CRN Channel Madness: Lead Changes In Round 1

Round 1 of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is in full swing and we have a number of lead changes to report since Friday. With just over 24 hours of voting left in the round, let's look at how the matchups are shaking out.

In the Infrastructure region, Bob Gault of Extreme has pulled ahead of Dell's Cheryl Cook and is now leading 52 percent to 48 percent after previously facing a 14-point deficit.

SimpliVity's George Hope has also pulled into the lead in his matchup against Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Scott Dunsire after running 12 points behind. Hope is now up 52 percent to 48 percent.

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Kerry Bailey of Hewlett Packard Enterprise maintains his lead over EMC's Gregg Ambulos, but the gap is shrinking with Bailey ahead by just 2 points, 51 percent to 49 percent.

Cisco's Wendy Bahr has lost a bit of footing but still leads her matchup against Chris Morgan of Nutanix 56 percent to 44 percent.

We have a few nail-biters brewing in the Hardware region, where channel stalwart Frank Vitagliano of Dell is now neck and neck with HP's Jos Brenkel as Brenkel has seen his 8-point lead disappear. The two are now at 50 percent each with Vitagliano ahead by four votes.

Lenovo's Sammy Kinlaw his trying to orchestrate a comeback in his matchup against HP's Stephanie Dismore. Dismore was ahead by 10 points but now leads by just 2 with 51 percent to Kinlaw's 49 percent.

Sandra Glaser Cheek of Ruckus maintains her lead over Eaton's Curtiz Gangi 61 percent to 39 percent, while Intel's Maurits Tichelman is sitting pretty against Rob McKernan of APC by Schneider Electric, leading that battle 60 percent to 40 percent.

Is there an upset brewing in the Cloud region? Verizon Enterprise Solutions' Adam Famularo maintains his lead over Carbonite's Jessica Couto, but Couto is not going quietly. Famularo enjoyed a 10-point margin as of Friday but it has dwindled. He's now ahead 52 percent to 48 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, Datto's Rob Rae maintains a healthy lead over Amazon's Terry Wise 68 percent to 32 percent. VMware's Frank Rauch is ahead of NetSuite's Craig West 73 percent to 27 percent, and Brooks McCorcle of AT&T leads Mike Kunz of StorageCraft 78 percent to 22 percent.

In the Software region, we're keeping our eye on the matchup between Rodolpho Cardenuto of SAP and IBM's Marc Dupaquier, where Cardenuto is growing is lead. He's now ahead 55 percent to 45 percent.

Red Hat's Mark Enzweiler has put more distance between himself and Fortinet's Joe Sykora, leading 70 percent to 30 percent.

Palo Alto Networks' Ron Myers has made up a bit of ground against Microsoft's Phil Sorgen, but Sorgen still leads handily, 60 percent to 40 percent.

And reigning champion Mike Valentine of Sophos is up 77 percent to 23 percent in his matchup against Oracle's Bill Swales.

Voting in Round 1 remains open until noon ET on Wednesday, March 23. Visit crn.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief.