5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending June 13, 2014

This week's roundup of companies that came to win includes a tsunami of innovative products from HP, new mobile offerings from AT&T for its channel partners, Oracle's breakthrough in-memory database technology, Intel's deal to boost wireless device charging and a big financing win by a big data analytics startup.

HP Shows Innovation Prowess At Its Discover Conference

Hewlett-Packard reminded its partners and customers this week at its HP Discover conference (on the corporation's 75th anniversary, no less) that at its heart it's still an innovative, engineering-driven company.

The proof came in a blizzard of new products unveiled at the conference, including the new Apollo 8000 liquid-cooled supercomputer, the OneView Automation Hub software for managing and provisioning HP's Shark converged systems, the new HP Virtual Cloud Networking SDN Application and SDN-enabled switches, and the new HP t520 Flexible Series thin client and t310 all-in-one "zero client" devices.

AT&T Expands Mobility Options For Its Channel Partners

Mobile computing is one of the biggest business opportunities for solution providers. So it was welcome news this week when AT&T added a full line of mobility offerings to its AT&T Partner Exchange Program, including new voice and data plans and a range of new mobile devices that partners can take to market.

The new line is the third product portfolio to be sold through AT&T Partner Exchange, the others being the carrier giant's networking and cloud services. Launched last year, AT&T Partner Exchange is the company's partner program focused exclusively on IT VARs and solution providers. In February, AT&T committed to investing $300 million in the program over the next three years. And so far it's fulfilling that promise.

Oracle Debuts In-Memory Database, Touts Its Speed And Capabilities

Hewlett-Packard wasn't the only company flexing its technology innovation muscles this week. Oracle launched its long-promised in-memory database technology, entering a red-hot market where HP's Vertica, SAP's HANA and a flood of products from database startups already compete.

Yes, Oracle may be late to the party, but the impressive technology reminded everyone that Oracle remains a database powerhouse. Working with the Oracle Database 12c, the new in-memory technology allows each CPU core to scan 2.5 billion rows per second, CEO Larry Ellison (pictured) said, enabling queries and analytics to run between 100 and 1,000 times faster than in the past -- all without making changes to existing applications.

Intel Partnership With WiTricity Gives Wireless Charging A Jolt

Intel and wireless charging pioneer WiTricity inked a deal this week that could get the struggling technology of cord-free charging off the ground and into millions of laptops, tablets and other Intel mobile devices.

The two companies will work the WiTricity Rezence technology, which uses magnetic resonance for short-range wireless charging, into as-yet undisclosed Intel devices. While the potential benefits to the industry are obvious, it could also give Intel a major boost in the mobile device arena.

Startup SiSense Raises $30 Million In Financing, Plans Channel Expansion

Big data analytics startup SiSense lined up $30 million in Series C financing this week. That's impressive, even as big financing for big data has become the norm. But SiSense also wins kudos for its plans to use some of that financing to build a channel program.

SiSense wants to increase its share of the business analytics software market and its executives recognize the value of the channel as a "force multiplier" to accelerate growth. SiSense has been informally working with systems integrators, ISVs and resellers that already account for 25 percent of the company's sales. A formal channel program will boost that even further.