5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending June 17, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending June 17

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Cisco Systems for key network management and customer experience moves the company unveiled at this week’s Cisco Live 2022 event.

Also making this week’s list are Microsoft for a strategic acquisition in the cyber security space, Snowflake for a bold move to expand the breadth of its data cloud service offerings, fast-growing solution provider Converge Technology Solutions for its latest round of acquisitions, and cloud database developer DataStax for an impressive funding round.

Cisco Looks To Simplify Networking Management, Customer Experience

Cisco Systems has a vast portfolio of hardware and software products that is known for its complexity. This week the company wins kudos for taking steps to break down the barriers amongst its products by simplifying their management and providing a more unified customer experience.

At this week’s Cisco Live 2022 event, the company unveiled a breakthrough in network management by announcing that the Cisco’s extensive Catalyst line of campus switches, wireless controllers and access points can be managed using the company’s Meraki dashboard for cloud-based network management.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins (pictured) told CRN that the Meraki-Catalyst announcement is the result of cross business unit work going on throughout the company to tear down walls between its products and improve the customer experience – a move applauded by the company’s partners.

Partners also applauded the new Cisco U. digital training platform for partners and customers, also unveiled at Cisco Live 2022, that will provide the training that IT administrators and partners are looking for – especially in these days when finding skilled employees is a challenge.

Microsoft Acquires Firm That Specializes In Identifying Foreign Cyber Threats

Amid concerns of state-sponsored cyberattacks – including attacks stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – Microsoft made a savvy acquisition this week when it bought a small cyber threat analysis and research firm that specializes in detecting and responding to foreign cyber threats.

Microsoft acquired Miburo Solutions, a Cold Spring, N.Y.-based expert in identification of “foreign information operations.” The company’s research teams detect and attribute malign and extremist influence campaigns across 16 languages.

Miburo will become part of Microsoft’s Customer Security and Trust organization and work closely with the software company’s Threat Intelligence Center and Threat Context Analysis team.

Snowflake Expands Into Data Applications, Data Monetization

Cisco wasn’t the only IT vendor this week to announce bold strategic moves at their annual conference. Data cloud service provider Snowflake, which held its Snowflake Summit 2022 in Las Vegas, used the event to launch several new products and services that signal a significant expansion beyond its core data analytics and data sharing offerings.

Snowflake launched the Unistore data service that supports both transactional and analytical data workloads on a single platform. It also debuted the new Native Application Framework that customers and partners can use to develop data-intensive applications that run on Snowflake.

The company also now offers data providers to sell data through the Snowflake Marketplace.

All this adds up to Snowflake going after a much bigger market than its original cloud data analytics offerings – and it puts the company in closer competition with cloud giants Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. It also creates more opportunities for Snowflake’s ISV, solution provider and strategic service provider partners.

Channel Dealmaker Converge Technology Solutions Buys 3 Partners

Converge Technology Solutions is on pace to fulfill its goal of acquiring upwards of a dozen solution providers throughout North America and Europe that focus on the midmarket.

CTS is set to acquire three IT service companies in Germany: GfdB, IfmB and DEQSTER, all of whom focus on the education market by helping schools and universities implement digital systems. The acquisitions will make CTS’ a leading player in the education IT space in Germany.

More broadly it brings the solution provider very close to its goal of growing sales by $1 billion this year through acquisitions. Altogether CTS has bought 32 companies since 2017.

Cloud Database Developer DataStax Raises $115M In Funding Round

Cloud database and real-time data technology developer DataStax raised an impressive $115 million this week in a private equity fund round led by Goldman Sachs. The round brings the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company’s total financing to $342.6 million.

DataStax plans to use the funding to accelerate development of Astra DB, its NoSQL multi-cloud database, and Astra Streaming real-time data service.

DataStax has reported that Astra DB sales grew 350 percent year over year in its fiscal 2023 first quarter and accounted for more than 50 percent of its new annual recurring revenue.