Michael Krasny’s first useful advertisement was three lines long and cost $3. He wanted to sell his used IBM computer. The sale helped suggest a business: other people might need a better way to buy these machines, too. CDW, founded in 1984, grew out of that opportunity. But the interesting thing about a computer sale is what the receipt leaves out. Someone still has to set up the machine, connect it, protect it and answer the inevitable question: why won’t this thing talk to that thing?
- CDW combines technology purchasing with the people who make it work.
- Its customers include businesses, schools, hospitals and government agencies.
- Acquisitions have added engineering, cloud and data expertise.
- The buyer’s test: price the whole project, including the handoffs.
A catalog with a second job
The clue appears early. In 1987, CDW published its first catalog. That same year, it began helping customers set up their computers and hiring people with technical expertise. Distribution and assistance were growing together. The catalog could describe the product; a person could explain what to do with it.
That distinction still organizes the business. CDW sells hardware and software from multiple manufacturers, then offers advice, deployment and ongoing management. An organization can buy notebooks, commission a cloud migration or ask for help securing an existing environment. The practical attraction is having purchasing and implementation within reach of the same relationship.
Its expertise sits in the joins: moving applications between environments, protecting identities, managing devices and making infrastructure fit the workload. Those assignments ask different questions from a product comparison. Can the team use it? Can the organization support it? Does it satisfy the rules that govern the customer?
The audience is institutional. A school needs classroom devices. A hospital needs dependable systems. A business needs employees connected without opening unnecessary security holes. CDW operates primarily in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Its published customer count is approximately 250,000.
Buying the people behind the products
Building that capability required more than thickening a catalog. CDW bought Berbee in 2006, expanding its engineering and managed services expertise. In 2021, it announced a $2.5 billion cash deal for Sirius Computer Solutions. Sirius brought 2,600 coworkers and capabilities spanning hybrid infrastructure, security, cloud and data.
The announcement offered a revealing calculation: together, the companies would have had about $1.3 billion in annual services sales on a 2020 basis, roughly 45% more than CDW alone. The purchased asset was partly a larger supply of people qualified to untangle difficult installations.
Hardware remains central. In 2025, it accounted for 71.6% of reported net sales. Calling CDW a consulting company would miss the boxes. Calling it a box seller would miss why it keeps buying specialists.
Annual net sales
The workshop that had to stop
A CDW case study published in July 2026 makes the work tangible. A medical-technology business unit commissioned a five-to-seven-week data workshop. Discovery uncovered a problem: corporate access rules prevented the proposed approach. The unit chose to migrate to Snowflake, and CDW redirected the remaining workshop budget into consulting.
The engagement became a project lasting more than two years. Architects and engineers built automated data pipelines and a shared dictionary, replacing fragile processes dependent on particular people. The first thing to give way was the assignment’s assumptions. Discovery changed the plan.
There is a useful habit to copy here: test access and ownership before committing to architecture. Then agree on what the data means. A definition of revenue sounds dull until two departments produce different answers. The case also suggests a limit: outside expertise needs internal access and cooperation to become useful.
A relationship is infrastructure
Chris Leahy, CEO since 2019, has discussed the human side of this machinery. In an Executives’ Club interview, she described thinking about offices as watering holes rather than fences: places where people connect, rather than merely report for attendance. For a company that acquires expertise, the question is practical. Specialists have to know one another well enough to share the work.
That is also how to read CDW’s culture claims. Training, accountability and customer relationships are operating inputs. The promise depends on somebody remembering the environment, asking the awkward question and finding the right colleague.
The invoice is only the beginning
CDW occupies crowded territory. SHI, Insight, World Wide Technology and Presidio offer overlapping alternatives. Manufacturers sell directly; cloud marketplaces simplify purchasing; local integrators may know a particular environment intimately. Breadth is CDW’s argument, but breadth alone does not decide a buyer’s choice.
For a straightforward purchase with capable internal support, another layer of coordination may add little. For a migration involving several vendors, the important comparison is the completed job. Buyers should ask who owns configuration, access permissions, testing, support and recovery, then compare proposals on the same scope.
For vendors, CDW supplies another useful service: a route to customers. Manufacturers gain access to established accounts and technical support for their products. That makes CDW an intermediary serving both sides of a purchase. Buyers should still request the reasoning behind a recommendation, especially when several suitable products compete.
Costs follow that scope. A device has a selling price; a managed environment has continuing obligations. CDW earns money through product sales and services, so buyers should separate the equipment bill from implementation and operating commitments. A cheaper component does not automatically produce a cheaper working system.
Data gets the next cheque
The pattern continued in September 2026, when CDW completed its acquisition of Lovelytics, a data and AI services firm. The announced transaction value was approximately $525 million. Lovelytics added more than 600 people and focused Databricks expertise.
“There is no AI strategy without a data strategy.”Chris Leahy / September 2026
That observation explains the purchase more clearly than another AI promise. Before an organization can rely on a new tool, somebody must make its information usable. The machine changes. The unfinished work around it keeps finding its way back onto CDW’s desk.