CrowdStrike names Europe partner award winners in Dubrovnik
Wed, 20th May 2026 (Today)
CrowdStrike has named the winners of its 2026 Europe Partner of the Year Awards, announced at its annual Europe Partner Symposium in Dubrovnik.
Softcat was named Europe Partner of the Year, while Accenture won Europe GSI of the Year and BT took Europe Innovation Partner of the Year. Ernst & Young won Europe Specialised Solutions Partner of the Year, Ignition Technology was named Europe Strategic Distributor of the Year, and Zscaler received Europe Ecosystem Partner of the Year.
Other winners included Alleo de Bouygues Telecom for the Europe Velocity Award, Deutsche Telekom Security as Europe MSSP of the Year, Serviceware as Europe Regional Growth Partner of the Year, and Telefónica Tech as Europe Falcon Partner of the Year.
CrowdStrike also recognised three individuals for their work across its European partner network. Dmytro Tomashevskyi, Co-Founder of iIT Distribution, received the Europe Visionary Leadership Award; Jaafar Chbili, Director of the Detect & Defend Practise at Deloitte, was named Europe Technical MVP of the Year; and Rupert Ryan, Director of Sales at Cysiam, won Europe Sales MVP of the Year.
The awards come as CrowdStrike reported that its managed security service provider partner business exceeded USD $1.3 billion in total contract value globally over the past three years, as of the end of its 2026 fiscal year.
In Europe, partners including system integrators, managed security providers and distributors are playing a larger role as customers replace separate security products with broader platforms. That shift has helped channel partners expand their role in customer deployments and enter additional markets.
Partner growth
Several award winners also feature in CrowdStrike's newer partner initiatives. Accenture and Telefónica Tech were identified as launch partners for Charlotte AI AgentWorks, an ecosystem designed to let partners build and manage custom AI-driven security agents on the Falcon platform.
The move reflects the growing importance of service and integration partners in the cyber market, where suppliers increasingly rely on external firms to deliver implementation, managed services and consulting around their software. For vendors, those relationships can widen distribution and increase customer spending without relying solely on direct sales.
Channel partners have become particularly significant in Europe, where large organisations often buy through regional providers, telecoms groups, global systems integrators and specialist distributors. The list of winners reflects that mix, ranging from telecom-linked businesses such as BT, Deutsche Telekom Security and Alleo de Bouygues Telecom to consulting and integration groups such as Accenture and Ernst & Young.
Distribution also remains central to the cybersecurity market, especially for vendors seeking access to smaller resellers and managed service providers. Ignition Technology's recognition as strategic distributor of the year underlines the role wholesalers continue to play in building partner networks and moving products into local markets.
Zscaler's award for ecosystem partner of the year highlights another feature of the sector: vendors are increasingly working with one another as customers seek products that can be linked across identity, network access, endpoint and cloud security. Such partnerships can help suppliers remain part of broader security buying programmes even as customers reduce the number of standalone tools they use.
CrowdStrike's emphasis on platform adoption also mirrors a broader argument across the cyber industry: customers want fewer products and tighter integration. That trend has favoured firms that can persuade partners to build services, migrations and managed offerings around a single software stack.
John Taylor, Vice President, Channels & Alliances, Europe & Israel at CrowdStrike, said: "Partners are central to how customers adopt and scale platform-based cybersecurity. Today's honorees are delivering the expertise and services that reduce complexity and help stop breaches with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform."