• AWS: Consumption Partner of the Year
• Carahsoft: Federal Distribution Partner of the Year
• Cisco: Networking Partner of the Year
• D&H: SLED/C Distribution Partner of the Year
• Dell Technologies: Federal Partner of the Year
• Dell Technologies: SLED/C Partner of the Year
• HPE: Compute Partner of the Year
• Intel: Emerging Partner of the Year
• NVIDIA: Innovative Partner of the Year
• SolarWinds: Software Partner of the Year

“We are incredibly proud to celebrate the remarkable achievements of our 2024 Partner of the Year award winners,” said Steve Van Ginkel, SVP of Partner Alliances and Services at Sterling. “Each of these partners has demonstrated outstanding dedication to collaboration, innovation, and excellence. Their contributions have been instrumental in driving our shared success and delivering transformative technology solutions to our customers.”

These awards reflect Sterling’s commitment to fostering strong partnerships that drive meaningful value and enable mutual success in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.

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With 83 honorees this year from across the nation, this annual list spotlights rising-star executives, managers, and directors who are 40 years of age or younger and who already demonstrate strong leadership capabilities in their roles with solution provider organizations, including technology integrators, VARs, MSPs, MSSPs, and IT consultants.

As Vice President of Engineering, Fagen oversees a broad range of technical teams, services operations, and solutions architecture groups for Sterling. Under his guidance, these once-siloed divisions have been united under one umbrella, allowing for a more streamlined approach to Sterling’s advanced technical services as well as an enhanced customer experience in every engagement. Fagen has also been a key driver in helping to position Sterling for the future, through the proactive adoption of new services and capabilities with which to move the business forward—all with the aim of empowering customers to leverage advanced solutions for their most complex mission sets and business challenges.

Moore—who was also recently featured on CRN’s 2024 Women of the Channel: Power 100 list—has, for her part, been instrumental in the development and execution of Sterling’s overall channel strategy, from implementing a robust internal channel team and expanding divisional responsibilities to growing current top accounts while also identifying new potential partnerships and revenue streams. Connecting those partners’ business units with Sterling’s sales and technical teams, Moore has likewise championed the development of internal processes and strategies for AI, cloud, and software. This critical initiative has seen increased collaboration between Sterling and its principal partners, the result of which is the ongoing formation of updated go-to-market roadmaps with measurable KPIs and built-in accountability.

“You couldn’t ask for a better pair of leaders than Megan and Patrick,” says Tim McCabe, President of Sterling. “Each is a visionary in their own right; each has contributed in ways both large and small, subtle and substantial, to the success of our organization. So, too, have they impacted the channel at large, lending their passion, expertise, and no small degree of talent to the betterment of the entire industry.”

“The professionals recognized on CRN’s 2024 Next-Gen Solution Provider Leaders list have distinguished themselves as passionate trailblazers early in their IT channel careers,” said Jennifer Follett, VP, U.S Content and Executive Editor, CRN, The Channel Company. “We honor their remarkable, innovative contributions to the success of their companies and the wider IT channel. We look forward to seeing all the ways you help the channel thrive in the future.”

The CRN Next-Gen Solution Provider Leaders list is online at www.CRN.com/nextgen and will be featured in the December print edition of CRN Magazine.

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The Triple Crown Award is presented to companies who were honored on the Solution Provider 500, which ranks the largest IT solution providers in North America based on revenue; the Fast Growth 150, which spotlights the fastest-growing organizations in the channel; and the Tech Elite 250, which recognizes companies who attained the highest-level certifications from leading technology vendors across the industry.

Making any of these lists is a notable achievement, but being featured on all three in the same year demonstrates an exceptional level of business acumen, a focus on innovation, and a dedication to building technical expertise. This year’s award marks Sterling’s sixth all-time appearance as a Triple Crown Award winner.

“We pride ourselves on consistency and excellence,” said Steve Van Ginkel, Senior Vice President of Partner Alliances at Sterling. “This award is a summation of those efforts, a tangible marker of the commitment, value, and agility that we bring to the table—all key drivers for achieving success within this industry.”

“Solution providers recognized with a Triple Crown Award are at the top of their game, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to enhancing their technical skills, improving their solutions offerings, and advancing the entire channel,” said Jennifer Follett, VP, U.S. Content, and Executive Editor, CRN, at The Channel Company. “Our congratulations go out to each company, and we look forward to seeing how they continue to set an example for excellence and model success in our industry.”

This year’s Triple Crown Award winners will be featured in the October 2024 issue of CRN and online at www.crn.com/triplecrown.

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SkyWave

SkyWave — The ‘Easy Button’ to ARC-OTA Operationality

With SkyWave, researchers and developers can quickly leverage the first fully programmable cellular network testbed: ARC-OTA services. Users can rapidly experiment with, simulate, prototype, validate, and benchmark innovative new software, on the over-the-air research network.

Based on O-RAN aligned specifications, ARC-OTA gives software developers the scalability and flexibility to use the full stack for their specific research streams and requirements, while avoiding the ‘vendor lock-in’ that comes with proprietary network-equipment-provider black boxes. ARC-OTA source code can be quickly modified and re-validated towards creating innovative algorithms.

Adaptive Configuration

SkyWave was designed to be adaptive and flexible, in contrast to other solutions in the market. The SkyWave hardware reference architecture uses industry-standard COTS products instead of proprietary black boxes, and Sterling deploys the software using modern practices with Kubernetes.

SkyWave adapts to the end-user’s needs—instead of the end-user having to adapt to a vendor’s closed solution.

Sterling can scale up their managed services to fit more complex experiments or scale down to accommodate a minimal environment—whatever fits the researcher’s needs.

Intuitive Integration

Using the Sterling SkyWave Portal, the customer will provide use-cases and requirements for their private cloud service. Sterling will take care of the rest, plotting out the research needs of the project, and communicating with the customer as necessary, in order to customize the private 5G on-premises deployment and developer service.

Sterling’s Professional Services team will handle the end-user onboarding and complete the planning of the private 5G cell site.

With the researcher’s requirements translated to network sizing, Sterling will adapt the reference architecture and procure the COTS hardware components. When those products arrive at the Sterling SkyWave Integration Facility, Sterling engineers will inventory and pre-stage the hardware and software, with appropriate configurations. Sterling will then deploy, test, and securely ship the SkyWave modular data-center instance to the customer.

Next, Sterling SkyWave Professional Services will arrive at the customer’s site. They will inventory the SkyWave components again, complete the installation, and re-test the service—all with the goal of completing the network bring-up and deployment in under 72 hours.

With the service installed and operational, Sterling can perform remote monitoring and management. Sterling SkyWave support will be on call and available as needed.

Future-Ready Adaptability

The NVIDIA ARC-OTA in SkyWave gives developers and researchers complete access not only to the source code (C/C++) for the network (physical layer, network layers, and core network services) but also to the source code of vendors who have included their tools in the SkyWave platform. Being able to download and modify code will free researchers to experiment on 5G networks in ways that will lead to innovation in technologies for 6G.

SkyWave incorporates a cloud-native software architecture. Each RAN network service and all core network services are containerized, packaging up code and dependencies so that applications run quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. SkyWave employs Kubernetes to orchestrate those containers (containerized applications, workloads, and services), automating their deployment, scaling, and management. SkyWave utilizes Helm for application management.

Ongoing Support

The enterprise-grade COTS hardware in SkyWave is covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, and Sterling’s SkyWave team will be the first line of support. To further adapt to customer needs, Sterling provides options for additional support, including SkyWave MSP, in which the SkyWave team manages the environment for the end researcher.

NVIDIA Products Used in SkyWave

Each SkyWave system includes an NVIDIA A100X converged accelerator to host the 5G ARC-OTA physical layer. The NVIDIA A100X combines the capabilities of NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU with the BlueField-2 DPU. With MIG, each A100 can be partitioned into as many as seven GPU instances, allowing even more services to run simultaneously. This card can be used to experiment with the 5G signal processing pipeline and to also provide acceleration for Machine-Learning models and other research needs, when not operational as a private 5G network or leveraging MIG capabilities.

The NVIDIA ARC-OTA platform, targeted for next-generation wireless developers, eases developer onboarding, making for quick algorithm development in real-time networks. ARC-OTA equips developers with the NVIDIA lab-qualified hardware infrastructure blueprint to deploy a 3GPP Release 15 and O-RAN 7.2 split campus network. Complete access to source code is provided from Aerial SDK Layer 1 (NVIDIA Aerial SDK) and the Open Air Alliance (OAI) [openairinterface.org], as well as Distributed Unit (DU), Centralized Unit (CU), 5G NR gNB and 5G Core Node(CN) network elements.

Who Needs SkyWave?

SkyWave is geared toward researchers, developers, and enterprises seeking to do software development and accelerated innovation in the 5G and eventually 6G worlds. They will leverage the power and capabilities of the SkyWave package, prototyping applications and eradicating errors before deployment into the production environment. They will also ascertain specific benchmarks during algorithmic development, which can then be applied in future projects.

End-users will include everyone focused on 5G/6G research and prototyping: from faculty and students at universities where experimentation and research in advanced wireless networks is being conducted, to federal research centers and laboratories, industrial research companies; system integrators, operators, and more.

Visit Sterling’s Skywave page to get started today!

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North Sioux City, South Dakota, February 16, 2024 – Sterling, a beacon of transformation in the technology landscape, proudly announces a significant advancement in its AI capabilities. Chris Cyr, Chief Technology Officer, and Ira Bargon, Director of Technology and Innovation, have successfully completed the NVIDIA AI Advisors Training Program, earning their certifications as NVIDIA AI Advisors.

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To be considered a Hybrid Solution Provider, or HSP, a business must continue to adapt to changes in customer consumption requirements, complexity in emerging technologies, and stakeholder approval — with the ultimate goal of becoming a better partner for their clients.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized on the Hybrid Solution Provider 250 list,” said Brad Moore, CEO of Sterling. “This recognition reflects our dedication to innovation and our ability to evolve with the dynamic tech landscape, ensuring we meet the complex needs of our clients with cutting-edge solutions.”

“Channel Insider is committed to enabling the connection between best-in-class IT Solution Providers, such as those recognized on the HSP250 list, and the worldwide decision-makers and users who benefit from their expertise,” said Rob Bellenfant, CEO of TechnologyAdvice. “Through this annual list, we will be providing yet another way for IT buyers to find the right support for their most urgent technology-related initiatives.”

The full 2024 Hybrid Solution Provider 250 list can be found on www.channelinsider.com.

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Achieving the AWS Government Competency differentiates Sterling as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that provides specialized consulting services designed to help enterprises adopt, develop, and deploy complex projects on AWS. To receive the designation, APN members must possess deep AWS expertise and seamlessly deliver solutions on AWS.

“We are proud to achieve the Government Competency with AWS, highlighting our deep commitment to serving government agencies,” said Brad Moore, CEO of Sterling. “Our team at Sterling combines our experience and advanced technology with AWS’s powerful tools to efficiently drive mission-critical solutions. This recognition affirms our ability to innovate and deliver impactful results for civilian agencies, defense, and intelligence communities.”

AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, AWS established the AWS Competency Program to help customers identify Consulting and Technology APN Partners with deep industry experience and expertise.

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Compiled annually, the MSP 500 serves as a comprehensive guide to identifying the top MSPs in North America, showcasing those providers who are driving growth and innovation in the industry. These companies not only enable their customers to harness complex technologies but also contribute to maintaining a strong focus on core business goals without stretching financial resources—all while enhancing efficiency, simplifying IT solutions, and optimizing return on investment.

“The implementation of high-quality managed services can be a game changer for many organizations,” said Brad Moore, CEO of Sterling. “We’re proud to offer transformative solutions in this space, ones that ably optimize performance, minimize downtime, and maximize efficiencies across our customers’ varied IT environments. As an MSP, we are tenacious in our pursuit of excellence and innovation.”

This year, Sterling is featured in the MSP 500’s Elite 150 category, which recognizes large, data center-focused MSPs with a strong mix of on- and off-premises services. This marks Sterling’s sixth appearance on the list, with prior recognition occurring in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Jennifer Follett, VP of US Content and Executive Editor for CRN, emphasized the significance of managed services for businesses at various scales, stating, “Managed services provide a route for businesses of all sizes to maintain efficiency and adaptability throughout their growth journey. The solution providers featured in our 2024 MSP 500 list are introducing cutting-edge managed services portfolios to the market, enabling their clients to achieve success by optimizing their IT budgets. This allows businesses to allocate resources strategically, concentrating on mission-critical tasks that drive future success.”

The MSP 500 list will be featured in the February 2024 issue of CRN and online at www.crn.com/msp500.

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Importance of the Framework In the realm of cloud computing, the importance of a structured and well-thought-out framework cannot be overstated. The AWS Well-Architected Framework ensures that systems are not only designed for optimal performance but also adhere to the highest standards of security and efficiency. This is particularly crucial for government entities, where data sensitivity and compliance with regulatory standards are paramount.

Core Concepts Central to this framework are its Five Pillars, each addressing key aspects of system architecture:

1. Operational Excellence: This pillar focuses on running and monitoring systems to deliver business value and the ability to continually improve supporting processes and procedures.
2. Security: Emphasizing the need to protect information and systems, this pillar involves understanding and implementing the necessary controls and safeguards.
3. Reliability: This involves the system’s ability to recover from infrastructure or service disruptions while dynamically acquiring computing resources to meet demand and mitigate disruptions.
4. Performance Efficiency: Here, the focus is on using IT and computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements, and maintaining efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.
5. Cost Optimization: This pillar is about avoiding unnecessary costs, ensuring that the system operates at the lowest price point possible.

Each pillar contributes significantly to the construction of a well-architected system, ensuring comprehensive coverage of all critical aspects.

Benefits for Government Entities For government agencies, the framework’s emphasis on security and compliance is particularly beneficial. It provides a structured approach to managing government data securely and efficiently, aligning with necessary regulatory standards. For instance, it guides the secure processing of confidential data and ensures the reliable hosting of government services.

Best Practices The AWS Well-Architected Framework encapsulates several best practices, including regular security assessments, efficient resource management, and proactive incident response strategies. These practices are particularly relevant in scenarios like maintaining public records or running government service portals, where security, reliability, and cost-effectiveness are crucial.

Conclusion Adopting the AWS Well-Architected Framework is crucial for any organization looking to develop systems that are efficient, cost-effective, secure, and reliable. For government entities, this adherence is even more critical, given the sensitivity of the data and the need for compliance with regulatory standards. We encourage entities, especially those in the public sector, to explore the framework in depth or engage with experts for a comprehensive consultation, ensuring that they fully leverage the benefits it offers.

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