5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Dec. 11

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is startup Samsara, for the launch of its much-anticipated Internet of Things technology.

Also making the list this week are:

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.

Startup Samsara Launches IoT Technology

Samsara, a high-visibility startup led by the founders of Cisco's successful Meraki business, this week took the wraps off its inaugural Internet of Things offering – an Internet-connected system of sensors with wireless gateways that transmit data to cloud software.

The system is being tailored for sale through the channel, targeting industrial customers, and the company is looking to recruit resellers for a partner program set for launch in 2016.

There's been lots of hype about the potential IoT market, but fulfilling its potential means developing practical IoT solutions the channel can easily sell and implement. Samsara is clearly a pioneer here, both for its technology and for recognizing the role the channel will play in advancing IoT.

Accenture To Acquire Industrial IoT Consultancy

Also on the Internet of Things front, channel heavyweight Accenture struck a deal to acquire a Houston-based consulting firm that helps companies in energy-related industries make use of IoT technology.

The acquisition of Cimation will add to Accenture's expertise for clients in oil and gas, pipeline, chemicals, metals and mining industries. That includes working with such technology as field sensors attached to oil and gas well equipment.

Accenture recognizes that IT and operational technologies are converging to lower costs, increase productivity and improve reliability and safety. And IoT is the nexus that's making that convergence possible.

Cradlepoint To Acquire SDN Startup Pertino

Also making a savvy acquisition this week was red-hot networking vendor Cradlepoint, which struck a deal to buy software-defined networking (SDN) specialist Pertino. The move is expected to accelerate Cradlepoint's already heady growth rate.

Cradlepoint will leverage Pertino's cloud technology to enable customers to rapidly deploy software-defined overlay network services to support 4G/LTE mobility, Internet-of-Things and security-related solutions, according to the company.

Cradlepoint has been on a tear, quadrupling revenues over the last three years. With the Pertino deal, the company will continue to evolve its product line around innovative SDN and IoT technologies.

Datalink Moves To Become Strategic Service Provider

Leading solution providers are making the shift from project-based, on-premise technology procurement to providing consulting that emphasizes business outcomes using cloud and managed services. And this week Datalink showed why it's among those leaders.

CEO Paul Lidsky (pictured) told attendees at the Raymond James Technology Investors Conference that his company is investing heavily in its advanced services business, which includes a customer support organization, a managed services practice that remotely supports private clouds and IT infrastructure through two network operations centers, and a $28 million consulting business.

One of Datalink's specialties is helping customers decide what workloads should run in public or private clouds or in a proprietary data center. To do that, the company's consulting services span both data center and cloud ecosystems.

Sophos And Fortinet End Two-Year Legal Feud

Security software vendors Sophos and Fortinet, which compete head-to-head in the unified threat management market, have buried the hatchet and settled two years of litigation that included allegations of talent poaching, patent infringement, secret stealing and unfair trade practices.

The two companies inked a settlement in which neither admitted liability, although Sophos did make a one-time payment to Fortinet. The companies didn't say how much that payment was, nor did they disclose many other details about the deal.

Both earn kudos in our "Came to Win" column this week – not because either company won the litigation, but because they recognized that they, along with partners and customers, all win when such matters are resolved and everyone can focus on innovation and serving their customers.