The Final Cut

THE FINAL CUT Channel Lessons From e

Supply Chain Crisis

HATS OFF TO THE SOLUTION PROVIDERS THAT NAVIGATED IT AND THRIVED By Steven Burke

TO SAY THE PANDEMIC and all of the ripple effects from the crisis—especially the supply chain shortage— have profoundly changed the channel landscape is an understatement. Some of these technology, business and sales changes are examined in this issue’s cover story. It’s a story that is perhaps best illustrated by the personal tribulations and heroics of the solution providers we featured. Here, then, are fi ve lessons learned from solution providers that fi gured out how to prosper despite the pandemic and resulting supply chain crisis. 1. STEP UP AND TAKE ACTION Many solution providers brought in new accounts as a result of forgoing some up-front sales and profi ts by deploying highpriced talent or eating the cost of a higher-priced solution to help a customer out of a jam. Relationships forged in a time of crisis are diffi cult to break. 2. MOVE QUICKLY TO ADAPT AND CHANGE Those solution providers that put the pedal to the metal to solve customer issues by implementing cloud, security and VDI solutions to help support a remote workforce gained credibility and trust that likely would have taken years to build. The crisis has, in fact, resulted in a stronger trusted adviser channel model. 3. GO TO WHERE THE MONEY IS The pandemic accelerated cloud adoption over just a few months to levels it otherwise would have taken a decade to reach. Solution providers that moved quickly to provide critical cloud and security services and the consulting and managed services that go along with them are winning the day. Those that stuck with a primarily hardware-focused model found themselves hammered by the supply chain nightmare. “You can’t sell what you don’t have,” said a solution provider who has seen a dramatic increase in his cloud and managed services business in the wake of the supply chain crisis. 4. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE Solution providers that stepped up and kept customers informed on supply chain issues were big winners. Customers will often be forgiving if they are aware of their options, including sourcing used products, switching to alternate models, ordering further in advance or moving to the cloud. Solution providers that were successful managing the logistics challenges conducted weekly calls with customers that are ongoing to this day. 5. DRINK YOUR OWN CHAMPAGNE Solution providers that embraced cloud services—including Unifi ed Communications as a Service offerings like Microsoft Teams to communicate with customers—saw huge success. One solution provider increased his revenue per employee by leveraging software tools to conduct sales calls and quarterly business reviews with customers. That also resulted in the number of customers from outside his primary geography increasing from just a handful of customers to 20 percent of sales.

Hats off to the solution providers that made the moves to be able to thrive amid the pandemic and emerge stronger than ever. They are moving customers into the cloud era at a breakneck pace and powering a new digital industrial revolution. ■

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How To Succeed by Seeing the Whole Story

ExaGrid’s Intelligent Backup Storage Fosters Business Continuity

Q. How can the channel play a role with helping organizations with business continuity?

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Q. What should you consider when securing your company data?

A. Data must be backed up quickly and reliably so that it’s ready for restore. ExaGrid offers the only tiered backup storage architecture which allows for backup and restore performance as fast as disk and deduplication without impact on performance. ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage is the best of both worlds with a front-end disk-cache Landing Zone and a non-network-facing tier repository for storing all the data in a deduplicated format for storage savings. The other key feature of the tiered architecture is that it’s non-network-facing, which provides a tiered air gap with delayed deletes and immutable data objects and ensures that all backup data is available after a cyberattack such as a ransomware attack.

Q. What are some common business issues related to backup storage?

A. While backup applications are usually top of mind, backup storage can often be overlooked and leads to poor performance and overpaying for storage in the backup environment. In addition, the importance of utilizing backup storage as a key part of the recovery process after a ransomware attack. Preparing efficiently for disaster recovery is also a big part of the equation.

Q. How does reliability and redundancy impact a business?

A. ExaGrid’s architecture and implementation have multiple facets of reliability and redundancy protecting the customer’s data at every step, allowing organizations that are considering disk-based backup appliances to make informed vendor selections. Organizations using a disk-based backup appliance to hold their invaluable backup data should carefully consider how the appliance is designed for reliability and redundancy. Compromises in a product’s architecture or implementation may reduce product cost, but those savings are quickly dwarfed by the risk and real cost to an organization of a loss of some or all backup data. ExaGrid has an innovative reseller program and has a large focus on working with the channel. ExaGrid is also the only vendor completely focused on backup storage, so we make sure to offer the best features and offer flexibility, scalability, unrivaled customer support and high customer satisfaction.

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Mike Shook knew when the COVID-19 outbreak wreaked supply chain havoc that it would change the fundamental makeup of his solution provider business.

He had already determined before the pandemic hit that his company, 5S Technologies, Cary, N.C., needed to transition to a cloud- and services-led model. But as hardware became more and more diffi cult to come by, it was the global supply chain crisis that lit the fuse and dramatically accelerated the solution provider’s transformation to become “software-heavy” as a matter of survival. “When I place a software order, I have the license within 24 hours, and we’re paid within 30 days,” Shook, founder, president and CEO of 5S Technologies, told CRN. “With hardware, it could be six months to a year before you can deliver [with current supply chain backlogs].” Shook is one of many savvy solution provider executives who pivoted his business to preserve revenue in the wake of supply chain challenges that have made it diffi cult to procure the hardware they typically used as solution building blocks. “We took a long, hard look, and we changed who we were,” said Shook, who founded 5S Technologies eight years ago as a small VAR focused on hardware sales. “We are now an MSP, and our managed services sell our software and hardware. We’ve gone full circle from the hardware being the horse that drives the cart to the software driving it.” The scope of the two-year metamorphosis is evident in the numbers. “Our VAR portfolio went from 80 percent hardware [and] 20 percent software to 60 percent software and 40 percent hardware,” Shook said. During that time, 5S Technologies built up its hybrid cloud practice, boosting its focus on Citrix Systems and Nutanix, even becoming a Nutanix Champion Partner in August 2021. “It was easy for us to adopt that model once we got away from being a hardware shop,” Shook said. “Thankfully, we had those software technologies in place as people adopted work-from-home, and we were not relying on unknowns.” At Meriplex, a Houston-based MSP, explosive growth in cloud and security services driven by the pandemic and the supply chain crisis has powered astronomical sales. Cloud computing consulting and services revenue for Meriplex grew more than 50 percent in 2021 and is up another 50 percent this year. Security consulting is also on a sales tear, more than

doubling each year of the pandemic. The company’s hybrid solutions also have been up 50 percent year over year for the past two years. “The pandemic accelerated the adoption of cloud computing,” said Meriplex Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships and M&A Neil Medwed, who has been at the forefront of a Meriplex acquisition binge that has brought 10 MSPs in the past two years under the Meriplex umbrella. “There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. Pre-pandemic, 25 percent of the customer base was deeply thinking about cloud. Because of the pandemic, 75 percent-plus of customers are thinking deeply about cloud and hybrid cloud solutions.” Medwed estimates that about 40 percent of MSPs have made the transition to the cloud software and services model in the wake of the pandemic. That leaves a whopping 60 percent of the MSP base that has struggled and is not where it should be in terms of offering customers sophisticated cloud and security services, he said. “If you stuck with a hardware-dominated model in the midst of the pandemic and supply chain crisis, you are in ‘When I place a software order, I the intensive care unit at this point,” Medwed said. have the license within 24 hours, “I believe that well-run and we’re paid within 30 days. With MSPs are going to be able hardware, it could be six months to to take advantage of the market dynamics in a very a year before you can deliver [with positive way. Those comcurrent supply chain backlogs].’ panies that are not well run are going to struggle — Mike Shook, Founder, President, CEO, 5S Technologies to keep up as days go by.” Zac Paulson, CEO of TrueIT, a fast-growing Fargo, N.D.-based MSP, said the supply chain crisis has had an earth-shattering impact on nearly every part of his business. The resulting product shortages forced all of his customers to look deeply at cloud services, leading to a 20 percent to 30 percent increase in his cloud services business since the start of the pandemic. “We were always a born-in-the-cloud-fi rst type of company, but the customers weren’t always cloud-fi rst,” Paulson said. “That conversation has gotten a lot easier. We were able to take the technology we use every day in our business and move it to our customers faster.” TrueIT’s managed services business hit new highs in 2021 and 2022. “Our business is stronger than it has ever been because we were prepared to help our customers cross the chasm into the cloud,” Paulson said. The supply chain crisis has changed the psyche of the channel regarding just-in-time manufacturing, said Paulson. “We all got used to just-in-time inventory and project processes,” he said. “This has caused everyone to take a step back,

do more planning, look at their forecasts and be a little more proactive. In all honesty, that is not a bad thing,” Paulson said. Ultimately, the crisis has raised the status of MSPs acting as trusted advisers, Paulson said. “Before the crisis, it was not uncommon for some of our managed services customers to buy online or go to big-box stores and buy stuff, and then we had to deal with the fallout,” he said. “When it became more diffi cult, they put the burden back on the MSP. The customers have welcomed that. I think they appreciate the fact that we are taking care of this now and helping them get through the supply chain crisis,” he said.

TrueIT has also begun holding inventory on certain hard-to-get products for customers. “We are holding laptops, desktops and access points,” he said. “Customers are purchasing product, and we are holding it for them until they need it. We never carried inventory in the past.”

Order Backlogs Still Persist

Marc Harrison, a 33-year veteran solution provider and PC reseller, wakes up every day with a knot in his stomach knowing he will spend countless hours on an increasingly futile attempt to chase down products for his customers. “It makes you question why you’re in this business sometimes,” Harrison, president of Silicon East in Morganville, N.J., said with a sigh. For Harrison, the transition to the cloud is not coming easily. He started offering more cloud-based services at the beginning of the pandemic “but for us that’s all been new business with existing clients. To date, no one has shut down their server infrastructure and never looked back,” he said. “The reality is, even with cloud-based apps and infrastructure, businesses still need PCs, switches, Wi-Fi access points, fi rewalls and printers. So the problem still exists for us.” Harrison isn’t alone in his frustration. While the PC business saw an unprecedented boom in the two years following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, solution providers were about to get a crash course in the complex world of the global supply chain. As COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns impacted just about every corner of the globe, a ripple effect would begin creating a supply chain snarl that is still vexing industries around the world. The IT industry took an especially nuanced hit, with vendors reporting record sales and demand entangled with constrained supplies and logistics delays. While solution providers were busy trying to fulfi ll their backlogs, a perfect storm was waiting in 2022 as workers and

students began returning to physical offi ces and schools. Demand began falling off deeply on the consumer PC side. In addition, infl ation spawned by global economic interventions was starting to rise. Russia invaded Ukraine in March, causing more logistical turmoil in the supply chain. And fi nally, COVID-19 reared its head again in China, this time striking some of the busiest technology manufacturing fi rms around Shenzen. Those market forces took a toll on fi nancial results across the board in the tech sector and roiled the supply chain even further. Networking, server and PC vendors have been hit particularly hard. At networking giant Cisco, for example, the supply chain crisis has triggered a record-breaking order backlog to the tune of more than $15 billion as of May, up 130 percent year over year. The San Jose, Calif.-based company did not disclose those order backlog numbers for its most recent fi scal quarter that ended July 30. But the company once again ‘We all got used to just-in-time saw triple-digit backlog growth that fueled the inventory and project processes. backlog to the highest This has caused everyone to take a level ever recorded in the step back, do more planning, look at company’s history, Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck their forecasts and be a little more Robbins said in August. proactive.’ Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s backlog, — Zac Paulson, CEO, TrueIT meanwhile, hit yet another record level during its third fi scal quarter ended July 31, up 96 percent year over year. The backlog includes Aruba order bookings of more than 20 times historical levels and a backlog in the compute business that also hit another record level and is now at fi ve times normal levels. The backlog also impacted Spring, Texas-based HPE’s growing GreenLake cloud services business, which was “limited” by supply chain constraints that hindered the ability to do some GreenLake installations in the quarter, according to HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri. The supply chain delays are impacting solution providers in different ways. Smaller players seem to be bearing the brunt of backlogs for ready stock, solution providers said. Larger companies with more purchasing power can hold more inventory. For Silicon East’s Harrison, the diffi culties in the ordering process create a constant supply headache. Harrison explained a typical problem with ordering a server for a customer: “We buy these large, $20,000 to $25,000 servers,” he said. “The server might be in stock, but there are no hard drives and no SSDs [solid state drives] to go with it. In some cases, there are no power supplies. And you need all those components to deliver a solution. The problem is that the power supply might be back-ordered, say six weeks …

the hard drives are back-ordered 12 to 16 weeks, and for the SSDs, there’s no delivery date at all. So, you take delivery of the server and pay for the other parts as they become available. And there’s no guarantee the hard drives, for example, will ever come in.” Some customers, he said, have been waiting more than two years for server parts to complete projects. “This is making it impossible to provide the solutions customers have paid for. … It’s ridiculous,” Harrison said. As remote work and remote learning fueled a rush to equip workers and students with PCs and networking devices during the pandemic, Harrison was suddenly fl ooded with demand while he watched supply for these products get increasingly more diffi cult to secure.

Network switches, for example, have become a nightmare to deliver, he said. “On the network side, we’re going through our hundreds of installations and trying to figure out where to put in switches that may be larger capacity than we actually need—but that’s what’s available. We’re literally playing ‘musical switches.’ It’s just not sustainable in the long term.” Wait times for some hardware products are lasting nearly a year right now, according to Hermann Masser, president of Masser Technologies, an El Paso, Texas-based solution provider. The issue is particularly bad for networking gear, he said, which has prompted Masser Technologies to stock used equipment to fi ll in temporarily as needed. “We’re keeping an inventory of used equipment so when one of my customers that is waiting to get the hardware, or when they have a failure and they have to replace a switch in an emergency because we cannot fi nd switches or access points anymore, we’ll grab one of those old pieces of equipment and deploy it as a Band-Aid until we can get the equipment back,” Masser said. Masser’s company is waiting on close to 200 access points right now—products he doesn’t expect to have in hand for another year. “It’s defi nitely changing our ability to move fast and to sell,” he added. A solution provider who spoke to CRN on condition of anonymity said that the network switch shortage has contributed to a 30 percent decrease in hardware sales for his company this year compared with last year.

The Texas-based solution provider has about 60 SMB customers and has been forced to use older network switches to patch

their networks as the wait for parts continues. In addition to networking products, storage products have been hard to fi nd, said TrueIT’s Paulson. In fact, he said, some customers that ordered products in January are just now receiving the equipment, he said. “Every customer that needed networking or SANs faced delays,” Paulson said. “There were none that we could order and deliver in a normal time frame.” TrueIT also had orders canceled by distributors that were facing one delay after another from vendor partners, said Paulson. “Distributors thought they would have stock coming in, but the estimated time of arrivals just got way too long so the orders were canceled,” he said. TrueIT also saw big price increases, which caused the solution provider to go back to its customers with 10 percent to 30 percent price increases, according to Paulson. ‘It was an awakening about how Ultimately, True IT delivered fewer hardware dumb and stupid we all were about products to customers the supply chain because it works but at a higher price, with the result that overall so well, right until it falls apart. ... hardware sales have risen, But there’s no way any human being said Paulson. “Hardware could have seen it coming.’ quantity is down by a signifi cant number, but our — Harry Zarek, Founder, President, CEO, Compugen hardware sales overall are up,” he said.

The ‘Humpty Dumpty’ Supply Chain

For Harry Zarek’s Ontario, Canada-based solution provider Compugen, the race to outfi t a tech-heavy workforce to operate from home during the pandemic was a wake-up call to the channel that it had long overlooked the complexity of the supply chain. “It was an awakening about how dumb and stupid we all were about the supply chain because it works so well, right until it falls apart,” said Zarek, founder, president and CEO of Compugen. “And in fact, it’s so broken, it’s like Humpty Dumpty. But there’s no way any human being could have seen it coming. People were sending me pictures of themselves trying to cobble together home computers, old laptops, and trying to assemble some sort of way to work from their kitchen or basement. The fi rst part of it was just pandemonium.” As the pandemic wore on, the challenges shifted, he said. “We went through phases,” Zarek said. “The fi rst phase was this mad scramble to get anything that customers could use to allow them to maintain operations. Then there was this short period of time where businesses seemed to go into suspended animation—they just paused. Then, business began to accelerate. Every month it was more and more, and as business kept growing the supply chain issues kept growing along with them. It’s a never-ending game of Whac-A-Mole.”

The Power Of Global Logistics

When Future Tech Enterprise CEO Bob Venero made a bold bet on building out global logistics capabilities for his solution provider business a decade ago, he had no idea it would reap big rewards in the wake of a global supply chain crisis. “Global logistics are on the forefront of every meeting and conversation we are having with customers and OEMs,” he said. “We are tracking this weekly with our OEMs. Every week we have supply chain calls at every level for every product for every customer that we sell to.” With its global logistics capabilities, Future Tech’s business is “booming,” with sales up 49 percent in the last year, said Venero. “Our hardware business, including mobile, desktop, server and storage systems, is extremely healthy,” he said. One reason for the uptick in business is the ability for Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Future Tech to leverage its fi nancial muscle to gain a supply chain advantage for its large enterprise customers by increasing its inventory levels from three months of inventory before the pandemic to six to nine months of inventory, said Venero. “Our job is to make sure we can meet these supply chain challenges for our customers,” he said. “We have changed and adjusted the way we do business with increased inventory levels for the last two years. We are holding up to $100 million in inventory today, up from only $30 million pre-pandemic.” But Venero stressed that a global logistics buildout is not for the faint of heart. “Eighty percent of the pain we have as a company comes from the global work that we do for our customers,” he said. “Global logistics is extremely tough. You are talking about dealing with every country, every region, every OEM, every rule and regulation in these countries, every certifi cation. Take what you have in the U.S. and multiply that by the 47 countries that we operate in today and all the OEMs that we work with and you can understand the level of complexity that we are dealing with as a global logistics company.”

Fending O Bad Behavior

Rhino Networks, an Asheville, N.C.-based solution provider and Cisco partner that specializes in Cisco’s Meraki portfolio of cloud-based products, serves thousands of customers in the U.S. It teams with distributor Ingram Micro for Cisco Meraki product fulfi llment, a process that has worked well for Rhino Networks for the past decade. That’s because Cisco Meraki products have

always had very short—nearly nonexistent—lead times, offering an “Amazon-esque” experience for customers, according to Todd Carriker, founder and CEO of Rhino Networks. But the days when orders would arrive within 48 to 72 hours are long gone, he said. Early on in the supply chain crisis, the long and disruptive lead times for gear sparked “massive amounts” of disbelief from customers. “[They would say], ‘That can’t be true. Surely that’s not the case.’ Or they’d say, ‘Well, instead of doing Cisco-based wireless access points, I’m going to go buy Aruba or Ubiquiti,’” he said. Then, the bad behavior started. Customers began calling multiple Cisco partners in an attempt to get different answers. But businesses quickly learned that all solution providers were in the same boat. Customers also began placing product orders across several different vendors. When they would ‘We have changed and adjusted the receive a tracking number for shipping, they’d way we do business with increased cancel the other orders, inventory levels for the last two which further threw off inventory allocation and years. We are holding up to $100 forecasting for nearly evmillion in inventory today, up from ery major manufacturer, only $30 million pre-pandemic.’ Carriker said. Out of desperation, — Bob Venero, CEO, Future Tech Enterprise some customers began dipping into the gray market and buying gear without a warranty and with potentially compromised serial numbers. One business bought $150,000 worth of gray market Cisco gear that was largely unusable, Carriker said. “We’ve seen people be burned,” he added. Rhino Networks immediately began heading off these issues at the pass by being as transparent as it could with its customers about shortages and lead times to set realistic expectations. The company pivoted on a dime and started showing customers other options outside the Meraki portfolio that had shorter lead times. For example, if a customer was interested in a Meraki access point, another comparable Cisco access point might fi t the bill based on the customer’s deployment and consumption plans. And if a customer knew it would be ordering more a few months down the line, Rhino Networks would put together a bulk order to get the company a discount, Carriker said. “Essentially, if they could put some skin in the game and invest a little more, we’d help out. It’s about being creative and showing people you care,” he said. For Calgary, Alberta-based Cisco partner Long View Systems, the biggest challenge at the start of the crisis was fl uctuating shipping times that would often change in “the 11th hour,” creating uncertainty for solution providers and end customers, said Lane Irvine, the company’s network business solutions director.

“Early on, we would see ship dates for products that were supposed to show up three days from now, but then the ship date would change to three months out,” Irvine said. Products like the Cisco Catalyst 9200 switch series were not available, while others had better availability, such as Cisco’s Small Business 300 Series switch, Irvine said. “We had to do a review and update of what products we should be ordering, and we had to work with clients and make the shift in a number of cases,” he added. The solution provider also worked with frustrated customers by staggering product deployments. For projects that may have required 300 new access points, for example, it was deploying 20 new access points every week. This “trickle” allowed customers to make progress on their IT goals, said Kent MacDonald, senior vice president of strategic alliances at Long View. “It was much more manageable to start projects in bite-sized chunks rather than having to wait for everything to arrive to start the project,” MacDonald said. At the same time, Long View’s cloud and managed services businesses have fl ourished.

Long View has been building a practice around the increasingly popular Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) buying model for its customers. The solution provider this year became the fi rst Cisco Gold Integrator and Gold Provider partner in Canada with a Hybrid Cloud Cisco Plus deal, Cisco’s XaaS portfolio. Long View’s own as-a-service cloud infrastructure, On-Demand Infrastructure, is built on Cisco technology. “With XaaS, you don’t have a supply chain or shipping delay issue because the capacity is instant-on,” MacDonald said. “The supply chain issue really does help punctuate the value of XaaS, especially in a data center infrastructure environment.”

Forecasting Becomes Crucial

Mike Turicchi, vice president of Gainesville, Va.-based NCS Technologies, said the big changes at the beginning of the pandemic were a shock to the system, but his company upped its game when it came to forecasting and communication with customers. “It came on pretty quickly,” he said. “We have about 400 [vendor] partners in our ecosystem, and in the beginning, the top 50 or so were reaching out quickly saying, ‘You might want to put some orders in. Prices are going to go up. Supply is going to get tight,’” he said. “To some extent it was out of our control—these changes were coming, whether we liked it or not. We’re not like Apple

where we could go out and buy a bunch of inventory and warehouse it somewhere.” Turicchi said forecasting and communication with customers have become crucial since the pandemic fi rst hit. “It’s very much a cat-and-mouse game where you’re asking the customers what’s going on, and you’re telling them what’s going on from your side,” he said. “It’s become more about building relationships.” Solution providers have had to learn to forge stronger bonds with customers and with vendors, Turicchi said. “It was a chance to really get to know the customer more intimately and get some more insight,” he said. In the past, solution providers may have gotten used to a more turnkey process of buying and selling, Turicchi said. “We were all used to that … push-button aspect of supply. So, we were all pretty demanding of the vendors. We had to step back and say, ‘We need these guys more than ever, so we need to play a little nicer.’ ‘With XaaS, you don’t have a supply Price isn’t everything today. That’s been a huge chain or shipping delay issue because shift,” he said. everything is instant-on. The supply But even as the busichain issue really does help punctuate ness shifts and refocuses, Turicchi said the relationthe value of XaaS, especially in a data ships built during the pancenter infrastructure environment.’ demic will have a lasting impact on the channel — Kent MacDonald, SVP, Strategic Alliances, Long View Systems community. “At the end of the day, we all want to make money, but the relationship aspect has become a big ingredient,” he said.

The Cloud Needs To Be A ‘Driving Force’

Meriplex’s Medwed believes the pandemic and supply chain crisis have forever shifted the market dynamics from a channel model focused on hardware sales to a cloud-dominated model. “Before the pandemic, cloud was an important component of the average MSP portfolio, but it wasn’t the featured component of the portfolio,” he said. “In this day and age, cloud needs to be a highly featured component of the portfolio. It has to be a driving force of your expansion because clients are moving toward hybrid models. The days of how much hardware I can sell and at what margin are behind us.” 5S Technologies’ Shook said his company would be in serious trouble if it were still focused primarily on hardware. “People on the hardware side are trying to address the supply chain problems with Band-Aids and hope it gets better. They are doing what they can to stay alive. If all I did was sell hardware, we wouldn’t be able to pay the bills right now. I’d imagine anyone in that position is struggling.”  STEVEN BURKE contributed to this story

100People You Don’t Know BUT SHOULD

By Jennifer Follett

For those who work tirelessly and very often behind the scenes, it’s their time to be front and center. Across the channel’s vendors and distributors, these individuals are helping craft the programs and processes to ensure their company’s partners succeed.

Nidhi Tassone

Director, Commercial Marketing

Acer

Tassone brings her strong work ethic to bear as she develops and designs channel strategies for Acer, being flexible enough to meet a wide variety of partner needs while assisting solution providers in growing their sales funnel.

Polya Bozhilova

Team Manager, Cloud Distribution Success

Acronis

Bozhilova stands out for the work she’s done in developing a partner management playbook for Acronis’ cloud distribution partners, establishing business development processes for her team and overachieving targets with most of her partners.

Jason Timmes

GM, AWS Marketplace Seller, Partner Services

Amazon Web Services

Timmes joined AWS’ marketplace seller services team two years ago and has since added leadership of the company’s partner engineering teams as well. This gives him ownership of product, engineering and operational support teams that span multiple cities in the U.S., Canada and South Africa.

Andrew Jordan

Manager, North American Commercial Channels

AMD

Jordan wins kudos for the role he’s playing in driving strategy and operations for AMD’s channel team, making key decisions at a critical time for the chip vendor as it strives to build up its partner presence and win solution provider mindshare.

Jay Zammit

VP, Global Channel Sales Engineering

AppDynamics, part of Cisco

Zammit works tirelessly to help AppDynamics partners get all the technical support they need to be successful. As a channel advocate, he has helped secure resources to expand the company’s global coverage model and deepen its technical enablement offerings for solution providers.

Lisa Boynton

Federal Channel Director

Aruba, an HPE Company

Boynton leverages her 20 years of experience to guide and grow Aruba’s federal channel business as she helps partners navigate the complexities of the government market. She also mentors the company’s lessexperienced CAMs to ensure high-level partner support in the future.

Randi Fleming

Sr. Global Account Executive, Cloud, MSP

Bitdefender

Fleming is described as a driven evangelist who knows how to put partners on the path to year-over-year growth. She builds strong, strategic relationships and acts as a consultant to those partners, helping Bitdefender build up its global cloud and MSP business.

Shawn Massey

VP, Sales Engineers

Arcserve

Described as a cool, calm and collected teammate who cherishes his role as a partner advocate, Massey’s passion for the channel is rivaled only by his domain expertise as a technical sales leader. Colleagues say he’s the guy who always seems to have the answer.

Stephan Tomecko

Partner Manager

Augmentt

Since joining Augmentt a year ago, Tomecko implemented the company’s first partner success platform, which gives MSPs access to tools, analytics and resources to help them sell more of the company’s SaaS security and management offerings. He also has launched numerous go-tomarket training modules.

Jeremy Young

Director, Partner Stragegy

Blumira

Young has deep channel roots and taps into them to help foster meaningful connections with Blumira’s MSPs. He is passionate about developing channel sales programs that benefit all parties with a respectful approach to partnership that encourages long-term ties.

Katie Nemode

Director, Regional Channels, West

Arctic Wolf

Nemode is laser-focused on scaling the Arctic Wolf Partner Program, including activating and enabling more partner sales representatives. She’s also working to speed the time it takes for new partners, including MSPs, to start bringing in revenue.

Tami Hyder

Customer, Supplier Success Manager

Arrow Electronics

Hyder is like a bloodhound when it comes to reducing inefficiencies by sniffing out partner and supplier opportunities for digital integration with Arrow. Her passion for outstanding customer satisfaction, combined with her creativity, make her an invaluable asset to Arrow and its ecosystem.

Allison Hammond

Director, Operations

Avant

Hammond is said to possess many of the key leadership traits that have helped Avant grow—authenticity, strategic thinking, creativity, responsibility and strong communication. One key achievement was the restructuring of Avant’s partner support team, which created new efficiencies for solution providers.

Greg Schneider

Leader, Global Channel Partner Marketing, Events

Boomi

Schneider is known for delivering strong partner marketing engagement that drives growth and innovation for Boomi partners and customers. This engagment comes as the company works to stake its claim in the integration-platform-as-a-service market since being spun out from Dell Technologies last year.

David Kern

Regional Manager, Partner Success

Barracuda MSP

Kern manages more than 1,000 partner relationships for Barracuda MSP, and he has proven himself to be a trusted teammate who embraces the opportunity to help each partner achieve its goals. He also has shown a strong focus on education and enablement for partners.

Sandra Stamler

Partner Programs Administrator, Software

Broadcom

When it comes to MDF, funded heads, backend rebates and partner incentives, Stamler is the go-to person at Broadcom. She keeps the trains running through meticulous attention to detail and thorough program tracking. Solution providers certainly appreciate the results: getting paid on time.

100 People You Don’t Know BUT SHOULD

Tony Sabaj

Head of Americas Channel Sales Engineers

Check Point Software Technologies

Sabaj wins kudos for doing more than what’s in his job description, serving as the eyes and ears for Check Point’s team into the channel technical community. Praised for consistently going above and beyond, he’s admired for his willingness to always jump in to try to fix a problem.

Vishal Nayak

Sr. Director, Digital Experience

Cisco Systems

Nayak is one of the leaders playing a critical role in enabling increased channel performance as part of Cisco’s continued focus on improving the partner experience, tapping predictive insight from machine learning to help solution providers and distributors drive profitable growth.

Dominic Yip

Sr. Manager, Solutions Engineering

Cloudflare Area 1 Security

Yip is instrumental in ensuring that Cloudflare Area 1 Security’s partners have the technical resources needed for success. He also plays a significant role in developing the material and courses required for specialized training, risk assessments and deployments through the partner community.

Michael Turner

National Partner Manager

Cohesity

Through a combination of diligent account planning, strong field engagement and the ability to leverage the skills of functional team members, Turner led one of Cohesity’s strategic partnerships to triple-digit growth, becoming a model case study for success.

Nadine Yamasaki

Sr. Partner Success Manager

ConnectWise

Yamasaki gets credit for helping retain some of ConnectWise’s largest and most at-risk partners by being their advocate and delivering on her commitment to provide remarkable experiences. Colleagues say she works relentlessly to find solutions to partners’ pain points.

Meredith Dishman

Director, Distribution Channels

Critical Start

Dishman’s aim is to build better ties to Critical Start’s distribution partners. She has developed sales and vendor enablement as well as enhancements through marketing and training that better position the company to serve the distribution channel in purchasing managed detection and response services.

Denise Mendez

Director, Americas Channel Operations

Citrix Systems

Mendez is seen as the magic behind Citrix’s Americas partner operations, working diligently to ensure the company’s channel machine runs flawlessly and partners get their incentives and rewards on time. Without her, colleagues say, all of the company’s channel efforts would grind to a halt.

Lee Berk

Sr. Director, Sales Engineering Comcast Business|Masergy

Colleagues describe Berk as a passionate leader who will do anything for Comcast Business|Masergy’s partners and his team. He is said to be constantly working in the background to support and grow partners’ business and internally will deliver what is needed to support his peers.

Grend Naumi

Manager, Solution Architect, Americas Alliances, Channel

CrowdStrike

In his role on CrowdStrike’s Alliances team, Naumi has helped enable over 200 partners this past year. With past experience in the security company’s sales engineering organization, he brings a unique perspective of customer and partner needs.

Kevin Pistorius

Channel Sales Director

Claroty

Pistorius is driving Claroty’s channel sales push at a critical time, as the industrial security vendor said after receiving a new round of funding in the summer of 2021 that it was thinking about an IPO. Then in December, Rockwell Automation co-led a $400 million funding round.

Monique Gibelli

Director, Partner Development

Commvault

Gibelli took the reins in building out Commvault’s Metallic MSP model for SaaS delivery, led the engagement with the company’s first MSP partner and made sure lessons learned from the pilot were shared and integrated into the broader program rollout.

Trevor Schubert

Professional Services Technical Solutions Manager

D&H Distributing

A fundamental player on D&H’s Solutions Expert team for 17 years, Schubert oversees the distributor’s relationship with Google in its K-12 vertical, helping ensure that partners can deliver Chromebooks to the classrooms that need them. He has a reputation for devoting endless energy to solution providers.

100 People You Should Know

Helping Channel Partners Go Further Faster

Q. What motivates you as a channel leader?

A. Evolving our partners’ business models is a personal passion for me. And now, with the launch of our Ingram Micro XvantageTM digital experience platform we are doing this at scale! Ingram Micro has always placed equal importance on partner experience and partner growth. We are committed to mutual success, and work hard to attract the industry’s brightest talent and better enable our partners to go further faster—growing stronger and more profitably.

Q. What’s critical and core to the growth of today’s MSPs?

A. The right partnerships are a growth catalyst and common denominator among the world’s most successful MSPs—then, now and in the future. The close partnership we offer our partners is unrivaled and with the arrival of our digital twin Ingram Micro Xvantage, we are building on this success—making it easier to do business with Ingram Micro and placing business-building resources including real-time data and analytics at our partners’ fingertips.

Q. How can channel partners capitalize on the everything-as-aservice trend?

A. First, choose your ecosystem wisely. Work with companies including Ingram Micro who know how to navigate the transformation to services and offer the resources you need to build your value and better service your customers. Second, build out your services transformation in all key areas including offerings, talent and financials. Third, focus on the intersection of your customers, their needs and your key capabilities. Everything as a service doesn’t mean everything at once. Grow the business by working together to scale mutual success, and remember, growing at double-digits year-over-year is awesome, until you realize the market around you is growing at an even higher, more impressive clip. Keep a growth mindset.

Learn more at: www.xvantage.com and www.ingrammicrocloud.com

John Dusett

Executive Director, Cloud Services

The close partnership we offer our partners is unrivaled and with the ” arrival of our digital twin

Ingram Micro Xvantage, we are making it easier to do business with us and placing business- building resources including real-time data and analytics at our partners’ fingertips.”

100 People You Don’t Know BUT SHOULD

Jason Pryce

Channel Development Manager Datto, a Kaseya company

Pryce recruits, grows and develops Datto partners globally and is said to be excellent at his craft. He is always working to ensure solution providers are fully educated and aware of the resources available to them to increase revenue and effectively manage their customers and prospects.

Christopher Mallia

North America Channel Rebates, Incentives Manager

Dell Technologies

Mallia is Dell’s one-man show, responsible for ensuring myriad rebates are paid out to partners. He makes sure everything is working correctly for them with his attention to detail and puts in the time until the job is done. Partners see his impact in their profit margins.

Sheridan Haider

Digital Marketing Manager

Exclusive Networks

Haider’s expertise in social media and analytics serves her well as she crafts Exclusive Networks’ digital marketing strategy, as does her nearly endless well of energy. But most importantly, her understanding of business needs goes a long way toward executing successful strategic demand generation programs.

Brent Nohl

Channel Operations Director Forescout Technologies

Nohl played an integral role in building out Forescout’s channel program since he joined the company in 2021. He has helped align partner program benefits and requirements with the company’s strategic channel sales objectives and supported the introduction of a new partner portal.

Dhriti Kanwar

Channel Programs, Operations Manager

ExtraHop

Kanwar’s efforts drive growth, transformation and increased engagement between ExtraHop and its partners, spurred on by her can-do approach and positivity. She’s an expert in identifying growth areas and building internal advocacy to reach success through a team-oriented approach.

Landon Scott

Sr. Director, North American Channel Operations

Fortinet

Scott and his team provide the muscle behind Fortinet’s Engage Partner Program, managing all facets of channel operations. He also oversees the company’s deal registration program as well the development and implementation of partner benefits and incentives.

Lisa Allen

VP, Field Sales

Dynabook Americas

As a driving force behind Dynabook Americas’ “Channel First, Channel Best” strategy, Allen has helped eliminate channel sales conflicts. At the same time, she is playing a pivotal role in shaping the company’s long- and short-term enterprise and education market strategies and sits on its Education Executive Board.

Liv Dieter

Manager, Global Partner Programs

Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks solution providers might recognize Dieter from some of the networking vendor’s channel webinars, but she’s largely working hard behind the scenes and has a hand in all of the company’s channel incentives, payments and partner communications.

Arjun Lahiri

Global Head, Partner Incentives, Investments

Google Cloud

Lahiri is on the front lines ensuring that Google Cloud’s partner incentives are modeled and built to recognize the true value solution providers bring to the company’s ecosystem. His work plays the everimportant role of helping create profit margins for partners.

Josh Cornick

Channel Marketing Manager, Americas

Eaton

Cornick is known as the Eaton channel team’s digital guru, using his vast array of skills and tapping into the latest marketing technologies to help partners find success. Peers often seek out his help due to his teamoriented attitude, professional demeanor and broad industry knowledge.

Patrick Osewalt

Sr. Channel Solution Engineer

F5

F5’s channel and field sales teams routinely turn to Osewalt for help due to his wealth of knowledge and 15 years of F5 experience. His work to build and prioritize a list of $1 billionplus credit unions in the U.S. and Canada helped one of the company’s largest partners win big with its security products.

Landon Lewis

VP, Partnerships

Halcyon

Lewis drove the launch earlier this year of an MSSP program at Halcyon, maker of an antiransomware platform for the enterprise. The partnership program provides tier-one, first-touch support for the customer and also manages the resale, support and dayto-day operations.

Nancy Pierce

Principal Architect, Global Partner Programs

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

With excep tional business acumen, excellent program and project management capabilities and an “always ready, willing and able” approach to a challenge, Pierce recently co-led the strategy, architecture and development of HPE’s next-generation partner program—HPE Partner Ready Vantage.

Mike Broadwood

Director, North America Channel Sales

IGEL

Described as a talented and thoughtful channel leader, Broadwood pioneered the launch of IGEL’s Independent Hardware Vendor Program, with the aim of helping partners attract and nurture customers. He has a unique ability to bring together the technology and knowledge partners need to succeed.

Sugey Rostran

Channel Account Manager

Ironscales

A 10-year channel veteran with a lot of cybersecurity experience under her belt, Rostran has a reputation for being passionate in her support of partners, jumping in whenever needed to help and creating strong partnerships that are built for growth and mutual success.

Kristi Frackowiak

Manager, Americas Partner Programs, Development

HP Inc.

Frackowiak worked behind the scenes to influence HP’s Amplify Partner Program, designing the Supplies Drop Ship program to eliminate the reporting requirement for partners that drop-ship all goods through distribution, resulting in 130 North American partner participants.

John Dusett

Executive Director, Cloud

Ingram Micro

As a key driver of Ingram Micro’s cloud strategy, Dusett makes it his business to listen to and advocate for what channel partners need so they can get closer to customers and vendors, successfully make the case for the cloud and win more business. He’s also a font of knowledge on hyper-growth solution areas.

Seema Barman

Sr. Manager, Partner Operations

Juniper Networks

Barman’s contributions to the investment programs Juniper launches have been deemed invaluable. Partners can rest easy knowing she’s there to ensure the company’s strategy and requirements are accurately translated into flawless execution.

Annie Ballew

Group Product Manager

Huntress Labs

Ballew oversees a team of product managers and also taps into her cybersecurity expertise to write blogs and conduct webinars and live hacking demos. She meets with many Huntress solution providers and works tirelessly to define features and products that meet their needs.

Craig Battleman

Global Alliance Partner Program Manager

IBM Security

IBM Security sellers fre quently look to Battleman for guidance and support in developing creative partner relationship contracts, and he’s often called on to weigh in on route-to-market decisions for new and enhanced offerings. He also educates partners on how to optimize their investments with the company.

Boji Tony

GM, Global Customer Success

Intel

Tony leads Intel’s global support efforts and is relentlessly focused on delivering world-class support for partners around the world. In addition, he stepped up to provide interim leadership on his team and is said to consistently bring forward bold ideas for partner innovation.

Justin Koebnick

Group Manager, Partner Development

Intuit

With energizing vision, Koebnick leads the payroll team that supports large accounting firms for Intuit. The team is building out tools to support these firms and unleash the integration of the company’s entire ecosystem. The end result is partners’ lives are made easier.

Kim Kneas

Sr. Director, Channel Success

Kaseya

Colleagues describe Kneas in one word: “amazing.” She takes her role at Kaseya to heart, bringing a strong sense of caring and responsibility with her as she climbs into the trenches to work hand-inhand with the company’s MSPs to help them grow their business.

Trevor Serebro

MSP Partner Account Manager, North America

Kaspersky

With drive, focus and a peerless attention to detail, Serebro has played a key part in building out Kaspersky’s MSP efforts. A true team player who wears multiple hats and excels no matter which hat he is wearing, his results speak for themselves.

100 People You Don’t Know BUT SHOULD

Rick LaCoume

Director, Americas Channels

Keepit

LaCoume has signed, onboarded and enabled over a dozen partners, even stepping in to handle tasks that normally would fall to support personnel when that team was still staffing up. One of his passion projects has been building up Keepit’s partner presence in South America.

Donovan Shaughnessy

Sr. Channel Sales Manager

Kensington

Shaughnessy works closely with distri bution and Kensington’s channel partners to drive growth. He spends countless hours working on allocation and understanding partners’ changing needs, doing everything in his power to ensure those needs are met.

Alicia Fuller

Sr. Business Manager, Portofolio, Solutions, Marketing

Microsoft

Co-workers say Fuller has tremendous talent and leans in to ensure that Microsoft partners get the road map and program information they need, communication is clear, and selling-season readiness is front and center. Her incredible attention to detail and end-to-end planning make a huge difference.

Maarten van Velsen

Sr. Director, Partner Sales Excellence

NetApp

A 17-year NetApp veteran, van Velsen often draws on his multifaceted view of the channel to help ensure partner success. He is said to have a keen ability to identify and drive process and system changes that have enabled partners to develop and close opportunities.

Nikki Downing

Director, Global Channel Programs, Strategic Projects

Mimecast

Downing was instrumental in launching two new partner program enhancements, including the rollout of teaming plans and deal registration that expanded opportunities for Mimecast’s global partner community while also providing margin and price protection.

Anthony DiSibio

Sr. Manager, Field Marketing

Nextiva

DiSibio is constantly thinking of the next best way Nextiva can go to market with partners, giving solution providers programs and content that set them apart from competitors. He’s doing such a good job that he was promoted after just his first year with the company.

Erica Davis

North America Channel Program Manager

Lenovo

Davis launched Lenovo’s LEAP channel loyalty platform for partners, a huge undertaking that fulfilled a long-standing wish from the company’s channel community for help operationalizing the process of getting incentive dollars to partner reps.

Marc-Andre Tanguay

Head Nerd

N-able

Tanguay brings his A game to every project he touches, working one-on-one with hundreds of N-able MSPs to help them create, optimize and employ strong automation processes. His aim is to get a true understanding of what MSPs go through on a day-to-day basis in order to help them grow.

Michelle Lamoreaux

Sr. Manager, Channel Strategy, Programs

Nutanix

Colleagues say Lamoreaux epitomizes Nutanix’s core values of being hungry, humble and honest. She played a key role in building the vendor’s Elevate Partner Program and works behind the scenes developing and managing the core back-end infrastructure of the program.

Mikayla Engel

Partner Marketing Manger

LogicMonitor

Engel joined LogicMonitor in 2021 to take on a role that was brand new to the company. Since then, colleagues say she has transformed the vendor’s partner marketing engagement efforts and supported pipeline development, in turn delighting partners with increased responsiveness.

Tony Cai

Director, Sales Engineering

Nerdio

Cai stepped into his current role this summer, where he is drawing on years of sales experience helping Nerdio partners be successful with Microsoft Azure. His goal is always to deliver strong ROI for partners while ensuring they can deliver great experiences to their customers.

Mauricio Sousa

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager, Enterprise Solutions

Nvidia

Sousa manages some of Nvidia’s largest national partners, and he is tapping his product management experience to bring a fresh perspective on how to comarket with the channel. He wins kudos for helping build enablement and incentive programs as well as robust demand generation campaigns with partners.

Keeping the Women of the Channel Community Connected Is Our No. 1 Priority

The Women of the Channel Leadership Network is an online community that brings together the most prominent and rising women in the IT channel to connect and learn from one another, as well as build new relationships. This community unites women from all career levels and delivers the content and connections they need to thrive in their organizations and achieve their personal and professional goals.

Take advantage of the following membership benefi ts:

Access interactive peer networking groups, live Q&A sessions with industry experts, webinars, podcasts, trainings, mentorship, and education

Network and enhance relationships with women from across the tech industry

Be inspired by best-in-class thought leadership, including Women of the Week (WOW) interviews with members

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Discover how to improve company culture, while unleashing the power of inclusion

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Join Today! Individual and Group Packages Are Available.

www.TheChannelCoCommunities.com

100 People You Don’t Know BUT SHOULD

Monique Reed

Channel Program Director, Cloud Service Providers

Palo Alto Networks

Reed impresses with her unique ability to think strategically to solve complex problems, while also understanding the tactical elements required for execution. She is driving the strategy to team cloud service providers with Palo Alto Networks’ ecosystem partners, adding flexibility for customers.

Paul Newman

Director, Strategic Sales

Pax8

With his deep understanding of the challenges Pax8 partners face, Newman works closely with them to uncover new opportunities to optimize workflows, improve efficiencies and increase automation. He has played a key part in the distributor’s efforts to support partners strategically.

Don Cooper

SVP, Partner Programs, Strategy

PTC

Cooper has taken on the crucial task of building out PTC’s channel program to support the company’s plans to ramp up new SaaS offerings, working through business and financial elements, rules of engagement and other strategic elements that will bring partners into the fold.

Steve Block

Director, Worldwide Partner Readiness

Pure Storage

Block wakes up every day asking, “What’s in it for partners?” He delivers successful partner enablement programs and serves as the behind-the-scenes project manager for major Pure partner activities such as Global Partner Forum and its Pure Partner Digital virtual event.

Cathy Feely

Sr. Manager, Global Channel Operations

Riverbed | Aternity

Feely ensures that all business- development- fund-related prior approvals, questions and claims are submitted and answered quickly. Teammates say she takes the initiative to provide guidance on ways to ensure partners get the most out of the company’s investment in them.

Christopher Carter

Sr. Director, Partner Enablement, Services, North America

Sage

Having previously worked at a solution provider, Carter has the experience and empathy to help Sage Intacct partners find their footing and focus on the right things to fuel success. He is said to operate in a quiet and humble way, but the impact he has is profound.

Jared Bronson

Global Channel Enablement, Partner Portal Manager

Poly

Bronson oversees Poly’s partner relationship management platform, giving solution providers easy, personalized access to the content they need. He had the vision to advocate for self-service capabilities in the vendor’s partner portal, and the analytics he tracks help continually improve the partner experience.

Scott Boyd

Sr. Director, Global Partner Programs, Strategy

Qlik

Boyd leads the Global Qlik Partner Program team, providing alignment and a shared vision for the program’s continued evolution, always keeping the partner voice in mind. He demonstrates a passion for listening to partners, understands the industry and wins fans with his collaborative leadership style.

Heather Gramcko

Sr. Director, Solutions, Services Product Marketing

Samsung Electronics America

Tasked with developing a newer piece of Samsung’s business, Gramcko brings her A game as she looks for new ways the company can support its channel community. Colleagues say her role requires great dedication and that she fills it admirably as she strives to make Samsung’s offerings best in class.

Tyler Hendey

Sr. Channel Marketing Program Manager

Proofpoint

Hendey is described by colleagues as having a masterful way of taking suggestions on projects and delivering marketing programs that are better and more detailed than what they could have hoped for. They say his work is thoughtful, timely and impactful.

Kevin Stansell

Director, Engineering, Partner Management

Red Hat

Stansell navigates complex challenges and technical decisions with ease, leveraging a deep understanding of the goals of both Red Hat solution providers and their customers. When issues do arise, he leads a team that works closely with Red Hat and partner engineers to solve the problem.

Matthew Ross

Cloud Channel Development Lead, ERP

SAP

Teammates say Ross is SAP’s “cloud ERP everything and then some,” always on the lookout for ways to help partners grow their practices. At the same time, he keeps an eye turned inward, seeking ways to improve SAP and help it better support its channel partners.

Nick Matheson

Regional Channel Manager

Scale Computing

Matheson is rarely more at home than when he’s visiting the offices of one of Scale Computing’s partners, sharing coffee and absorbing everything he can about that solution provider and what it needs to succeed. By the time he’s done, the team is fired up and ready to bring the company’s solutions to market.

Nicola Scheibe

Sr. Director, Global Field Marketing

SonicWall

Scheibe sees herself as a business architect, finding joy in the process of coming up with ideas and then assembling all the pieces to create successful business and marketing plans. She was a key reason why SonicWall’s channel partners delivered record results in 2021.

Ruya Cuvalci

Global Partner Experience, Systems Analyst

Splunk

Cuvalci is Splunk’s subject matter expert in partner financial incentives operations, ensuring that partners are paid correctly and on time for their contributions. The more smoothly and quietly the process flows, the more successful it is.

Ashley Golibart

National Account Manager

Schneider Electric

Multifaceted, driven and highly motivated, Golibart has made herself into a subject matter expert that channel partners and end users can lean on. Teammates say she is collaborative by nature, strategic by trade and recognized for being a leader among her peers.

Raphaela Hecken

Channel Marketing Manager, North America

Sophos

Hecken has been instrumental in providing marketing training for strategic partners, creating demand generation, elevating enablement excellence and ensuring partner success. She garnered praise for creating a monthly Sophos Marketing Masterclass, providing partners with best practices and training.

Jaclyn Woodward

Sr. Global Partner Marketing Manager

Tanium

Woodward designed Tanium’s first Partner 101 enablement activation program, ultimately training 1,800-plus sellers. She also created a toolkit for partners to leverage with supporting information. The end result was a program that partners loved and colleagues appreciated.

Carrie Francey

Global VP, Strategic Partner Ecosystem

ServiceNow

Over the past year, Francey has been laser-focused on developing and leveraging key best practices to accelerate the development and growth of ServiceNow’s largest global partners. She’s executing on $1 billion-plus multiyear joint go-to-market business plans with great success.

Alexandre Laflamme

SME, Modern Workplace

Sherweb

Laflamme has helped hundreds of partners optimize their Microsoft partnership, navigating the intricacies of the Microsoft Partner Network and ensuring they maximize their earnings. After developing Sherweb’s MPN consultation program, it’s no wonder colleagues say he’s their resident MPN hero.

Troy Peterson

VP, Channel Development

Soter Technologies

As Soter builds up its new channel program for its 100-plus partners, the environmental sensor vendor is turning to Peterson to nurture and grow current relationships while also initiating new ones, whether with large integrators or regional and local MSPs.

Joe Bailey

Sr. Director, Order Operations

Spectrum Enterprise

Bailey maintains his calm demeanor even when he’s the go-to person called on when orders need extra attention or escalation. He takes ownership of the challenge, allowing the sales team to get back to business while his team finds answers for partners and customers.

Jim MacBride

Director, Business Development

TD Synnex

MacBride allows his recordproducing team to take the spotlight year after year. He does this by gaining consensus, keeping his team focused on goals and providing a strong example through his contagious work ethic and commitment to TD Synnex and the channel.

Jessica Fields

Sr. Manager, Channel Operations

Tenable

Fields runs the team that is responsible for Tenable’s deal registration, order processing from distributors and partner on-boarding. She ensures that partners and distributors have a smooth experience when submitting orders to Tenable.

100 People You Don’t Know BUT SHOULD

Nicholas Tannous

Director, Tech Support

ThreatLocker

Tannous has a ton of MSP industry experience under his belt and now runs ThreatLocker’s partner support operation. His diligence in building quality and skills while rapidly growing the Cyber Hero support team has created a culture of care and urgency at the company.

Fredrik Ehno

VP, Alliances TimeXtender

Driven by his passion for building bridges between customers, partners and TimeXtender, Ehno runs a team that has built a channel partner/alliance network of close to 200 companies worldwide. Those partners typically achieve high growth margins and enjoy a recurring revenue flow.

Ruben Luna

Director, Partner Sales, Business Development

Veeam Software

Tapping into 15 years of channel experience, Luna has helped evolve Veeam’s strategy and programs to meet the changing trends and channel partner needs. He holds himself to a high standard of quality, which is evident in the way he diligently works to match the right partner to the right program.

Scott Bergquist

Sr. Director, Ecosystem Solutions

VMware

Bergquist was instrumental to the design of brand-new investments in marketplaces for VMware partners’ services and offerings, which has enabled them to deliver unique ecosystem strategies and solutions that bring tremendous enterprise value to customers.

Heather Stene

Associate Director, Channel Operations, Partner Experience

Verizon Business

Verizon turned to Stene when it needed a channel expert to redesign its wireless partner programs, including enhancing the service provider’s distribution channel program to enable additional product categories, automation and scale. She also led the strategy to expand the wireless agent program.

David Boland

VP, Cloud Strategy

Wasabi Technologies

Boland stepped into his current role in June, where he is working to push Wasabi’s cloud strategy right to the cutting edge. This comes after he spent the previous three years in a product marketing leadership role, so the depth of his knowledge and understanding of the company’s portfolio is hard to beat.

Jason Lecorchick

Sr. Manager, Partner Solutions

T-Mobile

Lecorchick aims to optimize strategy and drive partner awareness, working closely with all levels of T-Mobile For Business sales and support teams. He helped create a go-to-market campaign focused on streamlining the program and driving incremental growth across the entire ecosystem.

Caleb Augustin

Head of Channel Sales

Verkada

Working to bolster the strength of Verkada’s 100 percent channel sales strategy, Augustin had a hand in building up the company’s channel ranks to more than 4,000 partners worldwide and adding more at a clip of 100 per month. He has also doubled the company’s channel employee head count.

Mark Villinski

Field Marketing Manager, National Accounts

WatchGuard Technologies

Few things are more important to Villinski than driving strong partner recruitment efforts for WatchGuard. He singlehandedly managed at least 10 marketing initiatives with the company’s distributor and national accounts in recent months. And he’s always adding new skill sets to his arsenal.

Guran Green

Head of Americas Channel, Distribution

Trellix

Green is helping to drive Trellix’s Americas partner strategy as the company works to spread the word about channel opportunities with its extended detection and response offerings, including Detection as a Service. He also brings a wealth of public sector channel experience to the table.

Christina Pageau

Sr. E-Commerce Marketing Manager, Global

Vertiv

Pageau gets credit for leading the charge to build a team from scratch to manage the end-to-end process for product listings and rich content to help customers find the right Vertiv solutions on channel partner websites, and for creating transactional opportunities for the channel business.

Jacob Hengel

Co-Founder, CTO

YourSix

Hengel and crew have developed what YourSix is calling a PhysicalSecurity-asa-Service offering that combines video surveillance, access control, sensors, analytics and more. The company is now bringing its portfolio right into the heart of the channel.

100 People You Should Know

Schneider Electric Building Sustainable Channel Partnerships

Q. How does Schneider Electric adapt to the changing needs of the channel?

A. We recently launched our new partner program to better support partners’ evolving business models. The new mySchneider IT Partner Program provides flexibility for partners to establish their expertise in the areas that make the most sense for their business, whether that be traditional IT, data center or in software and digital services. The focus now is more on value versus volume and we are providing partners with a new training framework and benefits, such as our rewards program, to set them up for success.

Q. How does Schneider Electric collaborate with other alliance partners to support the channel and end customers?

A. We understand the power in a partner ecosystem. Due to the nature of our products and the importance of power in IT, there are numerous opportunities to attach our products and add business value. Through strategic partnerships with many of the largest IT vendors, such as Cisco, HP, Dell, Microsoft and more, we’re able to combine their technology with our APC portfolio to offer differentiated best-in-class solutions through our shared IT partners. These alliances enable faster, more reliable end-toend solutions that benefit both the partner and customer.

Q. How can partners leverage Schneider Electric’s expertise in sustainability to bring value to their customers?

A. If you haven’t already had conversations with your customers around sustainability, you likely will in the future. Many partners now have a dedicated resource focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives and expect to generate revenue from sustainability solutions and services. We want to be your partner in sustainability. Schneider Electric can support you through the full customer lifecycle by providing Green Premium™ products that take into consideration energy efficiency, durability, reparability and more. We also can enable you to offer digital services that monitor and provide predictive analytics or support end of life by offering sustainable operations through recycling services.

Learn more about Schneider Electric’s Partner Programs and benefits at: apc.com/partners

Ashley Golibart

National Account Manager

As our partner ecosystem expands, we evolve with it to make room for partners’ ” new business models that align with industry changes. Digitization is growing and Schneider Electric is committed to taking a sustainable, innovative and collaborative approach with our most trusted channel partners to better serve our customers’ needs.”

Annual Report Card: Who Held The Winning Hand?

For the 37th year, CRN o ered solution providers in North America the opportunity to grade the performance of their IT vendor partners with the CRN Annual Report Card.

The 2022 CRN ARC provides a look at which IT vendors are doing the best job in meeting their partners’ needs. Solution providers graded vendors across 25 technology categories that included a total of 21 criteria spanning product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services. Vendors received average scores for each criteria and an overall score for the technology category.

Here are the winners of this year’s ARC. Vendors marked with an asterisk (*) did not provide a list of top partners to CRN for this project as requested, so solution providers from our ChannelBase database were surveyed. Partners still had to be working with that particular vendor to be included.

By Rick Whiting Scan the QR code to see the full 2022 ARC database.

CLOUD STORAGE

PURE STORAGE

Channel Executive: Wendy Stusrud, VP, Global Partner Sales

Pure Storage topped the cloud storage technology category with an overall score of 86.9.

The company, in fact, swept the category with highest scores across all criteria including 90.5 in product innovation, 82.1 in support, 87.7 in partnership, and 86.7 in managed and cloud services.

Pure Storage’s highest criteria grade from partners was 101.6 for product quality and reliability, part of the product innovation criteria. CLOUD STORAGE PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES OVERALL SCORE

Pure Storage 90.5 82.1 87.7 86.7 86.9

NetApp 85.5 78.8 84.5 82.2 82.9

Wasabi Technologies 77.4 67.9 76.8 76.0 74.6

HPE 76.9 68.3 70.7 72.8 72.4 CONVERGED/HYPERCONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE

SCALE COMPUTING

Channel Executive: Kyle Fenske, Director, North American Channel

This was one of two product categories in which Scale Computing received top ARC scores this year.

Scale Computing swept the converged/hyperconverged infrastructure category and received an overall score of 91.5. The company received 94.1 in product innovation, 89.8 in support, 94.7 in partnership, and 86.8 in managed and cloud services.

CONVERGED/ HYPERCONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Scale Computing 94.1 89.8 94.7 86.8 91.5 Nutanix 88.7 80.6 83.3 79.9 83.4 HPE 86.1 77.2 79.8 76.5 80.2 Dell Technologies 84.8 76.1 77.8 71.6 77.9 VMware* 84.4 73.6 75.2 74.0 77.1

ARC ANNUAL REPORT CARD

DATA PROTECTION SOFTWARE BARRACUDA NETWORKS

Channel Executive: Bill Fitzgerald, VP, Channel Sales, Americas Barracuda Networks was the winner in this technology category with an overall score of 90.9.

The company came out on top in every criteria category with scores of 93.9 in product innovation, 88.1 in support, 92.3 in partnership, and 88.7 in managed and cloud services.

DATA PROTECTION SOFTWARE

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Barracuda Networks 93.9 88.1 92.3 88.7 90.9 Datto 93.1 86.8 91.0 86.7 89.6

Axcient

88.0 80.5 84.8 81.9 84.0 Veeam Software* 89.4 80.3 81.9 79.2 83.0

HPE 72.2 66.8 68.2 67.2 68.8

DATA SECURITY

SOPHOS

Channel Executive: Kendra Krause, SVP, Global Channels, Sales Operations

This is the first of five technology categories in which Sophos was the winner—the most wins of any company in this year’s ARC.

Sophos made a clean sweep of all criteria and garnered an overall score of 87.6.

The company scored 91.1 in product innovation, 84.7 in support, 87.6 in partnership, and 86.5 in managed and cloud services.

DATA SECURITY

Sophos Microsoft *

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

91.1 84.7 87.6 86.5 87.6 79.6 66.1 67.2 69.1 70.9 EDGE COMPUTING

SCALE COMPUTING

Channel Executive: Kyle Fenske, Director, North American Channel

This is the second of two technology categories in which Scale Computing captured the highest grades, receiving an overall score of 92.0.

The company had the highest scores in every criteria category with 93.7 in product innovation, 91.8 in support, 94.5 in partnership, and 87.4 in managed and cloud services.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise was the winner in enterprise network storage hardware, the first of two wins for HPE. The company had an overall score of 81.6, including top scores in product innovation with 86.1, partnership with 82.8, and managed and cloud services with 79.8.

EDGE COMPUTING

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL

SCORE

Scale Computing 93.7 91.8 94.5 87.4 92.0 Lenovo 92.7 91.5 93.4 86.8 91.2 Intel 83.4 78.5 80.9 77.9 80.3

HPE 81.3 76.7 75.3 75.0 77.3

ENTERPRISE NETWORK STORAGE HARDWARE HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE

Channel Executive: Phil Soper, North America Head of Channel Sales

ENTERPRISE NETWORK STORAGE HARDWARE

HPE

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL

SCORE

86.1 76.6 82.8 79.8 81.6 Pure Storage 83.5 76.7 82.4 78.3 80.4 Dell Technologies 80.7 75.1 78.2 73.5 77.1 NetApp 78.9 72.1 77.5 73.6 75.7

ARC ANNUAL REPORT CARD

ENTERPRISE WIRELESS LAN s

ARUBA AN HPE COMPANY

Channel Executive: Jim Harold, VP, North America Channel Sales

This is the first of three wins for Aruba in this year’s ARC.

Aruba made a clean sweep of this technology category. Its overall score of 88.1 included high scores of 95.2 in product innovation, 86.0 in support, 87.1 in partnership, and 82.7 in managed and cloud services.

In the second of Sophos’ wins this year, the company came out on top in this technology category with an overall score of 93.1.

That included the highest scores in every criteria, including 96.3 in product innovation, 89.2 in support, 94.6 in partnership, and 91.4 in managed and cloud services.

HYBRID CLOUD HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE

Channel Executive: Phil Soper, North America Head of Channel Sales Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s second win in this year’s ARC was a hard-fought duel in the increasingly competitive hybrid cloud technology category.

HPE had the highest overall score at 78.8, including top scores in product innovation with 82.4, support with 76.4, partnership with 77.9, and managed and cloud services with 77.9.

ENTERPRISE WIRELESS LANs

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Aruba, an HPE company 95.2 86.0 87.1 82.7 88.1 Extreme Networks 85.9 81.0 82.6 78.5 82.2

EXTENDED DETECTION & RESPONSE

SOPHOS

Channel Executive: Kendra Krause, SVP, Global Channels, Sales Operations

HYBRID CLOUD

HPE

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

82.4 76.4 77.9 77.9 78.8 Dell Technologies 80.7 76.7 76.9 70.9 76.5 VMware* 79.3 68.8 71.9 74.7 74.0

INDUSTRY-STANDARD SERVERS

LENOVO

Channel Executive: Rob Cato, VP, North America Channels

Lenovo scored two wins in this year’s ARC, including one in industry-standard servers.

Lenovo scored 83.0 overall and received the highest scores of 79.4 in support, 87.9 in partnership, and 78.8 in managed and cloud services.

EXTENDED DETECTION & RESPONSE

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Sophos

96.3 89.2 94.6 91.4 93.1 SentinelOne 93.9 87.8 92.7 88.4 90.9 Microsoft* 64.4 55.7 56.7 58.4 59.1

INDUSTRY- STANDARD SERVERS

Lenovo

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL

SCORE

85.4 79.4 87.9 78.8 83.0 Dell Technologies 87.8 78.9 79.8 69.4 79.4 HPE 83.5 73.3 76.4 73.2 76.9

ARC ANNUAL REPORT CARD

MSP RMM PLATFORMS

N-ABLE

Channel Executive: David Weeks, Sr. Director, Partner Experience

In yet another hard-fought match, N-able topped this technology category with an overall score of 76.4. That included the highest scores in product innovation with 81.1, partnership with 79.5, and managed and cloud services with 74.4.

N-able also had the highest scores for training (77.0) and quality of field management (74.0) within the support category.

MSP RMM PLATFORMS

N-able

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

81.1 69.5 79.5 74.4 76.4

Datto*

79.4 70.9 75.9 73.9 75.2 Barracuda MSP 77.6 67.8 73.7 71.7 72.9

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

TIE: CHARTER SPECTRUM

Channel Executive: Michelle Kadlacek, VP, Spectrum Enterprise Channel Partner Sales The scoring in the network connectivity technology category was a tie between Comcast Business and its recent Masergy acquisition and Charter Spectrum, with both companies earning an overall score of 72.8.

Charter Spectrum scored highest for support (71.9) thanks to high scores in such criteria as pre- and post-sales support (79.8 and 78.2, respectively) and in the partnership category (76.3) due to high scores in managing channel conflict (74.5) and ease of doing business (83.9).

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED PRINT SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Charter Spectrum 74.8 71.9 76.3 67.8 72.8 Comcast 75.8 70.5 75.6 68.8 72.8 NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

TIE: COMCAST BUSINESS/MASERGY

Channel Executive: Craig Schlagbaum, SVP, Indirect Channels This critical category turned out to be a dead heat between Comcast Business and its recent Masergy acquisition and rival Charter Spectrum with both earning an overall score of 72.8.

Comcast scored highest in most product innovation criteria with a score of 75.8 and in most managed and cloud services criteria with a score of 68.8.

Comcast also garnered higher scores in several specific criteria including marketing support (61.7) in the support category and solution provider program (75.6) and communication (80.7) in the partnership category.

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED PRINT SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Charter Spectrum 74.8 71.9 76.3 67.8 72.8 Comcast 75.8 70.5 75.6 68.8 72.8

NETWORK SECURITY—ENTERPRISE

FORTINET

Channel Executive: Jon Bove, VP, Channel Sales

This technology category marks the first of two wins for Fortinet in the 2022 ARC.

Fortinet held its own against multiple competitors with an overall score of 85.9. That included winning scores of 91.4 in product innovation, 83.1 in support, and 80.8 in managed and cloud services criteria categories.

NETWORK SECURITY— ENTERPRISE

Fortinet

SonicWall

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

91.4 83.1 87.1 80.8 85.9 87.2 81.6 87.3 80.2 84.2

Sophos

86.2 81.2 85.7 80.7 83.6 WatchGuard Technologies 78.1 73.3 77.3 72.5 75.5 Check Point 75.7 71.9 74.4 70.8 73.3

ARC ANNUAL REPORT CARD

NETWORK SECURITY—SMB

SOPHOS

Channel Executive: Kendra Krause, SVP, Global Channels, Sales Operations

This crowded technology category marked another win for Sophos. The company won with the highest overall score (89.7) and had the top scores in product innovation (93.6), support (87.0), partnership (91.7), and managed and cloud services (85.7).

NETWORK SECURITY—SMB

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Sophos

93.6 87.0 91.7 85.7 89.7 Check Point 91.8 84.8 91.0 82.6 87.8 SonicWall 91.9 84.7 88.9 80.8 86.8

WatchGuard Technologies Fortinet 91.4 83.8 87.8 80.8 86.2

91.6 82.5 85.9 78.5 84.9

NETWORKING INFRASTRUCTURE—ENTERPRISE

ARUBA AN HPE COMPANY

Channel Executive: Jim Harold, VP, North America Channel Sales

In the second of Aruba’s three wins, the company came out on top with an overall score of 89.4. That included top scores for all four criteria: product innovation (95.6), support (88.0), partnership (89.8), and managed and cloud services (83.0).

NETWORKING INFRASTRUCTURE— ENTERPRISE

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Aruba, an HPE Company 95.6 88.0 89.8 83.0 89.4 Extreme Networks 90.4 85.0 88.4 80.0 86.2 Cisco Systems* 85.2 76.6 78.2 75.7 79.2 NOTEBOOKS/MOBILE COMPUTERS

LENOVO

Channel Executive: Rob Cato, VP, North America Channels

Marking its second win in the 2022 ARC, Lenovo earned a clean sweep of all criteria in this technology category and an overall score of 89.3.

The company received scores of 94.1 in product innovation, 87.0 in support, 94.0 in partnership, and 80.9 in managed and cloud services. Within product innovation Lenovo scored 104.2 in product quality and reliability, one of the highest scores in any criteria in this year’s ARC.

NOTEBOOKS/ MOBILE COMPUTERS

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Lenovo

94.1 87.0 94.0 80.9 89.3 Dell Technologies 88.3 80.6 82.1 71.8 81.1 HP Inc.* 79.0 71.1 73.8 67.2 73.1 Acer America 73.6 63.5 68.8 61.2 67.1

POWER PROTECTION & MANAGEMENT

EATON

Channel Executive: Hervé Tardy, VP, Marketing and Strategy, Critical Power and Digital Infrastructure Division

Eaton won this technology category with its 88.8 overall score. The company earned scores of 91.2 in product innovation, 90.4 in support, 93.4 in partnership, and 79.7 in managed and cloud services.

The product innovation score included a grade of 103.8 for product quality and reliability, one of the highest scores in this year’s ARC.

POWER PROTECTION & MANAGEMENT

Eaton

Schneider Electric

Secure Power Division (formerly APC)

Vertiv

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

91.2 90.4 93.4 79.7 88.8

87.8 87.0 89.1 76.9 85.3

85.4 81.1 83.2 74.1 81.2

ARC ANNUAL REPORT CARD

PROCESSORS

INTEL

Channel Executive: Jason Kimrey, VP, U.S. Channel, Partner Programs

Intel was uncontested in this technology category this year, earning an overall score of 82.7.

The processor giant recorded scores of 94.5 in product innovation, 79.4 in support, 85.1 in partnership, and 69.5 in managed and cloud services.

Intel often earns the single highest score—for product quality and reliability—on the ARC and this year the company continued that trend with a blockbuster score of 108.8.

PROCESSORS

Intel

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

94.5 79.4 85.1 69.5 82.7

SD-WAN

FORTINET

Channel Executive: Jon Bove, VP, Channel Sales

Fortinet scored a clean sweep in SD-WAN, a fast-growing segment of the IT industry and the channel. It also marked Fortinet’s second win in the 2022 ARC.

The company earned an overall score of 80.5. That included scores of 86.4 in product innovation, 79.5 in support, 80.3 in partnership, and 74.5 in managed and cloud services.

SD-WAN

Fortinet

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

86.4 79.5 80.3 74.5 80.5 Aruba, an HPE Company 80.0 75.9 76.3 71.2 76.1 Masergy 73.7 69.9 71.2 66.8 70.6 VMware* 70.0 67.1 68.3 64.2 67.5 SECURITY—CLOUD

SOPHOS

Channel Executive: Kendra Krause, SVP, Global Channels, Sales Operations

In yet another win for Sophos, the company earned an overall score of 91.2 in the cloud security technology category.

Sophos generated scores of 94.3 in product innovation, 87.0 in support, 92.9 in partnership, and 90.0 in managed and cloud services.

SECURITY—CLOUD

Sophos Lacework

Proofpoint

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

94.3 87.0 92.9 90.0 91.2 86.4 83.3 88.8 83.3 85.5 87.9 79.9 85.9 82.0 84.1

SECURITY—ENDPOINT PROTECTION

SOPHOS

Channel Executive: Kendra Krause, SVP, Global Channels, Sales Operations

Sophos, in its fifth win in this year’s ARC, earned an overall score of 91.8 in this technology category.

The company earned top scores in each criteria including 96.0 in product innovation, 88.7 in support, 92.9 in partnership, and 88.8 in managed and cloud services.

SECURITY— ENDPOINT PROTECTION

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Sophos

96.0 88.7 92.9 88.8 91.8 SentinelOne 94.5 86.3 92.7 87.4 90.4 SonicWall 91.2 85.1 90.7 85.1 88.2

WatchGuard Technologies Microsoft* 90.7 83.8 88.6 82.8 86.7

74.9 62.1 62.2 63.8 66.2

How To Succeed by Seeing the Whole Story

Prioritizing Profits: Cynet Cuts Partner Costs by 40 Percent

Q. The channel ecosystem is chattering about the potential to reduce cybersecurity buying costs by 40 percent. How does a partnership with Cynet make that possible?

A. Two words: “consolidation” and “automation.” We have seen unprecedented MSP and MSSP adoption of the Cynet 360 AutoXDR platform because it consolidates a full suite of security capabilities into one platform that automate day-to-day IT operations. That way, MSP and MSSPs can invest in a single solution, rather than paying multiple vendors for a complex stack, and they can focus on management instead of manual tasks. The net effect is a 40 percent reduction in operational and security buying costs.

Q. That financial upside is powerful, to say the least, but why are partners finding Cynet to be the right fit for their customers?

A. First off, Cynet is 100 percent channel-focused, meaning we never compete with partners for sales. Because, simply put, our platform is purpose-built for their target markets (SME businesses), with 24/7 MDR support included out of the box. That technological advantage provides a unique value to our partners and their customers. By delivering total visibility, correlation and automation in a single, intuitive platform, Cynet is helping partners provide our mutual customers superior coverage against tomorrow’s threats at a cost-effective price point.

Q. How does Cynet’s new ecosystem program put partners first?

A. Our solution provider partners are telling us they love the new program because it rewards growth and loyalty regardless of their size and scale. We also revamped our training and enablement program to empower partners with the knowledge bank and practical skills to surpass their customers’ expectations. No matter what type of deal you are working on, our partner programs provide ways for you to boost margin and provide deal exclusivity.

Q. What makes Cynet’s partner ecosystem a force multiplier?

A. We provide what you need to extend cybersecurity to all customers, regardless of their size. We provide our partners with industry-leading technology, robust enablement programs and a frictionless experience that drives superior outcomes. Every aspect of our partner program was designed with mutual profitability in mind. At the end of the day, your success is our success! And that’s the way it should be.

Daniel Klein

Chief Business Officer

”Cynet’s promise to make comprehensive cybersecurity easy isn’t just to end-users. Our solutions and support make it easy for our partners to accelerate ”their business growth.

Become a Cynet partner and enhance your security offerings to automatically prevent, detect, investigate and respond to threats:

www.cynet.com/partners

ARC ANNUAL REPORT CARD

SECURITY MANAGEMENT

TENABLE

Channel Executive: Chris Blando, Sr. Director, Channel Sales, Americas

Tenable pulled off a clean sweep of this technology category and earned an overall score of 90.1.

Across the criteria the company generated top scores of 93.1 in product innovation, 88.2 in support, 91.9 in partnership, and 86.4 in managed and cloud services.

SMB NETWORKING

ARUBA AN HPE COMPANY

Channel Executive: Jim Harold, VP, North America Channel Sales

Aruba, for its third win in this year’s ARC, came out on top in this technology category with an overall score of 86.2.

The company received top scores of 93.0 in product innovation, 84.0 in support, 86.0 in partnership, and 80.7 in managed and cloud services.

SECURITY MANAGEMENT

Tenable

N-able

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

93.1 88.2 91.9 86.4 90.1 79.0 72.6 80.4 77.0 77.3

SMB EXTERNAL STORAGE HARDWARE BUFFALO AMERICAS

Channel Executive: Bill Rhodes, Director, Channel Sales Another company recording a clean sweep in this year’s ARC is Buffalo Americas, which earned an overall score of 88.3 in the SMB external storage hardware technology category.

Buffalo Americas received top scores of 92.2 in product innovation, 86.0 in support, 92.6 in partnership, and 81.6 in managed and cloud services.

The company’s product innovation grades included 107.2 for product quality and reliability—the second highest score for any criteria on this year’s ARC.

SMB EXTERNAL STORAGE HARDWARE

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

Buffalo Americas 92.2 86.0 92.6 81.6 88.3 Synology 91.4 79.4 83.0 74.7 82.5

SMB NETWORKING

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL

SCORE

Aruba, an HPE Company 93.0 84.0 86.0 80.7 86.2 Extreme Networks 87.8 81.8 82.9 80.5 83.5 Cisco Systems* 87.8 74.9 75.6 74.9 78.8

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS & COLLABORATION

NEXTIVA

Channel Executive: Marc Stein, Global VP, Channel Sales

Nextiva scored a clean sweep of all criteria in this increasingly important product category for the channel.

The company received an overall score of 85.9. That included top scores of 89.4 in product innovation, 84.4 in support, 87.1 in partnership, and 82.0 in managed and cloud services.

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS & COLLABORATION

Nextiva

Microsoft*

PRODUCT INNOVATION AVERAGES SUPPORT AVERAGES PARTNERSHIP AVERAGES MANAGED & CLOUD SERVICES AVERAGES

OVERALL SCORE

89.4 84.4 87.1 82.0 85.9 71.5 58.3 61.5 62.1 63.7

How To Succeed by Seeing the Whole Story

Accelerating MSP Success With A Partner-First Offering

Q. Barracuda MSP considers itself a partner-first organization. What does that mean and how does it benefit partners?

A. Barracuda MSP is the MSP-dedicated business unit of Barracuda Networks. Our mission is to deliver innovative security products that are easy for MSPs not just to buy, deploy and use, but that enable them to deliver their security services more successfully. Everything we do is done with the MSP in mind, from MSP-friendly pricing, centralized management tools and go-to-market partner support. MSPs’ success is our success.

Q. With cyberattacks on the rise, how can MSPs best ensure customers are in a good place with cybersecurity?

A. Cybersecurity challenges can’t be solved by products alone. Cybersecurity is a journey. In today’s threat landscape, standalone solutions need to be supplemented with a more holistic approach. We characterize basic cybersecurity hygiene as an attainable standard to start with for securing customers. This includes establishing what needs to be protected, building concentric rings of security around those things, monitoring environments to gain visibility, optimizing response time and standardizing on a framework that covers people, process, and technology.

Q. How does Barracuda XDR transform an MSP’s offering?

A. Barracuda XDR is an eXtended visibility, Detection & Response platform that is backed by a group of tenured security experts in our 24x7 Security Operations Center (SOC). With Barracuda XDR, MSPs can provide proactive cybersecurity-as-a-service for their customers without investing in building their own SOC, hiring, training and retaining security talent or round-the-clock staffing.

Q. What unique opportunities are available for prospective MSP partners that want to take advantage of Barracuda’s products and services?

A. Partnering with Barracuda MSP can accelerate an MSP’s path to success in offering managed security services and help MSPs improve their customers’ security posture. Barracuda’s proven security pedigree coupled with its deep understanding of MSP’s unique needs means we are well-equipped to do this. From streamlining service delivery, improving customer security posture and growing the MSP’s business, we are committed to their success.

Neal Bradbury

Senior Vice President, Barracuda MSP

”Partnering with Barracuda MSP can accelerate an MSP’s path to success in offering managed security services and help MSPs improve their customers’ security posture. Barracuda’s proven security pedigree coupled with its deep understanding of MSP’s unique needs means we are well-equipped

”to do this.

Request a demo today to learn more about Barracuda XDR. Looking for actionable best practices? Get a free copy of our new ebook, Conversational Managed Security Services for MSPs.