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Good news is in great supply. Many large, public vendors are touting strong growth and record earnings in their quarterly and end-of-year reports. And many smaller, private companies are reporting record growth in the number of new customers, partners and revenues.

The difference between the two types of reports is that public companies actually disclose real numbers, while private companies often opt to reflect their growth through percentages and ratios. Case in point: the recent announcements of FireMon, Axcient, WatchGuard and GFI Max.

FireMon, the firewall management vendor spun-off from security integrator FishNet Security, reported 50 percent year-over-year sales growth in 2011 that propelled it to profitability. It also reported a “dramatic” growth in new customers.

Axcient, a backup and disaster recovery service provider to the managed services market, reported a 400 percent monthly recurring revenue increase, a 10-time increase in data stored and a doubling of reseller partners in North America.

“Axcient began with a mission to protect SMBs from data loss and business downtime by offering the most reliable and complete solution in the market. We are now realizing that vision, with incredible growth on every front,” said Justin Moore, CEO of Axcient.

WatchGuard, the unified threat management and security appliance vendor, announced double-digit increases in billings for 2011, and substantial sales growth in several international markets, including a 78 percent jump in U.K. business.

“The demand for multifunction, easy-to-use and affordable network security is at an all-time high,” said Joe Wang, CEO of WatchGuard. “Although security breach headlines drive awareness, it is the demand for next-generation UTM features, such as WatchGuard’s Application Control, that really cause businesses to switch from their old networking firewalls to state-of-the-art WatchGuard solutions.”

And GFI Max, a hosted managed services provider, announced its channel ranks have grown to more than 5,000 MSP partners worldwide that support more than 65,000 networks globally.

Without doubt, each of these companies is enjoying substantial growth and continuing momentum in their respective segments. The positive news and impressive growth numbers – even in the absence of base numbers for performance measurement – are good indicators for solution providers looking to pair up with a vendor. These reports show the market is accepting of these vendors technologies, and there’s room for growth going forward. The short script: There’s opportunities with short sales cycles, which equals profitability.

However, vendors’ positive growth reports should be looked at with a jaundice eye, and not just because the real numbers are obscured. Solution providers – whether already partnered with a vendor or are looking to form a relationship – should worry about over-distribution in channel programs. Hearing that a vendor has double-digit partner growth may indicate a low partnership opportunity even when the market is still growing.

Numbers like these aren’t what solution providers should focus on when looking at a vendor. Rather, they should look at the operational qualities of the products and relationship with the vendor. Ask these questions:

• What can you do with a vendor’s technology within the context of your business model to create a competitive solution?
• How can a vendor help you differentiate from your competition?
• Does the vendor have a defined partner program and a history of consistency in dealing with reseller?
• Does the vendor have the capacity to support your business if you choose to partner with them?

Numbers are important. Growth is important. Solid technologies and products are important. More often, though, it’s the business relationship and market potential of a solution provider’s business that trumps even impressive vendor growth numbers.

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