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The Daily Byte 👾
AI pricing and usage rules are shifting across the stack. If you resell AI features or run inference-heavy workloads, expect margin pressure and surprise overages. Here’s the real story: usage creep plus new rate cards = squeezed services unless you lock down budgets and alerts.
Hot Headlines 🔥
🔒 Security & Threat Briefings: RMM misuse keeps popping—attackers love living off the tools you already trust. Audit who can deploy agents, require MFA for installers, and block unknown binaries. CISA’s advisory on RMM abuse is worth watching.
➡️ Vendor Moves: Several SaaS vendors are quietly rebalancing partner discounts on add-ons and usage-based tiers.
Translation: renewals may not match last year’s math.
Quick breakdown: pull upcoming quotes, check MDF changes, and make sure auto-renew flags aren’t hiding price bumps.
Bottom line: reprice bundles before clients do.
☁️ Cloud & AI Updates: GPU supply and cost pressure are feeding AI inference price tweaks. If your clients are piloting AI features, set spend caps and track per-tenant usage.
What this means for MSPs: bill shock is a process problem—tags, budgets, alerts, and a monthly chargeback review keep you out of the fire.
🌎 Distribution & Ecosystem: Credit teams are tightening terms and getting stricter on aged receivables. Expect faster escalations on overdue balances and more scrutiny on rebates.
Heads up: keep DSO tight, avoid stacking promos that extend pay cycles, and negotiate net terms that match client billing realities.
MSP Ops Corner
3-minute SOP: Guardrails for AI spend ⬇️
Tag every AI workload by client and service.
Set monthly budgets + hard alerts at 50/80/100%.
Block unapproved models/services via policy.
Enable per-tenant usage reports and auto-send to PSA.
Run a 30-day baseline, then tune caps by real use.
Renegotiate commits only after a quarter of data—no guesswork.
The Channel Rumor Mill 💬
The street is whispering: a mid-market EDR player is lining up a channel-only bundle with per-tenant pricing and lighter minimums. If that lands, SMB deals get easier to stack without overcommitting seats. Worth watching as it could shift competitive motion in Q1.
Vendor Watchlist 👀
💻 Microsoft: Entra licensing nuances keep biting bundles. Double-check SKUs tied to conditional access and identity protections so you’re not giving away features you don’t own.
Tip: align sign-in logs and license mapping before renewals to avoid margin surprises.
🖥️ AWS: If workloads are stable, revisit compute savings coverage as too many shops are sitting at 50–60% when 70–80% is safe.
Action: run a 90-day utilization check and adjust commitments to match real baseline, not peak.
Tools We Love 🩷
Rotate local admin creds with LAPS. If you haven’t deployed Windows LAPS, you’re leaving a low-effort win on the table. Use Group Policy to auto-rotate per-device local admin passwords and store them securely.
Start here: Microsoft LAPS overview.
Bottom line: kill shared admin passwords, cut lateral movement.
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