A lot of exciting new things happened at this year’s Channel Partners for us! This year was the biggest and best Channel Partners show in recent memory, maybe ever, and we are thrilled to have made a big splash. Even amongst the Tesla’s, tricked out Jeeps, and ex-NBA stars, AVANT managed to steal the buzz on the show floor. And for good reason. You may have seen us on the keynote panel sharing the 6 Habits of Highly Successful Partners or at the Big Stage Session with Cisco, but in case you didn’t catch us, here are some more highlights…
Circle of Excellence
We could not be more proud of our leader Drew Lydecker on being named to the prestigious Channel Partners Circle of Excellence for 2016! Circle of Excellence winners are selected “based on candidates’ leadership in the industry, the channel and their companies, with an emphasis on advocacy for partners navigating the intersection of IT and telecom technologies.” We are honored to be amongst such a wonderful and deserving class of CoE Winners. We invite you to view the full list of 2016 winners here.
Peak 10 Award
We were excited to receive the 2015 Distribution Partner of the Year award from National IT infrastructure and cloud services provider Peak 10, with whom we’ve enjoyed an amazing relationship since 2012! As Drew said, “It’s an honor to have achieved Peak 10’s Distribution Partner of the Year award and we look forward to even more joint success in the year ahead.” While we consider 2015 nothing short of a banner year for AVANT, our sights are always towards the future, and we’re excited at the prospects for an even greater 2016 alongside pioneers like Peak 10.
Cisco and AVANT Big Stage Session
AVANT has become the largest and fastest growing aggregator of Cisco Powered cloud services, and we were recognized for that at Channel Partners. During the conference, Drew moderated the keynote panel discussion between cloud visionaries including Mohammad Abdel of Cisco, Adam Burke of Quest, Carmen Sorice III of Sungard Availability Services, Frank Eagle of QTS and Steve Harris of Peak 10.
Regarding our partnership with Cisco, Steve Benvenuto, senior director in Cisco’s cloud group, was quoted as saying that “Cisco’s Cloud and Managed Services Program (CMSP) has generated a strong pipeline of Cisco-Powered cloud services demand and we’re working with our channel partners to make them more successful in selling cloud. That’s where AVANT come into the equation. Partners feel confident going to market with Cisco solutions that are backed by AVANT’s sales enablement strategy and deep cloud experience.”
Party at XS Nightclub
And finally, AVANT had a record number of people attend our annual Channel Partners Party, to celebrate an amazing 2015 and toast an even better 2016. We want to sincerely thank our Platinum Sponsor Cisco, and all of our sponsors: Aryaka, Masergy, Evolve IP, QTS, Peak 10, ViaWest, Rackspace, Windstream, Equinix, Fonality, NaviSite, RapidScale, Coresite, 8×8, InContact, FHS & Singlehop.
Thank you, everyone, for an incredible Channel Partners 2016!