2025 Annual Report Card Winners: Solution Providers Give Top Grades To Key Vendors
For the 40th year, solution providers scored vendors across 23 technology categories based on their performance in areas such as product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services. Here’s a roundup of the companies with the highest overall scores.
Making The Grade
For the 40th year, CRN offered solution providers in North America the opportunity to grade the performance of their IT vendor partners with the CRN Annual Report Card.
The CRN ARC provides a look at which IT vendors are doing the best job of meeting their partners’ needs in product innovation, support, partner program resources, and managed and cloud services, all critical elements of a successful vendor/solution provider relationship.
The winners of this year’s ARC Awards are being unveiled in conjunction with the XChange August 2025 conference being held this week in Denver, hosted by The Channel Company, CRN’s parent company.
Solution providers scored vendors across 23 product technology categories. These include longtime channel technology mainstays such as notebooks and mobile computers, network infrastructure and connectivity, data storage, and data recovery and resiliency. It also includes newer technology areas such as hybrid cloud infrastructure and consumption-based on-premises cloud services, as well as nine categories of security technology.
Partners graded IT vendors on a total of 21 criteria spanning four subcategories: product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services. Companies received average scores for each subcategory and an overall score for the technology category. Details on the survey and methodology can be found on the following slide.
Which IT companies are at the top of their game in the eyes of their channel partners? Read on to find out which vendors earned the highest marks this year.
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Cloud | Computing | Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure | Managed Services | Networking | Security | Storage
Annual Report Card Criteria And Scoring
Solution providers graded IT vendors according to 21 criteria broken out across four subcategories:
Product Innovation: Includes product quality and reliability, richness of product features and functionality, technical innovation, product compatibility and ease of integration, product marketability and services opportunity.
Support: Includes presales support, post-sales support, training, quality of field management and marketing support.
Partnership: Includes solution provider programs, communication, managing channel conflict, revenue and profit potential, and ease of doing business.
Managed And Cloud Services: Includes consumption-based and subscription pricing, integration with services management tools, cloud-readiness of channel program, field teaming and channel compensation alignment, and profit margins/profit potential.
In some technology categories a single vendor dominated the scoring, winning not just the top overall score, but also all four subcategories and, in some cases, even sweeping all 21 criteria.
In most technology categories, however, two or more vendors split the results with different vendors earning the highest average scores for different subcategories—and in some cases even splitting the highest scores for specific criterion within the four subcategories.
Scores are calculated using a weighted system in which each criterion’s score is influenced by the importance rating assigned to it by the total respondent pool, ensuring that criteria deemed more significant have a greater impact on the overall result.
The following slides provide a summary of this year’s ARC results. The complete scores will be published on CRN.com in October.
Cloud Computing—Consumption-Based On-Premises Cloud Services
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Channel Executive: Simon Ewington, Worldwide Channel, Partner Ecosystem Leader
Hewlett Packard Enterprise won this increasingly important technology category with an overall score of 80.1.
HPE had the highest average scores in all four subcategories, earning average scores of 84.8 for product innovation, 75.9 for support, 81.1 for partnership, and 77.8 for managed and cloud services.
The company’s scores were especially strong in the product innovation category where HPE scored an impressive 95.4 for quality and reliability, 88.4 for compatibility and ease of integration, 88.0 for richness of product features and functionality, 83.3 for technical innovation and 80.6 for services opportunity.
Cloud Computing—Public Cloud
Amazon Web Services
Channel Executive: Ruba Borno, VP, Worldwide Channels, Alliances
In a battle among the cloud platform giants, Amazon Web Services came out on top in this technology category with an overall score of 80.2.
The company had the highest average scores in support (69.8), partnership (80.5), and managed and cloud services (83.3).
AWS swept the managed and cloud services subcategory criteria, including scores of 88.9 for consumption-based/subscription pricing, 86.9 for profit margins/profit potential and 85.3 for integration with services management tools.
Computing—CPUs
AMD
Channel Executive: Jason Mooneyham, Corporate VP, Global Commercial Channel, North America Channel Chief
AMD was the winner in this year’s battle among the leading CPU chip designers, recording an overall score of 74.8 in this critical technology category.
AMD won on the strength of its scores in product innovation, where it received an average score of 100.3. That included some of the highest criteria scores in this year’s Annual Report Card, including 113.8 for quality and reliability (the single highest criteria score in the 2025 ARC), 108.6 for compatibility and ease of integration, 108.5 for technical innovation, and 108.4 for richness of product features and functionality.
Computing—GPUs
Nvidia
Channel Executive: Craig Weinstein, VP, Americas Partner Organization
As with CPUs, this technology category was a close fight between some of the leading semiconductor producers, with Nvidia coming out the winner with a top overall score of 81.2.
Nvidia placed first in product innovation (average score 96.0), support (average score 83.6) and partnership (average score 89.8) subcategories.
Solution providers gave Nvidia some of its biggest criteria scores in the product innovation subcategory, including 101.5 for richness of product features and functionality, 100.8 for technical innovation, and 99.6 for quality and reliability.
Computing—Notebooks/Mobile Computers
HP Inc.
Channel Executive: Kobi Elbaz, SVP, GM, Global Revenue Operations
This technology category was a solid win for HP Inc. this year, where it garnered the highest overall score of 83.2.
HP had the highest average score in three subcategories: 96.0 in product innovation, 82.1 in support and 91.9 in partnership. The company, in fact, swept all subcategory criteria in support and partnership.
HP also won a very impressive top grade of 108.2 for product quality and reliability within the product innovation subcategory.
Computing—Power Protection And Management
Eaton
Channel Executive: Steve Loeb, VP, Marketing, Distributed IT
Eaton won this channel mainstay technology category with a solid top overall score of 81.4.
The company had the highest average scores in three of the four subcategories: 91.1 in product innovation, 83.5 in support, and 57.2 in managed and cloud services.
Some of Eaton’s highest scores in specific criteria included 92.1 in post-sales support, 95.5 in revenue and profit potential, and 84.0 for product marketability.
Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure
Scale Computing
Channel Executive: Scott Mann, Global Channel Chief, VP, International Sales
Scale Computing scored a clean sweep of this increasingly important technology category with a top overall score of 88.2.
The company received the highest average score across all four subcategories, including 96.7 for product innovation, 90.4 for support, 94.6 for partnership, and 69.6 for managed and cloud services.
Among Scale Computing’s highest scores in specific criteria were 106.9 for quality and reliability—one of the highest scores on this year’s ARC—104.2 for ease of doing business, 101.5 for post-sales support, 100.7 for communication, and 100.1 for product compatibility and ease of integration.
Managed Services—MSP RMM Platforms
N-able Technologies
Channel Executive: David Weeks, VP, Partner Experience
In addition to having the highest overall score of 79.9, N-able had the highest average scores in all four subcategories, including 86.6 in product innovation, 74.9 in support, 79.3 in partnership, and 77.5 in managed and cloud services.
N-able had the highest scores in all but two of the subcategory criteria, including receiving grades of 104.0 in quality and reliability, 98.4 in richness of product features/functionality, 98.1 in product compatibility and ease of integration, 92.8 in post-sales support and 90.8 in consumption-based/subscription pricing.
Network Connectivity
Spectrum Partner Program
Channel Executive: Michelle Kadlacek, VP, Enterprise Partner Program
Spectrum Partner Program narrowly came out on top in this hotly contested technology category with an overall top score of 76.8—just 0.2 ahead of its closest competitor.
The network services provider also received the highest average scores in two subcategories: 76.7 in support and 84.7 in partnership.
In subcategory criteria, Spectrum received grades of 96.1 in quality and reliability, 86.4 and 87.0 for pre- and post-sales support, respectively, 86.6 in solution provider program and 88.1 in communication.
Networking Infrastructure—Enterprise
Cisco Systems
Channel Executive: Rodney Clark, SVP, Partnerships, Small, Medium Business
Cisco was the winner of this technology category, a longtime technology staple of the channel, with an overall score of 82.6
The company also recorded the highest average score in three subcategories, including 94.4 in product innovation, 80.8 in support, and 67.3 in managed and cloud services.
Cisco’s scores included 107.4 for quality and reliability, 94.5 for product compatibility and ease of integration, and 89.8 for training.
Networking: SD-WAN
Fortinet
Channel Executive: Landon Scott, VP, U.S. Channel Sales
Fortinet was the big winner in this technology category with a top overall score of 80.4.
The company had the highest average scores for all four subcategories: 88.7 for product innovation, 77.8 for support, 86.0 for partnership, and 67.7 for managed and cloud services.
Fortinet also had the top scores in just about all subcategory criteria such as 97.5 in quality and reliability, 91.6 in richness of product features and functionality, 90.6 in communication and 89.9 in ease of doing business.
Networking—SMB Networking
Fortinet
Channel Executive: Landon Scott, VP, U.S. Channel Sales
Fortinet was also the winner of this all-important technology category with the highest overall score of 77.3.
The company had the best average scores in three subcategories, including 77.6 for support, 79.1 for partnership and 63.5 for managed and cloud services.
Highlights of Fortinet’s specific criteria scores in this technology category include 92.7 for product compatibility and ease of integration, 89.2 for post-sales support and 86.1 for ease of doing business.
Security—Cloud And Application
Sophos
Channel Executive: Chris Bell, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances, Corporate Development
This technology category is the first of six wins for Sophos in this year’s Annual Report Card. Sophos recorded a top overall score of 88.5.
The company had the highest average scores in all four subcategories: 93.0 in product innovation, 85.1 in support, 90.7 in partnership, and 84.2 in managed and cloud services.
Sophos scored a clean sweep of all criteria across the four subcategories with high scores such as 101.9 for quality and reliability, 96.8 for compatibility and ease of integration, 90.7 for post-sales support, 94.8 for communication, and 94.7 for revenue and profit potential.
Security—Data Security
Sophos
Channel Executive: Chris Bell, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances, Corporate Development
In another impressive ARC performance, Sophos received the highest overall score of 88.7 in this technology category.
The company garnered the highest average scores in all four subcategories: 91.3 for product innovation, 85.1 for support, 92.2 for partnership, and 85.6 for managed and cloud services.
Sophos also received the highest scores for most of the subcategory criteria, including 99.0 for quality and reliability, 94.3 for post-sales support, 95.3 for solution provider program, 94.4 for revenue and profit potential and 96.6 for ease of doing business.
Security—Email And Web Security
Mimecast
Channel Executive: Micheal McCullough, SVP, Worldwide Partners, Alliances
Mimecast came out on top in this competitive technology category with a top overall score of 87.7.
The company received the highest average scores across three subcategories: 85.5 for support, 90.2 for partnership, and 82.0 for managed and cloud services.
Highlights of Mimecast’s ARC results included scores of 95.2 for communication, 94.4 for post-sales support, 94.2 for ease of doing business, and 90.0 for revenue and profit potential.
Security—Endpoint Protection/Extended Detection And Response
Sophos
Channel Executive: Chris Bell, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances, Corporate Development
This technology category, the most crowded in this year’s Annual Report Card, marked the third category win for Sophos with its top overall score of 85.2.
Sophos had the highest average scores across three subcategories: 81.1 for support, 85.9 for partnership, and 82.0 for managed and cloud services.
Top scores in specific criteria were scattered across numerous vendors in this competitive technology category: Sophos garnered the highest grades for ease of doing business (94.0), revenue and profit potential (88.0) and presales support (84.7), among others.
Security—Identity
Huntress
Channel Executive: Tracie Orisko, Worldwide Sr. Director, Sales Development, Community
Huntress was dominant in this key security technology category. In addition to having the top overall score (88.8), the company had the highest average scores in all four subcategories: 98.8 for product innovation, 82.9 for support, 89.0 for partnership, and 82.7 for managed and cloud services.
Huntress had some pretty impressive grades for specific criteria. In the product innovation subcategory alone its criteria scores included 113.6 for quality and reliability (the second highest criteria score in this year’s ARC), 106.9 for compatibility and ease of integration, 103.1 for technical innovation, and 102.7 for richness of product features and functionality. High scores in other subcategory criteria included 104.1 for post-sales support and 103.7 for ease of doing business.
Security—Managed Detection And Response
Sophos
Channel Executive: Chris Bell, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances, Corporate Development
Sophos was also the winner in this hotly contested technology category with the highest overall score of 88.8.
The company had the highest average scores in two subcategories: 85.3 in support and 92.6 in partnership.
Sophos’ highest criteria scores included 93.0 in revenue and profit potential, 90.5 for training, and—within the managed and cloud services subcategory—88.2 for profit margins and profit potential.
Security—Security Operations Platform
Cribl
Channel Executive: Zac Kilpatrick, VP, Global Channels, Alliances
Cribl earned a commanding victory—its first of two in the 2025 ARC—with its top overall score of 90.2 in this increasingly important cybersecurity technology space.
The company had the highest average scores across the four subcategories: product innovation (99.3), support (82.8), partnership (94.0), and managed and cloud services (83.0).
Cribl, in fact, came close to sweeping the competition with highest grades in nearly all criteria. Some of its most impressive scores were in the product innovation subcategory, including 107.6 for quality and reliability, 106.0 for richness of product features and functionality, 103.5 for technical innovation, and 102.8 for compatibility and ease of integration.
Security—Network Security—Enterprise
Sophos
Channel Executive: Chris Bell, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances, Corporate Development
Sophos came out the winner in this key technology category with a top overall score of 86.0.
The company had the highest average scores in three subcategories: 85.1 in support, 90.0 in partnership and 79.6 in managed and cloud services.
Some of Sophos’ highest grades in specific criteria included 94.3 in communication, 91.2 in post-sales support and 90.3 in solution provider program.
Security—Network Security—SMB
Sophos
Channel Executive: Chris Bell, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances, Corporate Development
Sophos won its sixth victory in this year’s Annual Report Card with a top overall score of 87.6 in this technology category.
Impressively, Sophos had the highest average scores across all four subcategories: 99.1 for product innovation, 84.6 for support, 94.9 for partnership and 69.4 for managed and cloud services.
Sophos, in fact, came to sweeping this technology category with the highest scores for nearly all criteria. Among the most notable were scores in the product innovation subcategory criteria: 109.7 for quality and reliability, 103.5 for compatibility and ease of integration, and 103.4 for richness of product features and functionality.
Other top criteria scores included 102.0 for ease of doing business, 99.1 for post-sales support and 96.2 for communication.
Storage—Data Protection/Observability/Resiliency
Cribl
Channel Executive: Zac Kilpatrick, VP, Global Channels, Alliances
Cribl, in its second victory in this year’s Annual Report Card, dominated this technology category with the top overall score of 94.9.
The company had the highest average scores across all four subcategories, including 99.5 for product innovation, 90.8 for support, 98.1 for partnership, and 90.2 for managed and cloud services.
And as it did with its earlier win in security operations platforms, Cribl scored highest in nearly every criterion in this technology category, garnering impressive scores such as 107.9 for quality and reliability, 102.0 for compatibility and ease of integration, and 101.2 for richness of product features and functionality. Other high criteria scores included 102.4 for ease of doing business and 100.0 for revenue and profit potential.
Storage—SMB External Storage Hardware
Buffalo Technology
Channel Executive: Bill Rhodes, Director, Channel Sales
Buffalo Technology is a perennially strong contender in this technology category, and it was a big winner here this year with a top overall score of 84.7.
The company had the highest average scores in all four subcategories: 94.3 in product innovation, 88.9 in support, 95.9 in partnership, and 57.6 in managed and cloud services.
Buffalo Technology had the highest scores in nearly all criteria including an impressive 113.2 in product quality and reliability (one of the highest criteria scores on the 2025 ARC), 106.9 in compatibility and ease of integration, 105.1 and 107.6 in pre- and post-sales support, respectively, 109.2 in ease of doing business and 104.2 in communication.