2018 Annual Report Card Winners: Solution Providers Give Top Marks To Key Vendors

Strength In Numbers

For the 33rd year, CRN offered solution providers in North America the opportunity to grade the performance of their IT vendor partners as part of the CRN Annual Report Card.

Solution providers scored vendors in 24 technology categories based on their performance across four criteria: product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services. Vendors also received an overall average score in each technology category.

Some product categories featured repeat winners from previous years, while new winners rose to the top in others. Who's at the top of their game in the channel's view? Read on to find out which vendors earned the highest marks this year.

Business Analytics: IBM

Channel Chief: John Teltsch, GM, Global Business Partners

IBM's strong business analytics portfolio includes Watson Analytics, SPSS Statistics and Cognos Analytics in the cloud. With that product lineup IBM scored 77.8 for product innovation.

Solution providers graded IBM at 62.5 for support, 70.0 for partnership, and 65.4 for managed and cloud services. The company's overall score was 69.3.

Collaboration: Intermedia

Channel Chief: Eric Martorano, Chief Revenue Officer

Intermedia came out on top in this highly competitive technology category with an overall score of 84.2. The company received the highest marks in support (81.9), partnership (84.9), and managed and cloud services (79.7)

But Cisco scored highest in product innovation with an impressive 90.6, coming in second with an overall score of 82.7. Polycom was third with an overall score of 75.4 and IBM fourth with an overall score of 63.3.

Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure Systems: Dell EMC

Channel Chief: Joyce Mullen, President, Global Channel, OEM and IoT Solutions

Converged and hyperconverged systems have been one of the hottest segments of the IT channel in recent years and that's reflected in the split results in this category.

Dell EMC came out on top with an overall score of 83.9, thanks to the company's top scores in product innovation (91.1) and support (82.6).

But Hewlett Packard Enterprise SimpliVity was a close second with an overall score of 83.1, based on its top scores in partnership (84.9), and managed and cloud services (77.0). Scale Computing was third with an overall score of 74.6 while Cisco was fourth with an overall score of 74.1.

Data Protection Software: Datto

Channel Chief: Rob Rae, Vice President of Business Development

Datto took the top spot in the data protection software category, scoring 89.3 overall and garnering an impressive 94.5 score in product innovation and 85.9 in support.

StorageCraft came in second with an overall score of 89.0, thanks to its top scores in partnership (90.6) and managed and cloud services (86.3). Veeam was third with an overall score of 83.8, Dell EMC fourth with 81.9 and IBM fifth with 74.7.

Data Security: McAfee and Symantec (tie)

Channel Chiefs: Ken McCray, McAfee head of channel sales and operations for the Americas; Keith Weatherford, Symantec Vice President, AMS Channel Sales

McAfee and Symantec tied for the top spot in this product category, each getting an overall score of 79.7.

Symantec snagged the highest scores in product innovation (86.6) and support (79.3) while McAfee scored highest in partnership (80.9) and managed and cloud services (76.3).

IBM was third in this category with an overall score of 74.8.

Desktop And Server Virtualization: VMware

Channel Chief: Frank Rauch, Vice President, Americas Partner Organization

VMware won this critical technology category with an overall score of 77.9, fueled by top scores in product innovation (90.3) and managed and cloud services (72.7).

But IGEL gave the virtualization giant a run for its money, winning the highest scores in support (72.6) and partnership (78.1) for an overall score of 75.8.

Email Security: SonicWall

Channel Chief: Steve Pataky, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales

SonicWall received an overall score of 87.4 in this technology category. Solution providers gave the company scores of 91.5 for product innovation, 86.3 for support, 89.6 for partnership, and 81.4 for managed and cloud services.

Endpoint Security: Sophos

Channel Chief: Kendra Krause, Vice President, Global Channels

Sophos was the runaway winner in this product category, scoring an impressive 91.6 overall. The company received the top scores for all criteria: an impressive 96.0 for product innovation, 89.6 for support, 93.3 for partnership, and 86.7 for managed and cloud services.

McAfee was second with an overall score of 80.3, followed by Symantec (77.9) and IBM (74.6).

Enterprise Network Storage: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Channel Chief: Terry Richardson, Vice President, North America Channels, Alliances

HPE took the top scores across the board in this technology category, resulting in a winning overall score of 83.4. The company received a grade of 89.6 in product innovation, 80.5 in support, 85.7 in partnership, and 76.3 in managed and cloud services.

Dell EMC was second with an overall score of 81.5 and IBM third with 78.2.

Enterprise Networking Infrastructure: Aruba, an HPE company

Channel Chief: Donna Grothjan, Vice President, Worldwide Channels

HPE's Aruba ran away with this product category, scoring 83.0 overall. The company received top scores in product innovation (91.7), support (81.8), partnership (82.9), and managed and cloud services (74.1).

Cisco was second with an overall score of 80.3, followed by Dell EMC (78.5) and Juniper Networks (76.1).

Enterprise Wireless LANs: Aruba, an HPE company

Channel Chief: Donna Grothjan, Vice President, Worldwide Channels

HPE's Aruba also won this technology category with an overall score of 86.6, fueled by its top grades for product innovation (94.7), support (84.2), partnership (87.7), and managed and cloud services (78.1).

Cisco was second with an overall score of 81.7.

Industry Standard Servers: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Channel Chief: Terry Richardson, Vice President, North America Channels, Alliances

HPE took this all-important product category, receiving a top score of 84.0. The company received the top scores in product innovation (91.5), partnership (85.1), and managed and cloud services (76.8).

Dell EMC was second with an overall score of 82.7 and received the top score for support (81.6). IBM was third with an overall score of 76.2.

Multifunction Printers: HP Inc.

Channel Chief: Stephanie Dismore, Vice President and General Manager, Americas Channel

HP Inc. swept this category, scoring 82.6 overall and receiving top scores in product innovation (85.1), support (77.7), partnership (84.0), and managed print services (83.2).

Xerox was second with an overall score of 70.8.

Network Connectivity: Comcast Business

Channel Chief: Craig Schlagbaum, Vice President, Indirect Channels

Comcast received an overall score of 74.1 in this technology category. For the specific criteria the company's scores were 78.7 for product innovation, 73.8 for support, 77.7 for partnership, and 65.2 for managed and cloud services.

Network Security: Sophos

Channel Chief: Kendra Krause, Vice President, Global Channels

Sophos came out on top in this crowded, competitive product category with an overall score of 92.3. It did that by sweeping all criteria with top scores in product innovation (an astounding 97.8), support (89.6), partnership (94.8), and managed and cloud services (86.0).

SonicWall was second with an overall score of 90.2, followed by HPE Aruba (88.1), Fortinet (86.6), Juniper Networks (80.7) and Cisco (79.6).

Notebooks and Mobile Computers: Dell EMC

Channel Chief: Joyce Mullen, President, Global Channel, OEM and IoT Solutions

Dell EMC took the top scores in this technology category, scoring 85.9 overall. Solution providers gave the company scores of 92.1 in product innovation, 87.5 in support, 87.2 in partnership, and 75.5 in managed and cloud services.

Lenovo was second with an overall score of 84.2, followed by HP Inc. with 80.2.

Power Protection and Management: Eaton

Channel Chief: Curtiz Gangi, Vice President, U.S. Channels, Data Center Segment

Eaton came out on top in this highly competitive product category, garnering a top score of 87.1. That included top scores of 90.6 in product innovation, 88.3 in support, and 75.5 in managed and cloud services.

Tripp Lite, which received the highest score in partnership (93.4), was second with an overall score of 86.5. APC by Schneider Electric was third with an overall score of 85.2 – and tied with Eaton for the top score in product innovation at 90.6. Vertiv was fourth with an overall score of 81.4.

Processors: Intel

Channel Chief: Jason Kimrey, Managing Director, North American Partner Sales

Intel earned an overall score of 77.2, including a commendable 91.2 for product innovation and scores of 74.1 for support, 78.0 for partnership, and 62.9 for managed and cloud services.

Security Management: Fortinet

Channel Chief: Jon Bove, Vice President, Channel Sales

Fortinet swept this technology category with scores of 91.0 for product innovation, 85.0 for support, 87.3 for partnership, and 79.5 for managed and cloud services, resulting in an overall score of 85.9.

IBM was second with an overall score of 75.5.

SMB External Storage Hardware: Buffalo Technology

Channel Chief: Bill Rhodes, Director of Channel Sales

Buffalo Technology ran away with this product category, racking up an overall score of 89.9. That included receiving the top scores in all criteria including 93.2 for product innovation, 90.0 for support, 95.5 for partnership, and 80.1 for managed and cloud services.

Dell EMC came in second with an overall score of 84.5 and Hewlett Packard Enterprise third with 83.3.

SMB Networking: Aruba, an HPE company

Channel Chief: Donna Grothjan, Vice President, Worldwide Channels

Aruba won this technology category with an overall score of 85.5 and top scores in product innovation (92.1), support (85.0) and partnership (86.9).

But Datto, which came in second with an overall score of 82.8, took the top grade in managed and cloud services (77.4). Dell EMC was third with an overall score of 81.8.

Tablets: HP Inc.

Channel Chief: Stephanie Dismore, Vice President and General Manager, Americas Channel

This was a close race with HP Inc. coming out on top with an overall score of 78.8, thanks to its receiving the top marks in product innovation (82.2), partnership (82.7), and managed and cloud services (71.8).

But Dell was right behind with an overall score of 78.3, and the company bested HP in support with a score of 78.9. Lenovo was third overall with a score of 76.0.

Web Application Security: Fortinet

Channel Chief: Jon Bove, Vice President, Channel Sales

In yet another close race, Fortinet won this technology category with an overall score of 86.8, including garnering the top scores in product innovation (93.2) and support (83.3), and tying with Veracode in partnership (89.6).

Veracode was a close second with an overall score of 86.3, beating Fortinet in managed and cloud services (81.2) and tying in partnership (89.6).

Workgroup Color Printers: Xerox

Channel Chief: Darren Cassidy, President, U.S. Channels Unit

In one last hotly contested race, Xerox edged out HP Inc. in this product category with an overall score of 77.5. That included receiving the top scores in product innovation (80.4), support (75.8), and managed print services (76.5).

HP was close behind with an overall score of 76.5, and it bested Xerox in partnership with a score of 77.7.