5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Dec. 1, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel including AWS, Cognizant, Avaya, Ivanti and Sophos.

The Week Ending Dec. 2

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Amazon Web Services, which unveiled a wave of new cloud services and Marketplace capabilities this week at its huge re:Invent 2022 event.

Also making this week’s list is Cognizant for a savvy acquisition that brings digital transformation expertise to the systems integration giant. Unified communications company Avaya is here for providing partners and customers with a new product road map, as are Sophos for debuting its next-generation MDR security technology and Ivanti for its new channel management hires.

AWS Introduces New Products, Services And Marketplace Capabilities At re:Invent

Amazon Web Services used its high-profile re:Invent 2022 conference this week as the launch pad for a wave of new cloud products and services for the cloud giant’s legions of customers and partners.

Topping the list of new products was AWS Supply Chain, a cloud-based application that provides managers with a unified view of their supply chains, helping them mitigate risks, lower costs and improve supply chain resilience.

Also making their debut were Amazon OpenSearch Serverless, a new serverless option for the Amazon OpenSearch Service; Amazon Security Lake for collecting, aggregating and centralizing security data; and AWS Aurora support for zero-ETL integration with Amazon Redshift.

AWS’s new Amazon DataZone is a data management service for cataloging, discovering, sharing and governing data stored across AWS, on-premises and third-party sources. Also unveiled were Amazon EC2 Hpc6id instances for high-performance computing, the AWS SimSpace Weaver for deploying large-scale spatial simulations in the cloud, and Amazon Redshift integration for Apache Spark.

At re:Invent 2022 AWS also introduced a number of new capabilities into the AWS Marketplace including Amazon EKS integration with the Marketplace, new Amazon QuickSight data visualization dashboards for AWS Marketplace, an AWS Marketplace Vendor Insights dashboard, AWS Data Exchange for AWS Lake Formation and AWS Data Exchange for Amazon S3.

Cognizant To Acquire AustinCSI In Digital Transformation Play

Global IT solution provider Cognizant Technology Solutions unveiled a deal this week to acquire digital transformation consulting company AustinCSI in a move to boost Cognizant’s capabilities to help customers with their digital strategies.

AustinCIS, based in Plano, Texas, provides a broad range of services spanning cloud strategy and modernization, data-focused business intelligence and analytics, product strategies and management, automation including artificial intelligence and machine learning, and compliance and governance. The solution provider has operations across 10 states.

Cognizant expects AustinCSI’s enterprise cloud and data analytics expertise to help the company expand its consulting practice and advisory services related to customers’ digital transformation strategies and industry-specific solutions. The acquisition is also expected to help Cognizant expand its capabilities in data and artificial intelligence, cloud, digital engineering and IoT.

Revamped Avaya Road Map Orbits Around Cloud, Experience Platform

Unified communications giant Avaya wins kudos this week for providing customers and partners with an updated product road map that reflects the company’s plan to pave the way for its massive installed base to migrate to the cloud or add cloud solutions that won’t disrupt communications infrastructure that’s already in place.

As part of the road map Avaya is putting a lot of emphasis on its omnichannel Avaya Experience platform, the centerpiece of the company’s cloud strategy, that addresses the market demand for all-in-one Contact Center as-a-Service solutions while balancing the needs of customers with installed legacy technology.

The Avaya plan calls for analyzing data collected by the Avaya Experience platform and turning it into actionable information for partners, helping them work with customers to migrate to cloud systems with as little disruption as possible.

Ivanti Hires Former GitLab Executive Hodges As Its New Channel Chief

IT asset management and security technology provider Ivanti made a big move to beef up its channel management ranks this week, including hiring former GitLab channel executive Michelle Hodges to be the company’s new channel chief.

Hodges joins Ivanti as senior vice president, global channels and alliances. She previously worked at DevOps platform company GitLab for three years as vice president of worldwide channels. Her background includes channel management positions at Gigamon, Riverbed Technology, Intel, VMware, SAP/Business Objects and Microsoft, according to her LinkedIn page.

Ivanti has also hired John Beuchert as vice president, global partner programs and strategy. Most recently he was global head of partner programs and operations for Freshworks and has held channel management jobs with Citrix Systems, CA, Veritas and Symantec.

Hodges and Beuchert are charged with building a more connected partner ecosystem that integrates Invanti’s core partner program with a number of other OEM, technology and channel partner programs the company has following a number of acquisitions.

Sophos Says New MDR Offering Ushers In New Era Of “Cybersecurity As A Service”

Sophos this week launched a new managed detection and response cybersecurity service that CEO Kris Hagerman (pictured) described as a major step forward for the company and for the cybersecurity industry at large.

The new Sophos Managed Detection and Response service, generally available starting this week, integrates telemetry from third-party vendors including Sophos competitors such as CrowdStrike, Microsoft and SentinelOne. That capability provides security operations teams with expanded visibility into an organization’s security stance.

Sophos channel partners said the new offering is a game-changer for customers and solution providers. Sophos already provides its Sophos Managed Threat Response service, but that works exclusively with its own products.