Mountains' Majesty: 2011 Annual Report Card Awards Winners

Rocky Mountain High

Solution providers and channel executives from throughout the industry gathered for the 2011 CRN Annual Report Card awards, held August 11 at the XChange Americas conference in Denver, Colo. The 26th edition of the ARC gathered over 3,600 solution provider responses to rank 69 channel programs across 21 technology categories in three areas: product innovation, support and partnership. Here’s a look at the evening and at who came out on top.

Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky swept the network security software category and also picked up a trophy for best partnership in the client security software category for a year in which it has been ranked as one of the fastest growing vendors in the global security software market. Nancy Reynolds (center), senior vice president of corporate sales, Americas, at Kaspersky, accepts the ARC award from CRN’s Vice President and Editorial Director Kelley Damore and Editor, News Steven Burke.

Sophos

Sophos claimed the client security software category overall win, earning top marks for product innovation and support as partners rewarded the company for the job it does simplifying the day-to-day work for security managers by fine-tuning both reactive and preventive protection. Accepting the ARC award from CRN’s Kelley Damore is Matt Fogelgren (left), director of North America channel sales and Steve Hale, vice president of worldwide channel sales at Sophos.

Intel

Intel swept the processor category as channel partners gave out top marks for the company’s efforts to bolster much of its second-generation processor technology and improve power consumption. Intel’s Sharon Alt (center), director of North American distribution and channel marketing accepts the ARC award from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke.

Juniper

Juniper’s had a busy year bringing on high-profile executives as well as growing mobile, video and cloud computing applications and upgrading and revamping its product line. Add to that list sweeping the enterprise networking category. Juniper’s Frank Vitagliano (center-left), SVP, Partners-Americas and Emilio Umeoka (center-right), senior vice president of worldwide partners at Juniper, accept the ARC award from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke.

NEC

NEC garnered the partnership award for displays as well as product innovation in digital signage, building on its rich history in the market as well as the channel. NEC’s Emily Narkviroj (center), director of channel marketing at NEC, accepts the award from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke.

Samsung

Samsung grabbed top honors with the overall victory in the display category, as well as innovation and support awards in the category, where partners rewarded the company for its history of putting the channel front and center. Accepting for Samsung is Peter Richardson (center-right), manager of printer marketing for the enterprise business division of Samsung, with CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke.

Viewsonic

In a brand new category for the ARC awards, digital signage, Viewsonic emerged victorious with top marks in support, partnership and the overall category win after expanding its product portfolio to take advantage of the opportunity and the growing market. Accepting the ARC award from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke for Viewsonic is Melinda Beecher (center-right), National Channel Marketing Manager.

VMware

VMware has paved the way for opportunity and innovation when it comes to virtualization, so it’s little wonder its channel partners rewarded it with a sweep of the server virtualization category. CRN’s Jennifer Follett (left), executive editor, online, and Rob Wright (right), managing editor, online, present the award to VMWare’s Doug Smith, vice president of global partner strategy and operations.

Fortinet

Fortinet channel partners gave the vendor top marks for partnership in the network security appliance category, where it offers multiple layers of defense from management, email, database endpoint security and data center security. Fortinet’s Kendra Krause (center), vice president, channel sales and operations, accepts the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett and Rob Wright.

SonicWall

SonicWall won the overall network security appliance category with victories in product innovation and support. Solution providers rewarded the vendor for its work to bolster its portfolio, including the recent unveiling of its next-generation firewall, an appliance for data backup and recovery and expanded its virtualization security offerings. SonicWall’s Vince Massey (center), senior director of North American channels, accepts the awards from CRN’s Jennifer Follett and Rob Wright.

Cisco

Cisco’s unified communications business spent much of its efforts this year bringing its portfolio to small and medium-sized businesses, leveraging the channel along the way. The company swept the category in this year’s ARC. Accepting the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett and Rob Wright are (left to right) Cisco’s Wendy Bahr, senior vice president, Global & Transformational Partnerships, Richard McLeod, senior director of partner sales for unified communications and Julie Hens, vice president, U.S./Canada channels distribution.

Dell

Despite buying more than a dozen companies in the last few years -- acquisitions that have moved Dell into storage, networking and managed services among other markets -- the company hasn’t lost sight of its roots and earned a partnership win in the category of midrange servers in this year’s ARC. Dell’s Mary Catherine Wilson, director, PartnerDirect marketing and online and Paul Shaffer, executive directo of global channel marketing accept the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett (left) and Rob Wright (right).

Ruckus Wireless

Ruckus Wireless celebrates its first ARC win in its seven year history, winning top marks from partners for its Wi-Fi technology. Ruckus earned the overall SMB networking hardware category award, as well as wins in product innovation and partnership. Ron Gill (center), national sales director at Ruckus, accepts the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett and Rob Wright.

Adtran

Adtran, a company that offers state-of-the-art networking and IP communications products to small and mid-sized businesses, rounded out the SMB networking hardware category with a win for support. Ted Cole (center), vice president of channel sales, accepts the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett and Rob Wright.

IBM

IBM celebrated its 100th anniversary with seven ARC awards: First for product innovation, support and the overall win in midrange servers. Next, they swept Idata and information management. Rich Hume (center-left), general manager, of IBM Global Business Partners and Shaun Jones (center-right), vice president, worldwide business partner marketing, IBM Software Group accept trophies from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke.

Xerox

Market stalwart Xerox nabbed a clean sweep of the workgroup color printer category and won the overall multifunction printer category as well as for support and partnership in that category, earning seven of the eight awards it was eligible for. Accepting for Xerox is Gary Gillam (center-left), vice president, North American channel operations and Tom Gall (center-right), director of channel marketing, accept the awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke.

Oracle

Oracle’s deep and rich history in software helped pave the way for two clean sweeps, one in middleware and the other in business intelligence and data analytics. Accepting the ARC awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke for Oracle is Jeff Barteld (center), director, Americas hardware channel sales.

Hewlett-Packard

Building on one of the biggest and longest standing channel programs in the industry, HP swept the notebook and volume server category, and also took the win in product innovation in the multifunction printer category. Accepting the ARC awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke for HP are Frank Rauch (center-left), vice president of channel sales, and Matt Smith (center-right), director of channel marketing.

EMC

And last but not least is the big winner of the night, earning 12 ARC awards. This vendor has been synonymous with storage since its founding in 1979. Through the years it has expanded into other markets including security, IT management and governance, data warehousing and analytics and content management. This year it swept in backup and recovery, SMB network storage and enterprise network storage.

Accepting from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke for EMC is Gregg Ambulos (center-left), senior vice president, Global Channel Sales , and George Hope (center-right), director, of U.S. channel sales.