2026 SC Award winner CDW Canada — Best Managed Security Service

CDW Canada is the winner of the 2026 SC Award for Best Managed Security Service, recognized for its Managed Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) offering that delivers turnkey firewall protection for mid-market and enterprise organizations.

Managed security services in this category provide a complete approach to protecting an organization’s primary technical security infrastructure, either through collocated devices or fully outsourced solutions. With an increase in ransomware and firewall vulnerabilities remaining under constant exploitation, organizations struggle to maintain continuous monitoring and timely patching. However, managing modern firewall environments requires specialized expertise, especially as attackers use automation and AI-driven techniques to exploit misconfigurations and perimeter gaps.

CDW Canada’s Managed NGFW service addresses this challenge with 24x7x365 monitoring through its Canadian Security Operations Centre (SOC), including intrusion prevention, deep packet inspection, application-aware controls, and real-time threat intelligence. The service includes a 15-minute response SLA for critical alerts and follows ITIL-aligned change and patch management processes. Customers receive dedicated Security Operations Specialists, monthly service reviews, quarterly business reviews, and coordinated containment support during high-severity firewall events.

CDW manages hundreds of NGFW devices globally across industries, including financial services, healthcare, aerospace, public sector, education, logistics, utilities, and retail. It supports multi-vendor environments spanning Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, Fortinet, and Microsoft platforms. Managed Services achieved Net Promoter Scores of +66.7 in Q1 2025 and +68.8 across the trailing 12 months, with 99.9% compliance and strong customer retention.

“The company is very mature and offers a well-supported managed firewall with strong operational detail,” said SC Award judge Saurabh Srivastava, director of hybrid cloud security at Hilton. “This is one of the most substantiated submissions in the set and reads like a proven service, not a marketing concept. They have set forth clear service expectations, like a 15-minute response for critical alerts, high NPS results, and meaningful scale with hundreds of managed devices and large multi-site environments. Partner depth and certification investment are also strong.”