5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending May 6, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending May 6

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Dell Technologies, which used this week’s in-person Dell Technologies World as the launchpad for a number of new products, services and strategic alliances.

Also making this week’s list are Intel for a strategic acquisition in the GPU graphics technology space, AMD for debuting its new Ryzen processors for the Chromebook market, Apple device management tech developer Mosyle for an impressive funding round, and D&H Distributing for creating of a new Everything-as-a-Service business unit.

Dell Focuses On Multi-Cloud Vision, Partners and Developers

PC and IT infrastructure giant Dell Technologies this week held its first in-person Dell Technologies World conference in several years and it used the event to unveil new Apex data storage services, new data recovery solutions for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and a strategic alliance with data cloud giant Snowflake.

CEO Michael Dell, in his keynote speech, emphasized his goal to make Dell Technologies a more developer friendly company by making all the company’s solutions “API-driven and developer ready” and making the company’s huge IT infrastructure more “programmable.”

Some of the most significant product announcements at the event revolved around Dell Technologies’ Apex as-a-service line including new Apex Cyber Recovery Services. The company also debuted Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for both AWS and Azure.

Dell Technologies also beefed up its PowerStore, PowerMax and PowerFlex storage product lines with some 500 software enhancements that expand their capabilities in storage automation, data mobility, business intelligence and security.

Dell also unveiled a collaborative partnership with Snowflake that connects Dell EMC enterprise storage systems with the Snowflake Data Cloud, a move Dell Technologies said would give customers greater flexibility when operating in multi-cloud environments, meet data sovereignty requirements and more easily turn data into insights.

Intel Beefs Up GPU Capabilities With Siru Innovations Acquisition

With competition among the major semiconductor makers heating up in the GPU space, Intel this week looked to expand its GPU capabilities with the acquisition of Siru Innovations, a Finland-based developer of graphics intellectual property and software services.

With the acquisition Intel gains critical GPU talent with expertise in graphics IP covering architecture, software, modeling and hardware implementation.

The strategic acquisition is expected to provide a boost to Intel’s Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) Group and have a wide-ranging impact on Intel’s growing graphics business.

The addition of Siru Innovations will help Intel support its customers in such areas as MaaS/ADAS (mobility-as-a-service/advanced drive assistance systems), gaming and hyperscale computing – all expected to be future high-growth markets.

AMD Launches New Ryzen 5000 Series To Power next-Generation Chromebooks

AMD unveiled its Ryzen 5000 C-series processors this week targeted toward the higher end of the Chromebook segment. The four new chips, based on the Zen 3 architecture, offer up to 67 percent faster responsiveness and up to 85 percent better graphics performance than earlier generations of the chips.

The launch comes as the market is still hungry for powerful Chromebook laptops for hybrid home-office work.

The processors are already being built into new devices from Acer, Google and HP Inc.

Apple Device Management Firm Mosyle Raises $196 Million To Boost 5-In-1 Platform

Mobile device management technology developer Mosyle raised an impressive $196 million in Series B funding this week, money the Winter Park, Fla.-based company will use to expand its sales and marketing efforts – including growing its channel program – around its just-launched Apple Unified Platform.

The funding provides Mosyle with high-visibility and financial resources to compete in the Apple MDM space, which includes such players as Jamf, Addigy and Kandji. Apple recently announced that it was no longer supporting its own Fleetsmith MDM software, leaving the market open to these other companies.

The Apple Unified Platform combines enhanced device management, endpoint security, internet privacy/security, identity management and application management in one package.

Mosyle said the funding will allow it to develop a partner ecosystem around the Apple Unified Platform, as well as continue to develop new solutions and functionality to extend its capabilities.

D&H Creates New Business Unit To Accelerate Everything-As-A Service Sales

D&H Distributing wins kudos this week for ripping up the old distribution go-to-market playbook and launching the Modern Solutions Business Unit, a 125-person operation that will take a multi-vendor approach to assembling everything-as-a-service solutions for channel partners.

The new business unit includes four groups: modern infrastructure, modern security, modern collaboration and modern applications. The unit includes a team of data center solution experts focused on cloud, hybrid, managed services and everything-as-a-service technologies.

D&H is investing more than $5 million in new roles in creating the new unit, a move that D&H Co-President Dan Schwab said is the biggest restructuring ever in the distributor’s go-to-market efforts. Until now the 105-year-old distributor has operated with a single-vendor practice structure with dedicated vendor sales specialists.

D&H says the new business unit will make it easier for partners to design, sell and manage solutions based on hybrid, consumption and as-a-service delivery models. That will drive recurring revenue, higher margins and higher business valuations for partners.