5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Aug. 12, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending Aug. 12

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Google for the latest additions to its portfolio of regional data centers.

Also making this week’s list is the move by a number of leading vendors in the cybersecurity space for forming a coalition to address the need to share incompatible data in order to improve the ability of cybersecurity systems to respond to threats and attacks.

Also winning kudos are MSP Nexus IT for a strategic acquisition, Kaseya for a significant change to its contract renewal policy, and Accenture for its latest acquisition in the creative services space.

Google Set To Launch New Cloud Regions In Asia-Pacific

Google Cloud this week unveiled plans to spend billions of dollars to launch new cloud regions in three Asia-Pacific countries, potentially creating opportunities for global channel partners.

Google Cloud will build and equip new data centers in Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand, the company said, marking the company’s first cloud region in each country to provide local customers with the infrastructure needed to power their cloud services.

The company already operates 34 cloud regions around the world —including 11 in Asia-Pacific—that power its broad portfolio of cloud services.

Google Cloud invests billions each year to build the regional data centers. The three new Asia-Pacific regions join six recently announced regional data centers planned for Berlin, Dammam, Doha, Mexico, Tel Aviv and Turin.

Major Cybersecurity Companies Create Open-Source Consortium To Share Key Data

A group of leading cybersecurity companies wins applause this week for forming an open-source consortium that will share critical data in order to improve the responsiveness of today’s IT security systems.

Founders of the Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF) included Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, Okta, Palo Alto Networks, Splunk, Tanium, Trend Micro and Zscaler, among others.

The goal of the consortium is to improve the sharing of product-normalizing data between cybersecurity systems. The group said detecting and stopping cyberattacks today requires improved coordination across multiple cybersecurity tools. But normalizing data from multiple sources today requires significant time and resources.

The OCSF, according to a group statement, aims to develop “a simplified and vendor-agnostic taxonomy to help all security teams realize better, faster data ingestion and analysis without the time-consuming, up-front normalization tasks.”

MSP Nexus IT Acquires Intelitechs, Plans National Expansion

MSP Nexus IT Consultants this week bought Intelitechs, a fellow Salt Lake City area MSP, with plans to use the acquisition as a step toward building a national services presence.

Intelitechs is Nexus IT’s fifth acquisition in 12 years, although the four previous deals were more acquisitions of other MSPs’ books of business. The two companies described this deal as more of a merger.

Nexus IT has an aggressive five-year growth plan with resources and a road map for becoming a national MSP. The company is already building out infrastructure needed for regional and national growth. It has a Network Operations Center and plans to develop a Security Operations Center.

Partners Cheer Kaseya Move To Kill Auto Renewals

Software giant Kaseya has made changes to its auto-renewal policy following partner feedback, a move that partners called “very encouraging.”

This week Kaseya, in a letter from President and Chief Customer Officer C.J. Wimley, said that all auto-renewal agreements will be renewed at the same number of months as the previous agreement. Customers may also opt out of the auto-renewal process during the term of their contract.

Kaseya said the policy change also ensures the lowest possible price without discontinuing service. The Kaseya end-user license agreement has also been modified to reflect the changes.

Accenture To Acquire Southeast Asia Firm Romp

Accenture, continuing the acquisition spree the giant strategic service provider has been on in recent years, struck a deal this week to acquire Romp, a brand and experience agency based in Indonesia.

Romp will become part of Accenture Song, previously Accenture Interactive, and strengthen Accenture Song’s ability to deliver creative and tech-driven brand experiences for clients across the Southeast Asia market.

Jakarta-based Romp was founded in 2019 and is known for its creative talent and services across branding and marketing projects and boasts strong local knowledge and expertise in brand communications, design and digital operations, according to Accenture.

The Romp acquisition aligns with Accenture’s strategy to help businesses in Indonesia harness opportunities in a post-pandemic economy, such as digital advertising and the e-commerce market. It will serve clients across consumer goods and services, telecommunications and financial services industries and family-owned conglomerates.