5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Sept. 23

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Tech Data for its blockbuster deal to acquire Avnet's Technology Solutions business for $2.6 billion.

Also making the list is LogicMonitor for its savvy hire of channel visionary David Powell, Scale Computing and Information Builders for their jointly produced business analytics appliance for SMBs, ReSec Technologies for launching its first North American channel program, and Webroot's acquisition of CyberFlow Analytics.

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.

Tech Data To Buy Avnet's Technology Solutions Business For $2.6B

In a blockbuster deal that will reshape the value-added distribution landscape, distributor Tech Data this week announced a deal to acquire Avnet's Technology Solutions business for $2.6 billion.

Tech Data said the acquisition of Avnet's $9.65 billion TS business, expected to be completed in the first half of 2017, would supercharge Tech Data's own data center business, boosting that business unit's contribution to Tech Data's overall sales from 29 percent to 45 percent and more than doubling non-GAAP operating income after cost savings.

Several solution providers with relationships with Avnet told CRN that Tech Data's acquisition of Avnet TS could trigger efforts by competing distributors to recruit solution providers that currently work with Avnet. But for Tech Data, which is looking to grow its data center and advanced infrastructure systems sales, it’s a bold move.

LogicMonitor Hires Channel Visionary David Powell To Grow Its Service Provider Business

LogicMonitor, developer of a highly regarded IT infrastructure performance monitoring system, made a savvy hire this week when it recruited David Powell as general manager of its service provider business.

Powell is well known as a channel thought leader who was instrumental in driving the astronomical growth in recurring revenue from cloud and managed services at TekLinks, a leading solution provider.

Powell told CRN that he sees himself playing a key role at LogicMonitor in helping channel partners transform themselves into strategic service providers, shifting their emphasis from IT infrastructure performance to a focus on business outcomes.

ReSec Technologies Launches First North American Channel Program

ReSec Technologies, which began selling its enterprise network security system in the U.S. earlier this year, is now expanding its sales efforts to the channel with the launch of its inaugural partner program in North America.

Israel-based ReSec is competing against such big names as FireEye, Symantec and Check Point Software Technologies. CEO Dotan Bar Noy told CRN that the company wanted to prove itself against those companies with early direct sales. Now the vendor is moving to expand its sales efforts and intends to leverage the channel to reach more potential customers.

ReSec named Strong Crypto Innovations, a Luray, Va.-based solution provider, as its first partner in the North American partner program.

Scale Computing, Information Builders Combine Forces To Offer Business Analytics Appliance

Business analytics technology can be complex to implement and use. So hyper-converged infrastructure appliance maker Scale Computing and business analytics software developer Information Builders win applause this week for jointly developing an appliance that meets the business intelligence needs of small and midsize businesses.

The new Scale Analytics appliance marries Scale Computing's HC3 hyper-converged infrastructure platform with Information Builder's WebFocus Business User Edition. WebFocus BUE lets nontechnical business users create and share reports, dashboards and data visualizations.

Inofrmation Builders began selling WebFocus BUE earlier this year for groups of up to 100 users and has worked closely with channel partners who sell the product. The new appliance will be available to channel partners of both companies.

Webroot Expands Network Security, IoT Capabilities With Acquisition

Webroot is acquiring CyberFlow Analytics in a move that will expand Webroot's next-generation security capabilities toward the network, including around the Internet of Things.

CyberFlow develops network behavior analytics software that provides MSSPs and customers with analytics and machine-learning capabilities to detect network anomalies and threats. The CyberFlow technology expands Webroot's product portfolio to meet emerging threat vectors around connected devices and the Internet of Things.

The CyberFlow acquisition follows the company's launch last year of an IoT security toolkit.