5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Nov. 1

This week's roundup of the companies that came to win include server market-share gains by Hewlett-Packard, a major government cloud win for Amazon, key cloud acquisitions by NTT, Dell's (finally) realized efforts to go private, and first steps by a new channel chief at software developer PTC.

HP Grows Q3 Worldwide Server Shipments

Hewlett-Packard grew worldwide server shipments by more than 5 percent in the third quarter, reversing a slump of eight consecutive quarters of shipment declines, according to preliminary Gartner market data CRN obtained this week.

HP sold 669,129 units in the quarter, up 5.4 percent from 629,213 units in the third quarter of 2012. The company's market share for the quarter climbed to 26.9 percent, up from 24 percent in the second quarter of 2013.

HP CEO Meg Whitman has vowed to step up the server battle with rival Dell. Dell's third-quarter server shipments dropped by more than 14 percent.

Amazon Wins Battle For $600 Million CIA Cloud Deal

Amazon could claim victory this week in its bid to secure a $600 million cloud computing contract with the Central Intelligence Agency after IBM dropped a challenge to the deal.

The CIA chose Amazon Web Services over IBM in January for a project to build a version of the AWS public cloud to run within the CIA data center. But the contract became mired in legal actions when IBM appealed the contract, according to published reports in Federal Computer Week.

This week IBM, to its credit, ended its fight when the government said further delays could threaten national security. The contract could be the biggest customer win for AWS.

Acquisitions Boost NTT's U.S. Cloud Offensive

NTT Communications is spending about $875 million to acquire two U.S. cloud and data center service providers in a move that will more than double the company's data center space in the U.S. and significantly expand its global network services coverage.

NTT, the Tokyo-based parent company of solution provider Dimension Data, said it is buying Virtela Technology Services, a Denver-based managed and cloud network services provider, for $525 million. It also plans to acquire an 80 percent stake in RagingWire, a Sacramento, Calif.-based provider of data center services, for $350 million.

The acquisitions will allow NTT to significantly up its competitive game against major U.S. cloud service providers.

Partners Hail Dell's Buyout Completion As Channel Game-Changer

It was a long time coming, but Dell finally completed its $24.9 billion effort to become a private company this week. And Dell channel partners couldn't be happier.

Partners see completion of the deal by Dell and its private equity ally Silver Lake Partners as opening the door to faster sales growth for the company and for the channel. Partners, in fact, told CRN that they see Michael Dell moving quickly to drive a bigger enterprise computing and channel footprint for the company. They expect the private company, under Dell's leadership, to deliver more innovative products and services at a much more rapid rate than it could have as a publicly held company.

New PTC Channel Chief Sets Rules Of Engagement, Creates Channel Opportunities

Kerry Grimes has only been on the job as PTC's new worldwide channel chief a few weeks and he's already working to make the developer of product life-cycle management software more channel-friendly.

The 20-year channel veteran, hired from PTC competitor Siemens PLM Software, has set new rules of engagement built around a named-account strategy, creating a clear field for partners to grab a bigger piece of the PLM market, especially among midsize customers.

"This is about taking this business to the next level," Grimes told CRN, noting that PTC wants to grow beyond its $1.4 billion in annual sales. PTC also hired former Autodesk channel executive Gary Smith as the company's new North America channel vice president.