CRN's 2013 Annual Report Card Winners

Winners' Circle: The 2013 CRN Annual Report Card

Solution providers and channel executives from throughout the industry gathered for the 2013 CRN Annual Report Card awards, held Aug. 21 at the XChange 2013 conference in Washington, D.C.

The 28th edition of the ARC gathered over 3,600 solution provider responses to rank 73 channel programs across 18 technology categories in three areas: product innovation, support and partnership, as well as an overall category winner. Here's a look at this year's award ceremony and who came out on top.

A Sea Of Channel Change

UBM Channel CEO Robert Faletra kicked off this year's ARC awards ceremony by addressing the continued evolution sweeping today's IT channel.

In addition to the impact technologies like the cloud are having on solution providers' business models, Faletra emphasized the need for solution providers to invest in their marketing strategies and build a strong brand for their companies.

"I will say that after years of our talking about the need for solution providers to become better at marketing, we are beginning to see things turn the corner," Faletra said.

A Toast To The Channel

Edison Peres, Cisco senior vice president of worldwide channels, gave a toast to the ARC winners, to the solution providers who help drive their success, and to UBM Channel for organizing the evening's events.

Sophos

Sophos was this year's ARC winner for product innovation in the Network Security Appliances category, within which it scored especially well in product quality and reliability, along with ease of integration.

Kendra Krause, vice president of channel sales, Americas at Sophos accepted the award from UBM Channel CEO Robert Faletra.

Fortinet

The many security threats IT managers face today is reflected in the broad range of security technologies sold through the channel. Fortinet, a channel leader in unified threat management, was the overall winner in the Network Security Appliances category, with wins in both the support and partnership subcategories.

Fortinet's Bryan Wood, vice president, U.S. channel and mid enterprise sales, accepted the award from CRN Editor, News, Steve Burke.

Dell

Dell has made big inroads in the worldwide server market recently, and its channel partners seem to be praising those gains. Dell was this year's winner of the hotly contested Volume Servers category, with the company securing both the overall win and a win in the support subcategory.

Frank Vitagliano, vice president, channel sales at Dell accepted the award from CRN's Steve Burke.

Ruckus Wireless

Ruckus Wireless has been aggressively pursuing the enterprise and SMB wireless markets for years, and bulking up its Big Dog partner program along the way. This year's ARC scores demonstrated just how far the company has come. Ruckus swept the SMB Networking Hardware category, with a win in the support, product innovation and partnership subcategories.

Ron Gill, vice president, Americas enterprise sales (center) accepted the award from CRN Senior Editor Robert Wright (left) and Steve Burke.

VMware

Virtualization may be one of the most competitive segments of the IT market today, but VMware, according to solution providers, is still king. VMware swept the Desktop and Server Virtualization category, securing all three subcategories, shining particularly bright in product innovation.

VMware's Frank Rauch, vice president, Americas partner organization, and Sandra Haan, director of partner communications, accepted the award from CRN's Robert Wright and Steve Burke.

Lenovo

Lenovo took home multiple ARC wins this year, including a clean sweep of the Notebook and Mobile Computers Category. In addition, Lenovo's recent investments in the server market appear to be paying off, with the PC giant clenching the partnership subcategory in Volume Servers.

Lenovo's North America Commercial Channel Chief Chris Frey accepted the award from CRN's Robert Wright and Steve Burke.

Buffalo Technology

Despite going up against storage heavyweights like EMC and Dell, Buffalo Technology was crowned this year's ARC winner of the SMB Network Storage category, taking both the support and partnership subcategories.

Buffalo Technology CEO Hajime Nakai (far left), COO Matt Dargis (second from left) and VAR Channel Manager Bill Rhodes (second from right) accepted the award from Steve Burke.

Juniper Networks

Juniper's recent and significant investments in areas like cloud services and software-defined networking seem to be resonating well with partners, with the company clenching this year's partnership win in the Enterprise Networking Infrastructure category.

Juniper's Luanne Tierney, vice president, worldwide partner marketing, and Chris Jones, vice president, partner sales, accepted the award from CRN's Robert Wright and Steve Burke.

NEC

NEC stood out in this year's 19-inch to 30-inch Flat Panel Displays category, with a win in the partnership subcategory and a tie for support.

Emily Narkviroj, senior channel marketing manager at NEC, accepted the award from CRN Managing Editor, Online, Robert Wright.

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard pulled in victories across multiple ARC categories this year, including a win in product innovation in the Volume Servers category, product innovation in Multifunction Printers and product innovation in Workgroup Color Printers.

HP's Scott Dunsire, vice president and general manager, Americas channels, Printing and Personal Systems (center), and Matt Smith, vice president, Enterprise Group Distribution, Americas accepted the award from CRN Associate Editor Kristin Bent.

Samsung

Samsung remained the reigning champ of the 19-inch to 30-inch Flat Panel Displays category, with an overall win in the category, along with a tie in the support subcategory and a win in the product innovation subcategory.

Richard Hutton, director of channel marketing at Samsung, accepted the award from CRN Video Editor Meghan Ottolini.

Oracle

The exponential growth of information known as big data is one of the biggest challenges facing the IT world today. This year's ARC awards recognized Oracle as one of the leading IT companies helping solution providers meet those challenges, with the software giant sweeping the category of Data and Information Management.

Oracle's Kimberly Lasseter, director, Oracle worldwide alliances and channels, accepted the award from CRN's Kristin Bent.

Microsoft

Microsoft dominated the Collaboration Software category this year, with solution provider votes allowing the channel vet to win all three subcategories. Microsoft scored especially high in the product innovation subcategory, with partners praising the richness of features across its collaboration suite.

Long Tran, director of SMB technology and cloud services at Microsoft, accepted the award from CRN's Meghan Ottolini.

IBM

The rise of big data has made the business analytics space hotter than ever within the IT channel. This year's big winner in the Business Analytics category was IBM, which swept the category with a win in product innovation, support and partnership.

Caroline Seymour, director, worldwide business partner marketing, IBM Software Solutions Group, accepted the award from CRN's Kristin Bent.

Xerox

While Xerox continues to grow its line of managed and cloud services, the company's scanners, printers and other office equipment have remained a mainstay in the channel. This year, Xerox walked away with the support, partnership and overall win in the ARC category for Multifunction Printers, along with the support, partnership and overall win in the Workgroup Color Printers category.

Xerox's Tom Gall, director of channel marketing, and Annalisa Mena, vice president, Field and Sales Operations, accepted the awards from CRN's Meghan Ottolini.

Kaspersky Lab

It was a big year for security vendor Kaspersky Lab, which swept both the Client Security Software and Network Security Software categories in this year's ARC.

Kaspersky Lab's Director of LAR Channel Sales Leslie Boise, Director of VAR Channel Sales Jim Sullivan (center), and Senior Vice President, Marketing Chris Gaebler (second from right) accepted the awards from CRN's Robert Faletra and Steve Burke.

EMC

EMC was one of the evening's big winners, with solution provider votes helping it secure wins in three key ARC categories. The storage giant walked away with a clean sweep of the Backup and Recovery Software and Enterprise Network Storage categories, along with a win in product innovation in the SMB Network Storage category.

EMC's Tom Siegel, senior director, U.S. channel sales (second from left); Jim Quercetti, director, Americas channel strategy and productivity (center); and Jeff Reale, director, backup and recovery systems channels, accepted the awards from CRN's Robert Faletra and Steve Burke.

Cisco

While switching and routing may still be Cisco's bread-and-butter business, the networking giant has aggressively pushed into new areas like the cloud, converged infrastructure and, most recently, the burgeoning "Internet of Things." Partners applauded those efforts big time in this year's ARC survey, with Cisco sweeping both the Converged Infrastructure and Unified Communications categories, along with the support, product innovation and overall win in the Enterprise Network Infrastructure category.

Cisco's Senior Vice President, Worldwide Channels Edison Peres (second from left); Ken Trombetta, vice president, Enterprise Architectures and Solutions, Worldwide Partner Organization (third from left); Richard McLeod, senior director, Worldwide Collaboration Channel Sales (fourth in from left); Carol McCutcheon, executive communications manager (center); John Brookbank, director, Operations Sales (fourth from right); Dave Lockhart, Manager, Partner Operations Sales (third from right); and Jason Gallo, business development manager, Collaboration (second from right) accept the awards from CRN's Robert Faletra and Steve Burke.