SolarWinds Named Sterling's Top Partner for Second Consecutive Year

AUSTIN, TX – January 07, 2026 – SolarWinds, a prominent provider of IT management and observability software, has been named Sterling's 2025 Software Partner of the Year. The announcement, made at the annual Sterling Technology Summit, marks the second consecutive year SolarWinds has received the top honor, signaling a deepening and highly successful strategic alliance between the two companies.

The award highlights a relationship built on what both organizations describe as trust, collaboration, and a shared commitment to helping customers navigate increasingly complex hybrid IT environments. In an industry where vendor-partner relationships are crucial for delivering comprehensive solutions, this continued recognition validates the effectiveness of their joint approach to market.

The Anatomy of a Strategic Alliance

At the heart of the award is a partnership model that goes beyond a simple reseller agreement. It represents a deep integration of strategy and execution, designed to deliver tangible outcomes for a diverse client base that includes federal, state, and local governments, as well as educational and commercial entities.

“Strong partnerships are built on trust, transparency, and a shared commitment to customer success,” said Barb Huelskamp, Senior Vice President of Global Channel and Alliances at SolarWinds. “Our partnership with Sterling reflects what’s possible when two organizations are deeply aligned around enablement, collaboration, and long-term growth. Together, we’re helping customers modernize their operations and achieve meaningful outcomes.”

This alignment is critical for Sterling, a solutions provider with nearly three decades of experience. The company employs a strategic four-pronged approach—assess, design, implement, and manage—to deliver secure, tailor-made technology solutions. To be effective, Sterling must rely on partners whose products are not only technologically advanced but are also backed by a collaborative, partner-first mindset. Sterling’s SVP of Partner Alliances and Services, Steve Van Ginkel, affirmed this, stating, “SolarWinds has played a pivotal role in driving our software success this year, pairing innovative cloud-based monitoring and security capabilities with a strategic, partner-first approach.”

This synergy enables Sterling to confidently bring SolarWinds' solutions to its clients, who often operate in high-stakes environments with complex security and operational requirements. The partnership’s success is built on sustained investment in co-selling motions and continuous partner enablement, ensuring Sterling’s teams are equipped to deploy and manage SolarWinds' technology effectively.

Beyond the Award: Fueling Modernization with Observability

The recognition is not merely ceremonial; it is rooted in the technological capabilities SolarWinds brings to the table. In a highly competitive IT Operations Management (ITOM) market projected to reach over $36 billion in 2025, differentiation is key. SolarWinds competes with industry giants like Datadog, Dynatrace, and ServiceNow by focusing on a philosophy of providing simple, powerful, and secure software.

Their solutions provide organizations with a comprehensive and unified view of modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. This is particularly crucial as businesses accelerate digital transformation, often resulting in a sprawling and fragmented IT landscape. SolarWinds’ products, including its well-regarded Orion Platform, offer in-depth visibility into server diagnostics, network performance, and database health across on-premises data centers and multi-cloud deployments in AWS and Azure.

According to Van Ginkel, SolarWinds' “innovative cloud-based monitoring and security capabilities” were a key factor in their selection. This points to the company's success in addressing the market's shift toward AIOps (AI for IT Operations) and full-stack observability. By integrating AI and machine learning, these tools help IT professionals move from a reactive to a proactive posture, identifying and resolving potential issues before they impact business operations. This ability to strengthen security, improve visibility, and simplify operations is precisely what Sterling’s clients need to operate with confidence.

A Channel-First Strategy Pays Dividends

The consecutive awards from Sterling are not an isolated success but a direct result of a deliberate, company-wide channel strategy. In early 2025, SolarWinds launched its enhanced partner program, themed “Elevating Together,” which was designed to increase partner profitability, expand capabilities, and provide better tools and resources.

This revamped program introduced a new tiered model with better margin control, growth incentives for key solution areas like observability and IT Service Management (ITSM), and a new Services Certification Program (SCCP) to empower partners to deliver premium support services. These initiatives demonstrate a tangible commitment to a “channel-first” mentality, moving beyond rhetoric to create a framework where partners like Sterling are positioned for joint growth.

This strategy is further supported by SolarWinds' recent corporate evolution. In April 2025, the company completed its transition to a privately held entity following its acquisition by Turn/River Capital. The move was intended to provide SolarWinds with the flexibility and resources to further invest in product innovation and operational resilience solutions—developments that directly benefit its partners and their end-customers. Sterling's award serves as a powerful market validation that this strategic focus on empowering the channel is yielding significant results.

The partnership allows SolarWinds to extend its reach into critical public sector and commercial markets where Sterling has established deep trust and expertise. For Sterling, the relationship ensures it can offer best-in-class technology that is reliable and backed by a vendor committed to mutual success. This symbiotic relationship provides a powerful blueprint for how technology vendors and solution providers can collaborate to address the complex challenges of modern IT, driving innovation and resilience for customers across all sectors.