5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Jan. 7, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending Jan. 14

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Google Cloud for its plans to allow reseller partners to sell third-party solutions through the Google Cloud Marketplace.

Also making this week’s list are Dell Technologies for taking the lead in PC shipments in the U.S. in the 2021 fourth quarter, a strategic acquisition by chipmaker Nvidia in the high-performance computing space, Converge Technology Solutions for the latest of its string of acquisitions, and MSP Datto for a savvy marketing executive hire.

Google Cloud Marketplace Gives Resellers A Green Light To Sell ISV Solutions

Google Cloud wins applause this week for its plans to allow reseller partners to sell software from third-party independent software vendors (ISVs) through the Google Cloud Marketplace, a practice that’s currently not allowed under the marketplace’s terms of service.

Google will roll out a new program by midyear to facilitate resellers’ ability to take third-party solutions to market via the marketplace, Google executives told CRN. Reseller partners already have this ability with the cloud marketplaces operated by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

The announcement comes as Google is already making significant investments in its marketplace functionality with new technical resources that will help ISVs more quickly distribute their applications and solutions.

Google Cloud also wins kudos for combining its ecosystem and channel sales teams into a single partner organization to streamline its go-to-market abilities as it pledges to double spending on partners – including partner incentives – over the next two to three years.

Dell Overthrows HP As PC Market Share Leader In U.S.

Dell Technologies became the PC shipment market leader in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to data released this week by market researcher Gartner.

Dell overtook rival HP Inc. in the fourth quarter with 5.89 million PC shipments in the U.S., giving it a 28.5 percent market share. While the number of shipments was down 13 percent year over year (with supply chain issues and component shortages to blame), it was still good enough to boost its market share from 24.8 percent one year earlier.

For the first time in its history Dell shipped more than 17 million PC units globally during the fourth quarter, led by strong performances in Latin America, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

HP, meanwhile, shipped 5.36 million PCs in the fourth quarter, down nearly 35 percent from one year before. That dropped the company’s U.S. market share to 25.9 percent from 30.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Nvidia Makes HPC Play With Bright Computing Acquisition

Nvidia made a big bet on the high-performance computing market this week with the acquisition of Bright Computing, a developer of software for managing HPC systems.

Bright Computing, which has been an Nvidia software partner for years, currently has more than 700 customers who are using its software to manage large-scale HPC clusters. But there is a growing need for HPC technology in the wider enterprise market and Nvidia has the scale to bring Bright Computing’s technology to that wider audience.

The acquisition is a boost for Nvidia, which is facing opposition from government regulators to its proposed $40 billion acquisition of chip maker Arm.

Converge Technology Solutions Continues Acquisition Spree

Staying with the topic of acquisitions, Converge Technology Solutions acquired PDS Holding Company this week marking the fast-growing solution provider’s 26th acquisition since late 2017.

PDS owns Paragon Development Systems, a Brookfield, Wis.-based solution provider that specializes in managed services, digital workplace platforms and enterprise solutions that include cloud, remote work, security, servers and infrastructure.

PDS also brings to Converge Technology Solutions its expertise in the healthcare space and a presence across Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Converge Technology Solutions, currently No. 39 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list, was launched with a plan to acquire dozens of smaller North American solution providers into a single organization. In 2021 the company’s acquisitions – including four in the span of just 30 days – included data analytics firm LPA Software Solutions, managed IT services provider ExactlyIT, HPE channel partner Dasher Technologies, systems integrator

Accudata Systems, and multi-cloud infrastructure and services provider Vicom Computer Services.

Datto Hires Channel Veteran Cunningham As New CMO

Datto this week hired channel marketing veteran Brooke Cunningham as the MSP and data protection service provider’s new chief marketing officer.

Cunningham joins Datto from Splunk where she spent five years in partner marketing, most recently as area vice president of global partner marketing and experience where her duties included managing the nuts and bolts of the company’s partner program and partner portal.

Prior to Splunk Cunningham worked at business analytics software develop Qlik, including serving as vice president of global partner marketing. Before that she worked at CA technologies and SAP.

Cunningham is on CRN’s annual Channel Chiefs and Women of the Channel lists.