Rising To The Top: CRN's 2017 Annual Report Card Awards

The Best and Brightest

More than 240 solution providers from across the country gathered in Kissimmee, Fla. to celebrate the 18 winners of the 32nd consecutive CRN Annual Report Card awards.

Thousands of solution providers cast their votes for the ARC awards, recognizing vendors in the categories of partnership, support and product innovation. The winners were recognized at an awards ceremony at XChange 2017.

Read on to find out which vendors were voted the best-of-the-best by solution providers, as well as which industry veteran earned a spot in the coveted IT Hall of Fame.

IT Hall of Fame

XChange host and CRN parent The Channel Co. teamed up with CompTIA to induct channel chief extraordinaire Frank Vitagliano into the IT Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was founded by CRN in 1997, and has been administered by CompTIA since 2010.

Vitagliano worked his way up from the IBM mailroom more than 40 years ago to lead the channel charge for Big Blue, Juniper and Dell before taking the CEO position with solution provider powerhouse Computex. Along the way, Vitagliano built phenomenal channel teams, formed true friendships with channel partners, operated with complete honestly and integrity, and worked his butt off.

Vitagliano accepted his induction award with The Channel Co. CEO Bob Faletra and Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA.

Tripp Lite

Solution providers work closely with their customers to ensure that critical IT systems continue to perform in the event of power failures or other disasters.

Those channel partners rely heavily on their relationships with key IT vendors who provide the needed power protection technology.

Winning this year's award for Partnership in the Power Protection and Management Category is 520-employee Tripp Lite. The Chicago-based firm received a category score of 80.4, edging out APC by 0.7 points and Eaton by 2.1 points.

Bob Nahorski, Tripp Lite's executive vice president of U.S. sales, accepted the award from The Channel Company CEO Bob Faletra and CRN Editor, News, Steve Burke.

Datto

Data is an increasingly valuable commodity, and this vendor develops leading-edge technology that businesses use to protect that data regardless of whether it resides on premise or in the cloud.

Taking the trophy this year for Product Innovation in SMB External Storage Hardware is Norwalk, Conn.-based Datto. The $1 billion vendor earned a category score of 89.7, beating Dell EMC by 1.5 points and Buffalo Technology by 3.1 points.

Accepting the award from Faletra and Burke is Rob Rae, Datto's vice president of business development.

HPE Security

News stories tell of an increasingly dangerous world of cyber threats including stolen data, ransomware, and distributed denial of service attacks.

It's therefore no wonder businesses are demanding more from solution providers in terms of security technology and services to battle these threats.

This year's winner for Support in Security Management is Hewlett Packard Enterprise Security. The business unit received a category score of 62.7, besting RSA by 1.4 points and IBM by 1.8 points.

Terry Richardson, HPE's vice president of U.S. channel sales, accepted the award from Faletra and Burke.

Eaton

This vendor has really pushed the envelope in developing next-generation power protection technology, from uninterruptable power supplies and long-lasting batteries, to predictive analytics and management software.

Winning this year's award for Product Innovation in Power Protection and Management is Dublin, Ireland-based Eaton. The $19.7 billion, 95,000-employee company earned a category score of 83.8, beating APC by 1.7 points and Tripp Lite by 2.2 points.

Accepting the award from Faletra and Burke is Curtiz Gangi, vice president of channel sales for Eaton's data center segment. Gangi dedicated the award to Brad Amano, an Eaton national account manager and regular XChange attendee who passed away in July.

RSA

This IT security stalwart provides security and risk management offerings used by more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500. Many of those Fortune 500 companies are serviced by RSA's legions of channel partners.

The Overall Winner and winner in the Product Innovation and Partnership is the Security Management category is RSA. The Bedford, Mass.-based subsidiary received an overall score of 66.4, edging out HPE Security by 2.3 points and IBM by 2.8 points.

Nathan McCready, RSA's channel sales manager, accepted the award from Burke and Jennifer Follett, CRN's executive editor.

Buffalo Technology

Data storage and backup for small and mid-size customers remains a key market for the channel, and this vendor is a leader in providing network-attached storage systems and other data storage devices.

The Overall Winner and winner in the Support and Partnership in the SMB External Storage Hardware category is Buffalo Technology. The Nagoya, Japan-based subsidiary received an overall score of 85.4, besting Datto by 0.1 points and Dell EMC by 0.2 points.

Accepting the award from Burke and Follett was Takehiko (Terry) Inoue, Buffalo's president and CEO.

APC

A business can invest heavily in leading-edge information technology systems. But it's all for nothing if the power fails and the business hasn't implemented the right contingency plans.

That's why power protection and management remains so important for both IT and for the channel.

The Overall winner and winner in Support in the Power Protection and Management category is APC. The West Kingston, R.I-based manufacturer received an overall score of 80.2, beating Tripp Lite by 0.5 points and Eaton by 1.1 points.

Katie Boeh, APC's director of North American channel marketing and communications, accepted the award from Burke and Follett.

Intel

This Annual Report Card winner has long been one of the major forces of innovation in Silicon Valley and in the IT industry overall.

In the last year, this vendor has accelerated its expansion beyond its PC roots, growing its sales of memory and data center products and moving into new areas such as the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence.

Continuing its domination of the processor arena, this year's Overall winner in Processors and sweeping the technology category is $59.4 billion goliath Intel. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company received an overall score of 83.5.

Accepting the award from Burke and Follett was Todd Garrigues, Intel's Americas Director of Partner Sales.

Veracode

As businesses rely more on web applications, websites and web services for their day-to-day operations, securing those web properties has become increasingly critical.

And that's why the security products developed by this vendor are so important for the channel.

This year's Overall winner in Web Application Security and sweeping the technology category is Burlington, Mass.-based Veracode. The 400-employee company earned an overall score of 86.4, beating Fortinet by 3.8 points and Zscaler by 10.7 points.

Jacques Lopez, Veracode's head of North American channels, accepted the award from Burke and Follett.

Comcast Business

As IT networks become more widely disbursed and computing resources reside on-premise and in the cloud, the importance of network connectivity continues to grow.

This year's overall winner in Network Connectivity, and sweeping the technology category is Comcast Business. The Philadelphia-based subsidiary earned an overall score of 66.

Craig Schlagbaum, Comcast Business's vice president of indirect channels, accepted the award from Sarah Kuranda, CRN senior editor for security, and Gina Narcisi, CRN senior associate editor for communication service providers.

Xerox

Our next winner, a mainstay of the IT industry and the channel, has undergone some significant changes over the past year as it refocused entirely on its core document management technology and managed print services business.

This year's overall winner in Workgroup Color Printers and sweeping the technology category is $11 billion print titan Xerox. The Norwalk, Conn.-based company received an overall score of 67.9, edging out HP Inc. by 2.1 points.

Accepting the award from Kuranda and Narcisi was Charlene Fisher, Xerox's regional vice president.

VMware

Virtualization has been a multi-billion dollar opportunity for the channel, and this vendor has been the industry leader in virtualization technology from the very beginning.

The Overall Winner in Desktop and Server Virtualization, and sweeping the technology category, is $7.1 billion giant VMware. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based subsidiary earned an overall score of 69.5, besting Citrix by 4 points.

Frank Rauch, vice president of VMware's Americas Partner Organization, accepted the award from Kuranda and Narcisi.

StorageCraft

When you talk about data backup and recovery, you're getting at the heart of a business or organization's ability to get critical IT systems up and running in the event of a disaster or system failure. And that's where this vendor really stands out.

The Overall Winner this year and sweeping the technology category in Data Protection Software is Draper, Utah-based StorageCraft. The 350-employee company received an overall score of 89.9, beating Dell by 8.1 points, Carbonite by 11.7 points, and IBM by 19.4 points.

Accepting the award from Kuranda and Narcisi was Marvin Blough, StorageCraft's vice president of worldwide sales.

Sophos

As security threats to businesses, governments, healthcare providers and other organizations become more prevalent and potentially more damaging, end users are increasingly turning to solution providers and their security technology vendors for help. And this vendor has long relied on a channel-first strategy to get its security products to its customers.

The Overall Winner, and sweeping the Network Security technology category, is $478 million powerhouse Sophos. The Oxfordshire, England-based company earned an overall score of 88.9, edging out SonicWall by 2 points, Fortinet by 10.5 points, Cisco by 10.9 points, RSA by 15.7 points, and Juniper Networks by 16.6 points.

Kendra Krause, Sophos's vice president of global channels, accepted the award from Kuranda and Narcisi.

Kaspersky Lab

This vendor has been on the front lines of the security war for the past 20 years, with their anti-virus software serving as the cornerstone of many solution providers' cybersecurity practices.

This year's Overall Winner and sweeping the category of Endpoint Security is $644 million security titan Kaspersky Lab. The Moscow, Russia-based company received an overall score of 91.6, besting Sophos by 2.2 points, Cisco by 13.5 points, and RSA by 21.8 points.

Accepting the award from Kuranda and Narcisi was Jason Stein, Kaspersky's vice president of channel for North America.

IBM

This company has held a major presence in the channel for about as long as there has been an IT industry. It continues to provide partners with a broad range of hardware and software products, even as it develops the cloud computing, business analytics, mobility, and other strategic technologies the company envisions as its future.

The Partnership winner in Enterprise Network Storage and the Overall, Support and Partnership winner in Business Analytics is $79.9 billion technology goliath IBM. The Armonk, N.Y.-based vendor received an overall score of 60.5 in Business Analytics, and a partnership score of 76.6 in Enterprise Network Storage.

Accepting the award from Faletra and Burke was Laurie Evans, IBM's vice president of worldwide business partners, and Richard Wirtenson, director of North American channel sales.

Cisco

This vendor remains a leader in the networking systems market, even as it expands into new areas such as software-defined networking, converged infrastructure, application performance management, and the Internet of Things.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco was the Overall, Security and Partnership winner in Converged/Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, and recorded a clean winner in the Enterprise Networking Infrastructure, Collaboration, and Enterprise Wireless LAN categories.

The $49.2 billion powerhouse received overall scores of 80.1 in Collaboration, 79.1 in Converged/Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, 82.9 in Enterprise Networking Infrastructure, and 81.8 in Enterprise Wireless LAN.

Jessica Rojas, Cisco's senior engineering manager for its Americas Partner Organization, accepted the award from Faletra and Burke.

Dell EMC

This company was created just last year through the merger of two of the IT industry's biggest vendors, and it's already making waves in the channel by taking a leadership position across a broad range of hardware technology categories.

Dell EMC swept the SMB Networking, Notebooks and Mobile Computers, and Industry Standard Servers categories with overall scores of 81, 83.4, and 80.4, respectively.

The Round Rock, Texas-based behemoth was also the Overall, Support and Partnership winner in Tablets, the Overall, Product Innovation and Support Winner in Enterprise Network Storage, and the Product Innovation winner in Converged/Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, receiving overall scores of 78.1 and 78.4, respectively, in those categories.

Accepting the award from Faletra and Burke was Cheryl Cook, vice president of global channels and alliances; Greg Davis, president of sales and global operations; Mary Catherine Wilson, director of global channel marketing; and David Miketinac, vice president of North American distribution.