5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending May 26

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is HP Inc., which reported growth in both its PC and printer product sales.

Also making the list are security solution providers, for helping businesses get ready for new data management and privacy regulations; Tanium, for landing an impressive $100 million in financing; Red Hat, for an acquisition that strengthens its competitive position in the container technology arena; and Rapid7, for launching a new channel program that provides partners with more service opportunities.

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 Five Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

HP Inc. Reports PC And Printer Sales Growth In Q2

It's no secret that times have been tough for PC and printer manufacturers in recent years. So HP Inc., the company created in 2015 from the split of Hewlett-Packard, wins kudos this week for reporting increased sales of both personal systems and printers in the vendor's second fiscal quarter, which ended April 30.

The report marked the first time the company had seen both printer (up 2 percent) and PC (up 10 percent) sales growth in the same quarter.

CEO Dion Weisler (pictured) attributed the results to HP's "out-executing" its competitors. He cited the security capabilities of the company's products and its "everything as a service" offerings as significant competitive differentiators.

Security Solution Providers Helping Customers Prepare For GDPR Regulations

The countdown has begun until the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) kicks in, and solution providers are already on the job helping their customers get ready for the new privacy requirements and regulations governing the collection and management of data on citizens within the European Union.

The regulations take effect in one year, on May 25, 2018, and solution providers are warning that companies that haven't started planning to meet the requirements have a problem.

Security-focused solution providers such as Optiv Security of Denver and Kudelski Security of Switzerland are already stepping up and helping clients prepare for the deadline – proving once again the value the channel can bring to customers.

Tanium Lands $100 Million In New Funding

Tanium has been working through some difficult times lately, including the sudden departure of its CFO in March and reports of an extremely challenged company culture.

This week, the security technology startup got a boost when it landed $100 million in new financing, bringing its total funding to $362 million to date and raising its market valuation to $3.75 billion.

The company is widely expected to go public in the near future.

Red Hat To Acquire Cloud And Container Specialist Codenvy

Open-source software vendor Red Hat made a big move this week to secure a dominant position in the burgeoning container technology space by striking a deal to acquire a startup specializing in helping developers with building container-based applications.

Red Hat said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire San Francisco-based Codenvy, a provider of tools for developing applications that are both container-based and cloud-native.

Red Hat is making a significant push to lead in the container technology arena. Earlier this month, at its Red Hat Summit conference, the company debuted new container-related products, and executives said Red Hat had enabled more production deployments of containers than any other vendor.

Rapid7 Launches New Partner Program, Puts Services Play Front And Center

Recognizing that services are the foundation of most solution providers' businesses, Rapid7 launched a new partner program this week that adds more service opportunities for channel partners.

The new Rapid7 PACT (Partnering with Accountability, Consistency and Transparency) program helps partners deliver professional, deployment and training services around the vendor's security products. It also provides partners with new tools, free virtual training and certifications, and success metrics.

Rapid7 also wins credit for using the new program to fix things in the company's older channel program that weren't working, including defining the parameters of how the vendor works with partners.