CRN Channel Madness Round 2: IBM Trouncing Microsoft In Early Voting

Voting in Round 2 of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs kicked off Thursday, and the competition is fierce among the Solutions 16.

The votes continue to pour in, and some of these match-ups are getting tight. Let's take a look at where our chiefs stand after 24 hours of Round 2 voting.

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In the Infrastructure region, F5's Jim Ritchings is in a close first-half battle against Eaton's Herve Tardy. Ritchings leads that matchup 52 percent to 48 percent.

HP's Sue Barsamian holds a stronger lead against Shannon Sbar of APC by Schneider Electric. Barsamian leads 55 percent to Sbar's 45 percent.

Now onto the Hardware region, where NetApp's Thomas Stanley clings to a slim lead over Sophos's Mike Valentine, 51 percent to 49 percent.

Ruckus's Ron Gill has a little more breathing room. He's currently beating Dell's Cheryl Cook, 55 percent to 45 percent.

In the Cloud region it's a close match between VMware's Frank Rauch and Axcient's Justin Moore. Rauch is winning just 51 percent to 49 percent.

VMware's other bracket competitor, Dave O’Callaghan, is currently slipping against Verizon's Adam Famularo. Famularo leads 53 percent to 47 percent.

In the Software region, the matchup with the highest number of votes is between Marc Dupaquier from IBM and Microsoft's Phil Sorgen. Dupaquier is off to a strong start, standing at 66 percent over Sorgen's 34 percent.

Sorgen's compatriot at Microsoft, Jenni Flinders, is faring better, as she holds a comfortable lead over Citrix's Tom Flink 56 percent to 44 percent.

Round 2 of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament will be open until 12:00 PM ET on Tuesday, March 31. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chiefs. ​

PUBLISHED MARCH 27, 2015