MSP Summit Honors MSP 501 Digital Innovator of the Year

Prestigious honor recognizes managed service providers who have transcended traditional service delivery through groundbreaking proprietary technology solutions

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The MSP Summit organization announced California Telecom as the winner of the 2025 MSP 501 Digital Innovator of the Year Award during the annual MSP 501 Gala, celebrating managed service providers who have fundamentally transformed from service implementers to technology creators.

The MSP 501 Digital Innovator of the Year Award represents the pinnacle of achievement for managed service providers who have transcended traditional service delivery models. This prestigious honor celebrates organizations that have created groundbreaking proprietary technology solutions addressing critical market challenges while establishing sustainable competitive advantages.

"The Digital Innovator of the Year Award recognizes something truly extraordinary in our industry," said Robert DeMarzo, VP, Content, Informa Channels, which operates the MSP Summit and MSP 501. "These aren't just service providers who implement existing technology—these are visionaries who identify gaps in the market and create entirely new solutions. They represent the evolution of our industry from service delivery to technology creation, and their innovations are reshaping how businesses leverage technology to achieve transformative results."

Rigorous Selection Criteria

Winners of the Digital Innovator Award demonstrate exceptional achievement across six critical evaluation areas:

• Solution Overview & Innovation: Development of proprietary technology that addresses significant market gaps
• Market Impact & Problem Solving: Measurable solutions to complex business challenges
• Technical Excellence & Architecture: Superior engineering and technical implementation
• Competitive Differentiation & Business Model: Unique positioning and sustainable advantage
• Client Success & Market Validation: Proven client outcomes and market acceptance
• Future Vision & Evolution: Strategic roadmap for continued innovation

The winning organization has successfully bridged the gap between service delivery and technology creation, developing solutions that deliver extraordinary client outcomes while establishing new standards for innovation in the managed services industry.

"What sets our Digital Innovator apart is their ability to see beyond current market solutions and create something entirely new," said Dave Raffo, MSP 501 editor. "They don't just solve today's problems—they anticipate tomorrow's challenges and build the technology infrastructure to address them. This represents the future of our industry, where MSPs become technology creators, not just implementers."

The 2025 Special Awards winners were honored Sept. 17 at the MSP 501 Gala at the MSP Summit in Orlando, Fla.

"This award truly is a testament to the collective effort of our entire California Telecom team, including engineers, developers, and the support staff who live and breathe this work every day," said Jim Gurol, CEO of California Telecom. "Every feature we build into Netverge starts with collaboration, as our engineers, developers, and operations teams work together to define the key metrics, essential capabilities, and performance standards our customers rely on. Our mission is to harness AI to save time and deliver meaningful visibility and alerting without introducing unnecessary complexity or noise. Netverge was built by an MSP for MSPs, designed to solve the real-world challenges of managing our own networks and those of our customers."

The 2025 MSP 501 Special awards were awarded in the following categories:

• MSP of the Year
• Executive of the Year
• Lifetime Achievement Award
• Newcomer of the Year Award
• Digital Innovator of the Year Award
• Vanguard Award
• Woman-Powered MSP of the Year
• Cybersecurity MSP of the Year
• AI MSP of the Year
• Cloud MSP of the Year

The award recognizes organizations that have demonstrated not just technical excellence, but the vision to identify unmet market needs and the execution capability to transform that vision into reality. These innovations must show measurable client impact, technical superiority, and market differentiation while creating entirely new categories of technology-enabled services.

The winning organization joins an elite group of MSPs who have successfully evolved their business models from traditional service delivery to technology innovation, creating intellectual property that delivers exceptional client outcomes while establishing new benchmarks for industry excellence.

The MSP 501 Special Awards are application-based for outstanding industry contribution by an organization or individual. The awards are voted on by a panel of judges who are industry leaders, including top global MSPs, industry analysts, and past winners. These award winners are judged for special accomplishments and achievements beyond just revenue and profit.

Background

The MSP 501 represents the best in the technology services industry, delivering outstanding vendor and platform-neutral advice and value to small, mid-sized, and enterprise customers. This year, the MSP 501 generated aggregate revenue of nearly $25 billion with average growth of recurring revenue of 19%. These are truly the best of the best.

The MSP 501 is responsible for keeping their global customers safe, connected, and efficient. Many of their services and technology offerings focus on customer needs in the areas of AI, cloud, security, collaboration, networking, help desk, and remote monitoring and management

About Channel Partners

Channel Partners is a media and events destination for the information technology and communications industry. We provide information, perspective, and connection for the entire channel ecosystem, including solution providers (SPs), managed service providers (MSPs), managed security service providers (MSSPs), cloud service providers (CSPs), value-added resellers (VARs) and distributors, technology solutions brokerages, sub-agents and agents, as well as leading technology vendor partners and communication providers.

Channel Partners properties include awards programs such as the Channel Partners MSP 501, a list of the most influential and fastest-growing providers of managed services in the technology industry; the Channel Circle of Excellence, which honors innovative leaders from top channel vendors and distributors; Channel Partners events, which delivers unparalleled in-person events including Channel Partners Conference & Expo and MSP Summit.

Channel Partners is part of Informa Connect, a leading provider of live events, digital content and training for the global business technology community. Through in-depth expertise and an engaged audience community, Informa Connect helps business professionals make better technology decisions and marketers reach the most powerful tech buyers and influencers in the world. Informa Connect's portfolio includes more than 450 annual events. The Channel Partners media organization, owned and operated by Informa, is the only channel-centric events, media and research company that can provide such insight into the managed services market.

About California Telecom

California Telecom delivers enterprise-grade Internet, voice, managed services, network monitoring, and cybersecurity to businesses nationwide. Headquartered in Chino, California, the company is recognized on the MSP 501 for its rapid growth and customer-first approach.

About Netverge

Netverge is a proprietary AI-driven network intelligence platform that unifies monitoring, automation, and analytics into one powerful interface. Netverge was designed to simplify complex infrastructure management through intelligent automation, actionable insights, and deep visibility across networks. Leveraging artificial intelligence to eliminate noise and highlight what matters most, Netverge helps organizations operate more efficiently, respond faster to issues, and maintain unparalleled control over their network ecosystems.

For more information, visit www.californiatelecom.com or www.netverge.com

Media Contacts 

Dave Raffo
Sr. Conference Editor & Community Manager | Informa Connect
[email protected]  

Sydney Kurtz  
Associate Marketing Manager 
[email protected]

Abbigail Arriaga
Public Relations Contact, California Telecom
[email protected]

SOURCE California Telecom