The Top 25 IT Innovators Of 2026

The ability to drive innovation for technology products, solutions and services is the hallmark of CRN’s Top 25 Innovators of 2026 list.

As AI reshapes the technology landscape, the most forward-thinking executives understand that innovation is about far more than building a better product. True innovation comes from combining advances in hardware, software, services, business models and operational processes to help customers solve real-world challenges.

In 2026, that challenge is accelerating. Organizations are navigating the opportunities and risks of generative AI, agentic AI, cybersecurity threats, cloud modernization, data management and emerging infrastructure demands. The leaders featured here are driving the innovations that help businesses adapt, compete and grow in a rapidly changing market.

Just as important, these 25 executives and their companies remain deeply committed to the partner ecosystem. Solution providers, systems integrators, MSPs and other channel partners play a vital role in bringing innovation to customers, helping organizations identify, deploy and maximize the technologies that fuel digital transformation.

This year's No. 1 Innovator is HPE's Rami Rahim, who has combined the HPE Aruba campus networking line and the robust Juniper enterprise networking portfolio into a leader that is challenging Cisco for AI networking supremacy.

What follows is CRN's list of the Top 25 IT Innovators of 2026.

Be sure to also check out the complete list of CRN's Top 100 Executives of 2026.

25. Gordon Mackintosh

SVP, Partner Sales, Programs

Equinix

Mackintosh is charged with bringing channel partners the latest innovations from Equinix, including distributed AI, fabric intelligence and AI-ready global data center infrastructure. These are all part of a coherent AI platform strategy to provide customers with a neutral platform on which they can build enterprise AI rather than just another colocation offering.

24. Jason Magee

CEO

Cynet Security

Magee has elevated Cynet’s standing in the channel by delivering an all-in-one cybersecurity platform designed for MSPs. His channel-first strategy, combined with continued investments in automation and detection capabilities, has fueled partner growth and expanded the vendor’s market presence in the IT channel.

23. Susan Odle

CEO

StorMagic

Odle continues to push StorMagic as an alternative to VMware for edge and ROBO (remote office and branch office) environments, with recent innovations around the company’s SvHCI hyperconverged infrastructure software including new snapshot, virtual machine import/export and stretch cluster capabilities, along with major updates to its SvSAN software-defined virtual SAN technology.

22. Sal Sferlazza

CEO

NinjaOne

Sferlazza continues to expand NinjaOne’s momentum through rapid platform innovation and a relentless focus on customer experience. Under his leadership, the company has broadened endpoint management, patching and automation capabilities while strengthening its position as one of the fastest-growing vendors serving MSPs and enterprise IT teams.

21. David Friend

Founder, President, CEO

Wasabi Technologies

Led by Friend, cloud storage provider Wasabi’s key recent moves have included acquiring the Lyve cloud storage business from Seagate. The move boosts the infrastructure and capacity that Wasabi can offer to its customers while also paving the way for future acquisitions, according to Friend.

20. Jed Ayres

CEO

ControlUp

Ayres is a channel champion and master marketer who doesn’t get enough credit for his technology vision and ability to take partners into fast-growing emerging markets. His latest market-making move: putting partners into the lucrative AI-driven autonomous endpoint management market. Under his leadership, ControlUp has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

19. Kevin Ichhpurani

President, Global Partner Ecosystem

Google Cloud

The new Google Cloud Partner Network launched in 2026 was spearheaded by Ichhpurani, who is a longtime channel program and strategy innovator. He led the integration of Google’s AI technology into the new program’s core to make partner participation easier, allowing more focus on customers instead of routine program tasks. Ichhpurani also championed the creation of Google Cloud’s new $750 million partner fund.

18. Francois Locoh-Donou

Chairman, President, CEO

F5 Networks

Locoh-Donou has served as F5’s president and CEO since 2017 where he has spearheaded the company’s transformation from a focus on networking hardware to a provider of hybrid multi-cloud application delivery and security. He oversaw the expansion of the company's Application Delivery and Security Platform with a big push on AI-driven protection, zero-trust access and post-quantum readiness.

17. Akinobu Shimada

CEO

Hitachi Vantara

While Shimada stepped into the CEO role at Hitachi Vantara in April 2026, he has spent 30 years with Hitachi, including serving as president of Hitachi Vantara Japan where he was instrumental in advancing the company’s data infrastructure business globally and innovating how the company manages and brings value to data.

16. David Nankervis

VP, Timus

CyberFox

Nankervis has led Timus’ rapid innovation in secure remote access, delivering a zero-trust network access platform purpose-built for MSPs. Under his leadership, Timus’ partner-first approach and simplified security model fueled strong market momentum, culminating in the company’s acquisition by CyberFox to expand its cybersecurity portfolio.

15. Renen Hallak

Founder, CEO

Vast Data

Vast Data under Hallak has become one of the storage industry’s most innovative companies. The company’s new AI Operating System aims to transform the focus from storage to a unified platform combining storage, database services, compute orchestration and agentic AI tooling as a way to help businesses connect IT infrastructure with AI applications.

14. Sanjib Sahoo

President, Global Platform Group

Ingram Micro

Sahoo has led the evolution of Ingram Micro’s Xvantage digital platform, introducing AI-driven capabilities that simplify business processes for partners worldwide. His work has transformed how partners engage with the distributor, streamlining procurement, sales, insight and customer experiences through its AI-forward platform.

13. John Pagliuca

President, CEO

N-able

Pagliuca has accelerated N-able’s innovation strategy by expanding AI-powered capabilities, strengthening cybersecurity offerings and deepening the company’s commitment to MSP success. His leadership has helped partners simplify operations, improve cyber resilience and grow recurring revenue through an expanding portfolio of integrated management and security solutions.

12. Sanjay Mirchandani

President, CEO

Commvault

Commvault this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, yet under Mirchandani it continues to innovate like a startup. Mirchandani late last year led the company in the introduction of the Cloud Unity Platform, which unites data security, identity resilience and cyber recovery into a single cloud-native architecture. The company also pushes the concept of ResOps, or resilience operations.

11. Rania Succar

CEO

Kaseya

Since taking the helm, Succar has sharpened Kaseya’s focus on partner success, AI innovation and platform integration. She has championed investments that help MSPs improve efficiency, automate operations and strengthen cybersecurity, reinforcing Kaseya’s position as a leading provider of unified IT management and security solutions.

10. Ken Xie

Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO

Fortinet

Fortinet has seen surging demand for its SASE (secure access service edge) platform driven by unique capabilities including a sovereign SASE version of the offering, according to Xie. The offering allows organizations to deploy FortiSASE in their own data centers as a way to meet data privacy, sovereignty and compliance requirements.

9. Ryan McCurdy

SVP, President, North America

Lenovo

McCurdy has been Lenovo’s top advocate for the company’s AI PC business and its hybrid AI strategy. Under McCurdy, Lenovo has moved AI off the road map and onto devices across the data center to help channel partners and their customers choose the technology that best meets their requirements.

8. Joe Smolarski

CEO

WatchGuard Technologies

WatchGuard Technologies has doubled down on offerings tailored for MSPs through its integrated cybersecurity platform that is built for service providers rather than adapted from enterprise products, according to Smolarski. Key benefits for MSPs include enterprise-grade protection, AI-driven threat correlation, rapid incident support and affordable security capabilities.

7. Cristiano Amon

President, CEO

Qualcomm

Under Amon, Qualcomm is heating up the competition with Intel and AMD with the company’s Oryon CPU architecture and Snapdragon X platforms. The latest Snapdragon C targets entry-level mobile PC performance and battery life, while its third-generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU unifies the CPU technology between PC and mobile platforms.

6. Danny Jenkins

Co-Founder, CEO

ThreatLocker

Key additions to ThreatLocker’s platform include its recently launched zero-trust network and cloud access offering, which brings the vendor’s deny-by-default approach in a bigger way to SaaS and mobile devices. ThreatLocker is now brokering network traffic rather than tunneling it through a VPN, which offers massive advantages for user experience and performance, according to Jenkins.

5. Matt Hicks

President, CEO

Red Hat

The ultimate open-source evangelist rides alongside the channel in meeting increased demand for the IBM subsidiary’s technology that modernizes IT estates and future-proofs organizations for the AI era and beyond, all while capitalizing on new appetite for VMware alternatives.

4. Nick Schneider

President, CEO

Arctic Wolf

Schneider oversaw the recent debut of what Arctic Wolf calls the world’s largest agentic Security Operations Center. The launch of Arctic Wolf’s Aurora Agentic SOC delivers substantial reductions in cost and complexity in addition to providing enhanced AI-powered security outcomes for MSPs and other partners, according to Schneider.

3. Judson Althoff

CEO, Commercial Business

Microsoft

Few executives have the channel power Althoff gained with his October promotion. Now sitting at the intersection of Microsoft strategy, sales and ecosystem, he holds the keys to taking AI adoption, cloud consumption and digital transformation to new heights.

2. Jeff Clarke

Vice Chairman, COO

Dell Technologies

A technology visionary in his own right, Clarke has been the driving force behind Dell’s internal AI transformation that has made the company a force to be reckoned with in the agentic AI enterprise race. There is no better primer on what it takes to succeed in the agentic AI era than his Dell Technologies keynote address. Check it out.

1. Rami Rahim

EVP, President, GM, Networking

HPE

More often than not, blockbuster technology acquisitions result in culture clash, brain drain and in-fighting that leaves the combined entity less than the sum of its parts. But thanks to Rahim, that has not been the case with HPE’s $13.4 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.

Just one year after HPE completed the blockbuster deal, Rahim has combined the HPE Aruba campus networking line and the robust Juniper enterprise networking portfolio into a leader that is challenging Cisco for AI networking supremacy.

Partners credit Rahim’s steady hand, technology vision and his ability to combine two separate organizations behind a unified leave-no-customer-behind strategy for the momentum they are seeing in the networking sales trenches.

Rahim’s decision to bring the “best of both platforms,” Aruba and Juniper, to all users has been a relief for customers that are used to having some products discontinued in the wake of an acquisition.

What’s even more impressive than the road map is just how fast the combined development team has delivered one breakthrough after another to power the combined HPE self-driving network portfolio.

Rahim’s resolve to extend HPE’s self-driving AI networking leadership has translated into a charged-up combined Aruba-Juniper sales force that is teaming with partners.

Partners, for their part, say they are making big bets that HPE’s AI networking edge will capture share from Cisco and in the process bring sales growth for them and HPE.

For the first time in decades, customers are looking for an alternative to Cisco, said Mike Vencel, president of Comport Consulting, Ramsey, N.J., No. 309 on the 2026 CRN Solution Provider 500. “The combined Aruba-Juniper story is taking on the 800-pound Cisco gorilla head on,” he said.