5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending July 1, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending July 1

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which launched a number of groundbreaking additions and extensions to its GreenLake as-a-service platform and debuted its Partner Ready Vantage Everything-as-a-Service channel program.

Also making this week’s list are Dell Technologies’ channel partners for their standout performance over the last year. Observability platform developer New Relic and power management technology provider Schneider Electric both win kudos for major upgrades of their channel programs. And Nitel makes the list for a strategic acquisition that will spur the network as a service provider’s growth.

HPE Launches Major GreenLake Expansions, New Everything-As-A-Service Channel Program At Discover

Hewlett Packard Enterprise rolled out a number of new cloud services at its HPE Discover Partner Growth Summit this week that significantly expand the company’s GreenLake edge to cloud service platform.

Topping the list is the new HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Enterprise that uses increased automation and scalability to simplify the process for enterprise customers for provisioning and deploying an on-premises private cloud.

The new HPE GreenLake for Backup and Recovery offering for Amazon Web Services extends GreenLake backup and recovery support for virtual machines to support AWS workloads with a single management console. A new GreenLake developer portal and development tools make it easier for developers to access APIs and build applications on GreenLake. And a new Integrated Quoter tool will help partners more quickly create complex, custom GreenLake cloud service price quotes.

HPE also announced that Red Hat will begin providing a pay-per-use, on-premises edition of its OpenShift Kubernetes container platform on HPE GreenLake.

Also high on the Discover agenda was the debut of HPE Partner Ready Vantage, the company’s new unified Everything-as-a-Service channel program for partners – from influencers and traditional partners to ISVs and born-in-the-cloud service providers. The program, to be rolled out in phases over the next three years, also unites the HPE and Aruba product portfolios in a single cloud channel program.

Dell Partners Deliver $60B In Last Four Quarters

Hats off to Dell Technologies’ channel partners who delivered a record $60 billion in orders in Dell’s last four quarters. Those orders include a 23 percent increase in sales of server solutions in the most recent quarter and an 8 percent increase in storage system sales.

The company’s global channel grew 7 percent year over year in the quarter and Dell’s rebate payout to partners increased 13 percent.

The gains come as Dell and its partners wrestle with a shift in customer buying patterns from purchasing core infrastructure to a focus on business outcomes, said Cheryl Cook, Dell senior vice president of global partner marketing.

Partners are also helping their customers by creating solutions that help them move, process and secure workloads in an increasingly multi-cloud world, according to Cook.

New Relic Launches Expanded Partner Program To Accelerate Observability Market Push

New Relic launched a significant revamp of its channel partner operations this week, debuting a new partner program with increased resources to support the observability software developer’s increasingly broad range of channel partners.

The New Relic Partner Stack program, which replaces the older New Relic Partner Network, will provide partners with an expanded lineup of training and accreditation programs, sales tools and resources, marketing campaigns and additional personnel support.

The goal is to help partners expand beyond reselling to providing services around New Relic software and “become thought leaders in this space of observability,” said Riya Shanmugam, group vice president, global alliances and channels at New Relic.

The new program offers a range of benefits including co-marketing opportunities, co-branding assets, use-case development, deal registration, margin and renewal discounts, sales tools and training, product trials, technical support and resources, observability campaigns, and support from partner development managers and partner engineers, according to the company.

New Relic is also working with technology and developer partners who build products around the company’s platform, providing access to development sandboxes and demonstration environments. And the company is offering customized training, where appropriate, and providing partner accreditations around technical, sales and service capabilities.

Schneider Electric Revamps Partner Program With More Rewards For Partners

New Relic wasn’t the only company launching a rejuvenated partner program this week. IT power management vendor Schneider Electric debuted a completely restructured partner program with new partner categories that the company says provide more partners with the benefits of high-ranking tiers.

The new program categorizes partners as IT solution providers, data center providers, and software and services providers. The move, according to the company, creates more opportunities for partners that are focused on services that could have gone unrecognized under the old program due to lower sales volumes.

The new program creates a way for Schneider Electric to help its existing partners better understand the potential opportunities provided by other lines of business.

The program also provides more perks for engineers and support staff at Schneider Electric partners.

Nitel Acquires Hypercore, Its First Deal Following Private Equity Investment

Nitel, a provider of network as a service technology to solution providers, acquired fellow technology developer Hypercore Networks this week in a bid to grow the company.

The acquisition is the first for Nitel since it was itself acquired in December by U.K.-based private equity firm Cinven. Chicago-based Nitel provides network as a service capabilities, including managed routing, software-defined networking and layered security, via channel partners and solution architects.

Hypercore, based in Garland, Texas, provides business-focused connectivity and telecom technologies, including voice and expanded software-defined networking technologies, and operates a multilingual operating center in Costa Rica.

Until now Nitel has focused on organic growth, but the Hypercore acquisition signals that the company will look to acquisitions to accelerate that growth, especially outside of North America.

CEO Margi Shaw told CRN that Nitel is also looking to expand its strategic capabilities, particularly in security, through acquisitions.