5 Companies That Came To Win This Week
For the week ending Aug. 23, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their 'A' game to the channel.
The Week Ending Aug. 23
Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is VMware for its blockbuster deals to buy application development platform vendor Pivotal Software and security tech vendor Carbon Black.
Also making the "Came to Win" list this week are Intel for debuting its latest Comet Lake processors to power next-generation laptops, Splunk for its $1 billion acquisition deal to buy security tech developer SignalFx, and SecurityScorecard for a wise channel management hire. And making the list is a consortium of major IT vendors, including Microsoft and Google Cloud, for working on a solution to encrypt data while it’s in use.
Not everyone in the IT industry was making smart moves this week, of course. For a rundown of companies that were unfortunate, unsuccessful or just didn't make good decisions, check out this week's 5 Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.
VMware To Acquire Pivotal, Carbon Black In Deals Valued At Nearly $5 Billion
VMware went big on the acquisition front this week, striking deals to acquire security tech developer Carbon Black and application development platform vendor Pivotal Software.
VMware is buying Pivotal in a cash and stock transaction in a deal valued at $2.7 billion while the company is acquiring Carbon Black in an all-cash transaction at $26 per share in a deal valued at $2.1 billion.
VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said the acquisitions address two critical technology priorities that businesses face today—building modern, enterprise-class applications and protecting enterprise IT infrastructure and applications from attacks. The acquisitions, Gelsinger said, will generate more than $3 billion in hybrid cloud and Software-as-a-Service revenue in just two years.
VMware disclosed last week that it was in discussions to acquire Pivotal. But the news that it was also buying Carbon Black was a surprise.
VMware also wins kudos for reportedly buying application security startup Intrinsic in a move that’s expected to fuel VMware’s evolution from helping companies deploy software in their own data center to supporting cloud deployments.
Intel 10th-Gen Core Comet Lake Brings Six Cores To Ultrathin Laptops
Intel’s technology prowess was on full display this week as the company released a new set of 10th-generation Core processors, code-named Comet Lake, that will bring big performance gains to ultrathin laptops being sold for the holiday season.
The new processors target multi-threaded and productivity workloads with up to six cores and 4.9GHz turbo speeds. Intel says they provide 16 percent overall performance gains compared with last year’s eighth-generation Core i7-8565U mobile processors and up to 41 percent performance improvement for multitasking and some applications.
Google Cloud, IBM, Intel And Microsoft Back New Effort To Encrypt Server Data
A number of leading IT vendors win kudos this week for launching a new initiative to help businesses process encrypted server data in memory while shielding it from the rest of the system, providing a better way to secure data and run applications in trusted environments.
The Linux Foundation unveiled this week the formation of the Confidential Computing Consortium with support from Alibaba, Arm, Baidu, Google Cloud, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, Swisscom and Tencent, all of which plan to make open-source contributions to the group.
While there are established methods for encrypting data that’s stored or in transit, encrypting data while in use has remained a challenge. The consortium will address the problem by developing “confidential computing” solutions to allow systems to process data in memory without exposing it to other parts of a system.
Splunk To Acquire Cloud App Monitoring Vendor SignalFx In $1B Deal
Speaking of significant acquisitions, Splunk took a major step to expand the IT operations management capabilities of its data capture software this week when it struck a deal to acquire SignalFx, a developer of software used to monitor cloud infrastructure, applications and microservices.
Splunk is paying $1.05 billion to buy the San Mateo, Calif.-based company.
About 40 percent of Splunk implementations use the company’s software to collect operational data for IT performance monitoring and management. The acquisition of SignalFx will further the company’s strength in that market.
SecurityScorecard Taps Palo Alto Networks Vet For Global Channel Growth
Security ratings startup SecurityScorecard made a savvy personnel move this week when the company hired longtime Palo Alto Networks go-to-market leader Michael Sweeney as its channel chief.
As SecurityScorecard’s new vice president of worldwide alliances and channels, Sweeney is expected to boost the company’s partner enablement initiatives and expand its geographic footprint beyond North America.
Sweeney worked at Palo Alto Networks for more than six years, creating that company’s go-to-market strategy for global accounts and significantly growing its business with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.