The content team at Channel Partners Newsletter tracks stories of interest to the technology advisor and wider channel communities. Anyone selling communication and connectivity solutions will want to stay abreast of these developing stories or catch up on ones they have missed. We are tracking—with the help of ChatGPT along with AI tools our parent Informa has developed—a roundup based on story traffic, mentions, impressions, reposts, and social media engagement. All links are valid as of Oct. 29.

Data Centers Prompt $1 Trillion Utility CapEx Spike

North American utility companies are scrambling to keep the lights on despite a wave of electricity demand from data centers looming over the grid. This scramble has led investor-owned utilities in the U.S. to pump more than $1.3 trillion into infrastructure to support data centers. Read the Fierce Network story.

Channel Partner Rationalization Underway as Vendors Copy VMware, Microsoft

Channel partners that previously bought direct from vendors are now being told to work through IT distributors instead as part of a new wave of partner rationalization. This consolidation is a domino effect spreading through the channel, analysts and partners said at Canalys Forum Americas last week. Partner rationalization is a term for a vendor canceling its agreements with resellers and instructing them to work underneath a larger reseller or distributor. VMware by Broadcom leaned heavily into rationalization earlier this year, removing its lowest partner tier and significantly trimming the rolls of its cloud services provider program. Read the Channel Dive story.

How to Avoid Common AI Pitfall

According to research from Omdia, a division of Informa TechTarget, 91% of organizations said they are making or planning to make significant infrastructure investments to support new AI initiatives. AI's potential has never been in doubt. Finding success, however, can be elusive. An analysis conducted by MIT and published in its "State of AI in Business 2025" report found that 95% of respondents said their organizations are getting zero return from their AI investments. This story provides three questions that can help avoid AI failure. Read the story on TechTarget.

Why U.S. DoE is Hotbed of AI Activity

The U.S. is about to get a major AI boost courtesy of Nvidia, AMD and a number of other brand name tech companies. But they’re not working on another Stargate project or even a hyperscaler deployment. They’re working with and for the U.S. government and specifically the Department of Energy (DoE). Read the Fierce Network story.

IBM Cloud Takes No New VMware Customers

IBM posted a notice saying it will no longer sell VMware on IBM Cloud to customers that do not already have VMware running on the IBM Cloud. IBM says the decision is necessary due to Broadcom’s licensing plans. Read The Register story.

Glut of AI Agents Paralyze Buying Decisions

An overwhelming number of AI agent tools that demand new skills have paralyzed buying decisions and set up the industry for an imminent correction, according to experts. AI agents, which have become dominant in the tech industry only in the last year, remain a high priority for most IT organizations long-term. However, according to a Gartner Tech FutureSight report this month, the market is already overloaded. Read the TechTarget story.

Cloudflare Q3 Report Shows Strange Reasons for Internet Crashes

Cloudflare's latest internet disruptions report reads like a global disaster log, with exam-related shutdowns, natural calamities, stray bullets, and even a Starlink software failure all taking chunks out of global connectivity. In its Q3 2025 internet disruption summary, the content delivery network said it observed "a wide variety of known causes" for global outages between July and September – from government-directed shutdowns in Sudan, Syria, and Iraq to cable cuts in Angola, Haiti, and the United Arab Emirates, along with power failures, cyberattacks, and natural disasters. Read The Register story.

Ingram Micro Adds Agentic AI Capabilities Using Gemini LLMs

Ingram Micro launched the first enterprise-grade AI Agent built within its patented Ingram Micro Xvantage AI Factory, using Google’s Gemini large language models. This new agent, known as the Sales Briefing Assistant, marks the Company’s first production release of an AI Agent built using Gemini models. The AI-powered digital sales companion is built to synthesize real-time, context-aware market insights, sales signals and recommendations into a single brief for Ingram Micro’s sales teams. Read the press release.