Lewan Technology Named to CRN Solution Provider 500

Lewan has been recognized on CRN’s 2015 Solution Provider 500 list, as one of North America’s largest technology integrators, managed service provider and IT consultant.

“We are proud to be selected at a top provider again. We strive to exceed our customers’ expectations with our solutions and professional and managed services, delivered by our exemplary sales and customer service teams,” said Scott Pelletier, CTO at Lewan Technology.

From CRN:

This annual list, spanning eight categories, from hardware and software sales to managed IT services, recognizes the top revenue-generating technology integrators, MSPs and IT consultants in North America. Solution providers are ranked based on revenue, determined by product and services sales during 2014.

“The companies represented here are truly dedicated to the needs of customers today. With an evolving IT landscape, this prestigious list serves as a valuable industry resource to help vendors navigate the solution provider community and identify the best partners for their business,” said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. “We congratulate the featured solution providers for their forward-thinking approach to solutions sales and look ahead to their continued success.”

About The Channel Company
The Channel Company, with established brands including CRN®, XChange® Events, IPED® and SharedVue®, is the channel community’s trusted authority for growth and innovation. For more than three decades, we have leveraged our proven and leading-edge platforms to deliver prescriptive sales and marketing solutions for the technology channel. The Channel Company provides Communication, Recruitment, Engagement, Enablement, Demand Generation and Intelligence services to drive technology partnerships. Learn more at http://www.thechannelcompany.com.

Lewan Achieves Cisco Master Collaboration and Master Cloud & Managed Service Designations

In addition to successfully passing the requirements and audit to re-certify as a Cisco Gold Partner, Lewan Technology is honored to announce achievement of two Master Specializations: Collaboration and Cloud & Managed Services.

“These Master level certifications are the absolute highest achievement that a Cisco partner can attain in any technology area. There are only 43 partners in the United States that hold these two certifications,” explained Ray Dean, Lewan’s Director of Networking and Communications. “This honor recognizes the great engineering teams and processes we have in place, as well as our commitment to ongoing customer satisfaction and solution integration.”

Cisco Gold Partner Certification

Gold Certification offers the broadest range of expertise across high growth market opportunities known as architecture plays – Enterprise Networking, Security, Collaboration, Data Center Virtualization and SP Technology. Gold Certified Partners have also integrated the deepest level of Cisco Lifecycle Services expertise into their offerings and demonstrate a measurably high level of customer satisfaction.

Lewan has been a Cisco Gold Certified Partner since 2005.

Cisco Master Collaboration Specialization

The Master Collaboration Specialization demonstrates the highest level of expertise attainable with Cisco collaboration solutions.

Master Collaboration Specialized Partners represent an elite partner community that has met the most rigorous certification requirements and are therefore the best for complex deliveries. Lewan demonstrated the ability to design and deploy solutions that conform to Cisco validated designs. In addition, Lewan showed current examples of successful projects in which we integrated multiple solutions and technologies to support client needs. No other Cisco specialization or certification demands such extensive proof of the partner’s design and implementation capabilities.

Cisco Cloud & Managed Services Master Service Provider

The Cloud and Managed Services Program (CMSP) helps partners respond to their customers’ business needs with innovative and validated Cisco Powered services. The exclusive Master Cloud and Managed Services designation recognizes partners at the highest level of achievement, competency and capabilities.

Lewan is recognized as a partner uniquely positioned to offer best-in-class Cisco Powered services and Cloud Managed services which are validated to insure security, reliability, and performance.

Lewan Named to 2015 Tech Elite 150 List

For the third year in a row, Lewan has been recognized for our exemplary approach to delivery of Managed IT Services and been awarded a spot on the 2015 MSP Elite 150 list, part of CRN’s Managed Service Provider 500 (MSP500) list. The Elite 150 group is recognized as large data center-focused solution providers with a strong mix of on-premise professional services as well as off-premise services.

From CRN:

This annual list distinguishes the top technology providers and consultants in North America whose leading approach to managed services enables their customers to improve operational efficiencies, elicit greater value from their IT investments, and successfully leverage technology to achieve greater competitive advantage.

In today’s world of outsourced IT, the expertise of MSPs has become increasingly important to organizations. The plethora of choices in terms of consumption and procurement of technology can become overwhelming. To help facilitate companies’ selection and adoption of managed services and providers, CRN, the leading media outlet for technology vendors and solution providers who serve end-user customers, has identified the top 500 MSPs.

“The allure of Everything-as-a-Service to organizations is largely rooted in the appeal of predictable operational expenses, cost-cutting, resource allocation and access to on-demand/pay-as-you-go technology. Therein lies a great need for the expertise of managed service providers,” said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. “We congratulate the managed service providers who have engineered, or re-engineered, their businesses to deliver the services their customers rely on for future growth and ongoing success.”

Lewan Awarded for Customer Satisfaction Excellence from Cisco

Lewan is honored to announce achievement of Cisco’s Customer Satisfaction Excellence award. Customer Satisfaction Excellence is the highest distinction a partner can achieve within the Cisco Channel Partner Program.

“Congratulations to the entire Lewan team on this recognition of your great work over the past year and continued delivery of a world class customer experience to our customers,” said Fred Cannataro, Lewan’s CEO and President.

And from Cisco, “Customer Satisfaction Excellence is a core value we both share and a key driver of our current and future success. Thank you for your commitment to the success of your customers.”

Lewan will be recognized for Customer Satisfaction Excellence in the Cisco Partner Locator (www.cisco.com/go/partnerlocator) with a special star indicator representing our achievement. Customers, Cisco personnel and partners will be able to identify you as having achieved outstanding customer satisfaction as part of Cisco’s worldwide assessment process.

Channel Customer Satisfaction Excellence assessment is based upon the customer satisfaction results captured in the Cisco Partner Access Online tool.

About our Partnership with Cisco

Lewan has been a Cisco Gold Certified Partner since 2005. Gold status is Cisco’s highest partner designation.

Our team of engineers holds 46 individual Cisco certifications including CCIE certifications in Routing & Switching, Voice and Security. The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification is accepted worldwide as the most prestigious networking certification in the industry. Combined with our sister companies, we offer the breadth and expertise of over 132 individual Cisco certifications nationally.

Our Cisco Certified engineers are able to offer assessments, performance evaluations, design workshops, and full installation and training around each of the areas that we hold Cisco certifications. Lewan’s certified areas of expertise are unified communications and business video, traditional route & switch environments, wireless, data center (including servers, storage, & virtualization), security & mobile device management.

Q&A with Lewan’s Citrix Synergy Guest Speaker

Congratulations to Lewan Technology Solutions Architect, Kenneth Fingerlos, who has been chosen for another very notable speaking engagement – Citrix Synergy 2014. It’s a highly competitive selection process and speaks to the credentials Kenneth has in this industry. If you are attending the conference in LA next month, be sure to check out his presentation on XenMobile best practices.

I took a couple minutes to sit down with Kenneth and learn a little more:

What is your industry experience?
“Something like 16 years ago I took my first IT job managing desktops for University of Idaho. In that instance we had some 800 physical PCs and some 300 unique applications we were delivering to a student body of more than 15,000. I moved to the systems admin team and went on to hold other positions around servers, storage, data center infrastructure, and IT management. It was 6 years ago I took a position as an IT consultant with Lewan Technology. My job is to find ways to help customers improve business productivity and agility through the use of technology. Citrix’s products have played a large role in those solutions.”

What makes Citrix solutions such a great choice for our customers?
“In a word flexibility. There are a lot of products on the market which seek to solve a given problem in a single way. It’s like the analogy when you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Citrix provides a suite of options allowing customers to choose the best solution for the problem at hand and to evolve the solution over time. Extending the analogy – it’s like adding a screwdriver, pliers, saw, wrench and glue to your toolbox in addition to the hammer.”

What will you be talking about at Citrix Synergy this year?
“This year my session is SYN237 – Best Practices for Deploying and Integrating XenMobile. I’ll be talking about real-world impacts and choices on existing Citrix deployments when you add the XenMobile product suite. Essentially trying to answer the questions of ‘how do I add this to my environment?’ and ‘what do I need to know in order to do this successfully?’”

What do you enjoy most about attending and participating in Citrix Synergy?
“It’s hard to pick just one thing. I love product announcements and hearing the Citrix solution story. I love networking and meeting with my peers to learn about the solutions they’ve deployed and how it’s changed the business landscape for their customers. And I love learning about new technology. I suppose if it had to be just one thing its probably spending a week (or nearly one) immersed in what is possible for our customers.”

What can customers look forward to on the horizon at Lewan Technology, as a Citrix platinum solutions provider?
Lewan strives to be the best source of IT related business consulting services for our customers. We want to be a strategic partner, helping to grow and optimize their business. We aren’t just a technology reseller, there’s a lot more to the core value we bring. Looking forward, Lewan will continue driving strategic conversations with customers about how we can jointly enable and optimize business value from their IT assets and adapt to the ever changing business and technology landscape.

Lewan Named to 2014 Tech Elite 250 List

Lewan has once again earned a prestigious spot on CRN’s 2014 list of Tech Elite 250 IT Solution Providers. This elite group of IT solution providers have invested in the training and education needed to earn the most advanced technical certifications from leading vendors.

From CRN:

In compiling the list, CRN editors worked with The Channel Company’s research group to define the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the IT channel. These technical certifications – from vendors including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, HP, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware, and Symantec – have enabled solution providers to deliver the most premium products, service and support to their North American customers.

“The solution providers highlighted on our annual Tech Elite 250 have demonstrated a commitment to excellence and gained industry credibility by investing in the IT certifications necessary to stay competitive and deliver the highest level of service to their customers,” said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. “These featured solution providers have enhanced and strengthened their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT. We congratulate these organizations and look forward to their continued success.”

Lewan Named to Managed Service Provider Elite 150

Lewan Technology has been named to the Managed Service Provider Elite 150 of CRN’s 2014 Managed Service Provider 500 (MSP500) list! As part of the list’s MSP Elite 150, Lewan is recognized as a top large data center-focused solution provider with a strong mix of on-premise professional services as well as off-premise services.

From CRN Magazine:

The MSP500 is a brand-new annual list which recognizes the top technology providers and consultants in North America whose cutting-edge approach to managed services puts end-user customers in the best position to improve efficiencies, cut costs and speed time to market for their own products and services.

In today’s world of computing power, end users are barraged by options. CRN, the leading media outlet for vendors and solution providers attempting to understand sales and service channels, selected the top MSPs in order to bring clarity to the decision-making process.

This year, CRN’s MSP500 is broken down into three groups highlighting the MSP Elite 150, who are large data center-focused solution providers with a strong mix of on-premise professional services as well as off-premise services.

“The managed services landscape continues to evolve rapidly as organizations are discovering they can impact both bottom-line and top-line growth,” said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. “When it comes to strong managed services and off-premise solutions, these companies are the industry’s proven leaders, showing just how they can change the game for their customers and we congratulate them on their success.”

Lewan Technology Selected as the Citrix West Area Partner of the Year!

Great job guys!  Our team worked hard to earn this and your dedication and commitment is being recognized.

From the Citrix Announcement:
“We are delighted to recognize all of our 2013 award winners,” said Mike Fouts, Vice President of Americas Channels & Field Operations. “Throughout 2013, these partners demonstrated their commitment to our mutual customers, driving new opportunities to sell Citrix solutions and providing sales, technical and marketing excellence. We look forward to our continued partnerships in the years ahead.” > Read the entire post on the Citrix blog

Gaining user acceptance for your desktop virtualization project

So proud of Lewan’s own Kenneth Fingerlos who will be speaking next week at Citrix Synergy. A link to his session overview is available on the Citrix Blog: Gaining user acceptance for your desktop virtualization project | Citrix Blogs. Well done, Kenneth! Read his post to the Citrix Blog below:

Gaining user acceptance for your desktop virtualization project
By Kenneth Fingerlos

With the IT press being dominated with articles on the pitfalls of BYO, MDM, MAM, mobile data and cloud-based services it’s clear that enterprise IT and end-users are thinking about different things. When we look at the OS on our compute devices it’s clear that more and more end-user concerns are driving the decisions which go into the design of the devices.

When IT takes on desktop virtualization we focus on costs, security and efficiency. We assess our users to help us determine what is needed for them to do their jobs. With that knowledge we optimize our designs to minimize costs and provide just what every user needs. We focus on single image management and questions of if MCS or PVS might be a better way to deliver our unified images. Do we need a 3rd party personalization manager or can we make due to with roaming profiles or perhaps we can drop personalization all together.

Meanwhile our users are purchasing iPads and Androids at an alarming rate.

It’s common for IT to focus on securing our borders, centralizing our data and developing the most efficient infrastructures we can. It is after all what good IT people are trained to. We read the design guides and perform our Assess Design Deploy process faithfully. We know who our user groups are and what applications they need. We’ve created pristine template images, with all of our corporate graphics and the approved list of applications pre-installed. In short, our design is textbook perfect we’ve addressed all of IT’s project goals and we’re ready to begin roll-out.

Why then do our users balk at adopting virtualized desktops? Often stalling or delaying projects indefinitely?

Often when projects reach the user testing phase we find that users are reluctant and frequently actively resistant to adopting new virtualized desktops. When presented with the new “IT Optimized” desktop paradigm our users blatantly refuse to use it. And the project stalls.

Let’s explore why users are resistant, and what we (IT) can do to help ease them into a new model. We’ll talk about easy use cases and end user wins. We’ll talk about marketing desktop virtualization to our users. We’ll talk about some not-so-easy scenarios that we may want to put off and tackle after the project has some steam and victories on the record. We’ll talk about gold images, RemotePC, personal vDisk, personalization and dedicated desktops. But most importantly we’re going to talk about what users are looking for and how we bring them on-board with the project.

Come join me Friday, May 24th in SYN216: Gaining user acceptance for your desktop virtualization project at Synergy Los Angeles to talk about these issues and learn how to not only drive user adoption but to convert your users into your project’s largest promoters.

Kenneth Fingerlos has been working in IT since 1996 in various roles including systems admin, IT manager and IT consultant with a focus on all aspects of datacenter and end-user computing. Kenneth currently holds certifications from VMware and Citrix and works as a systems architect with Citrix Platinum partner Lewan & Associates. Twitter: @Kfingerlos

Lewan Achieves Veeam Gold/Platinum Partner Status

Our Enterprise Solutions team has been hard at work in the lab, training to become solutions experts for Veeam Data Protection and Backup tools. Their hard work, dedication and opportunity to train with Veeam’s technical team has earned Lewan the recognition of Gold Partner status in the Veeam ProPartner Program. Congratulations!

View all of Lewan’s Vendor Partners: http://www.lewan.com/vendorpartners