5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending July 29

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is SentinelOne, a security company that's so confident about the effectiveness of its security technology that it's offering a guarantee backed by cash.

Also making the list were Avi Networks for launching its first channel program, Fidelis Cybersecurity for its savvy hire of a new channel chief, CompuCom's artificial-intelligence-based managed service, and Cognizant's acquisition of a behavioral research company that will help it with solutions design.

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.

SentinelOne Offers Guarantee That Its Endpoint Security Foils Ransomware Attacks

Security technology vendors frequently make big claims about the capabilities of their products. But one security vendor is putting its money where its malware protection is.

This week SentinelOne launched a threat protection guarantee program against ransomware attacks – and channel partners can use it to boost their own competitive efforts.

Under the program partners can guarantee that if SentinelOne's endpoint security tools are unable to block or remediate a ransomware attack, the vendor will provide up to $1,000 per endpoint, up to $1 million, for support.

Partners applauded the move, saying it provides a way to differentiate themselves in the highly competitive security technology arena.

Avi Networks Launches First Channel Program

Aiming to become a 100 percent channel sales company, Avi Networks this week launched its first global partner program as it seeks to recruit cloud-focused networking solution providers.

The four-tier ScaleOut Channel Program is focused on enabling and incenting channel partners who want to accelerate their sales around customers who are switching to software-driven data centers and hybrid cloud deployments.

The program includes rebates, discounts, deal registration, market development funds and a partner portal. Avi Networks executives stress that the company is not seeking a large number of fulfillment partners, rather it's looking for solution providers who can help customers solve complex problems around next-generation data center architectures.

Fidelis Cybersecurity Adds Former FireEye Exec As Channel Chief

Speaking of channel initiatives, Fidelis Cybersecurity, an advanced threat detection and remediation technology company, has made some significant channel moves, including hiring a former FireEye channel executive to lead its channel charge.

Fidelis said this week that it has hired Scott Collins, previously director of Americas channel sales at FireEye, as vice president of channel sales. Collins began working at the company July 18.

Fidelis already has a channel program in place. But Collins' marching orders are to accelerate the company's channel efforts and take the program to the next level. Collins joined FireEye in 2012 just when that company was getting its own channel initiative off the ground and helped grow that program.

Collins' tasks include staffing up Fidelis' channel program, especially around channel operations, as well as building up branding and awareness around the program.

CompuCom Brings AI To Midmarket Data Centers With Breakthrough Managed Service

CompuCom is set to deliver what the company is calling the first-ever artificial intelligence-based managed service aimed at uncovering IT problems and quickly remediating them to prevent, reduce and even eliminate data center downtime in midsize companies.

The new converged infrastructure managed service, which runs on Amazon Web Services, uses machine learning and cognitive computing to uncover IT problems. Dallas-based CompuCom, a $1.9 billion systems integrator, said the service could deliver savings of 30 percent to 40 percent in infrastructure management costs.

The service is the fruit of the $10 million a year CompuCom spends on research and development on new midmarket offerings. It's an example of the kind of strategic service that solution providers will need to develop to be competitive in today's evolving channel.

Cognizant Buys Behavioral R&D Company

Solution provider Cognizant demonstrated some serious "outside the box" thinking this week when it acquired Idea Couture, a Toronto-based design firm that will add a human component to its IT development efforts.

Idea Couture employs more than 170 social scientists, strategists, anthropologists, user-experience experts, designers and product developers. The idea is that the company's skills will help Cognizant connect social science research with human needs, helping the company understand how technology is used and then create better solution designs and prototypes.

Cognizant will combine Idea Couture with its Digital Works business, which identifies new capabilities around artificial intelligence, mobility, business analytics, cloud services and Internet of Things technologies.