Business View - February 2016 61
reason.
“The other thing that differentiates us is our technol-
ogy management team, or what the industry calls
‘vCIOs,’” Jacobellis continues. (A vCIO, or virtual CIO,
is a contractor, or company, that serves as an organi-
zation’s Chief Information Officer.) “In our experience,
the average competitor says they have the ability to
provide vCIO service, and in almost every case, what
we found is that the owner or the very top-tier execu-
tive, manager-type person, who’s technical by back-
ground, is going to be the one that provides that ser-
vice. But they wear 13 other hats in their business, so
they’re not really very focused on it. We actually have a
team of people dedicated to that role, with a dedicated
leader, a director over that business unit, and a num-
ber of folks – six or eight people – and all they’re do-
ing is strategic work with our client base. So those two
things are what make Cal Net stand head and shoul-
ders above most MSPs.”
Indeed, Cal Net’s expertise in its field has been well-
recognized by its vendor partners as well as by the lo-
cal and industry press. It was named a “Dell Security
Partner of the Year for 2015,” and a “Southwest Re-
gion Partner of the Year” by Microsoft three years in a
row (2013-2015). The San Fernando Valley Business
Journal recently put it on its “Top 50 Fastest Growing
Company in 2015” list, and it was named “IT Service
Partner of the Year” by the Los Angeles Business Jour-
nal. In addition, Cal Net has been designated as one of
the top 50 managed services providers in North Amer-
ica by the prestigious MSPmentor “Top 501 Managed
TECHNOLOGY
