CDW is an enterprise technology vendor with a dominant presence between the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom for small to medium businesses and the public sector.
There’s an argument to be made that CDW is the channel partner. The longtime value-added reseller (VAR) brings almost four decades of experience to the table and consistent growth when most other VARs started transitioning to the managed service provider (MSP) model in the mid-1990s. While other top IT channel partners have the advantage in management consulting and digital transformation, CDW’s distribution centers, fulfillment services, and the extent of solutions offered are hard to miss.
This profile looks at CDW services and solutions, target markets, industry recognition, and more for potential channel partners to evaluate.
CDW IT Solutions and Services
Before navigating to CDW’s website, know that its hardware, software, services, and IT brands portfolios are enormous. This section first dives into some of the vendor’s attractive IT solutions before touching on its other product and service areas.
Data Center & Network Infrastructure
CDW offers an extensive stack of data center and hybrid infrastructure management solutions. Whether its products for storage, containerization, disaster recovery, or software-defined networking, the enterprise IT partner has it. Data center administrators can choose from a litany of server room technology solutions or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).
Cybersecurity
CDW’s cybersecurity solutions cover the gamut of systems needed to build a multilayered security architecture with a robust hardware and software suite. The IT channel partner’s expertise includes advisory, assessment, implementation, and adoption services, making it a comprehensive partner for building a solid framework.
The company’s cybersecurity services provide clients with options for:
Cloud Security: advanced cloud security and the secure access service edge (SASE)
Information Security: vulnerability assessments; penetration and application security testing
Network Security: next-generation firewalls; protection for endpoints, web, and email
Emerging Security Technologies: zero trust, MDR, GRC, and IAM
Read more: Top 15 Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs)
Analytics
As data becomes increasingly valuable, the multinational vendor offers business intelligence, IT operational analytics, and data-driven guidance for decision-making. CDW’s analytics solutions enable clients to visualize and act on data and industry insights with featured partners like Microsoft, IBM, Tableau, and Erwin.
Software Products
The vendor’s stack of software solutions includes solutions for business applications, graphics and design, network management, operating systems, virtualization, and security applications. Through a CDW Account, clients can manage all of their cloud subscriptions, including licensing, from a single console.
Hardware Products
The value-added reseller offers a full suite of hardware products for small businesses up to enterprise offices. This equipment covers cables, monitors, networking, telecommunications, power, printers, servers, and storage needs.
CDW Amplified Services
Clients looking for IT service management (ITSM) solutions will find services across the spectrum of designing, orchestrating, and managing infrastructure. These services cover enterprise networking, hyper-converged infrastructure, hybrid data center management, data services, and software development. For everything mentioned so far and more, the company’s managed services unit for clients is CDW Amplified Services.
Also read: The Channel Outlook for 2022: Get Ready for Major Changes
Target Markets
Though CDW’s portfolio can help most businesses in any industry, the company has a history of serving the digital transformation needs of organizations in:
- Education
- Energy
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Retail
- State & Local Governments
Partners Ecosystem
CDW offers over 250,000 products from 1,000 different IT brands as a comprehensive technology solutions provider. Featured brands include:
| 3M Acer Adobe AMD Apple Aruba ASUS Autodesk AWS Barracuda Bitdefender Canon | Check Point Cisco Commvault Cradlepoint Crowdstrike Cybereason Dell Technologies Epson F5 Networks Forcepoint Fortinet Fujitsu | Google HPE Hitachi Vantara Honeywell IBM Intel Juniper Networks Kodak Lenovo Lexmark LG Microsoft | NetApp NetSkope Nutanix NVIDIA Okta Palo Alto Networks Panasonic Proofpoint Quest Software Red Hat RSA Samsung | Seagate SonicWall Sophos SUSE Tableau Tenable Trend Micro Veeam VMware WatchGuard Xerox Zoom |
Read more: Best Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Software
CDW Competitors
- Accenture
- Dell Technologies
- Deloitte
- Dimension Data
- Insight
- NTT Group
- SHI International
- Sirius
- Softchoice
- SoftwareONE
CDW: Company Background
In 1984, Michael Krasny launched a Chicagoland computer reseller company that would become Computer Discount Warehouse, before taking on the initials as its corporate name. Within a few years, CDW published its first catalog and expanded its personnel with technical expertise for serving customer IT needs.
The value-added reseller expanded dramatically during the 1990s, went public, embraced online sales, and exceeded $1 billion in sales, with a debut on the Fortune 500 in 2001. With acquisitions and investments in Canadian and UK-based solutions providers, CDW’s steady growth makes it one of the most dominant channel partners in North America.
To end 2021, CDW reported net sales of $21 billion in annual revenue. The Illinois-based vendor has almost 14,000 employees and 28 offices serving 250,000 customers in Canada, the UK, and the US markets. The company’s acquisition of Sirius Computer Solutions in 2021 for $2.5 billion only solidifies CDW’s plan to scale its technical workforce and client service segments.
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