5 Companies That Came To Win This Week
For the week ending May 28, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.
The Week Ending May 28
Topping this week’s Came to Win list is cloud security provider Zscaler for a savvy acquisition that will add deception technology to its security portfolio.
Also making the list this week are cloud security startup Wiz for an impressive funding round, startup 22dot6 for exiting stealth with its leading-edge software-defined storage technology, Aruba Networks for being the first to launch a wireless product based on the new 6GHz spectrum, and SAP for an initiative to help partners deepen their engagements with customers.
Zscaler To Acquire Deception Technology Startup Smokescreen
Cloud security tech provider Zscaler struck a strategic acquisition deal this week to buy Smokescreen Technologies, a Boston-based developer of software used to proactively hunt for emerging adversary tactics and techniques using deception technology.
Zscaler plans to integrate Smokescreen into its ZIA secure web gateway and its ZIA zero trust network access offerings. That will provide users with the ability to precisely detect highly targeted attacks, ransomware and lateral movement attempts.
The Smokescreen deal comes just a month after Zscaler inked a deal to buy cloud infrastructure entitlement management platform company Trustdome.
Cloud Security Startup Wiz Raises $120M In Salesforce-Led Round
Cloud security tech developer Wiz reportedly raised more than $120 million in a funding round led by cloud application giant Salesforce. That would bring Wiz’s total funding to more than $350 million just 16 months after the Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup’s launch.
Wiz notched a $1.7 billion market valuation earlier this year following a $130 million Series B round of funding.
Kudos also go to DataOps and data governance software developer Immuta for raising $90 million in a Series D round of funding and to API security startup Salt Security for closing a $70 million Series C funding round.
Startup 22dot6 Exits Stealth, Promises Unlimited Storage Across Any Arrays, Clouds
Startup 22dot6 caught the data storage industry’s attention this week when it exited stealth mode with its Valence software-defined storage technology that the company promises will work with any data on any hardware or cloud platform.
Valence is said to provide a bridge between virtualization, hardware abstraction, data services and storage accessibility.
22dot6 was founded by storage industry veteran Diamond Lauffin, who previously started Nexsan.
Aruba Wi-Fi 6E Access Point Will Create Spectrum ‘Superhighway’
Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Co., got a head start on the competition this week when the company launched a Wi-Fi 6E access point, making it the first enterprise networking vendor with a product that takes advantage of the newly opened 6GHz spectrum.
The new Wi-Fi 6E (extended) 630 Series campus access point is the first in a product line of wireless solutions that operate in the 6GHz band that was opened up in April 2020 by the Federal Communications Commission for unlicensed use in the U.S.
Aruba said that expansion more than doubles the amount of RF spectrum available for Wi-Fi use, akin to doubling the capacity of a four-lane highway into an eight-lane superhighway.
As businesses bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic and add voice, video and IoT devices to their wireless networks, demand for Wi-Fi capacity is increasing. Aruba is positioning itself to meet those demands.
SAP Looks To Deepen Partner-Customer Engagements With New Go-To-Market Plan
SAP stepped up its channel efforts this week when the company unveiled a new go-to-market and revenue-share plan for partners and announced several initiatives to make engagements with SAP easier for partners.
The new PartnerEdge Cloud Choice, flex model, revenue sharing and go-to-market plan is designed to reward partners for going beyond selling and implementing SAP software to cover the entire customer lifecycle, including helping customers get the most value out of SAP technology, expanding customer adoption and use of SAP cloud products, and encouraging contract renewals.
To improve SAP-partner communications, the company is offering the SAP for Me dashboard that provides partners with a single point of access for managing communications with SAP and viewing information about their SAP relationship including certifications status and business plans. By the end of 2021 the SAP for Me dashboard also will offer information about customer cloud projects and contract status and renewals.
The company also created the Partner Success Organization with people devoted to working with partners as they serve customers. The organization also will take feedback from partners about working with SAP.