Recent News & Press Coverage
Stay informed with official news and updates from The ASCII Group. This section features company announcements, strategic initiatives, and industry coverage that reflect our continued commitment to the MSP community and the broader IT channel. Press inquiries: Contact alysia@ascii.com
2025 ASCII Cup Celebrates Innovation and Excellence in the Channel
RYTHMz Named Vendor of the Year by the MSP Community Washington, D.C.
- October 31, 2025 -
Washington, D.C. – October 31, 2025 – The ASCII Group, the original and premier community of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) across North America, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 ASCII Cup. This annual award honors technology companies that have made a lasting impact in the MSP channel through innovation, commitment, and engagement.
The 2025 ASCII Cup was presented in Philadelphia, PA, on October 30, following the final stop of the year for the ASCII Edge conference series. Inspired by Philadelphia’s iconic Rocky legacy, the evening highlighted the strength and perseverance that define the IT channel.
Throughout 2025, ASCII members voted at eight regional ASCII Edge events across the U.S. and Canada, evaluating technology vendors across 12 categories such as innovation, partner program excellence, and overall value. This peer-driven process ensures the companies recognized are those making the greatest impact on MSPs.
The 2025ASCII Cup award recipients are:
- 2025 ASCII Cup Vendor of the Year – RYTHMz
- First Runner-Up – Pax8
- Third Place – SonicWall
- Fourth Place – BLOKWORX
- Fifth Place – Microsoft
- Sixth Place – Kaseya
- Seventh Place – Monjur
- Eighth Place – DefensX
- Ninth Place – FutureSafe
- Tenth Place – SuperOps
“The ASCII Cup reflects the voice of MSPs,” said Jerry Koutavas, CEO of The ASCII Group. “Recognizing RYTHMz as Vendor of the Year, along with the other companies honored, underscores the vital role our industry partners play in helping MSPs succeed.”
“It is with sincere gratitude that we accept this recognition from The ASCII Group and its members. As a former member myself, I understand the profound impact this community has on an MSP’s journey,” said Steve Copeland, CEO and Founder, RYTHMz. “Our industry is at a pivotal moment—evolving from ‘Managed Services’ to ‘Managed Solutions.’ Through this shift, one truth remains: connectivity is your brand. RYTHMz is proud to help lead this evolution alongside our partners in the ASCII community, and we’re truly honored by this recognition.”
The celebration also honored the late Alan D. Weinberger, founder of The ASCII Group, whose vision for a vendor-neutral community of IT professionals continues to guide the organization today. For more than 40 years, ASCII has connected IT business owners with resources, programs, and a trusted peer network to help them grow stronger companies. The 2025 ASCII Cup reflects this spirit of collaboration and the vital role technology partners play in MSP success.
For photos and highlights from the 2025 ASCII Cup, please visit The ASCII Group’s Facebook page.
About The ASCII Group, Inc.
The ASCII Group is the premier community of North American MSPs, MSSPs and Solution Providers. The Group has members located throughout the U.S. and Canada, and membership encompasses everyone from credentialed MSPs serving the SMB community to multi-location solution providers with a national and international reach. Founded in 1984, ASCII provides services to members including leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, marketing assistance, extensive peer interaction and more. ASCII works with a vibrant ecosystem of leading and major technology vendors that complement the ASCII community and support the mission of helping MSPs to grow their businesses. For more information, please visit www.ascii.com.
Press Contact
Alysia Vetter
Chief Marketing Officer
Tel: 800-394-2724
Email: alysia@ascii.com
Web: www.ascii.com
The ASCII Group Announces Best of Show Award Winners from Orange County 2017 IT SMB Success Summit
The ASCII Group, a membership-based community of independent MSPs, VARs and solution providers, is pleased to announce the ‘Best of Show’ award winners from its 2017 IT SMB Success Summit in Orange County, California. The awards are voted on by the attending solution providers, and honor the industry sponsors in multiple Best of Show categories.
Pre-Day Awards
Best Education – Vertical Axion
Best Technical Demo – CNET
Best IT Workshop – Naverisk
Main Day Awards
Best Rapid Pitch – iRemoteReset
Best Keynote Presentation – Datto
Best Partner Incentive – Cytracom
Best Market Opportunity – Pax8
Best Productivity Solution – IT Glue
Best Revenue Generator – Datto
Best Channel Programs – Datto
Top Distributor – Pax8
Best Partner Involvement – Cytracom/ Datto/ SherWeb
Best of Show – Pax8
ChannelPro: Legendary Conman and Security Consultant Headline ASCII Group Conference
ChannelPro coverage of the 2017 Orange County ASCII IT SMB Success Summit.
Read the full ChannelPro article here: http://bit.ly/2ojCZwr
audIT forms relationship with ASCII Group Community on sales system for MSPs
ASCII is pleased to announce a partnership with fellow ASCII Member, Frank DeBenedetto, founder of audIT Sales Presentation System. Priced exclusively for ASCII Members, audIT is a software system that allows members to turn their data into stunning sales presentations that helps sell more IT services with ease. The emotionally charged and simple presentation helps you close the sale without objections, get more up and cross sells and generate more revenue.
ASCII members are invited to download a full sample audIT report so you can see how it will help you close more sales with greater ease and get the special discount code. After you download the report, you are then invited to try audIT for free. https://fmdb.clickfunnels.com/get-all-in-audit
ASCII Members in the News (Industry Articles) February & March 2017
ChannelPro
March Cover – ASCII Member AndrewHarrover
A Lesson in Whento Get Out of the Way by Andrew Harrover, President, MatrixComputer Consulting and member of The ASCII Group since 2012.
Business SolutionsMagazine
3 TrendsChanging How MSPs Work by Corey Kirkendoll, President/CEO5k Technical Services and member of The ASCII Group since 2016.
Will You Survivethe MSP-Vetting Process
by Mike Bloomfield, President, TekieGeek and member of The ASCII Group since 2016.
10 Reasons Why The Managed Services Market is Flourishing by David Molnar, CEO Dave’s Computers and member of The ASCII Group since 2014.
TechTarget|SearchITChannel
How to Sell YourServices in the Public by Tony Stirk, President Iron Horse, and member of The ASCII Groupsince 1994.
ChannelPro: ASCII IT SMB Success Summit Touches Down in Houston
ChannelPro coverage of the 2017 Houston ASCII IT SMB Success Summit.
Read the full ChannelPro articles here:
Check out the hot topics that are trending on The ASCII Group Forum!
The ASCII Group Forum(ASCII-Link) is a valuable resource for technical and business knowledge, and away for members to share partnership opportunities. The members-only email listserv allows for networking 24/7 with peers. ASCII-Link has over700 active members and generates over 3,000 emails per month.
If you were a member, you could be on our forum right now learning tips to grow your MSP business.
Learn more about becoming a member! http://bit.ly/2n6BOga
January Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2lKWZqC
February Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2n5PuYC
March Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2oEGDOn
April/May Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2sh2lN9
Security as a Service - Trusted Metrics forms relationship with ASCII Community
It is a pleasure to announce that Trusted Metrics is working with the ASCII community.
The relationship will help reinforce opportunities for MSPs in offering Security as a Service.
Trusted Metrics offers an Elastic Security Operations Center (Elastic SOC®), which is a cloud-based platform and 24×7 Security Monitoring service, that collects security event logs, correlates them against threat intelligence and provides actionable analytics via alarms, dashboards and reports. It combines event correlation and real-time alerting with long-term data retention in an easy-to-use web portal.
Elastic SOC® supports multi-tenancy and can be white-labeled allowing Managed Service Providers to offer their clients that same level of enterprise security monitoring only seen in large-scale network environments, via a distributed cost model. Elastic SOC® is “elastic” at the core. There is no concept of having to distribute clients across multiple SQL-based databases, file stores or UI consoles.
Further details regarding member benefits are available on www.ascii.com.
NEW! ASCII Webinars Scheduled for February – New Topics & Hosts
The ASCII Grouphas 3 new webinars scheduled for February.
Visit our webinars page for more information and to register. https://overview.ascii.com/how-msps-are-winning-with-the-ascii-netw
ASCII (Canada) Member Guest Column in Business Solutions Magazine
Business Solutions Magazine
4 Data Trends That Will Keep BDR Top of Mind for Customers – Guest Column by ASCII member Matthew Held of Manawa Networks
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