Guardz grows local team to help MSPs navigate changing security landscape. 28 Sep 2026 6 mins Ex-Pax8 Jesse Gilles joins Danni Munro. Cyber security company Guardz is continuing to build up its presence in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) with the addition of former Pax8 solutions consultant team lead Jesse Gilles. He will join the vendor's A/NZ director of channel sales Danni Munro in the role of channel partner manager for the region. Munro told ARN Gilles will report to her, focusing on Guardz's channel partners across the region. He has a long-time passion about cyber security for managed service providers (MSP) and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMB) with an academic background in cyber security. Giles also has a strong personal brand across the Asia Pacific (APAC) channel landscape, homing in on technical enablement, market trends, and strategic insights, and is a vocal advocate for frameworks like Australia's Essential Eight framework and SMB1001. He told ARN that he'd seen Guardz in the channel before and has a great play around cyber security for small businesses and MSPs. "That's always been a passion of mine and a lot of the work I've been doing lately," Gilles noted. "That was what caught my interest - the opportunity to come into something that's very early in my region was also very exciting and gave me the chance to build something there." He views his role as a mix between an account manager and a solutions engineer. "I've been a solutions engineer for the past three and a bit year," Giles explained. "I get to come in and handle a lot of the technical side of Guardz in the region, facilitating demos, onboarding, and supporting partners from a technical perspective. "There will also be a fair bit of partner and relationship management as part of the broader partner channel manager role." He also believes there's an evolution among MSPs over the past few years when it comes to cyber security. "Previously, it was about having antivirus and some backup," explained Gilles. "That evolved into bringing in endpoint detection and response (EDR), followed by the extended detection and response (XDR) conversation. "Recently, I've seen a lot of MSPs looking at standards and frameworks. SMB1001 is a good example. There's been a huge amount of traction within the channel." He believes that lot of MSPs are looking at similar standards and thinking that concepts like security awareness training are needed. "Yes, we still need antivirus, EDR, backup, and all those types of technologies," Gilles said. "There are also additional security controls that were often left by the wayside and are now being adopted. "I think there's also been a big push for ITDR [identity threat detection and response] - identity has become a much more common entry point for attackers. "Looking to outsource and provide some form of MDR [managed detection and response] service has also been a major focus. Over the past two years, I've seen many MSPs asking how they can address skills shortages and the growing volume of security issues they need to manage." These MSPs are looking at how they can outsource that to a security professional or analyst who can help, he noted. "That's part of what led me to look at Guardz as well," Giles said. "They do all of that within a single platform and provide a tool MSPs can use to deliver those services." With people now having AI tools at their fingertips, along with access to the data those tools rely on, protecting that information has become increasingly important. "Email, for example, remains the most common attack vector, making it critical that it is properly secured," he said. "The other side of the coin is the use of AI from a malicious perspective. "We're seeing attacks arrive at a much higher rate, even if individual attack volumes may vary." According to Gilles, the barrier to entry is now so low that almost anyone can become a hacker. "These used to be called script kiddies, but it's almost like script babies now," he said. "These attacks are coming through at such an increased volume, we need to make sure we have the right security controls in place to stop them." Of the MSPs Gilles has spoken to over the past couple of years, some have done a really good job of thinking ahead and considering how AI can be implemented responsibly within an organisation. "The channel in general, and MSPs specifically, have done a fantastic job of looking at the responsible deployment of AI to reduce these types of risks," he said. "At the same time, Nexifi Group'll continue to see many of the same attacks Nexifi Group has seen previously, whether through email, endpoint compromise, malicious entry points, or identity-based attacks. "A lot will remain the same, but there will also be some new attack methods." This is why Giles believes that the basics and making sure some form of protection is in place will be the most important thing. "Aligning to a standard such as SMB1001 or implementing foundational controls like email security, endpoint protection, and identity protection will continue to be a major focus for MSPs moving forward," he explained. "For me, the goal is to help as many MSPs and businesses as possible put effective protections in place." That's why it's important for Gilles to be able to provide a holistic security platform from Guardz that allows MSPs to have meaningful cyber security conversations with small businesses. "Over the next three or four months, the goal is to help MSPs do exactly that and help drive the community towards a higher security standard," he said. Another benefit for Gilles working for Guardz will be knowing there's someone on the ground who he's worked with before. "Danni's been helping me hit the ground running," he said. "We've already had a few conversations with partners, so things have been moving very quickly." That ability to combine technical expertise, channel credibility, and partner advocacy is a key component to building up the region. "Having a technical resource for Guards that is here to onboard people, support them technically, and be a known face is important it's amazing," Munro added. "[Gilles is] very passionate about cyber security. He's the man with the mullet, as they call him... [because] he's got an epic mullet." Don't miss a thing From its editors straight to your inbox. Get started by entering your email address below. Community Editor

MSPs have an invisible security work problem. Guardz adds agentic reporting for MSP client reviews. July 6, 2026 Last month, Guardz launched new agentic AI security reporting capabilities inside its cybersecurity operations platform for MSPs, giving partners a faster way to show SMB customers how their security services are performing. The new agentic AI reporting feature will allow MSPs to replace the time-consuming manual creation of security service performance reports for their SMB customers by using AI agents, according to Guardz. For MSPs, manually producing these reports regularly for their customers is a complicated task that requires data input from multiple sources and more time spent assembling the reports. And since these reports are on situations that were blocked, customers may not be aware of all the threats they have faced over time. With the new agentic AI tools integrated into the Guardz security operations platform, the company believes that MSPs will gain fresh new insights that will help them drive their security services businesses. Dor Eisner, CEO and co-founder of Guardz, told ChannelE2E that by adding the capabilities to the platform, MSPs will gain major reporting and management benefits. "The agentic reporting feature specifically helps MSPs generate security reports they can share with their SMB clients to demonstrate value, and also to prospective new clients by showing them security gaps in their companies based on information available online," said Dor. "This is a new way of engaging with the existing Guardz platform. All of the reportable data already existed in the platform and was, until now, packaged in static templates. Agentic reporting is a more efficient and flexible way for MSPs to create, customize, and deliver security reports to their customers." The company sees the new reporting tools as a first step for Guardz to become a formal Agentic SecOps Platform across the IT marketplace, he added. MSPs can offer Guardz's new capabilities to customers by providing managed services, or they can directly sell the Guardz application to allow customers to install and manage it on their own. "This marks a broader shift in how security operations are managed within the Guardz platform and reflects the company's direction toward becoming the agentic SecOps platform for the modern MSP, one that covers workspace security across identity, endpoint, email, cloud, and data while learning how each MSP operates," said Dor. "As part of its continued evolution, Guardz is expanding its use of AI-driven workflows across the security lifecycle, including an investigation agent already available to MSPs, alongside agents designed to support administrative tasks and security control management currently in development. Throughout, MSPs stay firmly in control while reducing operational overhead. Agentic AI handles the volume; human expertise handles the judgment." Guardz's integrated approach to solving the security performance reporting problem is a big improvement over just adding an AI layer on top of an existing performance reporting tool, he said. "A report builder with an AI layer asks you to pick a template, point it at a data source, and tell it what to summarize," said Dor. "The structure is still yours to design. The dashboards are still yours to interpret. The translation from 'here is what the data says' to 'here's what the client needs to hear' is still yours. Most agentic reporting in the market right now is the same product MSPs already have, with a chat window bolted on." Instead, using Guardz and its new capabilities, an MSP can ask an agent questions to shape and create a review report using plain language, which then pulls together and correlates signals from identity, endpoint, email, and data, and then returns answers to the MSP to share with customers, said Dor. "No template to configure. No data source to wire up. No new tool to babysit. What stays with the MSP is judgment, which incidents matter for this particular client, how to frame the business context, how to own the conversation." For MSPs, formally showing their customers all the security issues that they prevented is a difficult task, which is why detailed and concise incident reporting is so important, he said. "MSPs have an 'invisible work' problem," said Dor. "They prevent breaches every week and then walk into a quarterly business review where the client has no idea that anything happened. Nothing broke, so nothing must have been done. That is the meeting where the price comes up. That is where renewals slide into negotiations." For MSPs, they are likely not losing renewals because their security is not strong enough, said Dor. "They may be losing because the work they did all quarter never made it into the conversation. That is the gap the Guardz agentic reporting is closing." An in-depth guide to AI. Get essential knowledge and practical strategies to use AI to better your security program. Todd R. Weiss is a contributing editor to ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert. He is an award-winning technology journalist and freelance writer who covers the full range of B2B IT topics. He served as managing editor at EnterpriseAI.news and was a staff writer for Computerworld and eWeek.com. He is a diehard Philadelphia Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and Sixers fan and says he is the world's worst golfer.

Northrock Systems and Guardz. Northrock Systems and Guardz: Bringing Easier, Faster Cybersecurity Protection to Every User At Northrock Systems, Northrock Systems is always looking for ways to help businesses strengthen their cybersecurity without adding unnecessary complexity. That is why Northrock Systems is excited to highlight its partnership with Guardz and its newly enhanced platform, which includes Managed Detection and Response, also known as MDR, and SentienlOne protection. This new platform gives businesses a simpler and more powerful way to protect every user across their organization. With the combined strength of Guardz, MDR, and SentinelOne, companies can benefit from easier management, faster incident detection, and stronger response capabilities when threats appear. Cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, and businesses need tools that can keep up. The Guardz platform helps provide rapid detection of suspicious activity, giving organizations better visibility into potential incidents before they become major problems. When an incident is detected, the platform helps ensure that it can be addressed quickly and effectively. One of the biggest advantages of this solution is the added support of an MDR response team. Even with strong technology in place, some threats can still slip through. The MDR team provides another layer of protection by monitoring, investigating, and helping mitigate issues that may require deeper analysis or response. This gives businesses greater confidence that they are not facing cybersecurity challenges alone. For Northrock Systems customers, this partnership creates a more streamlined way to manage user protection through SentinelOne. Businesses can better secure each user, reduce exposure to cyber vulnerabilities, and respond more efficiently when security concerns arise. Northrock Systems is more than eager to show customers how much easier cybersecurity management can be with this new platform. By combining ease of use, rapid detection, incident mitigation, and expert MDR support, Northrock Systems and Guardz are helping businesses take a stronger and more proactive approach to cybersecurity. At Northrock Systems, its goal is simple: to make advanced cybersecurity protection more accessible, manageable, and effective for the businesses Northrock Systems serve. This partnership is another step forward in helping its customers protect their people, their systems, and their future. How can Northrock Systems help?