2016 Partner Program Guide: 5-Star Software Vendors (Part 1)

Software Standouts

From core operating systems, to database software and middleware, to business and personal productivity applications, software is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to deriving value from IT. Without software, the most powerful server hardware is little more than an expensive boat anchor.

But software is complex, from pricing and selling it to installing and maintaining it. That's why solution providers have a greater need for technical, marketing, sales and financial assistance from the software vendors they partner with. The 2016 Partner Program Guide offers the information solution providers need to evaluate IT vendors they work with or are considering working with. The guide is based on detailed applications vendors submitted outlining all aspects of their partner programs.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, The Channel Company designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here we present the first set of 5-Star designees in the software space, A through L.

A10 Networks Inc.

Program Name: A10 Affinity Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Kirsten Young

URL: www.a10networks.com

Amazon Web Services

Program Name: Amazon Web Services Partner Program (APN)

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Terry Wise

URL: aws.amazon.com

APC by Schneider Electric

Program Name: APC Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1991

Number of North American Partners: 22,500

North American Channel Chief: Shannon Sbar

URL: http://www.apc.com

AppSense

Program Name: AppSense Certified Solution Partner (CSP) Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: 450

North American Channel Chief: Jim Airdo

URL: www.appsense.com

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Program Name: Aruba PartnerEdge

Year Program Established: 2007

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Jim Harold

URL: http://www.arubanetworks.com/

Asigra Inc.

Program Name: Asigra Hybird Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2009

Number of North American Partners: 450

North American Channel Chief: Eran Farajun

URL: www.asigra.com

AT&T

Program Name: AT&T Alliance Program

Year Program Established: 1998

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Kevin Leonard

URL: www.att.com/alliance

Avaya

Program Name: Avaya Connect

Year Program Established: 2009

Number of North American Partners: 2,414

North American Channel Chief: Joe Lohmeier

URL: www.avaya.com

Axcient

Program Name: Axcient Saas:Flo

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Mark Petoskey

URL: www.axcient.com

Axis Communications

Program Name: Axis Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: 21,142

North American Channel Chief: Larry Newman

URL: www.axis.com/us/en

Barracuda Networks

Program Name: Barracuda Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2004

Number of North American Partners: 5,304

North American Channel Chief: Christopher Meyer

URL: www.barracuda.com/

Blue Medora

Program Name: True Visibility Channel Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Chris Noordyke

URL: www.bluemedora.com

BMC

Program Name: BMC Partner Advantage

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: 58

North American Channel Chief: Sanjay Gupta

URL: www.bmc.com

Centrify

Program Name: Centrify Channel Partner Network (CCPN)

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: 229

North American Channel Chief: Nathan Adams

URL: www.centrify.com

CenturyLink

Program Name: CenturyLink Channel Alliance

Year Program Established: 1998

Number of North American Partners: 200

North American Channel Chief: Blake Wetzel

URL: www.centurylink.com

Ciena

Program Name: BizConnect

Year Program Established: 2006

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Steve Cannella

URL: www.ciena.com

Cisco Systems

Program Name: Cisco Solution Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: 450

North American Channel Chief: Rick Snyder

URL: www.cisco.com

Cisco Systems

Program Name: Cisco Global Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1996

Number of North American Partners: 20,880

North American Channel Chief: Rick Snyder

URL: www.cisco.com

Citrix

Program Name: Citrix Partner Network

Year Program Established: 1989

Number of North American Partners: 2,670

North American Channel Chief: Rafael Garzon

URL: www.citrix.com

Comcast Business

Program Name: Comcast Business Solutions Provider Program

Year Program Established: 2011

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Craig Schlagbaum

URL: business.comcast.com/solutions-provider

Commvault

Program Name: Commvault Partner Advantage Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: David Fischer

URL: www.commvault.com

DataCore Software

Program Name: DataCore Premier Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: 170

North American Channel Chief: Devi Madhavan

URL: www.datacore.com

Datto

Program Name: Partner Plus Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Rob Rae

URL: www.datto.com

Dell

Program Name: Dell PartnerDirect

Year Program Established: 2007

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Jim DeFoe

URL: www.dell.com

Digium

Program Name: Digium Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2007

Number of North American Partners: 2,514

North American Channel Chief: Steve Harvey

URL: www.digium.com

Eaton

Program Name: PowerAdvantage Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2009

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Sommer Goodknecht

URL: http://www.powerquality.eaton.com

EMC Corp.

Program Name: EMC Business Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Scott Millard

URL: www.emc.com

Emerson Network Power

Program Name: Innovation Partnership Program

Year Program Established: 2004

Number of North American Partners: 1,753

North American Channel Chief: Jessica Kaiser

URL: www.emersonnetworkpower.com

Epicor Software Corporation

Program Name: Epicor Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: 92

North American Channel Chief: Craig McCollum

URL: www.epicor.com

ESET LLC

Program Name: ESET Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2006

Number of North American Partners: 1,040

North American Channel Chief: Gerald C. Choung

URL: http://www.eset.com/us/

Extreme Networks

Program Name: Extreme Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: 500

North American Channel Chief: Dave Allison

URL: www.extremenetworks.com/

FireEye, Inc.

Program Name: FireEye Fuel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Number of North American Partners: 519

North American Channel Chief: Chris Carter

URL: www.fireeye.com

FireMon

Program Name: FireMon Ignite

Year Program Established: 2011

Number of North American Partners: 140

North American Channel Chief: Todd M. DeBell

URL: www.firemon.com

Fortinet

Program Name: Fortinet Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Joe Sykora

URL: www.fortinet.com

FreedomVoice

Program Name: FreedomVoice Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2006

Number of North American Partners: 411

North American Channel Chief: Chris Sterbenc

URL: www.freedomvoice.com

Genband

Program Name: Partner Advantage Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Michael Bacus

URL: www.genband.com

Gigamon

Program Name: Gigamon Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: 262

North American Channel Chief: Barbara Spicek

URL: www.gigamon.com

Globalscape

Program Name: Globalscape Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2016

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Tamela Gates May

URL: https://www.globalscape.com/

Gridstore

Program Name: Gridstore Accelerate Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2011

Number of North American Partners: 60

North American Channel Chief: Phil Lavery

URL: www.gridstore.com

Guidance Software

Program Name: Guidance Software Global Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1997

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Scott Skidmore

URL: www.guidancesoftware.com

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Program Name: HPE Partner Ready

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Scott Dunsire

URL: www.hpe.com

Hitachi Data Systems

Program Name: Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2003

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Christopher P. White

URL: www.hds.com

HP Inc.

Program Name: HP Partner First

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: 18,827

North American Channel Chief: Stephanie Dismore

URL: www.hp.com/

IBM

Program Name: PartnerWorld

Year Program Established: 1999

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Michelle Stern

URL: ibm.com/partnerworld

Infor

Program Name: Infor Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2011

Number of North American Partners: 244

North American Channel Chief: Jeff Abbott

URL: www.infor.com

Intacct

Program Name: Intacct Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Taylor Macdonald

URL: http://www.intacct.com

Intel Corp.

Program Name: Intel Technology Provider Program

Year Program Established: 1980

Number of North American Partners: 23,399

North American Channel Chief: Todd Garrigues

URL: http://www.intel.com

Intronis, the MSP unit of Barracuda

Program Name: Intronis Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2008

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Neal Bradbury

URL: www.intronis.com

Ixia

Program Name: Ixia Channel Xcelerate Program

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: 530

North American Channel Chief: Lori Cornmesser

URL: ixiacom.com

Juniper Networks

Program Name: Juniper Partner Advantage Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Jonathan Belcher

URL: www.juniper.net

Kaspersky Lab

Program Name: Kaspersky Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2008

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Leslie Bois

URL: kaspersky.com

Kerio Technologies

Program Name: Kerio Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2001

Number of North American Partners: 1,946

North American Channel Chief: Abi Vickram

URL: www.kerio.com

Laserfiche

Program Name: Laserfiche VAR Program

Year Program Established: 1994

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Hedy Belttary

URL: www.laserfiche.com

Lenovo

Program Name: Lenovo Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2006

Number of North American Partners: 29,000

North American Channel Chief: Sammy Kinlaw

URL: www.lenovo.com