Technology services distributors are roadtesting partnerships with cybersecurity software vendors, as partners and customers demand a wider list of vendors and service models. In April, TSD Avant hailed its partnership with managed detection and response vendor Arctic Wolf. It was a milestone for a nascent TSD market that is rounding out vendor portfolios to satiate midmarket and enterprise customers. Arctic Wolf provides MDR services that are already common in the average TSD portfolio, but it uses its own tech stack rather than borrowing a platform from another vendor, offering self-service capabilities for internal cybersecurity teams. Self-service options are a key distinction and a sign of the expanding vendor options in the broker model. TSDs are courting OEM vendors with technology customers looking to purchase and manage directly, rather than consume through a service provider. The technology advisors that sell through TSD supplier contracts are also asking for those options. Several blue chip OEMs have already signed partner agreements, including content delivery network providers Akamai and Cloudflare, but many TAs have a wishlist of potential vendors. “We're starting to have these kinds of conversations,” Accelerate Partners CEO JP Panzica told Channel Dive. “If we had the OEMs in the channel, we could then look to source those and become more successful in the enterprise market.” It’s no simple transition. Cybersecurity product providers typically go through resellers, skipping the TSD and TAs’ broker model. They traditionally leaned on value-added resellers to bill and manage clients. In order to join with TSDs, vendors must embrace a longtail commission model that is foreign to their leaders. Staffing channel management and operations roles is also essential. “It's been incredibly rewarding and exciting, but there's also been some tears shed, because it's been a lot of work to succeed focusing in an area that is kind