At "From Partnership to Pipeline: The Microsoft Security Growth Opportunity", CyberOne’s first partner event of 2026, one message came through clearly. The Microsoft Security opportunity is growing, but growth will not come from software alone. It will come from helping customers address real business risk, unlock more value from existing Microsoft investment and build the kind of security capability that supports long-term resilience and recurring revenue. Lee Walker (Sales Director, CyberOne) opened the event by framing it as the first in a series of regular partner events for the year, designed to bring the community together around practical growth opportunities. For those who joined us on the day, thank you again for being part of the discussion.
For those who could not attend, this recap pulls together the main takeaways from the sessions we can share and focuses on the themes most relevant to Microsoft-focused partners looking to turn cyber demand into pipeline, revenue and stronger customer relationships.
The sessions covered the changing UK cyber landscape, the Microsoft Security opportunity, the shift towards recurring services and what partners are hearing directly from customers in the field.
Philip Ridley’s (Director of Cyber Risk Management, CyberOne) opening session set the tone. Cyber security is no longer a technical conversation. It is a board-level business issue tied to resilience, regulation, operational risk and the pace of AI adoption. Organisations' pain points that we hear everyday make that clear: overstretched teams, low board understanding of cyber risk, weak visibility, difficulty proving progress, underused Microsoft investment, rising third-party exposure and growing concern about data governance and AI-driven threats. These are not isolated problems. They are recurring themes across the market and highlighted the five defining trends for 2026 are supply chain risk, AI, regulation, cyber leadership and resilience.
“It’s really that kind of C-level, executive-level discussion now. 10, 15 years ago even, it would have been, yeah, sell a firewall to a guy in IT. That’s your security covered, right? No. Today, the board want to understand their risk profile, its impact on the business and most importantly the bottom-line.”
That observation matters because it changes the partner conversation. Customers are not simply looking for point solutions. They are looking for clarity, prioritisation and a path forward. Many know they need to improve, but they do not know where to start, how to measure progress or how to explain cyber maturity to the board. Philip’s commentary brought it to life with examples of stretched internal teams, uncertainty around compliance, difficulty using existing Microsoft capabilities properly and fast-moving concerns around AI and supply chain risk.
Supply chain was a particularly strong example. Philip pointed out that many organisations still have limited visibility into their wider third-party ecosystem, despite the clear impact recent supply chain incidents have had on UK businesses. The finding that 86% of UK businesses have not reviewed their immediate supply chain risks and a practical CyberOne approach built around understanding the customer business, mapping suppliers, documenting security profiles, auditing and ongoing monitoring.
AI was the other major pressure point. Not because it is optional, but because it is already changing both attack and defence. Philip’s point was balanced and practical. AI lowers the barrier to entry for threat actors and increases the speed at which they can operate. At the same time, defenders are using machine learning and AI-native tooling to triage, investigate and respond more effectively. The challenge for customers is not whether AI matters. It is whether they are adopting it safely, governing it properly and understanding the data and identity risks that come with it. The “AI Arms Race” and the regulations covering the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, EU AI Act, Cyber Essentials updates and governance frameworks such as NCSC CAF.
Taken together, Philip’s session established the commercial opening for partners. The opportunity is not just in tools. It is in helping customers move from uncertainty to a roadmap, from fragmented controls to a strategy and from isolated projects to a more resilient operating model.
The second major theme of the event was that Microsoft Security is becoming a bigger commercial opportunity for partners, especially as customers reassess value, prepare for AI adoption and look to reduce complexity across the stack. Ben Harding (Microsoft Alliance Director, CyberOne) set that up, before Joseph Boland-Scott (Security Partner Solution Manager, Microsoft) brought in Microsoft’s SMB and mid-market view. Ben’s framing was important because it tied Microsoft’s security direction to broader customer transformation. As shown, the growth opportunity sits across three linked forces: more security capabilities included in Microsoft licensing, a stronger push for secure AI transformation, and commercial changes that will trigger customer review and action. That combination creates more openings for partners to have higher-value conversations.
Ben put it like this:
“There’s no other vendor, in our opinion, that is at the centre of AI and AI transformation and also security and the unified platform that supports as well.”
That matters because customers do not want to treat AI as a separate conversation from security, nor security as a separate conversation from business change. They want a platform that can support both. Ben also reinforced why CyberOne is relevant in that ecosystem. CyberOne’s Microsoft credentials, including Security Elite Partner status, MISA membership and Microsoft Verified MXDR recognition, reflected this. Those credentials matter because partners need confidence that the specialist capability behind them is recognised, proven and aligned to Microsoft’s roadmap.
Joseph then brought the commercial scale into focus. His session highlighted Microsoft’s simplified solution plays, increased incentives, new security and compliance offers, expanded partner sales support and the practical opportunity created by unmanaged and SMB customer estates.
Joseph’s line was one of the clearest commercial takeaways from the day:
“From an SMB perspective up to 1,000 employees, there’s around a $27 billion opportunity here for you to capitalise on.”
That opportunity is not abstract. Joseph linked it to real market conditions: rising AI use, weak cyber hygiene, growing identity threats, alert fatigue from too many tools and the fact that SMBs are often more exposed than larger enterprises. This was reinforced with stats around breach likelihood, ransomware prevalence, AI sprawl, BYOAI and the cost of attacks for smaller organisations. They also show how Microsoft is simplifying the conversation through bundled offers, integrated protection, data security capabilities and a unified platform model.
The practical takeaway for partners is straightforward. Customers already have, or are increasing, their Microsoft investment. Many are not getting full value from it. Others are facing cost increases, licence renewal decisions or AI-related concerns that will force a wider review. That creates the right conditions for partners to move from transactional licensing conversations to broader security, governance and managed service opportunities. It also reinforces why Microsoft is the clear choice for organisations that want stronger protection, better alignment across identity, endpoint, cloud and data, and a more joined-up approach to secure AI adoption.
The third major theme, and perhaps the most commercially important, was how partners turn security conversations into scalable recurring revenue. Lee Walker’s session focused on exactly that. The message was not that cyber security is just a strong market. It is a services-led, recurring growth engine if approached correctly.
Lee’s presentation supported that case clearly. Pointing to a rapidly expanding UK cyber market, increasing board-level prioritisation, growing regulatory pressure and the rise of MXDR as the fastest-growing security service. It also lays out how security engagements typically grow: from assessment and consulting into projects, then into MXDR as the operational foundation, followed by additional services such as Data Security, Cyber Incident Response, SNOC, architecture, governance and Penetration Testing. The real value is not only in the initial engagement. It is in what becomes possible once a customer has an ongoing security operating model in place.
Lee’s core point was strong and worth keeping front and centre:
“We’ve got a fantastic opportunity out there and are firm believers that through strategic partnership and alignment, CyberOne can do a great job in supporting customers in their cyber maturity journey through Consulting, Professional and Managed Services.”
That reflected the live framing he used at the start of the event, where he spoke about the scale of the opportunity and the importance of strategic partnership and alignment.
He also summed up the wider commercial logic later in the session:
“So cyber security is not just a product opportunity, it’s a strategic opportunity for both us and our partner community.”
Customers increasingly need more than tooling. They need operational coverage, faster detection and response, clearer reporting, measurable risk reduction and support that matches their maturity level. The MXDR opportunity was reflected in flexible service options, partner-friendly wholesale pricing, and a clear progression model from essential monitoring through to more advanced managed response. It also makes the partner case explicit: MXDR is becoming the default operating model for security operations and each MXDR customer can unlock multiple high-value opportunities beyond the initial service.
For partners, that is the route from project work to predictability. It creates stickier relationships, more meaningful customer outcomes and more opportunities to expand accounts over time. It also lowers the barrier for partners that want to grow security revenue without building every capability in-house. With the right specialist support behind them, they can lead the conversation, move faster in-market and provide customers with a credible path from assessment to managed service.
To close the event off CyberOne welcomed a panel discussion led by channel champion Alex Tatham, for many this was one of the most useful parts of the event because it validated the earlier sessions with real market perspectives. The panel shared what drew them to CyberOne, the toughest challenges in the market, the most common customer concerns and what new partners should prioritise in a security community. Two quotes in particular captured where customer conversations are heading.
Sophie Twose (Associate Director, Partnerships EMEA, CACI) made the transformation point clearly:
“All of our customers are going through these huge transformations and they need to have security and cyber security threaded through every single part of that.”
That reflects exactly what many partners are seeing. Security is no longer a late-stage add-on. It needs to be built into transformation earlier, whether that is cloud, AI, workplace change, data strategy or wider business modernisation. The implication for partners is that cyber capability is becoming more relevant across more conversations, not fewer.
Mark O’Dell (Director - Secure Cloud & AI, Babble) then landed the advisory point just as clearly:
“The point is it’s a business conversation before it becomes a product conversation.”
That line is worth carrying forward well beyond this event. It explains why some security conversations create momentum and others stall. Customers do not buy complexity for its own sake. They buy clarity, outcomes and confidence. They want to understand risk, impact, priorities and next steps. Product and platform absolutely matter, but only after the business case is understood.
Taken together, Sophie and Mark reinforced the same pattern we saw across the rest of the event. Customers are asking for joined-up support. They want partners who can connect strategy to delivery, translate cyber into business terms and help them move without adding friction. That is precisely where Microsoft-led security, backed by specialist expertise and managed services, becomes commercially powerful.
Whether you joined us on the day or could not attend, the message from From Partnership to Pipeline was clear. The market is moving. Cyber conversations are becoming more strategic. Microsoft Security is creating a larger and more practical growth opportunity for partners. AI is raising the stakes and widening the need for secure transformation. Managed services, especially MXDR and Data Security, are becoming the route from one-off work to recurring revenue. And the partners best placed to win are those who can combine trusted customer relationships with specialist capability, clear commercial models and a credible delivery engine.
At CyberOne, that is exactly what we are helping partners do. As a Microsoft Security Elite Partner, MISA member and one of only 100 global Microsoft Verified Managed XDR Partners, we work with partners to turn Microsoft Security into consulting, professional services and AI-augmented managed security outcomes that customers can trust and scale. Our wider credentials and portfolio reflected throughout the event deck reinforce that position, from Microsoft specialisations and CREST-accredited services through to consulting, MXDR, incident response, data security and cyber leadership support.
Please save the date for our next CyberOne Partner Event on Thursday 9th July, we will be sharing more details soon.