5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Oct. 17

This week's roundup of companies that came to win includes Dell's ambitious security technology plans, VMware's channel launch of its SDN technology, Salesforce.com's move into business analytics, a big financing win by a cognitive computing startup, and a new CEO for a hot MSP startup.

Dell Outlines Ambitious Security Integration Plans

Dell executives made it clear this week that the company intends to be a major player in the security technology arena. Speaking at the Dell Security Peak Performance Conference, CEO Michael Dell and other executives laid out the company's security road map that calls for tightly integrating security into its desktop-to-data center product portfolio. First up: integrating encryption from client devices to networks and bringing security directly into network switches.

And Dell is letting it be known that partners will be a big part of this push. The company unveiled a lower-priced version of its enterprise-class SuperMassive 10000 firewall appliance solution providers can sell to SMB customers.

VMware Gives Partners The Green Light To Sell NSX

Network virtualization is hot. So VMware's announcement this week that its 25,000 channel partners worldwide can get certified and start selling the vendor's NSX network virtualization platform is a significant development for the vendor and its partners.

At its VMworld EMEA event in Barcelona, Spain, VMware introduced a new partner competency focused exclusively on NSX, along with new training and certification assets dedicated to the product.

Cisco, VMware's top rival in the software-defined networking arena, is prepping its channel base for its Application Centric Infrastructure SDN offering. But VMware's move this week to unleash its full channel to sell the SDN product appears to put the company a couple of competitive steps ahead.

Digital Reasoning Snags $24 Million In Venture Financing

Digital Reasoning, a startup developer of "cognitive computing" technology, raised $24 million in Series C financing this week led by Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse NEXT. The company's technology is used to analyze unstructured data for a range of applications, including fraud prevention, risk management compliance and security -- especially in the financial services industry.

Digital Reasoning's funding round makes it the latest big data startup to score big in the venture financing sweepstakes. The company plans to use the money to accelerate its product development, and expand its sales and strategic partnering activities in North America and Europe.

Salesforce.com Rides Its 'Wave' Into Business Analytics

Business analytics has been one of the fastest-growing areas of the IT industry in recent years, and cloud application giant Salesforce.com became a player in that space this week with its new Wave predictive analytics cloud software.

Speaking at Salesforce's massive Dreamforce conference in San Francisco Tuesday, CEO Marc Benioff introduced Wave, which he described as "analytics for the rest of us." While Benioff is known for his hyperbolic speeches, there's no denying that business analytics tools are often too complex for everyday information workers to use. If Salesforce Wave can do for BI what the vendor did with CRM applications, it could be a big win for the company and its ISV partners.

AWS Partner 2nd Watch Hires CEO, Secures $10 Million Financing

Managed services provider 2nd Watch, one of Amazon Web Services' biggest channel partners, this week hired tech industry veteran Doug Schneider as its new CEO. Schneider will be charged with leading the company through its rapid growth -- 600 percent revenue growth in its third quarter -- and geographic expansion.

Schneider, a veteran of the original dot.com boom, has served as CEO at such companies as Transaction Wireless, All Call and Genea. His background fits well with the explosive growth at 2nd Watch, which this week also raised $10 million in venture capital.