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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteCRN’s 2026 Annual Report Card (ARC) is a survey of how North American solution providers rate their IT vendor partners—not a laboratory test of products. Now in its 41st year, the report compares vendors across 23 technology categories and 21 criteria grouped into product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services. Its results are most useful when you compare vendors within the same category and look beyond the overall score to the partner-facing dimensions that matter to your business.
What the 2026 Annual Report Card measures
CRN describes the ARC as an annual evaluation in which solution providers grade the performance of IT vendors they work with. The 2026 report spans 23 product technology categories, including computing, storage, networking, cloud, and nine security categories. The categories range from notebooks and data recovery to hybrid cloud infrastructure and consumption-based on-premises cloud services. CRN’s detailed results provide category-specific results.
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Across those categories, partners evaluate 21 criteria in four subcategories. The Channel Company’s ARC process overview characterizes the awards as based entirely on independent solution-provider surveys and says they recognize vendors earning high marks in the four areas partners value.
- Product innovation: reliability, features, technical innovation, compatibility, and integration.
- Support: presales and post-sales assistance, training, field management, and marketing support.
- Partnership: partner programs and communication, channel conflict, revenue and profit potential, and ease of doing business.
- Managed and cloud services: subscription and consumption pricing, service-management integration, cloud readiness, field teaming, compensation alignment, and managed/cloud profit potential.
Selected 2026 category leaders
The following examples show the range of categories and overall leaders reported by CRN. These are category results, not a single cross-industry ranking.
#1 Best Overall
| Category | Overall leader | Overall score |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud computing—consumption-based on-premises cloud services | HPE | 85.5 |
| Cloud computing—public cloud | Amazon Web Services | 82.5 |
| Computing—CPUs | Intel | 88.2 |
| Computing—GPUs | Nvidia | 87.0 |
| Hybrid cloud infrastructure | Scale Computing | 91.4 |
| Security—cloud and application | Sophos | 89.5 |
| Security—network security, SMB | WatchGuard | 92.8 |
| Storage—SMB external storage hardware | Buffalo Technology | 93.2 |
All scores in the table are overall ARC survey scores reported by CRN in 2026. They reflect surveyed partner evaluations, not product-lab measurements, market share, or a universal verdict on vendor quality. CRN’s detailed results article is the source for the category leaders and scores.
Why the subcategory results matter
An overall leader does not necessarily lead every dimension. In consumption-based on-premises cloud services, HPE led overall and all four subcategories. In public cloud, AWS led overall, while Google Cloud led support and partnership. In CPUs, Intel led overall, while Nvidia led product innovation, support, and managed/cloud services. In endpoint protection and extended detection and response, CRN reports that different vendors led product innovation and support, partnership, and managed/cloud services.
That pattern is a reason to inspect the component results rather than treat an overall score as the only decision signal. For a provider whose business depends on responsive technical assistance, support may carry more weight than another partner’s strongest concern, such as profit potential or channel conflict. The ARC can inform a vendor relationship review, but the relevant criteria depend on your delivery model and priorities.
How to use ARC results in vendor decisions
- Start with the exact category. Compare vendors listed in the same technology category; a score in one category is not a head-to-head comparison with a score in an unrelated one.
- Read the dimensions that affect your operation. Look at the four subcategory averages and, where available, individual criteria such as post-sales support, ease of doing business, cloud readiness, or compensation alignment.
- Match results to your own partner experience. Use the survey as an external perspective alongside your own service outcomes, customer requirements, and business economics. The scores do not explain why a vendor earned a rating.
- Check the scope before interpreting a result. The ARC is partner sentiment about vendor performance; it does not establish technical superiority, adoption, or market share.
Who the survey covers
The official ARC survey-details page describes participation as open to partners in North America and Canada. It outlines registration, a demographic profile, and access to eligible categories through the ARC survey tool. The published results should therefore be read as the views captured by that survey, not as a universal assessment of every vendor or every partner market.
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