5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending May 18

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which stepped up its competitive offensive in the next-generation IT infrastructure space with a key acquisition.

Also making the list this week is Turbonomic for doubling down on the channel with an overhauled partner program, Oracle for making a savvy acquisition in the data science technology space, Intel for its latest efforts to assist partners looking to expand into Internet of Things projects, and startup Allure Security for launching its inaugural channel program.

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 Five Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

HPE Steps Up Next-Generation Infrastructure Offensive With Acquisition Of Software-Defined Data Fabric Provider Plexxi

Hewlett Packard Enterprise added a critical component to its next-generation hybrid IT platform this week by striking a deal to acquire Plexxi, a developer of software-defined data fabric networking technology.

The acquisition gives HPE additional software-defined technology muscle as it moves aggressively to position itself as the leading provider of next-generation, software-defined compute, networking and storage infrastructure.

HPE said that by combining Plexxi's data center fabric with its own software-defined infrastructure, HPE could deliver a true cloud-like experience in the data center. The acquisition builds on HPE's SimpliVity hyper-converged technology and Synergy composable infrastructure.

Plexxi had partnerships with HPE rivals Dell EMC and Nutanix and solution providers speculated the acquisition spells the end of those relationships.

Turbonomic Doubles Down On Channel Commitment With Overhauled, Hybrid Cloud-Focused Program

Turbonomic is launching a completely overhauled channel program designed to help partners capitalize on a hybrid cloud market that is increasingly confusing for customers.

The overhaul eliminates weaknesses in the program's previous iteration and helps position Turbonomic more prominently as the go-to vendor for customers looking to get the most out of their cloud dollar. The company has about 300 partners today.

The new program is the brainchild of Chris Sullivan, the former Cisco Systems, VCE and Hortonworks channel leader who was hired by Turbonomic in mid-February. Sullivan built the program to give partners the necessary tools to offer full life-cycle services around Turbonomic's workload automation software.

Sullivan said the program primarily brings together a stronger set of training and enablement capabilities designed to give partners a clear path to profitability. The new program includes an online-based curriculum for accreditation and training on Turbonomic's technology, including how it can be positioned, architected, implemented and supported.

Oracle Has Its Eyes On Machine Learning And Big Data With Its Latest Acquisition

Oracle made a big move this week to make its cloud systems more attractive to data professionals with a deal to acquire DataScience.com.

DataScience.com, the Los Angeles startup that made this year's CRN Big Data 100 list, developed an enterprise platform that data science teams use to organize data and collaborate on data-driven projects by helping them explore and visualize data, share analyses, deploy models into production and track their performance.

The acquisition will enable Oracle to integrate its big data, analytics and data science tools in one place with a unified self-service interface.

Intel Aims To Help Partners Accelerate Vision Computing At The Edge

Solution providers can use all the help they can get as they expand into Internet of Things initiatives. This week Intel took another in a series of steps to provide assistance for partners, unveiling a developer toolkit that solution providers can use to speed development of high-performance video analysis applications in edge devices for IoT networks.

The new OpenVINO (Open Visual Inference and Neural Network Optimization) toolkit can help developers train neural networks in frameworks such as TensorFlow and Caffe and give them easier ways to bring inference capabilities to the edge for vision computing applications.

Inference systems, like other edge-computing technologies, is an artificial intelligence technology that helps move data processing to the edge of IoT networks, reducing the need to move massive volumes of data to central systems for processing and analysis.

A vision inference application, for example, could inspect components as they make their way along a manufacturing production line and quickly identify flawed products.

DARPA-Backed Allure Security Launches Channel Program

Allure Security, a Waltham, Mass.-based startup with $10 million in DARPA funding, wins kudos this week for launching its inaugural channel program.

Allure develops software that tracks and protects documents and the company holds 11 patents for its technology. The software tags data with "beacons" and maps document locations and when they are accessed. The software even injects decoys into data flows to catch unauthorized users in the system.

John Sullivan, Allure Security's channel chief, says the new partner program provides co-marketing and lead-generation benefits, along with sales enablement and proof-of-concept assistance to accelerate sales cycles.