CDW Corporation

What CDW Corporation does

CDW Corporation is a Fortune 500, S&P 500-listed multi-brand IT solutions provider (NASDAQ: CDW; IPO June 2013) founded in 1984 and headquartered in Vernon Hills, Illinois. The company aggregates hardware, software, and professional/managed services from 1,000+ vendor brands — including Apple, Microsoft, HPE, Cisco, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, Adobe, and ServiceNow — into a single procurement vehicle for over 250,000 customers annually, including 90% of Fortune 1000 companies, with 95% of revenue generated in the United States and additional operations in the United Kingdom and Canada. Effective January 1, 2026, CDW reorganized into three reportable customer segments — Commercial, Government (CDW-G), and Education — and serves adjacent verticals including Healthcare, Financial Services, Retail, and Small Business. FY2025 net sales reached $22.4 billion (+6.8% YoY), with Q1 2026 net sales of $5.68 billion (+9.2% YoY).

The core operating platform combines a transaction-heavy e-commerce and account portal (cdw.com) with a verticalized enterprise field-sales motion and a network of subsidiaries that extend capability: Mission Cloud (AWS Premier Tier Services Partner) for cloud and AI services, Focal Point Data Risk (acquired 2021) for cybersecurity and cloud security consulting, and Enquizit (acquired 2023) for cloud and managed services. Differentiated offerings include the Strategic Application Modernization Assessment (SAMA) for federal agencies and the Mission Cloud AI Suite (AIM, Quick 5x5x5, AI Landing Zone, Fixed-Fee Chatbot MVP, Agent-Enabled Chatbot Limited Pilot). The company is concurrently executing 'Geared for Growth', an AI-first multi-year internal transformation announced in May 2026 by CEO Christine A. Leahy targeting $100-200M in annual run-rate cost savings by 2027-2028.

CDW's revenue model is dominated by hardware resale (71.6% of FY2025 revenue) at low gross margins (~5-7%), with software, cloud, and services together contributing ~36% of total gross profit. The model is a hybrid of high-volume transactional e-commerce (SMB and individual buyers), quote-based enterprise/government/education contracts (multi-year), and recurring managed services. Pricing is SKU-list-based on cdw.com with quote-based enterprise contracts. Capital return has been disciplined — approximately $8.4 billion returned to shareholders since the 2013 IPO through repurchases and dividends, with a $1 billion buyback authorization increase announced in May 2026 — and the company maintains a $2.88B senior unsecured credit facility (December 2025) to support working capital and opportunistic M&A.

Name

CDW Corporation

Legal name

CDW Corporation

Website

https://cdw.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

CDW Corporation is a Fortune 500 multi-brand IT solutions provider aggregating hardware, software, and managed services from 1,000+ vendors for over 250,000 customers — including 90% of Fortune 1000 — across Commercial, Government, Education, Healthcare, and SMB segments in the US, UK, and Canada.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Vernon Hills

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Hardware resale: Resale of hardware (servers, storage, networking, laptops, desktops, peripherals) representing 71.6% of 2025 total revenue; largely transactional/shippable product sales with low gross margins (~5-7%).
2. Software resale and licensing: Resale of third-party software licenses (Microsoft, Adobe, ServiceNow, etc.) and SaaS subscriptions across the customer base. Software, cloud, and services together contributed approximately 36% of total gross profit in 2025.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion5 records

Core offering

CDW is a multi-brand value-added IT solutions reseller that distributes hardware (servers, storage, networking, laptops, desktops, peripherals), resells third-party software licenses, and delivers professional/managed services spanning cloud, cybersecurity, data center, and AI to enterprise, government, education, and healthcare customers. The offering combines the cdw.com e-commerce and account platform with verticalized sales coverage and dedicated government (CDW-G) and cloud-services (Mission Cloud) divisions.

Product overview

CDW Corporation is a multi-brand Fortune 500 IT solutions aggregator rather than a single unified software product: its offering combines a hardware, software, and networking distribution catalog (Laptops, Desktops, Monitors, Printers, Networking, Software) with the CDW Amplified Services portfolio and dedicated industry divisions. The architecture is platform-plus-modules: the cdw.com commerce and account platform is the unifying layer, onto which the CDW-G (Government) division layers federal-focused services such as the Strategic Application Modernization Assessment (SAMA), while the Mission Cloud subsidiary layers AWS-based cloud and AI services (the Mission Cloud AI Suite). The Geared for Growth AI-First initiative overlays all of these, embedding AI across end-to-end internal and customer-facing processes to deliver $100-200M in run-rate savings by 2027-2028. The combined portfolio reached $22.4 billion in net sales for fiscal 2025 and serves enterprise, government, education, and healthcare customers across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CDW-G (CDW Government): Government-focused IT solutions division serving federal, state, and local government agencies.
• Mission Cloud

Products and services

• CDW IT Solutions Distribution (Hardware, Software, and Services) Core e-commerce and solutions platform offering hardware (laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, networking), software licensing, and end-to-end IT services to enterprise, government, education, and healthcare customers across the US, UK, and Canada. Operates through the cdw.com commerce site, account portals, and a network of 15,000+ coworkers serving over 250,000 customers including 90% of Fortune 1000 companies.
• CDW-G (Government Division) Specialized government division of CDW serving federal, state, and local agencies, providing video and collaboration technology deployments, agentic AI solutions for the public sector, and Strategic Application Modernization Assessment (SAMA) services to help agencies plan cloud migrations.
• Mission Cloud (a CDW company) AWS Premier Tier Services Partner acquired by CDW, providing cloud consulting, managed services, and the Mission Cloud AI Suite (AIM, Quick 5x5x5, AI Landing Zone, Fixed-Fee Chatbot MVP, and Agent-Enabled Chatbot Limited Pilot) on AWS.
• Mission Cloud AI Suite (AIM, Quick 5x5x5, AI Landing Zone, Fixed-Fee Chatbot MVP, Agent-Enabled Chatbot Limited Pilot) Five complementary AI offerings guiding organizations from AI strategy to production-ready software deployment, including AIM, Quick 5x5x5 rapid AI deployment, AI Landing Zone cloud architecture, Fixed-Fee Chatbot MVP, and Agent-Enabled Chatbot Limited Pilot.
• Strategic Application Modernization Assessment (SAMA) Federal-customer service led by chief architect Greg Peters that helps government agencies evaluate application portfolios across 26 dimensions before undertaking cloud migrations or digital transformations, delivering interactive dashboards.
• CDW Amplified Services Suite of value-added IT services including managed services, consulting, deployment, and support that complement CDW's hardware and software distribution; serves enterprise, small business, government, and healthcare customer segments.
• CDW Agentic AI for the Public Sector Agentic AI offerings introduced at Google Cloud Next 2026 and led by CDW-G to bring agentic AI capabilities to federal, state, and local government agencies and contractors.
• CDW Small Business Technology Site Curated e-commerce destination for small business hardware deals, software, services, and digital assistant deployment guidance.
• CDW Authorized Apple Reseller (Apple Premium Business Partner) Hardware Offering Configured and customized Apple hardware (including MacBook Air with M5 chips) sold to enterprise teams through CDW's Apple Premium Business Partner reseller relationship.

Quantifiable outcome

• FY2025 net sales of $22.4 billion (+6.8% YoY); software, cloud, and services now ~36% of total gross profit; non-GAAP diluted EPS of $10.02.
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability13 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and flagship.

• Templar ShieldcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 January 2026Templar Shield and CDW announced a strategic partnership on January 5, 2026, to deliver global risk, security, operational technology, and AI governance solutions on the ServiceNow AI platform. Templar Shield sells and delivers under CDW's global contracting model, combining CDW's worldwide reach with Templar Shield's specialized ServiceNow expertise across integrated risk management, security operations, AI control tower, and operational technology management domains; targets critical infrastructure, utilities, energy, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors with compliance to NERC, IEC 62443, NIS2, NIST and ISO 27001 frameworks.
• Focal Point Data RiskcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 August 2021CDW acquired Focal Point Data Risk on August 2, 2021, expanding CDW's portfolio in data risk management services and security services. Focal Point brought expertise in security consulting and cloud security across regulated industries including government, finance, and healthcare. The acquisition emphasized a cloud-first approach and improved customer data protection.
• StarTech.comminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorStarTech.com validates products in its Innovation Lab and distributes through IT partners including CDW, Amazon, Ingram Micro, TD SYNNEX, and D&H. CDW listed as a distribution partner for StarTech.com's industry-first USB4 Universal Docking Station.
• IBMcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCDW mentioned as a supporting partner for IBM Z and IBM Power hybrid infrastructure implementations, offering assessment, design, orchestration, and managed services. Customers such as the Australian Tax Office upgrade to IBM z17 via this partnership.
• WorkdaycoreTechnology or IntegrationCDW upgraded its Enterprise Resource Planning system by implementing Workday's cloud platform, replacing manual legacy finance processes with a scalable cloud ERP foundation and positioning itself to leverage Workday's advancing AI capabilities to further enhance its finance function.
• DeloittecoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerDeloitte served as implementation partner for CDW's Workday cloud ERP transformation. The transformation reduced manual data extraction and increased automation across finance operations for the Fortune 500 IT solutions provider.
• Mission Cloud (a CDW company, AWS Premier Tier Services Partner)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerMission Cloud is a wholly-owned CDW company and AWS Premier Tier Services Partner. Mission Cloud launched a five-product AI Suite (AIM, Quick 5x5x5, AI Landing Zone, Fixed-Fee Chatbot MVP, Agent-Enabled Chatbot Limited Pilot) to guide organizations from AI strategy to production-ready deployment, addressing the gap where only 29% of organizations see significant ROI from generative AI.
• EnquizitcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCDW Corporation announced the acquisition of Enquizit (announced June 6, 2023). Enquizit is described as a major distribution acquisition expanding CDW's cloud and managed services capabilities in the US market.
• Horizon3.aiminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCDW participates as a partner in Horizon3.ai's Global Partner Conference: Americas, alongside NCC Group, Optiv, Thrive, and Sentinel Technologies. Horizon3.ai reported 102% YoY ARR growth and 32% of Q4 bookings sourced through the channel.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)coreTechnology or IntegrationCDW hired Hang Tan from HPE (former Chief Operating Officer of Hybrid Cloud, previously Chief Strategy Officer) on April 23, 2026, as Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer. CDW also delivers HPE ProLiant servers to enterprise customers via its distribution channel.
• Apple (Authorized Reseller)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCDW is an Apple Authorized Reseller (Apple Premium Business Partner) selling configured and customized MacBook Air with M5 chips and other Apple products to enterprise teams.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• DXC Technology: Global IT services and infrastructure provider serving enterprise and public sector with managed services, cloud, and modernization. Overlaps with CDW's higher-margin services and government transformation offerings.
• Accenture: Global consulting and services giant increasingly competing with CDW's higher-margin services and AI/cloud practice work. Adjacent rather than direct given its services-led model, but overlaps on enterprise transformation deals.
• Ingram Micro: World's largest IT distributor after its 2024 take-private. Operates a broader global distribution platform with deeper logistics capabilities but less verticalized solutions selling than CDW.
• Dell Technologies: Major OEM for hardware that CDW distributes at scale. Competes with CDW when Dell sells direct to large enterprise and public sector buyers, but is also a core channel partner in CDW's catalog.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE): Primary OEM supplier and partner to CDW (HPE ProLiant servers, hybrid cloud). Competes indirectly when HPE delivers direct enterprise infrastructure deals but is also a major distribution partner; Hang Tan joined CDW from HPE in 2026.

Direct peers

• SHI International: Large privately held IT solutions provider offering hardware, software, and services to enterprise, public sector, and education buyers. Closely comparable to CDW in vendor breadth, vertical coverage, and contract-scale procurement.
• Insight Enterprises: Public Fortune 500 value-added IT reseller and solutions integrator with a similar mix of hardware, software, and services across enterprise, government, and education customers. Most direct competitor to CDW in North America VAR/solutions distribution.
• Connection (PC Connection): Public mid-market-focused IT solutions provider serving enterprise, public sector, and SMB with a similar multi-vendor catalog and managed services model. Smaller-scale but directly comparable business model.
• TD SYNNEX: Public global IT distributor and solutions aggregator combining the former Tech Data and SYNNEX. Competes directly with CDW in distribution of hardware and software, with comparable vendor partner ecosystems.

Regional players

• Computacenter: UK-listed enterprise IT infrastructure provider with strong European presence and growing North American footprint. Comparable in enterprise infrastructure and managed services but primarily operates outside CDW's core US market.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CDWCorp
• Facebookfacebook.com/CDWCorporation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cdw

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A11 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CDW Corporation