5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending June 8

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Microsoft for making a bold move in the software development arena with its deal to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion.

Also making the list this week is Dell EMC for extending its lead in the global storage system market in the first quarter, NAS technology developer Qumulo for raising $93 million in financing, SAP for going on the offensive in the CRM market with its new C/4HANA application set, and Cywest for its new focus on the channel and for debuting its first partner 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.

Microsoft To Buy GitHub In $7.5 Billion Deal To Expand Enterprise Use Of Popular Developer Platform

Microsoft surprised many this week when it announced a deal to acquire open source code repository GitHub in an all-stock deal valued at $7.5 billion.

GitHub provides a global platform used by more than 28 million developers to share code and collaborate on open-source software development projects.

Microsoft said it plans to accelerate enterprise use of GitHub while maintaining its "developer-first ethos." Microsoft also vowed to operate GitHub independently, allowing developers to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choice.

Dell Dominates Worldwide Storage Market In Q1

Dell increased its lead in the worldwide storage system market in the first quarter, according to a report released this week by market researcher IDC.

Dell EMC generated $2.82 billion in storage system revenue in the quarter, representing impressive year-over-year sales growth of 43 percent.

That was good enough to claim a 21.6 percent share of the worldwide enterprise storage market, up from 20.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

No. 2 Hewlett Packard Enterprise recorded 18.3 percent storage system revenue growth in the first quarter to $2.31 billion. But the company's market share fell to 17.7 percent from 20.1 percent one year ago.

Scalable NAS Tech Developer Qumulo Raises $93 Million With An Eye On Growth Via The Channel

Cloud NAS technology developer Qumulo this week said it raised an impressive $93 million in a Series D round of funding.

The new financing, which brings its total funding to $233 million, should be enough to sustain its growth in the public cloud arena for some time, the company said.

Qumulo wins additional kudos because the company plans to invest some of those funds in go-to-market activities including new field resources and enablement activities and tools for channel partners. CEO Bill Richter told CRN that the channel is a key element of its growth strategy.

SAP Targets Salesforce, Other CRM Competitors With New C/4HANA Line

SAP went on the offensive in the CRM application arena market this week, unveiling its new C/4HANA CRM software portfolio with a comprehensive lineup of sales, marketing, ecommerce and customer support applications.

The new product line pulls together software from a number of acquisitions in recent years including Callidus Software, Hybris and Gigya.

C/4HANA pulls the acquisitions under one umbrella, promising a more tightly integrated package of applications and helping to eliminate market confusion created by the multiple names.

The announcement came at SAP's annual SapphireNow conference where CEO Bill McDermott and other executives vowed to leverage C/4HANA to compete against rival Salesforce.com. "We will not waver, we will not bend until we finally takeover the CRM marketplace," McDermott said. "This is a priority of the highest magnitude for the company."

Cywest Goes All-In With The Channel, Launches First Partner Program

Cywest Communications wins kudos this week for embracing the selling power of the channel, adding the channel to its sales/go-to-market strategy and launching its first formal partner program.

Cywest decided that the channel is the company's best way to spur growth. The vendor designs, builds and manages flexible, reliable communications networks spanning multiple third-party carrier networks for enterprise customers.

Cywest also disclosed that it hired channel veteran Alan Fortier as the company's first director of channel sales. Fortier has been busy developing the company's new channel program through which solution providers will sell Cywest's secure, redundant networks.

Agent partners can expect to earn more lucrative margins than they would earn by selling communications circuits from single carriers, according to Cywest. The new channel program will also give partners access to better deals with carriers.