In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards speaks with Jay Epton, Senior Director for Global Resale and Distribution at Jamf.

Drawing on more than 30 years in technology—including roles at Siebel, Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec and Adobe—Jay explains how Jamf is expanding its global partner ecosystem as Apple adoption continues to grow across the enterprise. He discusses what makes a genuinely strategic distribution partner, why local language, currency and market knowledge still matter, and how Jamf is helping resellers and MSPs capture the growing opportunity around Apple device management and security.

Jay also shares his approach to making vendors easier to do business with, built around predictability, profitability and professionalism. He describes how Jamf’s Partner Experience platform is simplifying trials, deal registration, customer adoption monitoring, digital quoting and ordering—potentially reducing order-processing times from 48 hours to just four minutes.

The conversation also explores the opportunities and risks created by AI, the emerging need for AI governance on employee devices, and why MDF should be connected to measurable outcomes and a strong customer journey.

Alongside the business discussion, Jay tells a deeply personal story about growing up in the UK care system, the foster parents who transformed his life, and his decision to run his first London Marathon for the NSPCC. It is a conversation about channel growth and technological change—but also opportunity, resilience, gratitude and giving something back. Jay's Just Giving page can be found at: https://www.justgiving.com/page/jay-epton-nspcc?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL

Bill Hopkinson returns to The Channel Zone Podcast for a conversation about the forces reshaping managed technology, sales and leadership.

Now Director of Sales at Redsquid, Bill joins Mark Edwards to explore what AI actually means for businesses beyond the hype — from improving everyday productivity and customer QBRs to helping sales teams research, prepare, capture actions and maintain greater control of the sales cycle.

They also discuss the challenge of creating a consistent, high-performing sales culture while bringing together businesses through acquisition. For Bill, consistency matters: consistent measurement, consistent messaging, empowering people to solve problems rather than simply identify them, and creating genuine employee buy-in.

The conversation then turns to cybersecurity and the rapidly developing relationship between AI-powered attacks and AI-powered defence, before exploring Red Squid’s approach to sustainability, community involvement and employee ownership.

Finally, Bill explains why recognition, incentive trips and a healthy dose of competitiveness still matter in sales — and why, when it comes to building great salespeople, skill can be taught, but will is much harder to manufacture.

AI might appear to live in the cloud, but behind every prompt, model and application is something much more physical: data centres, engineering, infrastructure — and a huge amount of power.

In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards sits down with John O’Driscoll, Group CEO of Hanley Energy, to explore the extraordinary infrastructure boom being driven by AI.

John takes us inside the world of mission-critical power and explains why the new generation of AI data centres is fundamentally changing the demands placed on infrastructure. From traditional racks consuming 5–15kW to AI environments potentially requiring hundreds of kilowatts per rack, the scale of change is remarkable.

But this is also a fascinating business growth story.

Founded in Ireland in 2009 by two electricians, Hanley Energy has grown into a global operation with more than 1,000 employees, 13 offices and customers across more than 30 countries. John discusses the engineering culture behind that growth, the importance of speed and customer partnership, Ireland's remarkable pool of data-centre talent, and what the company's acquisition by Jabil now makes possible.

They also look ahead to what's coming next: the continued AI infrastructure race, the retrofit opportunity within existing data centres, pressure on power grids, alternative energy sources and Hanley Energy's ambition to become a billion-dollar business.

A fascinating conversation about AI, energy, engineering, entrepreneurship and the enormous infrastructure build happening behind the technology we increasingly take for granted.