation of agentic AI.
An explosion of AI agents will move faster than humans in MSPs can keep up. Rather than purely a headache for MSPs, Pagliuca says this could also be “an unlock” for forward-thinking partners who think – how could I be more valuable to end-user customers who are also grappling with this market change? And looking for guidance.
“This is an evolution; this is an opportunity. Just like everything else, if you embrace it, you’ll be on one side of the ledger, if you don’t embrace it, you’ll quickly be on the other side of the ledger,” says N-able CEO John Pagliuca.
The vendor tells CRN the company is moving increasingly to positioning itself as a cybersecurity vendor in order to support the issue that its MSPs will increasingly face.
“The impact an agentic world has on MSPs? A drastically expanded surface area for channel partners to protect for their customers is coming.”
You can see Pagliuca talk about this agentic AI trend for MSPs in this video short on our YouTube channel.
Pagliuca says this cybersecurity push is critical for his vision for the vendor: that they’re increasingly tasked with enabling business resilience.
“AI is really collapsing the amount of time between when we can detect and respond to threats. Historically it may have taken hours to detect something anomalous in a human-led SOC, before getting in touch with that customer and maybe shutting off user access because they see something nefarious or suspicious. Going forward that may take minutes.”
N‑able’s Adlumin acquisition: What the integration means for MSPs
Pagliuca referenced the vendor’s acquisition of Adlumin, a managed detection and response (MDR) provider, in November 2024, as a strategic move to enhance its cybersecurity offerings.
“Adlumin is AI-powered. The way I see that evolving over the next couple of years as more and more AI is not just detecting but then also responding that time contraction will get even faster: what could take minutes could take sub-minute.
“We’re going to get towards this autonomous world where the agents are actually seeing the behaviour and remediating our reacting to the behaviour.”
He added keeping a “human in the loop” is still part of N-able’s approach.
“The name of the game for MSPs is that they should prepare themselves to be ready for this collapsing in time of threat detection and automation. If they’re still using a tech stack that is taking hours, they’re going to be at a disadvantage. More importantly your customers might be facing an extinction event.”
He adds: “This is what a MSP will look like in five years.”
The one decision MSPs need to make in 2026
Throughout the conversation Pagliuca shares reiterates his belief that MSPs that fail to automate at scale are unlikely to remain competitive as customer expectations rise.
When asked directly, what is one decision partners need to make this year to be ready for those changes, he says:
“Standardise, automate and augment.”
His pithy characterisation of what he calls the “Golden Triangle” for MSPs is in his view an approach to preparing for the future by setting strong foundations first.
Both with processes, and in understanding your own and customer data.
“Getting this foundation will help them scale, but also be more profitable.
“Whether it is with your technology of yesterday or current or future technology, AI can help you, but you still need to standardise your processes, your go-to market, and your training. Otherwise, AI tools will struggle to help you.
“Get together as a team, go through the steps you need to lay out as part of your journey with AI, and start with standardising with your tech stack, look for vendors that can help you not just for today but for the next five years and then you can automate and augment and build out your strategy.
“This will set partners up for success.”