(NOTE: This story was originally posted to CRN.com April 12.)

The Security Market Keeps Rolling

A steady stream of news stories of cyber attacks and compromised data keeps driving demand for security, which continues to be one of the hottest segments of the IT industry.

Meanwhile, the number of legacy and startup vendors offering products and services in identity management and data protection; web, email and application security; SIEM and threat detection; endpoint security; and network security keeps expanding.

That means solution providers have many decisions to make about which vendors to work with. And those decisions include sizing up the caliber of a vendor's partner program.

The 2017 CRN Partner Program Guide offers the information solution providers need to evaluate IT vendors they work with or are considering working with. The guide is based on detailed applications vendors submitted outlining all aspects of their partner programs.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here we present the 5-Star designees in the security technology space.