5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Oct. 6

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Oracle, which used its Oracle OpenWorld extravaganza as a launch pad for a number of new cloud and software products that challenge competitors like Amazon Web Services.

Also making the list are Intelisys for several initiatives that assist partners, including a program that ensures that solution providers get the commissions they are due from carriers; Digital Guardian for rolling out a comprehensive new partner program; Extreme Networks for moving to buy Brocade Communications Systems' data center networking assets without waiting for Broadcom to complete its acquisition of Brocade; and Zvelo for its new technology for securing connected devices on IoT networks.

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.

Oracle Launches New Software Offensive At OpenWorld Extravaganza

Software giant Oracle reminded everyone this week just how much of a technology powerhouse it is, unveiling a wave of new products that challenge the company's many competitors.

Oracle took direct aim at cloud rival Amazon Web Services with more than a dozen new services that commit the company to cloud-based development and computing methodologies, as well as cutting-edge applications. That effort includes building out advanced data center infrastructure, adding new capabilities across its PaaS and SaaS product portfolios, and designing highly automated software to support more devices, data and workloads.

Founder and CTO Larry Ellison introduced a new release of Oracle's flagship database Sunday and he wasn't shy in touting its breakthrough features and capabilities against those offered by AWS. He contrasted the advanced self-administering capabilities and automated security features of the new Oracle Database 18c, for example, and bragged about the database system's 99.995 availability guarantee.

Ellison also introduced the Oracle Management and Security Cloud, the vendor's highly automated, cloud-based security platform.

Intelisys To Fix Commissions Errors For Partners Through New Precision Payment Program

Master agent Intelisys this week launched its Precision Payment Program, an initiative focused on uncovering mistakes that carriers and vendors make when paying out partners on their monthly commission statements.

Payment mistakes are an all-too-often occurrence for the channel and Intelisys told CRN that it has uncovered and corrected incorrect payouts to partners in the $40,000 to $50,000 range, and even one mistake worth $150,000 for one partner.

The new program creates a dedicated Proactive Partner Solutions team that analyzes commission payments between carriers and sales partners. Partners sign up for the program and provide Intelisys with their order information with a supplier. Intelisys will then put their payments through a five-step process to ensure partners are being paid the correct amount, on time.

Intelisys also wins applause for expanding its cloud training program and rolling out new tools to help partners close more deals. The company made the announcement at its Channel Connect event this week.

Digital Guardian Launches New Global Partner Program

Digital Guardian wins kudos for this week's launch of a new channel program as the security technology company takes a major step toward becoming a channel-first company.

The new Synergy Global Partner Program unifies the best components of regional programs that Digital Guardian has around the world and combines them into a single global partner program. The revamp includes three program tiers and a new partner portal that has been in beta.

The program also includes marketing development funds, deal registration and business planning resources. But training will be a big focus of the new program, providing in-person training as well as online and webinar training. Digital Guardian has also been expanding its dedicated channel team and providing clear rules of engagement for all employees

The new program builds on other steps Digital Guardian has taken over the last three years to evolve from direct to partner-led. The channel now accounts for three quarters of the company's sales in the U.S. and 100 percent of international sales.

Extreme Networks To Buy Data Center Assets Directly From Brocade, Won't Wait For Broadcom

Extreme Networks isn't waiting anymore. This week the company said it would buy data center networking assets directly from Brocade Communications Systems' within the next 30 days, rather than wait until Broadcom completes its $5.9 billion acquisition of Brocade.

Broadcom announced the deal to acquire Brocade nearly one year ago. But the acquisition has faced delays this year while it is reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Broadcom still expects to wrap up the acquisition by the end of this year.

Broadcom's plan was to sell off some of Brocade's assets once it completed the acquisition, including selling Brocade's data center networking business to Extreme under a deal announced in March.

This week Extreme said it would buy the data center business directly from Brocade for $55 million – essentially the same price it planned to pay Broadcom. Extreme anticipates the business will generate more than $230 million in annual revenue.

Zvelo Unveils IoT Security Technology To Detect Compromised Devices

There has been a lot of focus recently on the potential security threat posed by unsecured devices on Internet of Things networks. This week security company Zvelo took steps to help remedy that by introducing IoT security technology that uses artificial intelligence to automate the way organizations discover and profile IoT devices on a network and identify ones that are compromised.

Many devices being connected into IoT networks today are shipping with limited or no security capabilities, making them vulnerable to distributed denial of service attacks and posing a potential security risk to corporate networks.

Zvelo's technology continuously monitors the behavior of devices connected to a network, looking for abnormal behavior or malicious activity. The system provides an API that OEM partners use to link their systems and ingest data from Zvelo, including device profiles and data on compromised devices.