CDI, Presidio And Kyndryl Achieve Dell Titanium Black Partner Status

“Having that direct access more frequently with Dell leaders, always lends itself to better outcomes,” Rich Falcone, CEO and President of CDI, tells CRN.

Solution provider heavyweights Presidio, CDI and Kyndryl achieved Dell Technologies’ most elite and exclusive partner status of Titanium Black today, giving them direct access to Dell leaders as well as the best benefits in the Dell Technologies Partner Program.

Rich Falcone, CEO and President of CDI, said getting more access to Dell’s top executives will be huge and further elevate the company’s already booming Dell business.

“I was just in Austin, Texas, and I was able to have a one-on-one with [North American sales leader] John Byrne. [CEO] Michael Dell was in the room speaking to everyone. Dell’s CFO [Tom Sweet] spoke to everyone. I got time with [Global Channel Chief] Rola Dagher and [Global sales leader] Billy Scannell. Having that direct access more frequently with Dell leaders, always lends itself to better outcomes,” said Falcone, in an interview with CRN.

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Presidio, CDI and Kyndryl will now reap the most benefits and resources from the Dell Technologies Partner Program as Titanium Black partners, which represents the uppermost echelon of companies working closely with Dell. Adding these three channel partners will bring the total number of Dell Titanium Black partners to 16.

“Titanium Black status gives these three partners differentiated treatment in terms of opportunities to the Dell Technologies Partner Program,” said Rola Dagher, Dell Technologies’ global channel chief, in an interview with CRN. “So it’s an inclusive access to our leaders and our strategy. They meet with us on a regular basis.”

The Titanium Black status recognizes Dell’s most strategic partners that are best equipped for the data-centric, multi-cloud world and supporting customers in their digital transformation journey, Dagher said.

CDI ‘Extremely Exception’ In New Customer Acquisition

New York City-based CDI is an elite IT systems integrator and services provider throughout the East Coast.

“The reason why we picked CDI is they’re extremely exceptional when it comes to new acquisitions and the way that they’re positioned in the market,” said Dagher.

Founded in 1995, the company has been partnering with Dell Technologies for more than 20 years, achieving Dell Titanium status in 2017.

“Our relationship with Dell has been frictionless over the last couple years,” said Falcone, adding that the company’s Dell sales were up a whopping 30 percent in 2021 compared to 2020. “Our relationship with Dell is as close to perfect as it can be. We just have phenomenal field engagement, phenomenal financial engagement, phenomenal business engagement, business development engagement, executive sponsorship locally, executive sponsorship nationally. … We’re thrilled to be part of the Dell Titanium Black community.”

CDI’s breadth of solutions ranges from hybrid cloud infrastructure and security to DevOps and intelligent operations.

Presidio Is ‘Rapidly Expanding’

Founded in 2003, Presidio has been a longtime Dell Technologies channel partner and renowned global solution provider. The over $3.1 billion New York City-based company is now focused on doubling down on accelerating business transformation for its customers.

“Presidio continues to show strong mutual investment in key areas and they’re rapidly expanding, which is awesome,” said Dagher.

Presidio’s skilled teams of engineers and solutions architects have deep expertise across cloud, security, networking and modern data center infrastructure to help customers deliver impactful business outcomes, Dagher said in describing the solution provider’s capabilities. The channel partner is a trusted strategic advisor with a flexible full lifecycle model of professional, managed, and support and staffing services to help execute, secure, operationalize and maintain technology solutions, she said.

Kyndryl Has ‘All Of The Above’

Kyndryl, the spin-off of IBM’s managed infrastructure services business, debuted as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange in November.

The New York City-based IT services giant has an employee base of more than 80,000 technical workers worldwide, dubbing itself as the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider.

“Kyndryl has been a successful long-term partner for us and they are investing with us on major transformational solutions for customers,” said Dagher. “When we talk about things like cyber resiliency, security, services, etc. – they have all of the above.”

Kyndryl has a vast portfolio of services for designing, running and managing modern technology environments.

Titanium Black status is given to Dell partners who “are the most innovative, successful and truly transformational,” Dagher said. Some of the 16 solution providers who have already achieved Titanium Black status include Ahead, CDW, Computacenter, DXC, Insight, Itochu, SHI, Swisscom and World Wide Technology.

“Those partners that are best equipped to navigate when it comes to today’s data-centric, multi-cloud world to support their and our customers’ digital transformation journey,” said Dagher. “We continue to invest in the most strategic partners.”