Meet Nvidia’s Top 11 Americas Partners Pushing AI Forward

In an exclusive interview with CRN, Nvidia Channel Chief Craig Weinstein says the Americas winners of the 2023 Nvidia Partner Network awards are ‘doubling down’ on relationships with Nvidia and a broader vendor ecosystem to build ‘unique solutions’ for accelerated computing.

Nvidia’s top partners in the Americas this year are driving sales and services for AI solutions around the vendor’s portfolio of hardware and software for a wide range of verticals, including retail, education, health care, government and manufacturing.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based AI infrastructure behemoth Tuesday unveiled the winners of its 2023 Nvidia Partner Network Americas Partner of the Year awards.

[Related: Nvidia ‘Doubling Down’ On Partners With DGX Cloud Service]

Among the winners are some of the largest solution providers in North America: CDW, World Wide Technology and Insight Enterprises—all of which are on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 list. The winners also include distribution giant Arrow Electronics, consulting behemoth Deloitte and up-and-coming solution providers like Lambda and Quantiphi.

In an exclusive interview with CRN, Nvidia Channel Chief Craig Weinstein said the top partners are “doubling down” on their relationships with Nvidia and a broader ecosystem of vendors to build “unique solutions” around AI and accelerated computing.

The accelerated computing practices of these 11 winning partners reflect how Nvidia’s focus is no longer on just selling GPUs but a “full-stack platform” that includes purpose-built GPU systems, high-performance networking components and a growing portfolio of free and commercial software for accelerated computing, according to Weinstein.

“This is not about GPUs anymore. This is about partners understanding Nvidia’s software architecture, from [the] CUDA [parallel programming platform] through our libraries, up to our [software development kits], now packaging that under the umbrella of [Nvidia] AI Enterprise, our software portfolio, and then delivering solutions based upon the customer’s architectural requirements,” said Weinstein, vice president of Nvidia’s Americas partner organization.

Weinstein said the top Americas partners, which are recognized across 13 categories, made the cut based on their investments in accelerated computing and data science, their “rich services capabilities” and their deep understanding of the ecosystem of software and hardware vendors required to serve AI solutions to a variety of industries.

“We’re not trying to create a large, broad ecosystem of thousands and thousands of partners. We want highly specialized, highly skilled and industry domain experts in our ecosystem because that’s what our customers want when it comes to this area of computing,” he said.

What follows are the 11 winners for the 2023 Nvidia Partner Network Americas Partner of the Year across the following categories: distribution, higher education, software, Canadian sales, consulting, rising star, retail, solution integration, health care, public sector, service delivery, AI solutions and networking.

Arrow Electronics

Top Executive: Sean Kerins, President, CEO

Centennial, Colo.-based Arrow Electronics won Nvidia’s Distribution Partner of the Year award for “providing end-to-end Nvidia AI technologies across a variety of industries,” including manufacturing, retail, health care and robotics, according to Nvidia.

With these technologies, the company helps organizations “drive accelerated computing and robotics strategies” through on-premises, hybrid cloud and intelligent edge solutions as well as through Arrow’s Autonomous Machines Center of Excellence.

Cambridge Computer

Top Executive: Deena Berton, CEO

Waltham, Mass.-based Cambridge Computer won Nvidia’s award for Higher Education Partner of the Year. This is the company’s third consecutive win in this category, based on its “continued focus on providing Nvidia AI solutions to the education, life sciences and research computing sectors,” according to Nvidia.

As one of the few Nvidia partners to win an Nvidia Partner Network award consecutively, Cambridge Computer has collaborated with Nvidia since 2016 on providing solutions for parallel and high-throughput file systems, high-speed interconnects and compute technologies that address “large scale-problems for high-performance computing, machine learning and AI workloads,” according to the company.

“They deeply understand not only our technology, but they have Ph.D.s and data scientists and subject matter experts that have years of experience in scientific computing and chemical and mechanical engineering,” Weinstein told CRN. “And so they’re really trying to target those individual researchers that are in higher education and research.”

CDW

Top Executive: Christine Leahy, Chair, President, CEO

Lincolnshire, Ill.-based CDW won Nvidia’s Software Partner of the Year award for “deploying Nvidia AI and visualization solutions to customers from a broad range of industries and adopting deep industry expertise for end-to-end customer support,” according to Nvidia.

Among its Nvidia-powered offerings, CDW provides solutions to help retail customers build intelligent virtual assistants using the Nvidia Riva speech AI software development kit. It also uses the Nvidia Metropolis video analytics application framework to help manufacturing customers identify defects and predict when equipment needs maintenance.

Meanwhile, CDW Canada, the Canadian division of CDW, won Nvidia’s Canadian Partner of the Year award for the third consecutive year. The business was recognized for “providing IT solutions that enable the nation’s leading vendors to offer customized solutions with Nvidia technology, meeting the needs of each client,” according to Nvidia.

Deloitte

Top Executive: Joe Ucuzoglu, Global CEO

London-based Deloitte won the Consulting Partner of the Year award for the third consecutive year. The company was awarded for “creating new AI markets for clients by expanding AI investments in solutions developed with Nvidia across enterprise AI as well as expanding into new offerings with generative AI and Nvidia DGX Cloud,” Nvidia said.

The consulting giant expanded its alliance with Nvidia last fall to develop hybrid cloud solutions using the Nvidia AI and Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise software platforms. As part of this expanded partnership, Deloitte is focused on a wide range of applications, including edge AI, speech AI, recommender systems, chatbots, cybersecurity and digital twins.

“Building on our relationship with Nvidia, we are bringing together our top talent pool and deep AI experience with the power of Nvidia AI and Omniverse platforms to help clients accelerate the development of AI-fueled solutions,” said Ucuzoglu last year. “By expanding our collaboration with Nvidia, we can help enable clients to quickly deliver on the full capabilities of AI to transform their businesses.”

FedData Technology Solutions

Top Executive: Dan Gilliam, CEO

Annapolis Junction, Md.-based FedData Technology Solutions won Nvidia’s Rising Star Partner of the Year award.

The public sector solution provider received the recognition for design wins based on Nvidia’s DGX systems with “key federal customers” as well as “emerging work with the Nvidia Omniverse platform for building and operating metaverse applications,” according to Nvidia.

FedData Technology Solutions said the Nvidia Partner Network program allowed the company to expand its technical knowledge of Nvidia’s full-stack portfolio to collaborate with the vendor “to enhance its recognition” in the accelerated computing field and to “explore markets beyond its traditional customer base.”

“This recognition from Nvidia highlights FedData’s dedication to continuously be a trusted adviser to our customers on their AI journey with our in-house data scientists, integration engineers and installation specialists. More than ever, customers need someone they can lean on and trust, and we are proud to be part of that process,” said Jeff Marshall, senior vice president of federal and Department of Defense sales at FedData.

Insight Enterprises

Top Executive: Joyce Mullen, President, CEO

Chandler, Ariz.-based Insight Enterprises won Nvidia’s Retail Partner of the Year award, a new category for this year’s Nvidia Partner Network awards.

The solution provider giant received the award for “its deep understanding of the industry, ecosystem partnerships and the ability to orchestrate best-in-class solutions to bring real-time speed and predictability to retailers, enabling intelligent stores, intelligent quick-service restaurants, intelligent supply chain and omni-channel management,” according to Nvidia.

Weinstein told CRN that Insight won several customer deals last year for quick-service retail solutions based on Nvidia technology with “very large retailers.”

“They’re working hand-in-hand not only with Nvidia but [also] unique independent software vendors like RadiusAI and EverSeen,” he said.

Lambda

Top Executive: Stephen Balaban, Co-Founder, CEO

San Francisco-based Lambda won Nvidia’s Solution Integration Partner of the Year award for the third consecutive year.

The AI-focused systems integrator won the award for “its commitment to providing end-to-end Nvidia solutions, both on-prem or in the cloud, across industries including higher education and research, the federal and public sectors, and health care and life sciences,” according to Nvidia.

Lambda provides cloud instances, server clusters, workstations and laptops with Nvidia GPUs and software to top research labs and Fortune 500 customers, among others.

“Our close collaboration with Nvidia enables us to build and deploy world-class deep learning infrastructure to accelerate AI progress and innovation for our customers,” said Mitesh Agrawal, Lambda’s head of cloud, in a statement. “Lambda will continue to build and offer state-of-the-art, end-to-end Nvidia solutions for AI and deep learning via our GPU cloud and on-prem offerings.”

Mark III

Top Executive: Leslie Powell, Founder, CEO

Houston-based Mark III received the Healthcare Partner of the Year award from Nvidia.

The solution provider received the award for “its unique team and deep understanding of the Nvidia portfolio, which provides academic medical centers, research institutions, health-care systems and life sciences organizations with Nvidia infrastructure, software and cloud technologies to build out AI, HPC and simulation Centers of Excellence,” according to Nvidia.

Mark III has developed several programs to help health-care and life sciences organizations effectively use data science and 3-D simulation applications at a large scale. These programs include MLOps services, high-performance computing and AI project management, AI and machine learning appliances, an Nvidia Omniverse starter kit and remote proof-of-concept initiatives for solutions such as Nvidia Base Command, Nvidia AI Enterprise and Run:ai.

“They have some of the deepest level of expertise not only in data science, but developers, 3-D artists, DevOps, machine learning engineers and system architects because it takes all that type of talent to build an end-to-end pipeline that will be relevant in those domains,” Weinstein told CRN.

Microway

Top Executive: Ann Fried, CEO

Plymouth, Mass.-based Microway won Nvidia’s Public Sector Partner of the Year award.

The high-performance computing systems integrator was awarded for “its technical depth and engineering focus on servicing the public sector using technologies across the Nvidia portfolio, including high-performance computing and other specializations,” according to Nvidia.

Last year, Microway delivered multi-hundred GPU clusters with Nvidia’s A100 GPUs and Nvidia DGX supercomputing systems, among “other complex deployments to customers throughout the public sector domain. The company also tied the Nvidia AI Enterprise software suite into these clusters, which Nvidia called “robust” and “successful.”

“Microway’s expertise in providing custom-built AI systems using Nvidia technology is helping government agencies and enterprises solve their hardest problems, improve energy efficiency and discovery, and make communities safer and more connected,” said Anthony Robbins, vice president of Nvidia’s North American public sector business, in a statement.

Quantiphi

Top Executive: Asif Hasan, Co-Founder

Marlborough, Mass.-based Quantiphi won Nvidia’s Service Delivery Partner of the Year award for a second consecutive year.

The award was given to the AI digital engineering specialist for “its commitment to driving adoption of Nvidia products in areas like generative AI services with customized large language models, digital avatars, edge computing, medical imaging and data science, as well as its expertise in helping customers build and deploy AI solutions at scale,” Nvidia said.

Quantiphi said a major factor in receiving its second Nvidia Partner Network award was its “deep technical understanding of the Nvidia AI Enterprise software stack and Nvidia DGX platform, coupled with subject-matter expertise in large language models, genomics, physics-informed machine learning and hybrid computing.”

“Quantiphi’s deep subject-matter expertise—spanning Nvidia AI solutions for health care, financial services, telecommunications and more—paired with its workforce of more than 400 Nvidia Deep Learning Institute-certified professionals enables customers to move efficiently from planning to production AI deployments,” said Weinstein in a statement.

World Wide Technology

Top Executive: Jim Kavanaugh, Co-Founder, CEO

St. Louis-based World Wide Technology was the only partner to win two awards this year: AI Solution Provider of the Year and Networking Partner of the Year.

The solution provider powerhouse received the AI Solution Provider of the Year award for “its leadership in driving adoption of the Nvidia portfolio of AI and accelerated computing solutions, as well as its continued investments in AI infrastructure for large language models, computer vision, Omniverse-based digital twins, and customer testing and labs in the WWT Advanced Technology Center,” according to Nvidia.

The Networking Partner of the Year award, on the other hand, was given for WWT’s “expertise driving Nvidia high-performance networking solutions to support accelerated computing environments across multiple industries and AI solutions,” Nvidia said.

“When it comes to AI and accelerated computing, advanced and accelerated networking is incredibly important, and [WWT] serves some of the most important cloud partners on the planet using [Nvidia’s] InfiniBand technology. And so they’re able to quickly assess an AI workload and then really demonstrate leadership by suggesting and recommending the most appropriate networking solutions to build a world-class AI Center of Excellence,” Weinstein told CRN.