Quiz: Recap vendors' 2016 channel partnering moves, restructuring

This end-of-the-year quiz is built around the top 10 most popular articles that appeared on SearchITChannel during 2016. We've gauged popularity on the basis of page views. As it turns out, readers were particularly interested in channel partnering activities at the major IT vendors: Cisco, Dell Technologies (and its constituent companies), IBM and Microsoft. Articles touching upon broader topics, such as managed services strategy and cybersecurity, also ranked on the top 10 list.

That pattern is hardly surprising, given the importance of the top-tier vendors to a broad spectrum of channel partners. Channel influence was enough to keep the large hardware, software and networking manufacturers top of mind. But additional scrutiny was warranted this year, since the leading vendors were all working through significant transitions. Cisco partners watched the company pursue a subscription-based revenue model as it branches out into software. Dell partners kept tabs on a company still digesting its EMC acquisition. IBM partners pondered their role in a company focusing on a shortlist of strategic imperatives: analytics, cloud, mobility and security. And Microsoft partners saw a company pushing farther into cloud computing and expanding its presence in the open source world.

This quiz provides a recap of the year's IT channel developments, from business model makeovers to acquisition aftermath. Ready? Begin.

Scoring:

10 correct answers: Channel champion   

7-9 correct answers: Channel maven       

0-6 correct answers: Learning channel