2021 Annual Report Card Winners: Solution Providers Give Top Grades To Key Vendors

For the 36th year, solution providers scored vendors in 24 technology categories based on their performance in product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services.

High Achievers

For the 36th year, CRN offered solution providers in North America the opportunity to grade the performance of their IT vendor partners with the CRN Annual Report Card.

Solution providers were asked to score vendors across 24 product technology categories. That includes long-time channel technology mainstays including enterprise network storage, laptops and mobile devices, printers, and enterprise and SMB network security. It also includes newer technology areas such as hyperconverged infrastructure, SD-WAN and edge computing.

Partners graded IT vendors on a total of 21 criteria spanning four subcategories: product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services. Companies received average scores for each criteria category and an overall score for the technology category.

In some technology categories, a single vendor dominated the scoring, winning not just the top overall score, but also the top grades across all four subcategories and, in some cases, even sweeping all 21 criteria.

Other technology categories were more competitive with two or more vendors splitting the results with different vendors scoring highest for different subcategories – and even for specific criteria. (One vendor, for example, received the top score for product quality and reliability while another won for product marketability – both criteria within the product innovation subcategory.)

Which IT companies are at the top of their game in the eyes of their channel partners? Read on to find out which vendors earned the highest marks this year.

Cloud Security: Sophos

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

Sophos was the big winner in this year’s ARC, coming out on top in five technology categories.

Sophos swept the cloud security technology category in all criteria and earned an overall score of 89.6.

Competing against rivals Check Point Software Technologies and Proofpoint, Sophos received grades of 93.3 in product innovation, 85.5 in support, 91.3 in partnership and 87.6 in managed and cloud services.

Check Point earned an overall score of 83.5 while Proofpoint garnered an overall score of 82.9.

Cloud Storage: Wasabi Technologies

Channel Chief: Marty Falaro, EVP and Chief Operating Officer

Wasabi Technologies received an overall ARC score of 85.0 in the cloud storage technology category.

The company garnered scores of 90.0 for product innovation, 73.9 for support, 87.4 for partnership and 87.8 for managed and cloud services.

Wasabi received a score of 107.2 for product quality and reliability (part of the product innovation subcategory) – the highest grade given to any vendor for any criteria in this year’s ARC.

Data Protection & Management: Datto

Channel Chief: Rob Rae, SVP, Business Development

This technology category, the first of two won by Datto in the 2021 ARC, was a closely fought battle between Datto and Barracuda Networks with Datto edging out a win with an overall score of 89.8 to Barracuda’s 89.2.

Datto scored highest in most subcategories, including product innovation (93.5), partnership (92.4) and managed and cloud services (85.7). But Barracuda scored highest in support with 87.0 and also bested Datto in several specific criteria including product quality and reliability (102.3), pre-sales support (89.1) and managed/cloud services profit margins and profit potential (91.8).

Veeam received an overall score of 85.0 in this technology category while Hewlett Packard Enterprise garnered an overall score of 81.6 and StorageCraft Technology’s overall score was 72.5.

Data Security: Sophos

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

Sophos swept this technology category with an overall score of 88.7.

The company came out on top in all 21 criteria, with subcategory scores of 90.1 for product innovation, 86.3 for support, 91.4 for partnership and 86.4 for managed and cloud services.

Symantec, a division of Broadcom, received an overall score of 68.7.

Edge Computing: Scale Computing

Channel Chief: Scott Mann, Director, North American Channel

Edge computing is the first of two technology categories won by Scale Computing in this year’s ARC.

Scale Computing dominated this emerging, fast-growing technology category with an overall score of 92.5. The company received scores of 95.8 in product innovation, 91.6 in support, 95.9 in partnership and 86.2 in managed and cloud services.

Nvidia finished second with an overall score of 86.2 and received the top score (94.8) for “richness of product features/functionality.” Intel received an overall score of 79.8.

Enterprise Network Storage: HPE

Channel Chief: George Hope, Worldwide Head of Partner Sales

This is the first of two technology categories won by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in this year’s ARC.

HPE garnered an overall score of 85.1 in this important technology category. The company received scores of 88.6 for product innovation, 81.8 for support, 84.4 for partnership and 84.8 for managed and cloud services.

Enterprise Network Infrastructure: Aruba, an HPE company

Channel Chief: Donna Grothjan, VP, Worldwide Channel Sales

This is the first of three technology categories won by Aruba in this year’s ARC.

Aruba earned an overall score of 88.8 in this critical technology segment and swept all criteria with subcategory scores of 92.4 in product innovation, 87.2 in support, 90.0 in partnership and 84.8 in managed and cloud services.

Nvidia earned an overall score of 82.5 in this technology category.

Enterprise Wireless LANs: Aruba, an HPE company

Channel Chief: Donna Grothjan, VP, Worldwide Channel Sales

Aruba earned an overall score of 89.1 in the enterprise wireless LAN segment.

Partners gave it particularly high marks for product quality and reliability with a score of 100.2.

The company’s subcategory scores included 94.7 in product innovation, 86.7 in support, 89.8 in partnership and 84.0 in managed and cloud services.

Hyperconverged Infrastructure: Scale Computing

Channel Chief: Scott Mann, Director, North American Channel

Scale Computing swept all criteria in this increasingly important technology category with some of the highest scores on this year’s ARC, including earning an overall score of 93.0.

The company scored 95.9 in product innovation (including a very impressive 103.4 for product quality and reliability), 91.9 for support, 95.9 in partnership and 87.7 in managed and cloud services.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise earned an overall score of 82.6 in this technology category while StarWind received an overall score of 79.9.

Laptops and Mobile Devices: Acer America

Channel Chief: Philip Burger, VP, U.S. Channel Sales

This was another hotly contested technology category with Acer America coming out on top with an overall score of 74.7. That win was thanks to Acer’s top scores for product innovation (83.6) and managed and cloud services (65.6).

But Dynabook wasn’t far behind with an overall score of 73.0. And the company bested Acer in some criteria including support (70.1) and partnership (80.9).

Managed Detection and Response: Sophos

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

Sophos received an overall score of 91.2 for this category of security technology.

The company garnered scores of 93.4 for product innovation criteria, 89.0 for support, 93.2 for partnership and 88.6 for managed and cloud services.

MSP Platforms: N-Able

Channel Chief: David Weeks, Senior Director, Partner Experience

N-Able came out on top in a battle with Datto in this technology category with an overall score of 73.9. N-Able took top scores in three of four subcategories, including product innovation (81.8), partnership (74.2) and managed and cloud services (71.5).

Datto received an overall score of 72.0. But it topped N-Able in support criteria with a score of 68.3 and scored higher in several specific criteria such as pre- and post-sales support (63.3 and 83.0, respectively) and solution provider program (68.1).

Multifunction Printers: Lexmark

Channel Chief: Greg Chavers, VP, North America Channel Sales

This is the first of two product technology categories won by Lexmark in this year’s ARC.

Lexmark received an overall score of 73.9 for this channel mainstay technology. That included scores of 81.0 for product innovation (including 91.3 in the criterion of product quality and reliability), 70.8 for support, 75.3 for partnership and 66.8 for managed print services.

Network Connectivity: Comcast Business

Channel Chief: Craig Schlagbaum, SVP, Indirect Sales

Comcast Business garnered an overall score of 77.7 in the network connectivity technology category.

The communications giant earned grades of 82.5 in product innovation (including 94.6 for quality and reliability), 73.9 in support, 80.2 in partnership and 73.3 for managed and cloud services.

Network Security – Enterprise: Fortinet

Channel Chief: Jon Bove, VP, Channel Sales

This is the first of two technology categories won by Fortinet in this year’s ARC.

The fact that Fortinet not only won but dominated this category is impressive given that eight companies were competing.

Fortinet won with an overall score of 88.3. That included top scores for product innovation (91.7), support (86.6), partnership (89.5), and managed and cloud services (84.7).

WatchGuard placed second with an overall score of 84.8. Aruba (an HPE company) came in third with an overall score of 84.7 – but did outscore everyone in product quality and reliability with an impressive 101.2 – and consumption-based/subscription pricing (81.0).

SonicWall scored 84.1 overall in this technology category while Sophos scored 81.1, Barracuda Networks scored 80.2, Check Point scored 76.4 and Symantec (a division of Broadcom) scored 68.1.

Network Security – SMB: Sophos

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

Sophos dominated this all-important security technology category with an overall score of 91.1. That included top scores for product innovation (94.1), support (89.7), partnership (92.6), and managed and cloud services (87.2).

Barracuda was second here with an overall score of 89.4. The company won top scores in several specific criteria including product services opportunity (88.0), post-sales support (96.7) and cloud-readiness of channel program (87.6) and tied with Sophos in product marketability (86.5).

Fortinet had an overall score of 87.6 while WatchGuard had an overall score of 85.3 (and garnered the top score in product quality and reliability at 102.1). Check Point had an overall score of 84.9 and SonicWall was at 83.2.

Power Protection and Management: Eaton

Channel Chief: Curtiz Gangi, VP, U.S. Channels

Eaton came out on top in this technology category with an overall score of 89.5 and took the top scores in product innovation (94.1) and managed and cloud services (79.4).

Eaton’s product innovation grades included 104.5 for product quality and reliability, the second highest grade in any criteria in this year’s ARC. Eaton also had the highest scores in training (84.3), quality of field management (90.7), marketing support (83.8) and solution provider program (87.2).

But Tripp Lite was close behind with an overall score of 89.1 and the company took the top scores for support (90.8) and partnership (94.4), and the top score (66.4) for consumption-based/subscription pricing. (Note: Eaton acquired Tripp Lite earlier this year.)

Schneider Electric received an overall score of 87.5 followed by CyberPower with 77.2 and Vertiv with 76.6.

Processors: Intel

Channel Chief: Jason Kimrey, GM, U.S. Channel, Partner Programs

Microprocessor giant Intel took top scores in this key technology category with an overall score of 81.2, including top scores for product innovation (90.9), support (78.3) and partnership (84.1).

Intel’s product innovation grades included 104.4 for product quality and reliability, the third highest grade in any criteria in this year’s ARC.

Rival Nvidia scored 78.9 overall. But the chipmaker narrowly outscored Intel for managed and cloud services (69.9), as well as in several specific criteria including services opportunity (68.7), pre-sales support (78.5), marketing support (74.4), and communication (83.2).

SD-WAN: Fortinet

Channel Chief: Jon Bove, VP, Channel Sales

Fortinet largely ran away with this technology category, scoring 88.6 overall and earning top scores of 91.1 for product innovation, 88.4 for support, 88.9 for partnership and 85.5 for managed and cloud services.

Aruba, which acquired SD-WAN technology developer Silver Peak in 2020, came out on top in several specific criteria including product quality and reliability (95.4), product technical innovation (93.2) and product marketability (86.9). It also scored highest in consumption-based/subscription pricing (78.0).

Security – Endpoint Protectionop: Sophos

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

Sophos dominated this technology category, earning an overall score of 89.3 and recording a clean sweep with top scores in all criteria.

For product innovation Sophos scored 93.3 while earning a score of 87.0 in support, 91.0 in partnership and 85.2 in managed and cloud services.

SonicWall placed second in this technology category with an overall score of 81.8, followed closely by WatchGuard with 81.1, Check Point with 78.0 and Symantec with 67.3.

Security Management: Tenable

Channel Chief: Jeff Brooks, VP, Global Channels and Business Development

Tenable led the way in this technology category, scoring 87.9 overall and garnering scores of 90.9 for product innovation, 86.6 for support, 89.6 for partnership and 84.0 for managed and cloud services.

Fortinet came in second here with an overall score of 86.5. The company also took top scores in a number of specific criteria including 92.3 in richness of product features/functionality, 87.4 in product services opportunity, 78.2 in marketing support, 92.0 in revenue and profit potential, 74.0 in consumption-based/subscription pricing and 89.7 in profit margins/profit potential in managed and cloud services.

Symantec scored 68.4 overall.

SMB External Storage Hardware: Buffalo Technology

Channel Chief: Bill Rhodes, Director of Channel Sales

Buffalo Technology ran away with this technology category, winning with an overall top score of 90.2 and recording top scores of 92.8 in product innovation (including an impressive 102.4 for product quality and reliability), 88.0 in support, 92.5 in partnership and 87.0 in managed and cloud services.

HPE placed second here with an overall score of 85.2 (including a top score of 93.8 in technical innovation), followed by Synology with an overall score of 81.8.

SMB Networking: Aruba, a HPE company

Channel Chief: Donna Grothjan, VP, Worldwide Channel Sales

Aruba, a HPE company, swept this category with an overall score of 89.8. Aruba earned scores of 93.9 for product innovation (including an impressive 102.2 for product quality and reliability), 88.4 for support, 91.0 for partnership and 85.2 for managed and cloud services.

Datto received an overall score of 81.4 in this technology category.

Workgroup Color Printers: Lexmark

Channel Chief: Greg Chavers, VP, North America Channel Sales

Lexmark received an overall score of 76.6 in the workgroup color printer technology category.

The company scored 81.9 in product innovation, 75.7 in support, 78.0 in partnership and 69.6 in managed print services. Its highest marks came in the criterion of product features and functionality, where it earned a score of 88.8.