CRN 2011 Fast Growth 100 Award Winners

Fast Growth Fame

CRN at the 2011 Fast Growth 100 awards recently honored the best and brightest of the channel— companies that have managed to fight some pretty strong economic headwinds and achieve eye-popping revenue growth over the past two years.

The average two-year revenue growth rate for the 2011 Fast Growth class was over 187 percent with an average annual revenue of $103.5 million.

These companies represent the strength of the channel today and hope for a stronger tomorrow. Here’s a look at who brought home the trophies.

Revenue Under $50 Million

The fastest growing solution provider on the list this year was Edge Solutions, Alpharetta, Ga. It has expertise in storage and data management, infrastructure solutions and virtualization.This past July, its CEO was named a member of CRN’s Power 100 Women of the Channel. Recently, the solution provider has expanded its IT service offerings for the health care market; its healthcare team of professionals each average more than twenty years of individual experience. Among its partners are HP, Microsoft, Citrix and VMware.

Edge Solutions saw unbelievable two-year growth of 2,633 percent and was No. 1 on this year’s list.

Accepting the award for the fastest growing company with revenue under $50 million from CRN’s Rob Wright (right), managing editor, online is Edge’s Julie Haley, CEO, and Mike Haley, president.

Revenue From $51 Million To $250 Million

The fastest growing solution provider with revenue in the $51 million to $250 million range is Ahead, a Chicago-based firm known for the depth and breadth of its storage, networking and virtualization knowledge. Ahead specializes in advanced storage solutions and virtualization, supporting vendors such as VMware, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, among others.

Ahead experienced two-year revenue growth of nearly 1,950 percent, earning it the No. 2 spot on our list.

Accepting the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett, executive editor – online, is Sean Burns, vice president of business development at Ahead.

Revenue From $251 Million To $500 Million

For the second consecutive year, the fastest growing solution provider in the $251 million to $500 million tier is MicroTech, Vienna, Va. MicroTech has a solid reputation in government contracting, which is built on its management team’s combined military leadership service of 150 years. Although it’s widely known in Federal government contracting circles, this VAR also features a broad client base that ranges from growing businesses, to city, state and local agencies, to Fortune 500 enterprises. A veteran and minority-owned company, it has grown in revenue more than 4,000 percent since its launch in 2004. Its phenomenal two-year revenue growth rate of nearly 750 percent earned it the No. 4 spot on the 2011 Fast Growth list.

Accepting the award from CRN’s Rob Wright (right) is MicroTech CIO Preston Quick.

Revenue From $501 Million To $750 Million

ImmixGroup, the fastest growing solution provider in the $501 million to $750 million tier, provides a bevy of services that help its customers do business with the government. It has four divisions, more than 200 employees and more than 125 vendor partners, including IBM, Oracle, EMC and McAfee.

With a two-year growth rate of 101.5 percent, immixGroup placed No. 38 on the overall Fast Growth 2011 list.

Accepting the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett is Steve Charles, co-founder and executive vice president.

Revenue Greater Than $750 Million

Carahsoft, the fastest growing solution provider with revenue over $750 million, is a government IT solutions provider that has made the Fast Growth list a number of times. In fact, it serves as the master government aggregator for many of its best-of-breed vendors including Symantec, VMware, and HP.

Its two-year revenue growth rate was an impressive 140 percent, earning it the No. 28 spot on the list.

Will Jones, Carahsoft’s vice president of sales, accepts the award from CRN’s Rob Wright (right).

Data Protection/Disaster Recovery

Sovereign Systems, Roswell, Ga., nabbed the Fast Growth 2011 award for data protection and disaster recovery. Customers choose this $15.9 million solution provider for its ability to strike a balance between consultative infrastructure design and the integration of that infrastructure into a company’s mission critical applications. It is a NetApp Gold partner, and is a partner to Oracle, EMC and Symantec, among others, specializing in unified storage, information protection, data availability, and virtualization. The company ranked No. 8 on this year’s list.

Acceping the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett for Data Protection/Disaster Recovery is George Barkley, managing partner, Sovereign Systems.

Security

OpenSky took home the Fast Growth 2011 award for security. OpenSky, New York, provides security consulting to help customers keep their information safe and available around the clock. It advises customers on how to consolidate hardware and secure network components in the data center, and assists in implementing the latest trends in cloud computing. This $14.7 million company has grown roughly 550 percent by delivering solutions to its customers through its partnerships with many industry-leading manufacturers such as EMC and VMware.

OpenSky landed at No. 7 on the 2011 Fast Growth list.

Accepting the award from CRN’s Rob Wright (right) is Thomas Hazen, managing partner at OpenSky.

Virtualization

The winner of the 2011 Fast Growth Virtualization award is IP Pathways, a company that ranked No. 16 on this year’s list with a growth rate of 314 percent. This Urbandale, Iowa-based VAR provides solutions that reduce complexity within their customers’ IT infrastructures by reducing their data center footprint, optimizing data storage and management, simplifying virtualization, and accelerating the network. It serves the public sector as well as financial services customers, and its partners include Microsoft, NetApp and Cisco.

Accepting the Virtualization award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett is Joe Shields, president of IP Pathways.

Networking Infrastructure

Genesis Networks, the winner of the 2011 Fast Growth Networking Infrastructure award, is a minority-owned firm founded in 2005. It is recognized for providing one-stop shopping solutions in the telecommunication sector. The company specializes in audio, Web, video, and data & voice services. Its customers include enterprise, educational, and government entities. With a two-year growth rate of 651 percent, Genesis Networks is living by its mantra to treat its employees, customers, and business associates right. It landed at No. 5 on this year’s list.

Accepting the award from CRN’s Rob Wright (left) is Genesis Networks’ Steve Seago, vice president, sales.

Unified Communications

Universal Understanding, Albuquerque, N.M., designs and deploys advanced and collaborative communication networks across interoperable and open architecture platforms. The winner of this year’s Unified Communications award, the company is focused on helping customers become stronger, faster, and more productive by integrating technology solutions that empower global, mobile, and distributed workforces.

Its 586 percent two-year growth rate earned it the No. 6 spot on the list.

John Metzger, president at Universal Understanding, accepts the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett.

Collaboration

Summit 7 Systems, Huntsville, Ala., is a Microsoft Gold partner that strives to streamline its clients’ collaboration efforts, making it easier to find their corporate data, enhancing their business process, leveraging social computing, and optimizing the user experience. In the end, customers find themselves with a business productivity infrastructure that is simpler, more efficient and helps them to get far more done. And that’s one of the reasons the company grew 362 percent during the past two years, garnering the No. 13 spot on the list.

Accepting the award from CRN’s Rob Wright (left) is Summit 7 Systems’ Steve Beard, vice president.

Public Sector

Emergent, Vienna, Va., the winner of the 2011 Fast Growth Public Sector award is focused on solving complex business and mission critical challenges on behalf of government, education and health-care organizations. Its team combines IT technical expertise and an extensive knowledge of the government procurement process. Between 2008 and 2010, the company’s revenue grew 452 percent. This solution provider includes Adobe, Symantec, and Red Hat among its partners, and it nabbed the No. 9 spot on this year’s list.

Accepting the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett is Emergent’s Paul Kohler, executive vice president