5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending July 1

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Microsoft for naming industry veteran Gavriella Schuster to be its new global channel chief in a move applauded by partners.

Also making the list were Cisco for its move to acquire cloud security company CloudLock, solution provider Carousel Industries for its acquisition of Source Inc. in a move that expands it presence in the Avaya market, Atlassian for stepping up its partner recruiting efforts, and RingCentral for its Avant Communications and Google partnerships that accelerate its push into the enterprise computing market.

Not everyone in the IT industry was making smart moves this week, of course. For a rundown of companies that were unfortunate, unsuccessful or just didn't make good decisions, check out this week's 5 Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

Microsoft Names 21-Year Veteran As Global Channel Chief

Microsoft this week named 21-year company veteran Gavriella Schuster to be its new global channel chief, a move that brought applause from the software giant's channel partners.

Schuster has been serving in the post on an interim basis since Phil Sorgen stepped out of the role in May.

The appointment comes at a critical time, just two weeks before Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto. It also comes as thousands of Microsoft partners work to transition to a cloud solutions business model and tackle the massive Windows 10 upgrade cycle – and can use all the help they can get from the software vendor.

Cisco Moves To Buy Cloud Security Company CloudLock For $293 Million

Cisco has been aggressively adding to its security technology portfolio in the past year and this week the company struck a deal to acquire cloud-based security specialist CloudLock for $293 million.

This marks Cisco's fourth security vendor acquisition in 12 months. Along with providing Cisco and its partners with an expanded security product portfolio, the company said buying CloudLock would help channel partners accelerate cloud adoption for their customers.

Carousel Snaps Up UC-Focused Source Inc.

Speaking of companies on an acquisition roll, solution provider Carousel Industries this week said it acquired Source Inc., a Dallas-based solution provider and Avaya dealer. The acquisition expands Carousel's asset management, warehouse, and inventory logistics solution and service offerings.

The Source acquisition comes on the heels of Carousel's recent news that it had agreed to buy fellow Rhode Island solution provider Atrion in a move that expands its nascent Cisco practice.

SaaS Vendor Atlassian Steps Up Partner Recruiting

Atlassian, a provider of workplace collaboration software that's popular with developers, is looking to expand its already considerable global reach by expanding the ranks of its channel partners.

The Sydney-based vendor has launched a campaign to recruit new channel partners focused on selling to IT departments and marketing teams within companies, Jose Morales, Atlassian's global field operations chief, told CRN in an interview.

Atlassian's current 470 partners, most of them boutique consulting firms, already play a big role worldwide in reaching customers for the vendor.

RingCentral Continues Enterprise Charge With Google, Avant Partnerships

RingCentral is continuing its aggressive push into the enterprise computing arena through new partnerships with Avant Communications and Google, with plans to ramp up enterprise sales through the channel, the company told CRN exclusively this week.

The cloud-based unified communications specialist struck a premier master agent partnership with Avant, a Chicago-based UC and cloud services provider – the third master agent partnership RingCentral has formed in 2016 under new channel chief Zane Long.

Through the partnership with Google, RingCentral is targeting midsize to large businesses that are transitioning to the cloud with the new RingCentral Office Google Edition.