Microsoft won the most 2025 MSP 501 Preferred Vendor awards, grabbing first place in four of the nine categories.

We ask MSP 501 winners which vendors, suppliers, distributors and marketplaces they work with most closely and consider their top revenue producers. The results provide a window into today’s leading suppliers determined by today’s best managed services providers. These vendors clearly have a strong focus on supporting their partners with programs, marketing funds, tech support and other go-to-market initiatives.

We presented Preferred Vendor awards in nine categories, including two go-to-market categories. Microsoft finished first in four product categories, including cybersecurity – a managed services staple – and the rapidly emerging AI tools category. Other category winners were ConnectWise, Dell, Kaseya/Datto, Ingram Micro and Pax8.

During an MSP Summit interview, Microsoft’s USA SMB director Monica French spoke of how important MSPs are to reaching small businesses.

“The success of the MSPs is essential for our delivery model,” she said. “What I really admire within each of them is how close they are to our customers, and how there's so much we can unlock together. I see MSPs embedded within the operations of each of their customers and they understand their customers’ needs. We really want to work as close as we can through our MSPs.”

Pax8 CVP of Community and Ecosystems Rob Rae agreed with French about the role MSPs play in selling to SMBs.

“If you really want to get to the SMB space, it's going to have to be through MSPs,” Rae said. “And I think that's only going to continue to grow. I get the opportunity and the privilege of traveling around the world and meeting tens of thousands of MSPs every year. We have 47,000 MSPs that are transacting with us today. And I think our greatest strength is being able to pool what's working and what's not working through those conversations, and bringing it all together so everybody can benefit and grow. That also allows us to be a little more innovative.”

ConnectWise senior director of product marketing Brian Troy attributed the vendor’s success to its blending of RMM and PSA tools, and because of its strong investments in partners and peer groups.

“We've appreciated partnership from this group for a very long time,” Troy said. “When we think about partnership, it goes beyond the software. People look at the investments ConnectWise has made in our partner program and the investments that we've made in our peer group. We'll continue to see that in the future.”

We spoke to members of the MSP 501 about the relationship they – and their customers – enjoy with Microsoft.

“We do a lot with Microsoft, a tremendous amount,” said Datalink Networks CEO Don Wisdom. “We meet with Microsoft leadership from time to time, and they are continuing to evolve their programs to where they're literally replacing their direct field salespeople with the channel partners. And in fiscal 2026, it’s going to accelerate.”

Astute Networks president Eric Madden said his customers are expanding their Microsoft offerings.

“We've really been upscaling licensing in the Microsoft platform,” Madden said. “Years ago you would see most clients would have Microsoft 365 Standard and Microsoft Basic licenses. We've really seen a lot of movement to the Microsoft Premium license set and even into some of the enterprise licenses as well, which has kind of helped grow those top line numbers for us.”

When we survey managed service providers as part of picking our annual MSP 501, we ask them for their top three or five preferred or most strategic vendors in each major technology category, as well as their preferred distributors and marketplaces.

Here are the winners for each category:

Infrastructure -- Dell. Four data center giants were at the top of this category, which includes servers, storage and networking. Dell was followed by Cisco, HPE and Lenovo. Infrastructure was the only category where four vendors were mentioned by at least 40% of MSP 501 winners.

• Dell
• Cisco
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• Lenovo
• Juniper
• IBM
• NetApp
• Pure Storage

Online cloud marketplaces – Pax8. This is a rapidly growing area for MSPs. Behind Pax8 was Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, TD Synnex CloudSolv and Microsoft Commercial Marketplace for Azure, AppSource.

• Pax8 Marketplace
• Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace
• TD SYNNEX CloudSolv
• Microsoft Commercial Marketplace for Azure, AppSource
• Datto Marketplace
• ConnectWise Marketplace

AI technology providers -- Microsoft Copilot. There are dozens of AI tools in the market, and new ones keep coming. But there’s only one Copilot, a huge favorite with MSPs as more than three-quarters of the MSP 501 said they partner with Microsoft’s AI tool. ChatGPT was a distant second with Google Gemini and Claude by Anthropic far behind.

• Microsoft Copilot
• ChatGPT
• Google Gemini
• Claude by Anthropic

Cybersecurity -- Microsoft. This was another crowded field, with a plethora of vendors. Five were picked as prime partners by at least 35% of the MSP 501. Microsoft was followed by SentinelOne, Cisco, Huntress and Fortinet.

• Microsoft
• SentinelOne
• Cisco (includes AMP, DUO)
• Huntress
• Fortinet
• Sophos
• Blackpoint Cyber
• CrowdStrike
• Bitdefender
• Arctic Wolf
• Palo Alto

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)/Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) – Microsoft Azure. Everybody knows the big three here. Microsoft is the dominant cloud partner among the MSP 501 with almost all of them mentioning Azure as a partner. Amazon Web Services (AWS) placed a distant second followed by Google Cloud.

• Microsoft Azure
• Amazon AWS
• Google Cloud
• 
  

Cloud SaaS -- Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft also dominated in software-as-a-service, with the MSP 501 winners identifying Office 365 as one of their most strategic suppliers. Adobe was next followed by Google Apps/Workspace and Amazon S3/EC2/AWS.

• Microsoft Office 365
• Adobe
• Google Apps/Workspace
• Amazon S3, EC2, AWS

Backup and disaster recovery – Kaseya/Datto. Three data protection giants were named as most strategic partners by at least 45% of the MSP 501. Kaseya/Datto received strong competition for No. 1 from Veeam and Microsoft.

• Kaseya/Datto
• Veeam
• Microsoft
• Axcient
• N-able
• Acronis
• Barracuda
• ConnectWise

RMM software and/or (PSA) platforms – ConnectWise. This was another highly competitive field for MSPs, and Microsoft InTune edged Kaseya/Datto for the second spot.

• ConnectWise
• Microsoft InTune
• Kaseya/Datto
• N-able
• Auvik
• NinjaOne
• Halo

Distributors and technology services distributors (TSDs) – Ingram Micro. More than three-quarters of the MSP 501 said they use Ingram Micro for sales, sourcing or products and services, and TD Synnex wasn’t far behind. D&H was a distant third but still posted a respectable percentage of partners.

• Ingram Micro
• TD Synnex
• D&H
• Telarus
• Sandler Partners
• ScanSource/Intelisys