Five Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Dec. 20, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel, including Databricks, Cisco, Amazon Web Services, Accenture and Trace3.

The Week Ending Dec. 20

Topping this week’s Came to Win list—the last of 2024—is data and AI platform developer Databricks, which raised an eye-popping $10 billion in a new funding round.

Also making this week’s list are Cisco Systems for a strategic acquisition in the threat detection cybersecurity space and Amazon Web Services for its plans to invest $10 billion to expand its data center capacity in Ohio.

IT services giant Accenture makes the list for an acquisition that will expand its expertise in building more environmentally sustainable, net-zero infrastructure projects. And solution provider Trace3 is here for its own acquisition that will expand its expertise in providing IT solutions to federal, state and local governments.

Databricks Raises $10B In Latest Funding Round, Reports $3B Revenue Run Rate

Christmas came a little early for data and AI platform developer Databricks, which this week raised an eye-popping $10 billion in a new round of funding that boosts the company’s valuation to $62 billion.

Databricks, with its flagship Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, said it has experienced 60 percent year-over-year growth in recent quarters and disclosed that it expects to surpass a $3 billion annual revenue run rate and achieve positive cash flow in the fourth quarter.

The company also said it has more than 500 customers each consuming at a $1 million annual run rate or more and the company’s Databricks SQL intelligent data warehouse has achieved a $600 million annual revenue run rate.

“To satisfy customer demand, Databricks intends to invest this capital toward new AI products, acquisitions and significant expansion of its international go-to-market operations. In addition to fueling its growth, this capital is expected to be used toward providing liquidity for current and former employees, as well as pay related taxes,” the company said in a statement.

Databricks last raised funding in a $500 million Series I round in September 2023, which at the time put the company’s market value at $43 billion.

Cisco To Buy Threat Detection Startup SnapAttack To Help Win Over More Security Customers

Cisco makes this week’s Five Companies That Came To Win list for its deal to acquire SnapAttack, a threat detection and engineering platform provider, in a deal the company said will help Cisco’s Splunk portfolio power the Security Operations Center (SOC) of the future for enterprises.

Founded in 2021, SnapAttack’s platform will become part of Cisco’s Splunk business to further accelerate its organic threat detection road map and help enhance customers’ security operations in favor of a more threat-informed defense, according to the two companies.

The Arlington, Va.-based startup’s technology provides security analysts with the information they need to continuously assess, organize and optimize their security content, streamlining the research, writing, validation and deployment of threat detections across their technology estate, according to SnapAttack.

Cisco, which has been hard at work raising its security profile in recent years, said that once completed the acquisition of SnapAttack could help win over new security customers who may be “on the fence” about the value of Splunk Enterprise Security.

The pending deal would mark the fourth acquisition this year for Cisco, all of which were security-related deals.

AWS Pours $10B Into New Ohio Data Centers To ‘Drive Innovation In AI’

Amazon Web Services continues to pour billions into expanding its data center footprint, which powers its cloud and AI services, this week unveiling a new $10 billion investment in Ohio.

AWS will build new data centers in various communities across the greater Ohio region. No exact locations have been identified yet as AWS is still reviewing sites.

The $10 billion investment will go toward growing its data center infrastructure over the next six years to support AWS cloud regions and AWS availability zones.

AWS’ new investment builds on the company’s previous $7.8 billion investment plan in Ohio announced in 2023. The company said by 2030 it will have invested a total of more than $23 billion in the state.

Accenture Acquires IQT Group To ‘Build A Lower-Carbon Energy System’

IT services giant Accenture wins applause this week for its move to buy IQT Group to make its infrastructure solutions more environmentally sustainable.

Teodoro Lio, CEO of Accenture Italy and unit leader for Italy, Central Europe and Greece, said the IQT acquisition will boost Accenture’s engineering expertise and services related to building net-zero infrastructure projects.

“Our teams aim to support public and private companies in the utilities, energy and telecommunications sectors with digital tools to make their projects more efficient and productive,” Lio said in a statement. “Ultimately, we will help them build a lower-carbon energy system, which will not only reduce the carbon footprint of utilities but also of the industrial value chain it powers.”

IQT is an Italian provider of engineering managed services for large infrastructure projects—specializing in the design and supervision of net-zero infrastructure projects around electricity generation and transmission.

When the acquisition is complete Accenture will combine its generative AI and digital capabilities with IQT’s infrastructure project expertise to help customers plan, execute and manage net-zero infrastructure projects more efficiently. IQT’s more than 450 engineers and consultants will join Accenture’s infrastructure and capital projects practice within its Industry X digital transformation unit in Italy.

Trace3 Expands Government Reach With Zivaro Acquisition

Staying on the subject of strategic acquisitions, solution provider and business transformation consultant Trace3 this week acquired Zivaro in a move to significantly expand its reach into the federal, state and local government and education markets.

With the acquisition, Irvine, Calif.-based Trace3 also gains a major presence in the Denver area where Zivaro is based. Zivaro brings expanded coverage in the commercial and health-care markets, particularly in the Rocky Mountain states.

The acquisition of Zivaro is a pivotal moment for Trace3 as it continues to expand its capabilities and reach, Trace3 President Joe Quaglia (pictured above) said. The executive said the deal fits with Trace3’s strategic plan to grow both organically and inorganically.

“Zivaro is an IT solutions provider and integrator for government and critical infrastructure customers,” he said. “Think public sector, federal, state and local, education. They’ve got a big office in Colorado Springs where quite a bit of the service capabilities are performed.”