5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending June 3 CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending June 3

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Oracle, which is on the verge of wrapping up its $28.3 billion acquisition of health-care IT vendor Cerner.

Also making this week’s list is Hewlett Packard Enterprise for a strategic alliance with Google Cloud that marks a significant win for HPE GreenLake. Cybersecurity developer Devo Technology is on the list for an impressive funding round, while IBM spinoff Kyndryl is here for its new technology partnership with Cisco Systems, the latest in a string of vendor alliances established by the company.

And strategic service provider DXC Technology makes the list for its efforts to ensure the safety of its employees in war-torn Ukraine.

Oracle Closes In On $28.3B Cerner Acquisition

Oracle is close to completing its $28.3 billion acquisition of health-care information system developer Cerner in a move that will make Oracle—which already has a significant presence in the health-care IT market—a leading player in that space.

This week Oracle said it had obtained all required regulatory and antitrust approvals for the blockbuster acquisition, including achieving clearance from the European Commission, and that it expects to complete its all-cash $95-per-share tender offer for Cerner stock Monday.

Oracle is already making plans to combine Cerner’s technology with its own, including using the Oracle Autonomous Database, Oracle’s Apex low-code development tools and voice-enabling technology to modernize Cerner’s systems.

HPE GreenLake Chosen By Google Cloud For Distributed Cloud

Hewlett Packard Enterprise scored a big win for its GreenLake edge-to-cloud, pay-per-use platform when Google Cloud chose the GreenLake on-premises cloud service as the primary provider for Google’s distributed hybrid cloud.

Under an HPE-Google Cloud agreement disclosed this week, the two companies are effectively combining the Google Cloud stack with GreenLake. Google Cloud will leverage GreenLake to deliver an on-premises cloud experience for businesses and organizations with strict data residency, security and privacy requirements, HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri said.

Neri, who called the alliance a “very strong endorsement” of GreenLake, said the deal makes GreenLake “the de facto primary, managed, hosted cloud” for customers who want Google Cloud on-premises.

Devo Boosts Value To $2B With Latest Funding Round

Devo Technology, a developer of cloud-native logging and security analytics software, raised $100 million in a Series F round of funding this week.

The latest round brought the Cambridge, Mass.-based company’s total financing to an impressive $500 million since its 2011 founding and boosted the company’s valuation to $2 billion.

Devo will use the new capital to accelerate development of its autonomous Security Operations Center platform, geographically expand its sales operations and possibly pursue acquisitions.

Kyndryl And Cisco Team To Offer Managed Network, Edge Services

IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl this week struck a technology partnership with networking giant Cisco Systems that brings together Cisco’s products with Kyndryl’s managed services prowess.

The partnership is the latest of a string of alliances that Kyndryl, No 6 on the 2022 CRN Solution Provider 500 list, has struck since it was unshackled from IBM in late 2021 as the company looks to expand its service capabilities and offerings.

Kyndryl is adding Cisco technology to its Network and Edge Computing Solutions practice and the two vendors will co-develop new private cloud services, network and edge computing solutions, software-defined networking solutions and multi-network WAN offerings with advanced security capabilities.

Kyndryl resold Cisco equipment when it was still part of IBM Global Services. But this partnership takes the relationship to a new level of jointly developing and providing technologies, infrastructure expertise and managed services.

DXC Technology Relocates Many Of Its 4,000 Ukraine Workers To Safety

Many of the world’s biggest IT companies have stopped doing business in Russia in response to that country’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February. (This week Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it was shutting down its operations in Russia and in Belarus, Russia’s ally, because of the invasion.)

DXC Technology, which took steps in March and April to exit its business in Russia, wins applause for going the extra mile and working to move many of its 4,000 workers in Ukraine out of the conflict zone to safer areas in western Ukraine and to neighboring Poland and Romania.

DXC also plans to relocate all of its nondomestic and corporate Russian employees out of Russia by the end of June.

DXC’s moves will come at a price: The company said its exit from Russia will reduce its annual revenue by approximately $140 million.