The winners of the Integrator ICT Champion Awards were chosen through a polling activity of votes during a 3 week long online survey, hosted on www.varonline.com and winners were decided on the basis of maximum votes polled

The Integrator Awards were launched last year to recognize outstanding achievements in key categories representing the value side of the ICT industry. This is in parallel to the VAR COC Awards that saw its 9^th edition held at the Meydan hotel in March. These awards are now being consolidated under the common banner of ‘The ICT Champion Awards’.

The award winners were chosen through a polling of votes from industry particpants during a 3 week long online survey, hosted on www.varonline.com   and winners were decided on the basis of maximum votes polled. There was a great participation from the industry in the voting process.

The vendor nominees were shortlisted initially on the basis of top names in specific domains and among them the active ones in this region were then requested to send in their nominations for relevant categories of the survey. For distributor and integrator categories, the names were shortlisted on basis of known activities that have been broadcast over the year as well as past communication of the editorial team with those companies.

The winners thorougly deserve the applause. Please find below the list of 2014 winners of the Integrator ICT Champion Awards.

Winners of the Integrator ICT Champion Awards 2014:
Cloud Computing Vendor of the Year
Winner: Microsoft Gulf

The winner in the category is a company that has listed cloud as one of its key areas of focus and has an extensive array of cloud versions of its products which are promising to make more money for its partners.

Virtualisation Vendor of the year
Winner: VMware

The winner in the category is a company that has played a key role in providing customers and partners in the region to reduce costs and enhance agility through Cloud and virtualization solutions.

SMB Storage Vendor of the Year
Winner: NetApp

The award goes to a vendor who employs the strategy of partnering to deliver the functionality and value of Enterprise Data Management Solutions which are ideal for mission-critical IT applications to the Mid-Market cost effectively.

Enterprise Storage Vendor of the Year
Winner: EMC

The winner is a company that has a comprehensive suite of enterprise storage solutions and is a worldwide network-attached storage (NAS) and unified storage, as well as leading storage provider for key applications and virtual environments.

?SMB Networking Vendor of the Year
Winner: D-Link

A vendor focused on this segment needs to provide a range of products inclusive of switches, routers, and gateways that meet the growing aspirations of the smaller sized companies.The winner in the category is a company which has been consistent in its regional strategies and is reaping the rewards for that commitment.

Enterprise Networking Vendor of the Year
Winner: Cisco

The winner in this category is a company that has dominance across several main segments of enterprise networking and is still believed to command close to 75% of the enterprise router market, and about 70% of the enterprise switch market.

Unified Communications Vendor of the Year
Winner: Avaya

The winner in the category is a company that focuses on productivity solutions that are innovative in the UC space. It focuses on bringing flexible, multi-medium communications tools into a single strategic asset for enterprises and SMBs

Video Conferencing Vendor of the Year
Winner: Polycom

The winner in the category is a company that has long been known for its quality hardware products– conference phones, video endpoints, telepresence systems and so on and is well placed to make further gains through its strategic vendor partnership in the UC space.

Data Management & Analytics Vendor of the Year
Winner: SAP

The winners of the category is a company that provides a single platform for advanced real-time analytics, data warehousing, visualization and reporting and enterprise applications.

Disaster Recovery and Backup Software Vendor of the Year
Winner: Symantec

The Winner in this category is a vendor that has effectively been able to offer disaster recovery and backup solution, both hardware and software based, designed for both virtual and physical environments.

Client Security Software Vendor of the Year
Winner: Kaspersky Lab

The winner of the category is a company whose enterprise security portfolio now includes a new expansion for Virtualization, which brings security technologies to virtual endpoints that were previously difficult to secure without sacrificing network performance.

Network Security Vendor of the Year
Winner: Dell

The winner in the category is a vendor that offers an end to end portfolio from a next-generation firewall to other leading security solutions including Data Protection and Encryption and Security Services, making it a great value proposition for its partners.

WAN Optimisation Vendor of the Year
Winner: Riverbed Technology

The winner is a company that has unique WAN optimization solutions able to span mobile workers, branch offices, and data centres, both physical and virtual, allowing the distributed workforce to collaborate in real time and is also rebranding its end-to-end product portfolio, seeking to broaden its reach beyond the WAN optimization market.

Power Solutions Vendor of the Year
Winner: APC by Schneider Electric

The winner is a company that offers solutions to manage the power and cooling of business critical infrastructure and is among the top three in datacenter infrastructure management.

DCIM Solutions Vendor of the Year
Winner: ManageEngine

The award in this category goes to a vendor that provides the software tools required to monitor and manage various aspects of the data centre such as the network, servers, applications, storage infrastructures etc as well as non-IT parameters of the facilities infrastructure and environmental parameters such as humidity and temperature via sensors

Enterprise VAD of the Year
Winner: APTEC – an Ingram Micro Company

The winner in this category is a Distribution pioneer of the region that has continued to lead through very positive and beneficial VAR relationships and is highly regarded by resellers in the region and beyond.

SMB VAD of the Year
Winner: Redington Value

To cater for the SMB and their needs requires a delicate balancing act between quality and price and the winner of the category therefore has to be a company that has successfully maintained a vendor portfolio of brands that are able to offer scalable solutions as these businesses grow.

Networking VAD of the Year
Winner: WestconGroup

System integrators will require multiple complementing hardware and software. It is a great advantage to them if they can access all these services and products from a single supplier to ensure speedy delivery and unified contact source. The winner in this category has successfully brought key vendors together ensuring a total 360 degree integrated solution for clients.

Security VAD of the Year
Winner: ComGuard

The category recognizes a generalist Value Added Distributor that has a broad suite of solutions for the Enterprise and is bringing a great focus to its security hardware appliances and software portfolio.

UC Infrastructure VAD of the Year
Winner: FVC

By aligning with leading brands in the UC space and bringing to its partners a broad communication suite that includes high definition and high quality communication hardware and services, the winner in this category has brought to clients the ability to collaborate and enhance productivity, while also creating sizeable cost savings.

Storage VAD of the Year
Winner: StorIT Distribution FZCO

Winner of the award for a second year in a row, StorIT Distribution FZCO has allied with leading storage vendors and continues to provide a suite of solutions & services that enable enterprises large and small to store, protect & manage business critical data, and harness the value of information.

KVM Solutions VAD of the Year
Winner: Wave Tech

The winner of the category is Wave Tech, a distributor of networking products and with a strong portfolio of KVM connectivity solutions which are an integral part of a data center’s infrastructure.

Information Security Solutions VAD of the Year
Winner: Spire Solutions

Recognizing the growing eminence of Information Security, this category applauds a domain specialist distributor who is focused only on the Information Security software solutions niche and focuses on solutions ranging from SIM to vulnerability management and penetration testing etc.

Emerging VAD of the Year
Winner: FDC ProValue

This award recognizes a company that is fast building a strong value add focus though alliances with leading Technology vendors. The company has a strong broadline division but its value division is a recent venture but started off on a strong footing, focusing on key verticals.

Visionary VAD of the Year
Winner: SNB Middle East

This is an award that applauds a young distributor for its vision in developing a focused strategy and successfully executing it.

Managed Services Provider of the Year
Winner: Dimension Data

The winner in this category is a company that offers an extensive managed services portfolio which includes several globally standardised managed services products in specific technology domains – including networks, data centres, security, visual communications, unified communications and collaboration and contact centres.

Networking Integrator of the Year
Winner: Alpha Data

As one of the largest multi-disciplined systems integrators in the region, the winner of this category has accreditation with some of the biggest names in this space ensuring a very high level of confidence for clients and is reputed for its ability to serve clients across the whole business spectrum from SMBs to large government bodies

Storage Integrator of the Year
Winner: CONDO PROTEGO

The winner of the category is a company that brings a consultative approach to the fore and has alliances with the top tier Brands in storage.

Telecom Integrator of the Year
Winner: Prologix

The winner is a company that is focusing on delivering solutions for different industry verticals and has a strong reach in the Telecom sector with a wide range of products suitable for the telecom segment.

Security Integrator of the Year
Winner: Paramount Computer Systems

The award category recognizes the SI who has a focused practice around providing a comprehensive suite of security solutions and services to customers across all verticals and is allied with leading vendors in the security space.

Software Solutions Integrator of the Year
Winner:  Finesse

The winner is a company that provides Technology Solutions and services to Banking, Education, Energy, Healthcare, Hospitality and Retail segments

Emerging System Integrator of the Year
Winner: Intelligent Business Technologies

This award goes to a young SI company that provides turnkey solutions, is showing a swift growth and has customers across the region.