5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Nov. 10

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Dell EMC for taking on rival NetApp with its new midrange all-flash storage systems, backed up by a new customer loyalty program.

Also making the list are HPE Aruba for surpassing rival Cisco in a Gartner "critical capabilities" report, Intel for a savvy hire that boosts its graphics chips and edge computing efforts, Unitrends for launching a new partner program and appointing a new channel chief, and Commvault for aiding customers in the all-important data privacy and compliance realm with a new portfolio of analytical applications.

And, as a bonus, applause for three companies for advancing the state of Internet of Things security in the channel.

Not everyone in the IT industry was making smart moves this week, of course. For a rundown of companies that were unfortunate, unsuccessful or just didn't make good decisions, check out this week's 5 Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

Dell EMC Targets NetApp With New All-Flash Storage Arrays, Launches 'Partner-First' Loyalty Program

Dell EMC took direct aim at rival NetApp this week with new all-flash versions of its midrange Compellent SC series storage systems and a new game-changing customer loyalty program.

The new SC5020F and SC7020F systems are the first all-flash models in the SC line. They're intended to fill a gap in the SC portfolio and take on all-flash storage powerhouse NetApp in the midmarket.

Equally important was the launch of the Future Proof Storage Loyalty Program, which offers customers a three-year, money-back guarantee, storage efficiency guarantee, seamless data migrations, trade-in credits toward new Dell EMC storage systems and storage controller upgrades, and one year of built-in Virtustream Storage Cloud on Unity all-flash products.

The loyalty program, developed using feedback from Dell EMC partners, is likely to provider partners with a significant competitive edge in selling the vendor's storage products.

HPE Aruba Surpasses Cisco In Critical Capabilities Networking Report

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, dethroned Cisco for the first time ever in Gartner's influential Critical Capabilities for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure report, which scores vendors on a variety of networking capabilities in multiple enterprise use cases.

In a clean sweep, Gartner gave HPE Aruba the highest score in each of six network use cases. In the 2016 version of the report -- which featured five use cases – HPE Aruba placed first in only one category with Cisco topping the other four.

"Aruba is the top-ranked vendor for all use cases," Gartner said in this year's report. The report called Aruba's AirWave network management technology and ClearPass secure network access control technology "some of the most complete solutions in the market."

Solution providers said the report was a significant win for HPE Aruba and a sign of the increased momentum for the company's wired and wireless portfolio in customer accounts that were once dominated by Cisco.

Intel Snags AMD Veteran To Lead Graphics Chips Development, Edge Computing Initiatives

Intel scored a hiring coup this week when it hired away AMD executive Raja Koduri to lead Intel's newly formed Core and Visual Computing Group, as well as drive initiatives around edge computing.

Intel hopes that Koduri, who will join as chief architect, senior vice president of the Core and Visual Computing Goup and general manager of edge computing solutions, will expand the chip manufacturer's position in integrated graphics for the PC market with high-end discrete graphics solutions for a broad range of computing segments.

Koduri was a senior vice president and chief architect of AMD's Radeon Technologies graphics business.

Unitrends Launches New Partner Program, Hires Former Mimecast Exec As Channel Chief

Backup and disaster recovery software developer Unitrends wins applause this week for building on its channel-first strategy by launching a new partner program and appointing Eli Kalil, a former Mimecast top channel executive, as the company's new channel chief.

Unitrends said three years ago that it would adopt a 100 percent channel model. With Kalil's appointment and the new partner program, Unitrends now plans to take its channel efforts to the next level by more closely aligning channel sales and marketing teams with the rest of the company's operations and driving more support for the channel through the entire organization.

Kalil holds the title of vice president of global channel sales at Unitrends. At Mimecast he was senior vice president of worldwide channel sales and operations.

Commvault Aids Customer Compliance, Data Privacy Efforts With New Analytics Portfolio

Commvault, the developer of data backup, recovery and archiving systems, debuted a new portfolio of analytical applications and packaged services designed to help businesses tackle such challenging tasks as compliance, e-discovery and digital transformation that require better insight about their data.

The first application in the new analytics portfolio is focused on information governance and data privacy. The application, integrated with the Commvault Data Platform, will help businesses identify, manage and reduce data privacy risks in compliance with the upcoming European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements and other data privacy regulations.

Commvault demonstrated the new application's capabilities this week at the vendor's Commvault Go 2017 conference in Washington, D.C.

Avira, GlobeTouch And Armis Make Strategic Moves In IoT Security

Securing Internet of Things networks against hackers and DDoS attacks is a major concern right now. So three companies win kudos this week for taking steps to bring new IoT security technology to the channel and their customers.

Avira, an IoT security tech developer, launched an IoT security product called SafeThings for connected home appliances targeted at ISPs and router manufacturers. The Germany-based company plans to build a global go-to-market channel initiative around SafeThings in the second quarter of 2018.

GlobeTouch, an Oakland, Calif.-based IoT connectivity company, this week acquired IoT security company Netsnapper in a move to secure its car connectivity technology. GlobeTouch also plans to leverage Netsnapper's vertical market expertise to expand into new areas such as industrial IoT and smart cities. CEO Riccardo Di Blasio told CRN that building up GlobeTouch's channel operations is an essential part of his overall strategy to scale up the company's business.

And cheers for IoT security startup Armis for its plans to double its partner roster in 2018 and build out its channel leadership team.