5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending March 22

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win are VMware and Dell for debuting VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell's VxRail converged infrastructure system.

Also making the list this week are Mainline Information Systems for a major acquisition that will boost its presence in the New York metropolitan area, Nvidia for its push into the AI arena, Scality for its savvy hire of its first channel chief, and CloudHealth by VMware for launching an expanded channel program.

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.

VMware And Dell Debut First Jointly Developed Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure System

VMware and Dell took their relationship to the next level this week, launching VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on Dell EMC's VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure system, billed as the first hybrid cloud infrastructure product jointly engineered by the two companies.

Solution providers hailed the announcement as a game-changer for VMware and its partners, creating what one partner called a true multi-cloud operating system.

Cloud Foundation, launched in 2016, includes VMware's vSphere, vSAN and NSX technologies into a single stack that can be deployed in a public cloud or on-premises private cloud. Offering Cloud Foundation on VxRail will make it easier for partners to sell a complete, turnkey cloud system.

Mainline Information Systems Expands NYC Presence With RTP Acquisition

Solution provider Mainline Information Systems this week made one of its largest acquisitions to date in a move that significantly boosts the Tallahassee, Fla.-based company's presence in the New York metropolitan area. The deal fills a big geographic gap in the solution provider's coast-to-coast operations.

Mainline acquired RTP Technology, a Paramus, N.J. solution provider that recorded about $250 million in sales in 2018. That is expected to boost Mainline's annual revenue pretty close to the $1 billion mark.

Nvidia Makes A Big AI Play, Teams With AWS And Major Server Vendors
Nvidia unleashed a major artificial intelligence offensive this week, establishing strategic alliances with Amazon Web Services and several leading server manufacturers and unveiling new AI software libraries.

With the introduction of its new CUDA-X AI libraries, based on the chipmaker’s CUDA parallel computing platform and programming model, Nvidia is bringing together 15 Nvidia libraries for accelerating AI computing tasks, according to the company. The libraries include applications that run on Nvidia Tensor Core GPUs.

Under the new AWS relationship, AWS has introduced a new EC2 G4 cloud instance based on the Nvidia T4 Tensor Core GPUs. That will provide AWS customers with a new cloud-based platform to deploy a wide range of AI services using Nvidia GPU acceleration software such as the new CUDA-X AI libraries.

Nvidia also announced that a number of major server manufacturers, including Cisco Systems, Dell EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and others are building servers based on Nvidia’s T4 GPUs that can more quickly process AI and machine learning jobs.

Object Storage Leader Scality Taps Solution Superstar To Lead Channel Charge

Scality, a leading developer of object storage software, made a savvy personnel move this week when it hired Mark Kelly, a 20-year solution provider veteran, to lead its channel operations.

Kelly is Scality's first channel chief. He has held high-level executive positions with ePlus, OnX Enterprise Solutions and Logicalis.

Scality has already developed OEM relationships with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell EMC, Cisco, Microsoft, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.

As vice president of Americas channels, Kelly is expected to take Scality's channel efforts to the next level by building partnerships with data center solution providers and "born-in-the-cloud" partners. A major focus will be on building partnerships that develop vertical market opportunities for Scality and its partners.

CloudHealth By VMware Amps Up Channel Program

CloudHealth by VMware wins applause this week for rolling out an expanded channel partner program that includes a tiered structure based on partner certifications, revenue, growth and customer retention.

CloudHealth, which develops a public cloud management platform, also plans greater investments in its partner advisory board and highlighting partner success stories as it becomes more tightly integrated with VMware, which acquired CloudHealth in October.

The company currently has about 150 MSP partners and anticipates business growth of 30 percent to 40 percent through the channel this year.