5 Companies That Came To Win This Week April 8
For the week ending April 8 CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.
The Week Ending April 8
Topping this week’s Came to Win list is chipmaker AMD for making a strategic acquisition that will add distributed services capabilities to its technology portfolio.
Also making this week’s list are Intel, Micron and Analog Devices for forming an alliance with MITRE Engenuity in an effort to improve the competitive stance of the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Data visualization and observability tech startup Grafana Labs makes the list for a very impressive funding round while automated software test company Katalon is here for taking its partner program to the next level.
And kudos go to Scale Computing channel chief Scott Mann, the winner of the CRN 2022 Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs.
AMD Strikes Deal To Buy Pensando For $1.9B To Boost Cloud, Chip Innovation
AMD made a bold acquisition move this week when it struck a deal to buy edge and cloud technology startup Pensando for $1.9 billion. Buying Pensando will allow AMD to take its data center processors to the next level by leveraging the startup’s unique software stack and programmable packet processors.
AMD CEO Lisa Su said the acquisition adds a leading distributed services platform to AMD’s high-performance CPU, GPU, FPGA and adaptive SoC product portfolio. AMD is also acquiring world-class development expertise at the chip, software and platform level through the deal, according to Su.
The Pensando acquisition bid comes less than two months after AMD wrapped up its $49 billion acquisition of FPGA chip developer Xilinx, the biggest acquisition in the history of the semiconductor industry.
Intel And Other Chipmakers Form Alliance To Spur U.S. Semiconductor Research
In an effort to boost the competitive stance of the U.S. semiconductor industry and address chip supply chain issues, Intel, Micro and Analog Devices have joined an effort to expand the industry’s research, development and prototyping efforts to counter global semiconductor competition.
The companies have formed an alliance with the Mitre Engenuity foundation to define principles for joint research and collaboration with the goal of building a more robust U.S. semiconductor industry, fostering advanced manufacturing in the U.S. and protecting intellectual property amid increased global competition, according to Intel.
The Mitre Engenuity foundation was established by the Mitre Corporation in 2019 as a way for the private sector, working with industry, academia and other organizations, to strengthen critical infrastructure in the U.S.
Open-Source Software Developer Grafana Labs Scores $240M In Funding
Grafana Labs, a fast-growing developer of open-source data observability, visualization and dashboard software, raised an impressive $240 million in a Series D round of funding this week.
The new funding comes just seven months after the company raised $220 million in a Series C funding round.
The open-source Grafana software for data analytics and visualization has more than 900,000 active installations. The company also develops commercial enterprise products based on the open-source technology, including the Grafana Enterprise Stack.
Katalon Launches New Partner Program To Serve Reseller And Service Partners
Katalon wins applause this week for launching a major upgrade of its partner program as the company looks to provide incentives and benefits to both resellers of its software test automation platform and partners who use the platform to provide DevOps and testing services to their customers.
The company also intends to use the new program to recruit additional global and regional systems integrator partners with a goal of doubling the number of partners it works with over the next year.
Katalon has also launched a new partner portal and is assembling a partner locator website where partners can showcase their solutions and service capabilities.
Scale Computing’s Scott Mann Wins CRN Channel Madness 2022
Congratulations to Scale Computing channel chief Scott Mann, the winner of this year’s CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs, after besting 31 of the world’s most influential channel leaders.
In the final round Mann won against channel legend Frank Rauch, channel chief at Check Point Software Technologies, with 56 percent of the final vote count to Rauch’s 44 percent.