5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Jan. 23

This week's roundup of companies that came to win includes a new competitive strategy from Oracle in converged systems; a new tablet computer barrage from Hewlett-Packard; key acquisitions by two leading solution providers in big data and security; and a new secure, high-performance cloud offering from Logicalis.

Oracle Unveils A New Competitive Weapon: Low Prices

Oracle this week debuted the next generation of its Engineered Systems converged infratructure appliances, and they came with a surprise: lower price tags. That's a significant shift for Oracle, which in the past has touted the favorable cost-performance of its products, but generally has not been known for competing on price.

The new Virtual Compute Appliance X5 line will compete head-to-head with converged systems from Cisco and EMC. The company also launched the sixth generation of its Exadata database servers. While noting the new systems' features and performance, CTO Larry Ellison (pictured) said Oracle will now "aggressively compete" with extremely affordable, prepackaged systems.

HP Takes Aim At Surface With New Business Tablets

Hewlett-Packard greatly expanded its tablet computer lineup this week, including debuting the Elite x2 1011 G1 tablet to compete with Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 and launching the company's first Android business tablets. Overall, HP is expanding its tablet product portfolio from two offerings to 11.

HP execs said the products, especially the Elite x2 1011 G1, mark an aggressive effort by the company to gain market share from Microsoft and other tablet makers, using competitive pricing and sophisticated product features. The move comes just seven months after HP established a new commercial mobility and software business unit.

Datapipe Acquires GoGrid, Plans Big Data Service Offerings

Big data is hot. So managed services provider Datapipe made a savvy move this week when it acquired GoGrid, a supplier of automated big data solutions that can be deployed across a variety of public and private cloud environments.

With mobile devices, social media, the Internet of Things and more all adding to the data deluge, businesses are looking for help to leverage that information for competitive advantage. By taking GoGrid's technology to market as part of its managed services portfolio, Datapipe is getting in on the ground floor of that potentially huge business.

Bedroc To Boost Security Offerings With OneSource Buy

Datapipe wasn't the only solution provider that made a smart acquisition this week. Security tops many IT managers' lists of concerns, so kudos to Franklin, Tenn.-based Bedroc, which this week bought security services company OneSource Computing.

Bedroc, No. 45 on the 2014 CRN Solution Provider 500 list, grew more than 107 percent over the last two years, thanks to its focus on hybrid cloud computing, application performance, connectivity and security. The OneSource Computing acquisition will add to its information security expertise and service offerings and likely boost its already impressive growth.

Logicalis Adds Encrypted Flash Storage Option To Its Public Cloud

Businesses that work with public cloud services often need high-performance and bulletproof security. This week, solution provider Logicalis moved to provide both by adding encrypted solid-state storage as an option for customers of the company's public cloud services.

The new option relies on IBM's FlashSystem V840, a high-performance, solid-state storage system that combines the IBM model 840 FlashSystem array with the vendor's SAN Volume Controller data virtualization system with realtime compression.

The new option will give Logicalis a competitive edge when prospective customers consider whether to work with the solution provider or larger public cloud vendors.