5 Companies That Came To Win This Week
The Week Ending Dec. 7
Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Pivotal Software hiring AWS superstar James Urquhart to be the company's director of platform architecture.
Also making the list this week are six solution providers getting awarded agreements for Microsoft software licenses and subscriptions for the U.S. government, big data startup Looker raising $103M in funding, CRN's Product of the Year winners and The Channel Company's Women of the Channel event.
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.
Pivotal Software Snags AWS Superstar
Pivotal Software scored big in the personnel department this week when it hired James Urquhart, general manager of Amazon Web Services' Learning Services business, to be Pivotal's director of platform architecture.
The hire is seen as something of a coup for Pivotal, the Platform-as-a-Service software developer that went public earlier this year. Urquhart is well-known in the PaaS world.
At AWS, Urquhart was responsible for overseeing the development of software and a services platform for online and classroom learning applications used at AWS and other Amazon businesses. He also has decades of engineering executive experience from working at Cisco and Dell.
At Pivotal, Urquhart will join the CTO field organization that works with customers on their technology strategy and leveraging emerging innovations such as cloud-native applications and data-intensive systems.
Six Firms Win $3.2B In DoD Contracts For Microsoft Products
Six major government solution providers were awarded multiple-award, firm-fixed-price blanket purchases agreements for Microsoft software licenses and subscriptions for the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies.
The contracts, worth an overall estimated value of $3.17 billion, call for providing Microsoft software, both perpetual licenses and annual subscriptions, for the Defense Department, the U.S. intelligence community and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Winning the awards under the blanket purchase agreements through the General Services Administration Federal Supply Schedule are CDWG Government, Dell Federal Systems, GovConnection, Insight Public Sector, Minburn Technology Group and SHI International.
Rising Big Data Superstar Looker Raises $103 Million In Series E Funding
While a lot of venture capital has been invested in big data startups in recent years, funding rounds that exceed $100 million are still relatively rare. So big data analytics software developer Looker Data Sciences caught everyone's attention this week when it raised $103 million in Series E financing.
The latest round brings Looker's total funding to $280.5 million.
Looker, based in Santa Cruz, Calif., develops a cloud-based data analytics platform and business intelligence software. The company reported that sales grew 70 percent year over year between Oct. 31, 2017 and Oct. 31, 2018. During that time the company added 500 new customers, bringing its total to 1,600, and grew its employee roster to 600 in seven offices around the world.
CRN's 2018 Products Of The Year
And congratulations are due to the 14 vendors whose IT products were the winners for CRN's 2018 Products of the Year awards. CRN editors selected the product finalists for 22 technology categories for the IT channel, then asked solution providers to choose a winner based on how the products rate on technology, revenue and profit opportunities, and customer demand.
Record Number Attends Women Of The Channel East 2018
The Channel Company's Women Of The Channel (WOTC) 2018 event took New York's Midtown by storm this week as more than 900 attendees -- the largest WOTC event yet -- came to network and learn leadership lessons to take back with them to their respective companies.
Speakers included Good Morning America's Laura Spencer, adventurer and author Alison Levine, and author and nonprofit CEO Lauren Leader-Chivee, who talked about taking risks, lifting each other up, and the strength of diversity. Executives from companies such as Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM also stepped into the spotlight during the event to share personal stories of their trials and triumphs that helped shape them into the people they are today, as well as offer some advice that they've picked up during their journeys.
One year after the start of the #metoo movement, 39 percent of women said men have a better understanding on how to treat them, while 29 percent said there have been more programs dedicated to their advancement, according to new research by The Channel Company, which surveyed attendees at the Women of the Channel Leadership Summit East in Manhattan.