South Africa’s resellers have made their voices heard, voting for their favourite vendors in the 2020 Channelwise Awards.

Over the years, the Channelwise Awards have tracked the progress of the South African IT industry, reflecting each year how technology and the various players have grown, matured and changed.

The industry and, in particular, the channel are no strangers to major events and seismic shifts, but 2020 has been a watershed year on so many levels.

The last few years have seen an increased trend towards digitalisation, with the IT industry at the forefront of trying to drive organisations’ digital transformation journeys.

The IT industry and the channel have risen to the occasion and become an indispensable part of every business’ digital journey, making the Channelwise Awards 2020 arguably the most significant yet.

New categories in this year’s awards reflect the many changes in the industry. Reseller partners have chosen their favourite vendors and distributors in the categories Infrastructure, Networking; End User Devices; Printers and Peripherals; Security; and Components and Accessories.

The categories and sub-categories reflect the changing industry and highlight the technology directions that partners and their end user customers are taking.

More than 1 000 reseller partners took part in this year’s Channelwise Awards survey, sending clear messages to their vendors and distributors and helping to drive more positive changes in the years to come.

The top vendors in 2020, as voted by the reseller channel, are as follows:

 

Infrastructure

Servers

Finalists: Dell; HPE; Lenovo

Winner: Dell

 

IaaS/PaaS providers

Finalists: Microsoft Azure; Axiz Cloud; AWS

Winner: Microsoft Azure

 

Virtualisation

Finalists: VMware; Microsoft; Nutanix

Winner: VMware

 

Hyperconverged Infrastructure

Finalists: VMware; Nutanix; Dell

Winner: VMware

 

Storage subsystems

Finalists: Dell; HPE; Lenovo

Winner: Dell

 

Backup systems

Finalists: Veeam; HPE; Dell

Winner: Veeam

 

Cloud Storage

Finalists: Microsoft; Veeam; Google Drive

Winner: Microsoft

 

UPS

Finalists: Eaton; APC; Huawei

Winner: Eaton

 

Inverters

Finalists: Apex; RCT; Vertiv

Winner: Apex

 

Networking

Networking devices (switches, routers etc)

Finalists: HPE; Cisco; Dell

Winner: HPE

 

SD-WAN

Finalists: HPE; Citrix; Silver Peak

Winner: HPE

 

Cabling

Finalists: DataNet; Molex; Netgear

Winner: DataNet

 

Edge Computing (IoT Gateways etc)

Finalists: HPE; Dell; Huawei

Winner: HPE

 

Cabinets and Racks

Finalists: HPE; APC; Mecer

Winner: HPE

 

Network Management

Finalists: Cisco; HPE; Dell

Winner: Cisco

 

Printers and peripherals

Laser printers and MFPs

Finalists: HP Inc; Brother; Canon

Winner: HP Inc

 

Inkjet printers and MFPs

Finalists: HP Inc; Canon; Epson

Winner: HP Inc

 

Projectors

Finalists: Epson; Acer; Dell

Winner: Epson

 

Scanners and ECM

Finalists: HPE; Kyocera; Fujitsu

Winner: HPE

 

Monitors

Finalists: Dell; Samsung; HP Inc

Winner: Dell

 

Smartboards

Finalists: Samsung; Mecer; HiSense

Winner: Samsung

 

End user devices

Personal Computers

Finalists: Dell; HP Inc; Lenovo

Winner: Dell

 

Workstations

Finalists: Dell; HP Inc; Lenovo

Winner: Dell

 

Thin Clients

Finalists: HP Inc; Dell; Lenovo

Winner: HP Inc

 

Gaming PCs

Finalists: Dell; HP Inc; Asus

Winner: Dell

 

Notebooks

Finalists: Dell; HP Inc; Lenovo

Winner: Dell

 

Gaming Notebooks

Finalists: Dell; Asus; MSI

Winner: Dell

 

Tablets

Finalists: Samsung; Lenovo; Apple

Winner: Samsung

 

 

Security

Endpoint software

Finalists: Kaspersky; Microsoft; Cisco

Winner: Kaspersky

 

Hardware (appliances)

Finalists: Fortinet; Cisco; SonicWall

Winner: Fortinet

 

Network security

Finalists: Fortinet; Check Point; Symantec

Winner: Fortinet

 

Cloud-based security

Finalists: Fortinet; Cisco; Check Point

Winner: Fortinet

 

Cameras

Finalists: HikVision; Axis; Provision

Winner: HikVision

 

Components and accessories

Bags and sleeves

Finalists: Targus; Dell; Port

Winner: Targus

 

Headphones

Finalists: Logitech; JBL; Jabra

Winner: Logitech

 

Keyboards, mouses, joysticks, VR headsets

Finalists: Logitech; Microsoft; Dell

Winner: Logitech

 

CPUs and GPUs

Finalists: Intel; AMD; nVidia

Winner: Intel

 

Graphic Cards

Finalists: nVidia; MSI; Asus

Winner: nVidia

 

Memory

Finalists: Kingston; Transcend; Crucial

Winner: Kingston

 

Disk Drives

Finalists: Seagate; Kingston; Transcend

Winner: Seagate

 

Sensors (IoT devices)

Finalists: Raspberry Pi; Siemens; Fujitsu

Winner: Raspberry Pi