5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending July 9 CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending July

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is cybersecurity vendor Sophos for a key acquisition that will strengthen its portfolio in the Linux arena.

Also making the list this week are cloud service distributor Pax8 for its own acquisition that will expand its European presence; Intel for rehiring one of its star engineers from the past as part of its turnaround efforts; AT&T and Google for launching joint solutions for 5G and edge computing; and Acronis for its new CEO’s vow to double down on the channel.

Sophos Buys Intel-Backed Capsule8 To Bolster Linux Systems Security

Cybersecurity heavyweight Sophos has acquired Capsule8, a developer of runtime visibility, detection and response security technology for Linux production servers and containers, both for on-premises environments and in the cloud.

The savvy acquisition will boost Sophos’ ability to offer advanced security for Linux, which has become the dominant operating system in servers that power business-critical IT production systems and workloads.

Sophos plans to build Capsule8’s technology into its recently launched Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem and its XDR solutions, Intercept X server protection products and Sophos MTR and Rapid Response services.

Pax8 Expands European Presence With Resello Acquisition

Sticking with the subject of strategic acquisitions, born-in-the-cloud distributor Pax8 has acquired Resello, a Netherlands-based cloud services distributor in a move that will enable Pax8 to greatly expand its reach in the European market.

In January Pax8 established an office in the U.K. and that same month also acquired Wirehive, a U.K.-based consulting firm. The acquisition of Resello, a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, will take Pax8’s European expansion efforts to the next level.

Pax8’s U.S.-based MSP partners are also likely to benefit from the Resello purchase by expanding their opportunities to work with multinational customers.

Intel CEO Gelsinger Brings Back Skylake Designer To Lead Design Engineering Group

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (pictured) has rehired one of the key engineers behind Intel’s dual-core and Skylake CPUs, marking the return of yet another company veteran to the chipmaker as part of Gelsinger’s comeback plan.

Shlomit Weiss, a 28-year Intel veteran, was named senior vice president and co-general manager of the Design Engineering Group where she will lead the entire chip development and design process for CPUs in client computers.

Weiss rejoins Intel from Nvidia where she was senior vice president of silicon engineering for data center networking products.

During her earlier time at Intel she won the Intel Achievement Award for developing the company’s game-changing dual-core CPU architecture. She also oversaw the development of Intel’s sixth-generation Core CPUs, code-named Skylake.

AT&T, Google Cloud Reveal 5G, Edge Solutions For Enterprises

AT&T and Google, which launched a joint venture around 5G and edge computing last year, continued to build on that partnership this week with two new co-developed IT offerings for businesses.

The new solutions use AT&T’s on-premises Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) system and the carrier’s Network Edge (ANE) capabilities through LTE, 5G and wireline, as well as Google’ Cloud Edge Compute portfolio.

One solution, MEC with Google Cloud, is a fully managed offering that businesses can use to build and run modern applications close to end users, giving businesses more control over data, improved security, lower latency and access to higher bandwidth.

ANE with Google Cloud will allow businesses to deploy apps at Google edge points of presence, connected to AT&T 5G and fiber networks, providing improved performance thanks to the low-latency compute and storage environment.

New Acronis CEO To Double Down On MSP Base, Partner Investments

The new CEO at data protection and backup software provider Acronis wins applause this week for his plans to make growing the company’s partner network and channel sales a priority.

Acronis announced that it had hired Patrick Pulvermueller, previously the partners business president at web hosting company GoDaddy, as its new CEO.

Pulvermueller told CRN that his goal is to “double down on our partner program” by increasing its base of MSP partners and increasing channel sales. In May the company raised $250 million in financing – some of which the company is using to recruit and support new service provider partners.