5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Nov. 3

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is VMware, which strengthened its competitive position in the SD-WAN market by striking a deal to acquire VeloCloud Networks.

Also making the list are Cisco for its new incentive programs to boost channel sales of Cisco software and services, HP Inc. for completing its $1.05 billion acquisition of Samsung's printer and copier business, Telarus for its deal to acquire CarrierSales and boost its status as a leading master agent in cloud and mobility services, and AT&T for developing new network connectivity to AWS cloud services.

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.

VMware Inks Deal To Acquire SD-WAN Player VeloCloud

VMware took a major step into the highly competitive SD-WAN arena this week when it struck a deal to acquire SD-WAN provider VeloCloud Networks.

The move sets up a head-to-head battle with Cisco Systems, which also has been expanding into SD-WAN, fueled by its $610 million acquisition of SD-WAN startup Viptela in May.

With the VeloCloud acquisition, virtualization technology giant VMware can build on its NSX network virtualization platform and expand its networking portfolio into high-end automation, application continuity, branch transformation and security, according to the company.

Cisco Launches New Partner Incentives To Boost Software, Service Sales Through The Channel

Cisco Systems wins kudos for a number of new partner incentive programs it rolled out this week at its Cisco Partner Summit 2017 in Dallas, all designed to help channel partners sell more of the networking giant's software and services.

A shoutout also goes to Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene, who took the stage alongside Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins at the event to tell the thousands of partners in attendance that Google is counting on Cisco partners to drive sales of the two companies' joint cloud offerings unveiled last week.

The new VIP Annuity program provides partners with up-front rebates for landing new Software-as-a-Service deals, as well as renewing or expanding SaaS deals with existing customers. The program applies to enterprise networking, data center, security and collaboration sales with performance-based recurring revenue rebates.

Also unveiled was a VIP Activation program that adds back-end rebates on software deployments for Cisco ONE and Digital Network Architecture Advantage suites, as well as for Cisco Identity Services Engines and Cisco Stealthwatch.

And the new Migration Incentive Program provides partners with an incremental discount on qualifying hardware, software and services migration opportunities. The goal is to sell newer technologies into Cisco's customer base, along with additional accelerators on specific technologies.

Telarus Boosts Cloud, Mobility Sales With CarrierSales Acquisition

Telarus made significant progress this week in its mission to become one of the largest and well-rounded master agents in the country when it struck a deal to acquire CarrierSales, a cloud- and mobility-focused master agent.

Following the acquisition Telarus will be a top-tier partner with all the major service providers: AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Spectrum and Verizon, at a time when carriers are working with fewer partners.

In addition, acquiring CarrierSales will deepen Telarus' expertise in such markets as unified communications as a service (UCaaS), hosted contact center services and wireless offerings.

HP Closes $1.05 Billion Acquisition Of Samsung's Printer Business

HP Inc. completed its $1.05 billion acquisition of Samsung's printer business this week, firing a warning shot across the bow of competing printer and copier manufacturers and providing partners with some serious competitive firepower.

With the acquisition a done deal, HP partners were particularly anticipating new opportunities to drive sales in the $55 billion A3 copier replacement market.

The acquisition brings HP more scale in the A3 copier arena, as well as patents and intellectual property in copiers and printers.

AT&T Delivers A Boost For IoT Solutions With New AWS Connectivity

AT&T this week debuted new networking capabilities that link to Amazon Web Services' public cloud, making it easier for solution providers and customers to use AT&T networks to access back-end cloud computing resources – especially from remote sensors and devices in Internet of Things systems.

In one development AT&T made its FlexWare system for implementing virtual network functions cloud-ready, a move that enables FlexWare devices that virtualize routers and firewalls to connect directly to AWS data centers.

AT&T also introduced Private Mobile Connect for secure access from mobile devices to AWS, either through public networks or using AT&T's NetBond system for virtual private network connections to the cloud. And AT&T Threat Manager, a log and security alert monitoring system, was updated to deliver its continuous monitoring services for AWS customers.