Five Companies That Came To Win This Week

VMware Set To Usher In The Post-vRAM Era

VMware is scrapping its controversial vRAM pricing scheme, which imposed limits on how much memory customers could configure to virtual machines, and it's going back to its previous CPU-based licensing model.

VMware is holding off until VMworld to announce its plan, but the reactions within the company's user community has been positive and enthusiastic.

VMware will now focus on positioning the various component parts of its cloud computing stack as a suite, an approach that partners say could help drive adoption of non-vSphere products.

Apple Beats Microsoft's Market Cap Record, Shares Hit All-Time High

Apple's market capitalization hit a record $623 billion, surpassing Microsoft's previous record high of $620.58 billion in December 1999. IBM still holds the market cap record when its 1960s valuation is adjusted for inflation, but Apple seems to have plenty of gas left in the tank as it gallops toward becoming the first company to hit the $1 trillion mark.

Dell Brings In Ex-HP Networking Exec To Help With Enterprise Push

Marius Haas, former head of Hewlett-Packard's Networking unit, is headed to Dell to take the role of president of Enterprise Solutions.

Haas is well known in the industry for the three years he spent as senior vice president and worldwide general manager for HP Networking, and before that, his stint as senior vice president, chief strategy officer and global head of corporate M&A for HP from 2003 to 2008.

Haas was most recently at private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co., which he joined last year. He has been helping the KKR team identify and pursue new investments in the technology sector. Haas will lead Dell's enterprise push, focused on its data center, storage, servers, networking and security segments.

Huawei's Enterprise Channel Momentum Kicks Into Higher Gear

Huawei's U.S. Enterprise Group is helping channel partners make inroads in the networking, infrastructure and storage segments. Rob Claus, vice president of U.S. channel sales and marketing, said Huawei will soon start to reveal not only its initial partners and distributors but also customers.

"We're quoting projects, we've got forecasts and we're pretty happy," Claus said in an exclusive interview with CRN at XChange 2012 in Dallas this week. "We're above our plan. We're ahead of where we thought we would be by now. It's full steam."

Samsung Investing $4 Billion More In Mobile Chips

Samsung is spending $4 billion to expand and renovate its semiconductor manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas. The remodeled facility, expected to begin operations in the second half of 2013, will make 28-nm system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for tablets and smartphones.

"We are extremely pleased to extend our presence in Austin and reinforce Samsung's capacity for highly advanced logic products," Woosung Han, president of Samsung Austin Semiconductor, said in a statement. "The added ability in production will allow our customers to better respond to market needs."