5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending July 17

This week's roundup of companies that came to win includes a big venture capital win by security startup CrowdStrike; a significant acquisition by security startup CounterTack; an alliance between Hewlett-Packard and Intel targeting the high-performance computing market; a savvy hire by BlackBerry to help the company boost its sales efforts; and Centrify's efforts to recruit systems integrator partners.

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 Five Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

Striking It Rich: Security Startup CrowdStrike Raises $100M In Financing

There's been a lot of venture capital money thrown around in the IT security arena lately. But people really took notice this week when CrowdStrike, a developer of next-generation endpoint security technology, announced that it had raised $100 million in Series C funding.

The financing included a big buy-in from Google Capital, along with investments from Rackspace, Accel and Warburg Pincus.

CrowdStrike's Falcon Host platform, built on a Software-as-a-Service architecture, is a new take on endpoint security in that it focuses on "indicators of attack" rather than more traditional "indicators of compromise" approaches. The company said it has been displacing competitors with on-premise technology like FireEye and Bit9 + Carbon Black.

Intel, HP Team Up To Open Enterprise Doors For HPC

Intel and Hewlett-Packard this week unveiled a plan to combine technologies and expertise in a collaborative initiative to expand the adoption of high-performance computing systems in businesses. With the effort, the vendors hope to simplify the deployment of HPC systems in vertical industries such as oil and gas, and financial services.

HP will contribute its HPC solutions framework, based on its Apollo servers, to the effort. The Apollo product line will leverage Intel's HPC scalable system framework, which includes Intel Xeon processors and Omni-Path interconnect technology.

The two companies plan to create an HPC center of excellence in Houston to support the initiative, each contributing experts to support customers in planning, developing, deploying and managing HPC systems.

CounterTack Buys ManTech Cyber Solutions

CrowdStrike may have pulled in the venture funding this week. But CounterTack, another red-hot security startup, scored on the technology front when it acquired ManTech Cyber Solutions International, in a move that expands its security products lineup.

The acquisition of MCSI, a commercial software division of solution provider giant ManTech, adds two new products to CrowdStrike's lineup: Responder Pro, an advanced forensics and analysis tool for deconstructing threats and checking them against digital DNA records; and the Active Defense behavioral analysis software targeting midsize companies.

CounterTack's core product is Sentinel, a next-generation endpoint detection and response system that incorporates Hadoop for threat intelligence and analysis. The addition of the MCSI technology gives CounterTack a powerful lineup of security technology for in-memory and operating system-level threat analysis.

BlackBerry Names Former Cisco Exec As New Global Sales President

In a savvy personnel move that could aid its turnaround efforts, mobile device maker BlackBerry this week hired Carl Wiese, previously senior vice president of Cisco's global collaboration business, to be its new president of global sales.

Wiese, a 12-year Cisco veteran, "has extensive experience in enterprise software and emerging technology solutions," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in a statement. Wiese will play a key role as Blackberry "moves toward stabilizing revenue and sustaining profitability."

Centrify Looks To Recruit Systems Integrators With Partner Program Expansion

Centrify, a developer of cloud-based security and identity management applications, expanded its channel efforts this week by adding a new tier to its partner program to attract more national systems integrators to its partner ranks.

Centrify is a Microsoft partner: Its identity management services run on Microsoft's Azure cloud. While the company is well-established among small and midsize companies, it has its eye on the enterprise market for the next stage of its growth plans.

And that's where the systems integrators come in. While the vendor already has several systems integrator partners, the company is actively recruiting more, hence the channel program expansion.