5 Companies That Came To Win This Week
For the week ending Jan. 29, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.
The Week Ending Jan. 29
Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Eaton for a major acquisition that will expand its business and product portfolio.
Also making the list is Intel for bringing a top engineering manager back to the company, semiconductor startup EdgeQ for debuting its first product that competes with Intel and other chip makers, Dell Technologies and VMware for developing a new 5G-based edge computing system, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for launching an innovative program that helps channel partners more quickly obtain custom ProLiant servers.
Eaton Buying Tripp Lite For $1.65B In Blockbuster Power Play
Power management giant Eaton made a bold acquisition move this week when it struck an agreement to acquire power and data center hardware competitor Tripp Lite for $1.65 billion, a deal that will significantly enhance Eaton’s power and edge computing product portfolio.
The acquisition, which is expected to be completed by the middle of 2021, will add to Eaton’s product lineup Tripp Lite’s massive portfolio of more than 5,000 power and data center infrastructure products.
Eaton said the deal will enhance the breadth of its edge computing and distributed IT product offerings and expand its single-phase UPS (uninterruptible power supply) business.
Intel Lures Back Veteran Engineer Shenoy As Gelsinger Rallies The Troops
On the heels of the news that Intel hired VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger as the company’s new CEO, the chipmaker said this week that it has rehired veteran engineer Sunil Shenoy to serve as senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Design Engineering Group.
Shenoy worked at Intel for 33 years before leaving in 2014. Most recently he has been an executive at RISC-V-based semiconductor company SiFive.
When Shenoy returns to Intel on Feb. 1, his responsibilities will include “design, development, validation and manufacturing of intellectual properties and system-on-chips for client and data center applications,” Intel said.
Gelsinger, who officially starts at Intel in mid-February, hinted that he would bring “key leaders” back to the company to help him engineer a comeback.
EdgeQ Takes On Intel’s 5G Play With AI-Infused Modem Chip
Semiconductor startup EdgeQ is taking on Intel and other chip-making giants with its new AI-infused 5G modem chip that can replace multiple hardware components in a base station at a fraction of the power and cost.
EdgeQ this week debuted its “base-station-on-a-chip” that is based on the open-source RISC-V CPU architecture. With the new chip EdgeQ is promising a 50 percent reduction in the total cost of ownership for 5G base stations over competing products – including hardware stacks that rely on Intel’s XEON processors and FPGA chips.
EdgeQ, based in Santa Clara, Calif., exited stealth mode last fall with $51 million in investor funding. The company is helmed by semiconductor industry veterans: This week the company also announced that it had named former Qualcomm CEO and Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs and former Qualcomm CTO Matt Grob to the company’s advisory board.
Dell, VMware Develop Edge Computing OneBox For Private 5G
Dell Technologies, VMware and SK Telecom are teaming up to develop a new edge computing product with private 5G capabilities in a single multi-edge compute (MEC) box, a product that will provide businesses and organizations with more secure and reliable access to data at edge locations.
The new OneBox MEC is based on Dell’s PowerEdge XE2420 server coupled with the VMware Telco Cloud Platform and South Korea-based SK Telecom’s 5GX MEC system to provide fully integrated private 5G connectivity and edge computing services.
The product delivers 5G-enabled edge computing that the companies say will improve network latency and boost application performance and content delivery at the edge of IT networks. When available later this year the OneBox MEC could open the door to new customer use cases at the edge for the vendors and their channel partners as many companies deal with network latency issues.
HPE Steps Up ProLiant Charge Against Dell, Launches Digital Marketing Initiative
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is stepping up its ProLiant SMB sales charge with its new FlexOffers program that the company said will make it possible for partners to get custom ProLiant systems from distribution. The initiative is designed to give HPE a competitive edge over rival Dell Technologies in the heated battle for server market share.
The new FlexOffers program, set to be rolled out in mid-February, will provide partners with a way to deliver ProLiant systems with a degree of customization from distributor’s stock within 48 hours – a measurable improvement given that such customization can now take several weeks.
HPE also wins channel kudos for launching a digital marketing demand generation pilot program that provides partners with advanced customer analytics. The program, now being pilot tested by a handful of partners, identifies partner expertise in specific IT areas like risk and compliance management and then connects that expertise to keyword searches by customers seeking such expertise.