Five Companies That Came To Win This Week

Juniper Adds Web Application Security With Mykonos Buy

Juniper added a key piece to its security arsenal this week with its $80 million acquisition of Mykonos, a San Francisco-based developer of Web application security technology. You've heard of intrusion prevention systems? Well, Mykonos makes what it calls "intrusion deception systems," which set up traps to steer hackers from Web applications to dead ends where there is no corporate data.

Given the threat that Web application attacks pose to networks, Mykonos represents a strategically important asset for Juniper, the No. 2 network equipment maker. "With this acquisition, we extend our security portfolio," Nawaf Bitar, senior vice president and general manager for Juniper's Security Business Unit, said Wednesday in the company's blog.

Veeam Adds Hyper-V Support To Virtual Management Product

Veeam Software this week said it will add Hyper-V support to Veeam One, its flagship virtualization management product, in order to be ready for the bump in Hyper-V adoption that is expected to come when Microsoft releases Windows 8.

Veeam One version 6, slated for launch in the second quarter, will offer realtime monitoring and reporting for both VMware and Hyper-V environments, bringing it up to speed with Veeam's Backup and Replication product, which also supports both.

Veeam is positioning its virtualization storage and management offerings in the small end of the market, where its larger vendor partners aren't yet playing. Given that many hosters use Veeam in the services they provide to customers, this strategy is a sound one.

Aruba Steps Up Mobile Device Management Game

Aruba Networks this week launched ClearPass, a set of appliances that target BYOD challenges and put the company in the fast-growing market for mobile device management technology.

ClearPass offers secure provisioning and management capabilities for Android, iOS, Windows and Mac OS X. It also includes automated device provisioning, self-service mobile device network configuration -- that is, cloud-based configuration of a device's 802.1x settings -- device profiling, device risk management and guest access as an all-in-one.

Google Launches Partner Portal, Program Designation

Google this week unveiled a Web portal for channel partners along with a new Premier Partner designation. The portal, called Google Partner Connect, will aggregate sales, marketing, training, product content, tools, deployment and regional home pages for easier access for partners.

"Google Partner Connect is the result of an effort across Google's product and functional teams to deliver a single, global and comprehensive resource to you," Bev Bala, Google global partner programs manager, wrote in a company blog. "Ultimately, we believe GPC will help you reduce friction when conducting business with Google and your customers."

Dimension Data Dives Into Cloud Services With OpSource Assets

Dimension Data this week launched Dimension Data Cloud Services, a set of offerings focused on IT optimization, data center consolidation and technology architecture; integration services for on-premise IT systems; and compute-as-a-service (CaaS) virtual servers and storage in both shared, or public, and dedicated, or private environments.

Dimension Data CEO Jere Brown told CRN this week that OpSource brings a strategically valuable set of technology and services geared to cloud environments. "We think the combination of our experience, history, and our global footprint is going to be a great attraction for our customers," Brown said.