5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Sept. 2, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending Sept. 2

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is HP Inc. for completing its blockbuster acquisition of Poly in a move that will expand HP’s product offerings for a hybrid work world.

Also making this week’s list are AMD for the launch of its much-awaited Ryzen 7000 processors, Kyndryl for winning the highest partner classification from Cisco, and Micron Technology for plans to build a new memory chip fab in the U.S.

And Nerdio makes the list for its pitch to Microsoft channel partners who are looking for ways to earn the points needed to achieve the Azure Infrastructure designation in Microsoft’s new Cloud Partner Program.

HP Completes Huge Poly Acquisition To Boost Its Hybrid Work Portfolio

HP Inc. this week completed its $3.3 billion acquisition of videoconferencing and peripherals equipment company Poly in a move that will expand HP’s role as a supplier of products for a hybrid work world.

With millions of workers splitting their time between their company and home offices, many are investing to improve their home office setups with new notebook, laptop and desktop PCs and printers—HP’s core product portfolio—and the kinds of videoconferencing equipment, cameras, phones, headsets and other products that Poly provides.

Channel partners said the acquisition transforms HP from a device manufacturer to providing a more complete lineup of hybrid work and collaboration hardware, software and services.

AMD Launches Much-Anticipated Ryzen 7000 Desktop Processors

Stepping up its competitive offensive against archrival Intel and other competitors, AMD this week debuted its new Ryzen 7000 Series desktop processors, which the company is targeting toward gamers, content creators and other desktop PC users that require high-performance systems.

The Ryzen 7000 launch event gave AMD the opportunity to strut its technical stuff. The new processors, based on AMD’s Zen 4 CPU microarchitecture, have as many as 16 cores and deliver up to 15 percent faster gaming performance than competing processors, according to the company.

AMD also promises that the Ryzen 7000, AMD’s first 5nm processors, provide significant gains in energy efficiency. The chips are expected to be available starting Sept. 27.

Kyndryl Achieves Coveted Cisco Global Gold Integrator Certification

IT infrastructure service provider Kyndryl has achieved Cisco Global Gold Integrator status, the highest level available for Cisco partners that’s held by only five other companies.

Scoring the much sought-after Global Gold Integrator certification is a major win for Kyndryl, coming less than a year after Kyndryl was spun off from IBM’s services business in November 2021. Kyndryl, with annual revenue around $19 billion, immediately joined the ranks of the industry’s largest global solution providers after gaining independence from IBM and is No. 6 on the CRN Solution Provider 500.

The Global Gold Integrator status highlights Kyndryl’s ability to sell, deliver and support Cisco solutions worldwide. It comes on the heels of a partnership Kyndryl and Cisco forged in June under which Kyndryl added Cisco’s products to its Network and Edge Computing Solutions practice.

The two companies are also co-developing private cloud services, network and edge computing offerings, software-defined networking offerings and multi-network WAN offerings with advanced security capabilities.

Micron To Invest $15 Billion In New Idaho Semiconductor Plant

This week Micron Technology unveiled its plans to spend $15 billion to build a new chip manufacturing facility in its home state of Idaho.

Micron, the only U.S.-based computer memory chip manufacturer, said the plant will be the first new memory manufacturing fab built in the U.S. in 20 years. The plant will be built alongside Micron’s R&D center at the company’s headquarters. It’s the first of multiple investments Micron plans for U.S. facilities.

News of Micron’s new fab follows President Joe Biden’s signing of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 that’s designed to spur domestic chip manufacturing. This week Biden acknowledged Micron’s announcement, calling the company’s plans “another big win for America.”

Nerdio CRO Joseph Landes

Nerdio Enabling MSPs To Achieve New Azure Designation

Nerdio wins applause this week for pitching what it says is an easier way for solution providers and MSPs to achieve the new Azure Infrastructure designation in Microsoft’s new Cloud Partner Program.

Microsoft’s Azure Infrastructure designation is granted to partners on a points system and channel partners need a minimum 70 points—based on tasks and achievements that demonstrate partners’ Azure skills, performance and customer success.

Nerdio develops technology for deploying and managing virtual desktops in Microsoft Azure environments. This week Nerdio CRO Joseph Landes told CRN that Nerdio can help partners get those points by working with Nerdio’s technology.

A partner can earn 30 points for deploying a certain number of new tenants in Azure, for example, something that Landes said can be easily done with Nerdio. Partners also earn points for deploying advanced services like Microsoft’s FSLogix profiles or networking in Azure, which is done by default when deploying Nerdio, the CRO said. And deploying Nerdio helps solution providers grow their Azure consumed revenue, earning another 20 points in the process.

Nerdio, of course, wins when partners work with its products. But with Microsoft’s new partner program requirements on the horizon, partners are looking for all the help they can get.