Monday Morning Impact – June 8

Published On: June 7, 2026Categories: Buzz

Gartner Says CFOs Risk Falling Behind Without a Scalable AI Strategy

CFOs must stop treating AI as a collection of tools and use cases as they develop systems that allow AI to be productive at scale, according to Gartner. At a recent conference, Clement Christensen, VP Analyst, and Tamara Shipley, VP Analyst in the Gartner Finance practice, said finance leaders risk falling behind “breakaway firms” that are already generating outsized gains from AI by changing how they invest, govern, organize data and enable their teams.

“If CFOs are feeling stuck in the piloting phase of AI, it’s likely because they’ve built an accidental factory: lots of new machines, but no systems to enable and connect them,” said Christensen.

That “accidental factory” problem is showing up in how finance leaders allocate AI spending, according to the analysts. Rather than building the assets and systems needed to scale AI value, many finance functions are still concentrating investment on productivity and process improvement. Gartner data presented in the keynote indicated that 84% of finance AI spend relates to individual productivity and process improvement use cases, while only 16% goes toward use cases that can materially change business outcomes.

“With AI, it’s simply unnecessary and untrue to think finance must achieve efficiency gains before it can drive higher value outcomes,” said Shipley. “Breakaway firms prioritize their investments differently. They prioritize upside over cost-cutting.”

Christensen and Shipley said many organizations are experiencing “hopeful disappointment” with AI: executives remain optimistic about the technology, but returns have not yet matched expectations. According to their keynote, 71% of typical finance teams report low impact from their AI investments, and 62% of CFOs say fewer than a quarter of their AI initiatives deliver measurable benefits.

Channel Impact^®
The lesson for CFOs and the channel partners who serve them, according to Gartner, is that transformational value does not come from machines alone, but from the systems that connect machines, people, data, knowledge and governance. Gartner recommends CFOs pull together all AI investments across the enterprise and evaluate them as a portfolio. Finance leaders should ask whether each investment accelerates future AI deployment, supports top-line growth or builds reusable assets such as knowledge, governance and data products.

Report: Cybersecurity Anxiety is Driving Organizations Toward Costly Data Protection Measures

Blancco Technology Group has released new research suggesting that many organizations are destroying working devices at a high rate to protect against data leaks, even though many report confidence in their data sanitization processes.

According to the survey, 38% of organizations have suffered a data leak in the last twelve months. The most common cause of a data leak was improper network configurations (46%), with a significant number due to redeployed devices or drives storing sensitive data (32%), lost devices (42%) and stolen devices (25%).

While data leaks are less common than deliberate data breaches (reported by 58% of organizations), they remain a significant issue, with many leaks attributable to improper data handling during decommissioning.

Despite these findings, there are high levels of confidence in data sanitization procedures. For example, 73% of respondents said they were “very” or “extremely” confident that their devices were entirely free of sensitive data before disposal, with an additional 21% saying that they were “moderately confident.” As true data sanitization renders data beyond recovery, the findings suggest these levels of confidence may be misplaced.

The report also found that many organizations continue to destroy working devices despite confidence in their sanitization procedures. A significant 43% of mobile devices, 35% of laptops and desktop PCs, and 44% of data center assets remain functional at the time of destruction, indicating many could potentially be redeployed when proper data destruction procedures are in place.

This comes at a time when rising memory and storage costs are driving up the price of PCs, smartphones, and other IT hardware. The findings suggest cybersecurity anxiety is leading organizations toward protecting data by destroying fully functional devices, even when doing so may lead to much higher costs.

Regulations are the number one driver of end-of-life data management changes (41%) made by organizations in the past year, followed by sustainability goals (35%) and changes in data storage technologies (34%).

Regulatory compliance is also driving investment, with 60% of respondents spending more on data privacy and protection, with an average increase of 40% more than the previous year.

High levels of confidence and increased spending are not translating into universal best practice in data sanitization. Software-based data sanitization before a device disconnected from the network ensures the lowest level of risk and is considered best practice – but is only followed by 32% of respondents for mobile devices, 18% for laptops and desktop PCs, and 23% for data center assets.

The Blancco 2026 State of Data Sanitization Report is based on the responses of 1,460 cybersecurity, IT, compliance and sustainability leaders from across North America, Europe, and APAC.

Channel Impact^®
The report unpacks how some of the world’s largest organizations are managing end-of-life devices and sensitive data amid changing regulations, evolving security strategies and AI adoption.

SonicWall Names Jonathan Berger as SVP, Global Channels and Alliances

SonicWall has announced the appointment of Jonathan Berger as Senior Vice President, Global Channels and Alliances. In this role, Berger will lead the company’s worldwide partner strategy and drive growth across its MSP/MSSP, and reseller ecosystem.

Before joining SonicWall, Berger served in executive leadership roles at BlueAlly, one of SonicWall’s largest and most strategic channel partners, where he built and scaled a cybersecurity-focused VAR, MSP and MSSP. He most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer at BlueAlly, and previously held roles as CEO of Saicom Voice Services and COO of Virtual Graffiti.

“Jonathan does not just understand our partners – he has been one,” said Patrick O’Donnell, Chief Revenue Officer at SonicWall. “He has lived our partners’ experience. He understands the business decisions they face every day, the programs that move the needle and the commitments that build long-term trust. That is exactly the kind of leadership we need to advance our partner-first strategy and ensure our global partner network remains the most competitive and supported in the industry.”

“I have spent my career building partner businesses and working alongside vendors,” said Berger. “The best channel relationships are built on the conviction that partner success and vendor success are one and the same. SonicWall has earned a reputation for that commitment, and I am excited to be on the other side of the table, working to deliver programs and strategies that give our MSPs and MSSPs a genuine competitive advantage.”

Channel Impact^®
Berger’s firsthand experience as a partner executive gives him a solid understanding of what it takes for MSPs and MSSPs to compete, grow and deliver security outcomes in today’s market.

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