5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Jan. 26

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Cisco, which has taken aggressive legal action against several sellers of counterfeit Cisco products in an effort to protect partners and customers.

Also making the list this week are cloud data warehouse service provider Snowflake Computing for snagging more than a quarter-billion dollars in venture financing, next-generation database developer Couchbase for launching its first formal partner program to expand sales through solution provider and technology partners, T-Mobile for beating rivals AT&T and Verizon in a key study of wireless network speeds, and a pair of security technology vendors making key channel management hires.

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.

Cisco Takes Aim At Counterfeit Gear Sellers With Lawsuits

Cisco Systems went on the legal offensive this week, filing lawsuits against companies that sell counterfeit products in a move the vendor said is designed to protect partners and customers.

Cisco filed five lawsuits in New Jersey and California against companies that Cisco charged with importing and selling "numerous counterfeit products to unsuspecting customers who thought they were getting Cisco's high-quality products." The suits were filed in U.S. District Courts in each state.

Fake gear fails much more frequently than Cisco's products, the company said, causing "privacy and security vulnerabilities, data loss, network downtime and substantial business interruption."

The suits charged several companies with trademark infringement, counterfeiting, breach of contract, and misleading and deceptive advertising.

Snowflake Computing Snags $263 Million In Venture Funding

Cloud data warehouse service provider Snowflake Computing hit "unicorn" status this week when the company announced that it had closed on a stunning $263 million Series E round of financing, brining its total financing to $473 million.

The venture capital win pushes the company's "pre-money" market valuation to $1.5 billion.

Snowflake Computing, founded in 2012, began offering its cloud-based data warehouse-as-a-service in 2015 and has reported rapid growth in customers (up 300 percent in the last year) and in the amount of data those customers are storing in its systems.

T-Mobile Outscores Rivals AT&T And Verizon In Report On Wireless Network Performance

T-Mobile may be the No. 3 wireless network carrier, but this week a report from wireless analytics firm OpenSignal put the company at No. 1 with the fastest wireless network, beating out industry heavyweights AT&T and Verizon.

"T-Mobile established itself as the dominant operator in speed, and won nearly every OpenSignal performance award" in the fourth quarter of 2017, OpenSignal said in a report this week. The report, which examines the four major carriers according to a battery of mobile network performance metrics, also said Sprint has "reasserted itself" and made big gains in several core performance metrics.

Verizon and AT&T have been focused on handling capacity issues after they launched unlimited plans, the report said, and both operators have halted their declines in 4G speed and Verizon's speeds returned to their "pre-unlimited levels."

Next-Gen Database Developer Couchbase Launches Its First Partner Program

Next-generation database developer Couchbase launched its first formal partner program Thursday, looking to grow its ecosystem of reseller, consulting and technology partners and provide them with a broad range of incentives, resources and support to expand sales of the Couchbase Data Platform.

The company currently works with about 150 solution provider and technology partners who play a role, either as resellers or deal influencers, in about 15 percent of the software vendor's sales. Business Development Vice President Matt McDonough told CRN that Couchbase hopes to double those numbers this year with the new PartnerEngage program.

The new two-tier program provides all partners with deal registration and access to a partner portal. Those that reach "Advanced" partner status are eligible for a broad range of additional resources including participation in product beta programs, lead-generation funding, training resources, and technical and pre-sales support.

The company is particularly seeking partners to expand sales of the Couchbase database to businesses for digital transformation and customer engagement initiatives.

Hytrust, Exabeam Hire Channel Veterans With Eye On Channel Program Expansions

Security technology vendors HyTrust and Exabeam both win applause this week for hiring veteran channel executives to fill key channel management posts as they plan significant expansions of their partner programs.

HyTrust hired former Zerto channel leader Jason Cowie as its new vice president of global channels and assigned him to build out HyTrust's go-to-market strategy – including launching a new global partner program that provides incentives and rewards for a wide range of solution providers.

Cowie told CRN that the company expects to launch the new program in the second half of the year and boost the share of HyTrust sales that go through the channel beyond the current 30 percent.

Exabeam, meanwhile landed former Carbon Black global channel chief Ken Hammond and has tasked him with doubling the company's channel investment this year. Hammond fills the newly created post of assistant vice president of Americas and Asia-Pacific and Japan channels.

Hammond told CRN that his first project is to create a professional services program through which top partners can offer their own branded services for Exabeam product installation and configuration.