Five Companies That Came To Win This Week

Apple Pushes The Envelope With New iPad Features

Apple's new iPad, unveiled this week with the usual pomp and splendor, features a high-definition retina display and 4G LTE connectivity. The display is the same one Apple introduced with the iPhone 4 and is powered by Apple's new A5X processor, which the company said is twice as fast as the iPad 2 CPU.

Apple also stepped up the post-PC era rhetoric that Steve Jobs often wielded as an effective backhand against Microsoft. Apple CEO Tim Cook used the term several times in his address and called the iPad "the poster child" for the post-PC age.

Intel Unveils Xeon E5-2600 Server Processors

Intel took the wraps off its Xeon E5-2600 series of low-power Sandy Bridge server processors, which support up to eight cores and 768 GB of system memory. Intel said they offer a performance boost of 80 percent compared to the previous-generation Xeon 5600 series, making them ideal for cloud and high performance computing.

According to Intel, the new Xeon E5-2600 series was developed in response to the rapid rise in data center IP traffic and cloud computing adoption.

Huawei Coming On Strong In The Channel

Huawei executives are backing up their vow last fall to do 100 percent of enterprise sales in the U.S. through channel partners. This week at the CeBIT conference in Germany, Huawei unveiled a two-tier global channel program.

Tier-1 resellers are Huawei distributors and VARs that purchase products directly from Huawei and receive support from Huawei. Tier-2 resellers, the group in which Huawei includes its Silver, Gold and Platinum-level partners, add market capabilities and are described by Huawei as "influential" in their specific regions and industry segments.

Huawei is adding training and a certification specific to information and communications technology and has set a goal of certifying 300,000 professionals by 2015.

GreenPages Expands Its Footprint With LogicsOne Buy

GreenPages Technology Solutions, Kittery, Maine, this week expanded its technical and sales capabilities by acquiring Atlanta-based cloud MSP LogicsOne for an undisclosed sum. GreenPages is adding LogicsOne’s storage, virtualization and cloud technology consulting and management capabilities to its already strong set of skills.

"We feel the merger brings together the top consulting, virtualization and cloud expertise in the Northeast with the best in the Southeast," Ron Dupler, CEO of GreenPages, told CRN.

WAN Optimization Startup Exinda Scores $12 Million VC Round

WAN optimization vendor Exinda this week said it has secured $12 million in a Series B venture capital round, in which OpenView Venture Partners and Greenspring Associates participated.

Exinda's WAN optimization, which it calls "performance assurance technology," uses 52 unique user and application attributes to build detailed profiles of users that allow for better optimization. Exinda unveiled a virtual WAN optimization appliance in October and has a channel program focused especially on midmarket customers.