5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Dec. 18, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending Dec. 18

Topping this week’s Came to Win list – the last for 2020 – is Juniper Networks for its ambitious plans to invest more than $100 million in its channel efforts in 2021 as part of a partner program revamp.

Also making the list is Intel for previewing a new smart chip that can detect individual users and make adjustments to PC settings. Strategic services provider GreenPages is on the list for a recapitalization deal that will fuel the company’s growth through mergers and acquisitions and scaled up cloud services. Opengear launched a new channel certification program to help partners become more educated about the company’s products and the benefits they provide. And ChaosSearch made the list for its $40-million funding round that will help fuel the big data startup’s growth.

Juniper Networks To Invest More Than $100M In Partners In 2021

Networking technology giant Juniper Networks plans to pump more resources into its indirect sales efforts next year – to the tune of $100 million

Juniper channel chief Gordon Mackintosh told CRN that his company is revamping the Juniper Partner Advantage program to target enterprise sales opportunities. The company will be investing more than $100 million in the program and its channel partners, including increasing virtual sales resources to help build demand.

Juniper is integrating the now-separate Juniper Networks and Mist Systems channel programs, as of January. In addition to the increased focus on enterprise sales, the new program will offer faster deal registration and sales processes for the company and its partners, according to Mackintosh.

The revamped program will also provide new rebates and incentives, including back-end incentive rewards up to 27 percent, as well as tools and resources so partners can see how they are performing. Also planned is a deal registration reward with a multiplier for partners with specializations.

Intel Reveals Visual Sensing Controller Chip For Smarter Laptops

Chipmaker Intel demonstrated its technological prowess this week by unveiling a new kind of low-power computer chip for PCs that is designed to detect users and automatically adjust settings using AI capabilities.

Intel called the new Visual Sensing Controller, code-named Clover Falls, “a secure companion chip that helps make PCs more smart and secure through the power of Intel artificial intelligence.” The chip, for example, could be used to detect the presence of a user and adjust a PC’s settings accordingly.

The Visual Sensing Controller is set to first appear in commercial laptops using Intel processors. Intel is promoting the chip as a new component it will use to help OEM partners design and engineer premium laptops through its Intel Evo Platform initiative.

GreenPages Set To Accelerate Growth With M&A, Cloud Services Expansion With Abry Partners Recapitalization

Strategic services provider GreenPages is poised to aggressively scale the business with acquisitions and expanded cloud services in the wake of a market recapitalization, courtesy of managed service provider private equity powerhouse Abry Partners.

The recapitalization, completed last week, gives the Kittery, Maine-based GreenPages outside capital for the first time in its 28-year history to scale up the business in the midst of a booming cloud services market.

CEO Ron Dupler (pictured) said GreenPages will use the additional capital to double down on the company’s cloud, security and managed services – both through organic growth and through mergers and acquisitions.

The cash infusion comes as GreenPages is set to close out 2020 with a doubling of its cloud business during the year. The company has particularly seen revenue growth from its Cloud Xcelerator Platform for moving customers to AWS and Microsoft Azure, as well as growth in its cloud consumption advisory services.

Opengear Launches Channel Certification Program To Give Partners ‘Skin In The Game’

Opengear, a provider of network monitoring, data center and IT infrastructure management systems, wins applause for launching a Channel Certification Program to help solution providers become more knowledgeable and more independent.

The new program is geared toward pre-sales engineers and solution architects, helping partners increase their Opengear-related revenue by better understanding and communicating the value of complex networking infrastructure and management products, as well as emerging technology such as IoT and edge computing.

The new program, residing in Opengear’s partner portal, will initially focus on providing partners with a high-level overview of Opengear’s technology, specifically its Lighthouse out-of-band management software. The ultimate goal is to make partners as savvy about Opengear hardware and software products as the company’s own sales engineers.

Big Data Startup ChaosSearch Raises $40 Million To Accelerate Growth

Data analytics startup ChaosSearch raised $40 million in Series B funding this week, providing the company with a cash infusion it will use to expand its employee roster, develop new use cases for the ChaosSearch product and more quickly create a scalable, repeatable go-to-market strategy.

ChaosSearch develops a massively scalable log file analytics platform, delivered as a fully managed service, for searching and analyzing huge volumes of log file data.

ChaosSearch enjoyed triple-digit growth in 2020. The new funding brings the Boston-based startup’s total financing to $59 million.