ATS Network Management Wins African Distributor of the Year at SolarWinds World Tour Johannesburg

A milestone for ATS – and a reflection of the partner ecosystem, technical capability and customer focus behind the SolarWinds channel across Africa.

ATS Network Management has been named African Distributor of the Year at the SolarWinds World Tour Johannesburg – a significant recognition of the work being done to develop, enable and support the SolarWinds channel ecosystem across Africa.

The award was presented at the conclusion of the Johannesburg World Tour on 18 August 2026, following a full day that brought together SolarWinds customers, partners, technology specialists and industry leaders to explore the changing face of modern IT operations.

For ATS, the recognition represents more than commercial performance. It reflects a channel strategy built around technical enablement, partner capability, customer success and long-term investment in the African market.

From firefighting to intelligent IT operations

One of the strongest themes running through the Johannesburg event was the changing role of IT.

As hybrid environments become more complex, IT professionals are being asked to move beyond reactive troubleshooting and towards a more strategic role – orchestrating technology, automation, AI and people across increasingly connected environments.

ITWeb’s live coverage of the event captured discussions ranging from where human intelligence meets AI precision and whether AI is helping or hindering IT professionals, through to SolarWinds’ future vision, agentic AI and practical demonstrations of the technology.

The conversation was not simply about introducing more AI into IT. It was about applying AI where it can solve real operational problems: reducing complexity, providing better context, accelerating root-cause analysis and helping technical teams move from an alert to the right action faster.

SolarWinds describes this journey as a move from reactive firefighting towards autonomous operational resilience, supported by observability, automation and context-aware AI.

Seeing agentic AI in action

A key focus of the World Tour was the evolving role of agentic AI within IT operations.

Attendees had the opportunity to get closer to the SolarWinds roadmap and see how AI-powered insights, anomaly-based alerting and agentic capabilities can work together across complex environments.

The new SolarWinds AI Agent, SW1, forms an important part of that direction – designed as a context-aware digital teammate that can help technical teams interpret what is happening across their environment and make decisions with greater confidence.

The objective is not to generate more alerts. It is to understand what matters, identify the cause faster and take the right action sooner.

Real-world challenges took centre stage

Technology demonstrations were only one part of the Johannesburg conversation. ITWeb’s coverage also highlighted a panel focused on real-world customer challenges, interactive demonstrations and the changing relationship between technology providers and their customers.

That practical perspective is particularly important in Africa. Organisations across the continent operate across very different infrastructure environments, regulatory landscapes, skills bases and levels of cloud adoption. There is no single blueprint for modernising IT operations.

Technology therefore has to be translated into practical outcomes within the realities of each market. That is also where the channel becomes critical.

A partner-first approach to Africa

ATS Network Management operates as a pan-African value-added distributor, working through an ecosystem of in-country channel partners.

Our role is not to replace those local relationships. It is to strengthen them.

ATS invests in technical enablement, solution architecture, pre-sales capability, skills development, marketing support and business engagement so that partners can confidently take SolarWinds technologies into their local markets.

The Johannesburg World Tour reinforced this partner-first approach, with ITWeb dedicating part of its live event coverage specifically to SolarWinds’ partner positioning.

By combining SolarWinds’ global technology innovation, ATS’s regional capabilities and the expertise of trusted in-country partners, customers can access solutions supported by people who understand both the technology and the realities of their local market.

Celebrating our partner ecosystem

The World Tour also provided an opportunity to recognise the contribution being made by SolarWinds partners in South Africa.

BCX – South African Partner of the Year
Datacentrix – Growth South African Partner of the Year
Nexio – Emerging South African Partner of the Year

And, of course, we are incredibly proud that ATS Network Management was recognised as African Distributor of the Year.

These awards matter because the success of a distribution model ultimately depends on the strength of the ecosystem around it.

STRONG VENDORS

need strong distributors.

STRONG DISTRIBUTORS

need capable, committed partners.

ALL THREE

must deliver measurable value to customers.

African Distributor of the Year – and what comes next

Being named African Distributor of the Year is an important milestone for ATS Network Management, but we see it as recognition of a journey that is still gaining momentum.

Africa represents an enormously diverse technology market. Customers are looking for better visibility, stronger resilience, practical AI adoption and ways to extract more value from the technology investments they already have.

Our responsibility is to make sure our partners have the skills, technology, support and confidence to help those customers succeed.