Racing To The Top: CRN's Triple Crown Award Winners

The Triple Crown

CRN assembles a number of lists and rankings throughout the year, including the Solution Provider 500 list of the largest solution providers in North America by revenue, the Fast Growth 150 ranking of the fastest-growing solution providers, and the Tech Elite 250 solution providers with the highest level of certifications from major vendors such as Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. It's quite an achievement when a solution provider makes any one of CRN's lists. Making two is very impressive.

But to make all three? This year CRN recognizes the 26 solution providers that did just that with our first-ever Triple Crown honors. Just making the SP500 and Fast Growth 150 is a challenge. A company has to be big enough to make the former, while still recording the kind of double- or triple-digit growth usually only seen in startups. To be Tech Elite, it also has to invest heavily in top certifications. Here are the solution providers that had the revenue, growth and technical expertise to be named 2014's Triple Crown winners.

AMS.NET

Robert Tocci, Founder, CEO

Livermore, Calif.

AMS.NET, founded in 1988, provides a broad range of IT procurement, implementation, project management and support services in data center and virtualization, desktop virtualization, switching and routing, mobility and wireless, and unifi ed communications technologies. The company's 40-plus vendor partner roster includes Cisco, Citrix, HP, Microsoft and VMware.

2014 SP500 Rank: 325

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 144

Anexinet

John Connolly, CEO

Blue Bell, Pa.

Focused on systems integration and technology management services, Anexinet delivers applications, infrastructure, cloud, managed services, mobility and business intelligence solutions to the health-care, manufacturing, financial/insurance, legal, life sciences and energy/utilities industries. Founded in 2000, it lists Citrix, EMC, HP, Microsoft and VMware as its strategic vendor partners.

2014 SP500 Rank: 159

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 68

Clearpath Solutions Group

Gary Vaughan, President

Herndon, Va.

Founded by storage industry veterans, Clearpath provides its customers with infrastructure solutions in primary storage, backup and de-duplication, data center and IP networking, Cisco unified computing, VMware virtualization, Vblock infrastructure, virtual desktops and Microsoft Exchange. Targeted verticals include health care, financial services, legal, nonprofit and education.

2014 SP500 Rank: 311

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 81

Computer Design & Integration

Trish Bakker, CEO

Teterboro, N.J.

Founded in 1995, Computer Design & Integration offers a broad range of data center infrastructure and cloud computing design, integration and support services. More than 80 percent of the company's 700 customers are in the financial services, pharmaceutical, health-care, legal, media and entertainment, and state and local government and education industries.

2014 SP500 Rank: 83

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 69

Corus360

Steve Johnson, President

Norcross, Ga.

Corus360, founded in 2010, is an IT consulting and solution provider with offerings in advanced technology, IT staffing, and system recovery and managed services. The company's RES-Q Services division provides recovery and managed services including production, testing and disaster recovery infrastructure, as well as business continuity solutions.

2014 SP500 Rank: 340

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 35

Dasher Technologies

Laurie Dasher, President, CFO

Campbell, Calif.

Over the past four years Dasher Technologies has evolved from focusing almost exclusively on Hewlett-Packard technologies to becoming a diversified systems integrator and provider of Infrastructure-as-a-Service, data center, green IT, and high-performance computing solutions. In addition to HP, the company's vendor partners include Cisco, Dell, EMC, NetApp, Oracle and VMware.

2014 SP500 Rank: 191

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 148

Datalink

Paul Lidsky, President, CEO

Eden Prairie, Minn.

For Datalink, it's all about the data center. The company has expanded beyond its strong foundation in servers, storage and networks to provide solutions around virtualization, cloud, unified computing and IT-as-a-Service. In October Datalink expanded its West Coast presence, as well as its Cisco expertise, by acquiring San Francisco-based Bear Data Solutions.

2014 SP500 Rank: 47

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 102

Denali Advanced Integration

Majdi Daher, CEO

Redmond, Wash.

Denali Advanced Integration's website says the company's vision of the future is "mobile ... secure ... connected." The solution provider offers professional services and systems engineering expertise, architectural and strategic services, e-procurement assistance, integration and testing facilities, and service desk help. Denali's vendor roster includes HP, Cisco, VMware, Citrix and Microsoft.

2014 SP500 Rank: 91

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 150

eGroup

Mike Carter, Founder, Principal

Mount Pleasant, S.C.

eGroup offers cloud, application and managed services, as well as expertise in end-user computing and BYOD policies. Founded in 1997, a key tenet of eGroup's offerings is its four-phased project methodology encompassing consultation, design, deployment and support. Vendor partners include Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, VMware, EMC, Zerto, Nutanix and Pernixdata.

2014 SP500 Rank: 489

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 100

Entisys Solutions

Michael Strohl, CEO

Concord, Calif.

Entisys Solutions' core competency is virtualization, offering a range of data center infrastructure, application and desktop virtualization solutions and services – all developed around the company's Virtualization-Oriented architecture methodology. Entisys and Agile360, the company's Southern California division, also provide storage and disaster recovery solutions.

2014 SP500 Rank: 253

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 67

Focus Technology Solutions

Bruce Crochetiere, Founder, CEO

Seabrook, N.H.

Focus TSI provides data center, cloud, virtualization and managed services to customers in the health-care, financial, bio-pharmaceutical, education, state and local government, legal, manufacturing and IT industries. The company partners with leading IT vendors including Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP, Microsoft, Splunk, VCE and VMware.

2014 SP500 Rank: 462

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 147

Internetwork Engineering

Chuck Steiner, President, CTO

Charlotte, N.C.

Internetwork Engineering offers expertise focused on data center technologies such as virtualization, unified computing, storage, and backup and recovery; collaboration offerings such as unified communications, business video and contact centers; and intelligent network technologies including switching and routing, mobility and network security.

2014 SP500 Rank: 150

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 82

Kovarus

Peter Castaldi, Co-Founder, Principal

San Ramon, Calif.

Kovarus, founded in 2003, says its five-phase "back to basics" methodology provides customers with a clear road map to IT-as-a-Service. The company's consulting, leasing and finance, maintenance, project management and staffing services span ITaaS, compute, networking, storage and virtualization technologies. Platinum partners include EMC, VMware, Cisco, Juniper, Citrix and Symantec.

2014 SP500 Rank: 154

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 42

LPS Integration

David Linzy, President, CEO

Nashville, Tenn.

Virtualization, networking and storage technologies -- all with a healthy dose of security-- are the focus of LPS Integration's professional services, managed IT and hosting offerings, enterprise licensing expertise and staffing services. LPS, launched in 2002, works closely with Cisco, Citrix, EMC and Microsoft.

2014 SP500 Rank: 171

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 28

Lumenate Technologies

Reagan Dixon, President

Addison, Texas

Lumenate's key competency areas are storage and virtualization, security and compliance, and networking and collaboration. Above those technologies the company offers its ProFlex professional services and ManageFlex SLA-based services. Earlier this year the company launched its Fluency breach information event management solution, developed through a partnership with SecurityDo.

2014 SP500 Rank: 122

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 14

Park Place Technologies

Ed Kenty, President, CEO

Cleveland

Park Place Technologies' forte is providing top-notch IT maintenance and support services. Founded in 1991, Park Place Technologies offers post-warranty equipment maintenance services for server, storage and networking hardware, and support services that include hardware relocation, upgrade, installation and disposal services.

2014 SP500 Rank: 309

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 111

Pinnacle Business Systems

Rob Anderson, President, CEO

Edmond, Okla.

Pinnacle Business Systems offers a wide range of solutions and services for information security, networking, virtualization, data protection and disaster recovery, cloud computing, unified communications and network IT management. While Pinnacle Business Systems partners with most major IT vendors, the company also develops a range of solutions specifically for IBM's eServer system.

2014 SP500 Rank: 299

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 132

Quest

Tim Burke, President, CEO

Sacramento, Calif.

Quest offers a range of technology integration and management services focused on cloud computing, disaster recovery, security, and network and server management. Its IT solutions are geared toward healthcare, government, financial, commercial, and aerospace and defense customers. Quest is closely allied with Cisco and holds a number of Cisco certifications and specializations.

2014 SP500 Rank: 153

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 127

RoundTower Technologies

Stephen West and Stephen Power, Managing Partners

Cincinnati

RoundTower Technologies, which was founded in 2007, is an IT and data center consulting company that provides professional and managed services and solutions across data storage and archiving, information security, data protection, networking and compute systems, virtualization and service desk.

2014 SP500 Rank: 197

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 29

Sanity Solutions

Jason Cherveny, President, CEO

Denver

Sanity's expertise is in data management, developing solutions and services for the data center and cloud computing, virtualization, data storage, and data protection and security. The company was just named a Dell Partner of the Year for the second year in a row. Sanity also works with Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, IBM, VMware and about two dozen more.

2014 SP500 Rank: 495

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 44

Sigmanet

Ahmed Al-Khatib, President, CEO

Ontario, Calif.

Sigmanet develops a broad range of data center, virtualization and cloud solutions and services, as well as solutions in video and collaboration, security, unified communications, storage area networks, backup and restore, wireless and mobility, and advanced network infrastructure. A Microsoft Gold partner, the company offers advanced Microsoft solutions and holds a midmarket solution provider competency from the vendor.

2014 SP500 Rank: 119

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 62

Sovereign Systems

George Barkley, Managing Partner

Norcross, Ga.

Sovereign Systems, launched in 2007, is an IT solution provider and cloud services firm with practices in cloud computing, virtualization, data analytics and IT infrastructure services such as server consolidation, converged infrastructure and unified computing. The company lists Cisco, EMC, VCE and VMware as its strategic vendor partners.

2014 SP500 Rank: 295

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 98

Systems Management/Planning

Kristin Rorapaugh, CEO

West Henrietta, N.Y.

SMP, founded in 1997, offers a range of IT solutions for a number of industries. Technology areas include cloud, collaboration, backup and recovery, virtualization, and other data center and managed services. Targeted industries include health care, financial services, commercial, government and education.

2014 SP500 Rank: 272

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 99

TekLinks

Jim Akerhielm, CEO

Birmingham, Ala.

Founded in 2001, TekLinks and its 80-plus engineers are focused on providing managed, cloud hosting and engineering services to customers throughout Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Gulf South. Through its state-of-the-art networked data centers, the company offers cloud-based IT services such as TekVault Storage and Backup and TekEncryption, and managed services such as TekConnect and TekCare. TekLinks engineers also serve a wide variety of verticals, including community banks, law firms, retailers and real estate firms. Cisco, Citrix, Microsoft, LifeSize and AlertLogic are counted among the solution provider's leading vendor partners.

2014 SP500 Rank: 176

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 113

TeraMach Technologies

Hunter Li, Co-Founder, President

Ottawa

Relying on its IT expertise as well as its integration lab, TeraMach Technologies architects custom IT solutions for its customers in the red-hot technology areas of data management and protection, enterprise information management, data center migration and optimization, email and end-user computing. The company was founded in 1996 and serves business and government customers across Canada, with offices in Ottawa and Toronto. The company's extensive vendor partner roster includes Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Symantec and CommVault.

2014 SP500 Rank: 245

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 41

Varrow

Jeremiah Cook, CEO

Greensboro, N.C.

Varrow, which was founded in 2004, prides itself on its deep expertise in cloud computing, mobility and security and says it prefers to deliver a "small set of solutions with exceptional quality." Leveraging its knowledge base across cloud, mobility and security, the company develops technology solutions through its advanced consulting and design services. The company was named EMC Americas Partner of the Year and also has close relationships with Cisco, Citrix, VMware and Palo Alto Networks.

2014 SP500 Rank: 148

2014 Fast Growth Rank: 46