5 Companies That Came To Win This Week
For the week ending Jan. 10, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their 'A' game to the channel.
The Week Ending Jan. 10
The new year is starting off in much the way it ended with Intel and AMD in heated competition to advance their processor development efforts. Both companies make this week’s Came to Win list for product announcements at the massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Also making the "Came to Win" list is Accenture for a savvy acquisition in cybersecurity, solution provider Ahead for its own strategic acquisition around cloud application development expertise, and data analytics tech company Sisense for a big score in venture funding.
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.
AMD Reveals 64-Core Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, Ryzen 4000 Series
AMD used the CES show in Las Vegas as the launch pad for a pair of impressive new processors, seeking to maintain the momentum the chipmaker built up in 2019.
AMD revealed its first 7-nanometer Ryzen processors for laptops, the 8-core Ryzen 4000 Series of CPUs, which promise ultra-high-performance for ultra-thin laptops. Those chips are expected to be used in more than 100 laptop designs this year.
The company also debuted the 64-core Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, its most powerful desktop processor to date, for $3,990. The 64 cores are double the number of cores of the Threadripper 3970X that AMD released just last fall and the same number of cores as AMD’s most powerful EPYC Rome server processors.
Intel Demos Its First Discrete GPU, Code-Named DG1
Intel took some big strides this week in its plans to expand its presence in the GPU market, demonstrating its first discrete GPU product – code named DG1 – at this week’s CES event.
The discrete graphics card is designed for use in laptops for gaming and content creation applications. DG1 is based on the same Xe GPU architecture that is powering new integrated graphics capabilities in Intel’s upcoming Tiger Lake mobile processors and the company’s first discrete GPU for servers, code-named Ponte Veccio.
Intel also said it has started shipping a special version of DG1 to software developers so they can begin developing applications that take advantage of the Xe GPU architecture.
Accenture To Buy Symantec Cyber Security Services Unit From Broadcom
Accenture is starting off the year with a strategic acquisition, striking a deal this week to purchase Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business from Broadcom in a move that will allow Accenture to offer managed services that help customers anticipate, detect and respond to cyber threats.
The planned acquisition also includes Symantec’s global threat monitoring and analysis capabilities through a network of six operations centers located in the U.S., the U.K., India, Australia, Singapore and Japan. The Cyber Security Services business unit has more than 300 employees globally.
The proposed deal comes just two months after Broadcom closed its $10.7 billion acquisition of Symantec’s Enterprise Security business, which included the Cyber Security Services assets that Accenture is now buying.
Cyber security is top-of-mind for many businesses and organizations right now and Accenture is making a savvy move with this acquisition.
Rising Channel Powerhouse Ahead Acquires Platform Consulting Group
Sticking with the topic of smart acquisitions, fast-growing channel powerhouse Ahead, No. 75 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, has bought Platform Consulting Group in a move that will boost the strategic service provider’s cloud-native application expertise.
Ahead recently merged with Data Blue, another rising channel star. The acquisition of Platform Consulting Group will allow Ahead to expand the cloud-native application development capabilities of its professional services organization and meet the growing demand for application modernization and migration services.
The acquisition also provides Ahead — already a top Dell Technologies partner — with more expertise and service capabilities around Dell Technologies products.
Business Analytics Developer Sisense Raises $100 Million In Financing, Hits $1-Billion Market Cap
Big data company Sisense got the new year off to a good start by raising more than $100 million in a Series F round of funding.
The new financing pushes the market valuation of the New York-based company to over $1 billion.
The fast-growing business analytics software developer will use the money to bolster its sales and marketing efforts and accelerate development of its analytics platform.