5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Oct. 4, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their 'A' game to the channel.

The Week Ending Oct. 4

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is McAfee for a series of new technology and partner program initiatives unveiled at the company’s MPower conference this week.

Also making the "Came to Win" list is Microsoft for cutting small-business users some slack with the upcoming end of support for Windows 7. Also making the list are Intel and AMD for significant product and pricing announcements in the competitive desktop processor arena. And integration technology developer SnapLogic makes the list for an impressive funding round.

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 5 Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

McAfee Rolls Out New Security Capabilities, Readies New Partner Program

Security platform developer McAfee used its MPower Cybersecurity 2019 conference this week as the launchpad for new cloud and mobile device security products.

The new MVision Insights addition to the vendor’s MVision portfolio of security products is designed to help businesses better understand the global security threat landscape, be more aware of what kinds of threats they should be worried about and what they need to do about them. The company also unveiled a slew of new capabilities and features for the MVision products.

Also making its debut was Unified Cloud Edge, combining McAfee’s cloud, web and data security capabilities into a single tool to better monitor everything that’s happening in multiple cloud environments. That makes it possible for organizations to define a single data protection or threat prevention policy that can be consistently applied across devices, networks and the cloud.

Last, but not least, McAfee said that it will roll out a new channel program in early 2020 that’s focused on providing relevant training and partner enablement around the company’s emerging technologies. That will address a lag that had developed between the program’s training processes and the company’s products that partners were trying to sell.

Microsoft To Offer Windows 7 Extended Security Updates To SMBs

Support for Windows 7 is slated to end in January 2020. But with that deadline fast approaching and many businesses still reliant on the ubiquitous desktop operating system, Microsoft this week threw its customers— and the solution providers that support them—a lifeline.

Microsoft will allow businesses to purchase continued security support for Windows 7 beyond the Jan. 14, 2020, cutoff, the company said this week. Customers will have to pay for the extended updates.

Issues such as application compatibility have led many businesses to prolong the use of Windows 7 despite the impending end-of-support date. Microsoft wins kudos for recognizing that dilemma, leading to this week’s announcement that Windows 7 users can purchase extended security updates through January 2023.

New AMD Ryzen Pro 3000 CPUs To Take On Intel vPro

AMD is bringing its third-generation Ryzen processors to the commercial PC segment with its new Ryzen Pro 3000 Series desktop processors.

This week AMD announced the global availability of the Ryzen Pro 3000 for the commercial PC industry, providing built-in security and manageability features, along with 12 cores of processor power that can speed multitasking.

AMD launched the new 3000 Series processors, along with new Ryzen Pro and Athlon Pro processors with Radeon Vega graphics, creating more competition for Intel’s vPro processors. Solution providers who work with Intel and AMD have told CRN that AMD’s new Ryzen processors give the company a new competitive edge over Intel.

Intel Slashes Price Of i9 X-Series Processors By Up To 50 Percent

Intel went on the competitive attack this week by cutting the price of its next-generation Core i9 X-series processors for the high-end desktop market by up to 50 percent.

The new processors, which will launch in November, are expected to pack a bigger bang for the buck for enthusiasts, content creators, overclockers and small businesses. The processors feature up to 18 cores and 4.8GHz in turbo clock frequency.

Most notable, however, is the pricing: The processors are 40 percent to 50 percent less expensive than the previous generation. Intel said it was cutting prices on the X-series processors to entice customers who have held back on upgrading from earlier processor generations.

Intel executives said the price cuts weren’t in reaction to AMD—one executive told CRN he expects that AMD will have to respond to Intel’s move. You can be sure AMD has taken notice.

SnapLogic Secures $72 Million To Drive Global Expansion

SnapLogic, developer of Platform-as-a-Service software for application, data and cloud integration, raised an impressive $72 million this week as the company looks to take its global expansion to the next level.

SnapLogic is riding the demand for cloud-based integration technologies as heterogeneous IT environments become the norm with businesses and organizations adopting multiple Software-as-a-Service systems.

SnapLogic raised $136 million in previous financing rounds, bringing its total funding to $208.3 million, according to the Crunchbase website.