Best of the Week: New CenturyLink Contract, Top SD-WAN Providers, More

Take a deep breath, everyone.

We read about layoffs in March. April was full of drama, including bankruptcy, M&A action, lawsuits and a lot more bankruptcy.

But as we enter May, the storm clouds appear to have withdrawn. One company did file for bankruptcy this week, but one report says the process won’t drag on as other cases have.

Otherwise we reported on a largely peaceful week in the channel. Dell and Microsoft unveiled a major collaboration at Dell’s annual conference, Ivanti recognized its top partners and CenturyLink shared good news about its new partner agreement. Our top story involves a former Cisco employee who’s taking a newly created executive position at an IT company.

Take a stroll through our top 7 most read stories of the previous week!

7. Sungard AS Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Could Exit ‘Within Days’

We’ll get this one out of the way.

Sungard Availability Services has a plan in place to reduce its $1.3 billion debt as it files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. And it’s happening quickly.

The company officially filed its petition for bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York. A partner at the Wilk Auslander law firm said Sungard AS “will almost certainly” exit bankruptcy within 30 days.

Read Edward Gately’s coverage of the proceedings.

(Editor’s Note: Sungard AS exited Chapter 11 less than 24 hours after filing.)

6. CenturyLink, Level 3 Contract Consolidation a ‘Win-Win’

CenturyLink delivered a new partner agreement.

Lisa Miller, president of wholesale, indirect channels and alliances shared details of the agreement, which she said will simplify the partner experience. She and her team had been tasked with creating a contract that covers companies of essentially two companies – CenturyLink and Level 3 Communications.

Watch Craig Galbraith’s interview with Miller at last month’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo.

5. Dell, Microsoft Collaborate to Deliver Azure VMware Solutions

Dell Technologies and Microsoft together will provide VMware cloud infrastructure on Microsoft Azure.

The two companies described the offering as “fully native, supported and certified.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Azure customers can now access all of VMware’s capabilities on the public cloud.

Azure VMware Solutions lets customer migrate VMware on-premise workloads to Azure and run them in a seamless fashion, the companies said.

Lynn Haber wrote about the announcement the companies made at Dell Technologies World 2019.

4. Network Consulting Services, CDW, NCR Among Ivanti’s Partners of the Year

The IT asset management company handed out 11 awards to partners earlier this week.

Network Consulting Services was the biggest winner, as it took home honors for best expert solution provider (ESP) of the year and employee Brian Hoskins won sales engineer of the year. Ivanti recognized several different categories of partners. Ingram Micro won distributor of the year.

See the winners.

3. CP List Revisited: 20 Top SD-WAN Providers for 2019

One of our most popular galleries resurfaced again.

Edward Gately asked industry experts about which SD-WAN vendors they think are the best. Some of their answers came as no surprise: the “three Vs” (Versa, Viptela, VeloCloud) and of course perennial contenders Aryaka and Silver Peak. But several lesser-known companies made the group. Ever heard of Mako Networks?

Check out Gately’s list to see the full 20.

2. Channel People on the Move: Intelisys, AT&T, Telarus

We recapped the channel’s latest personnel changes.

Cablecos Spectrum Enterprise and Comcast Business both snagged…… talent, and AT&T crowned a new channel chief. The rest of the channel was well represented, including Rackspace, which hired a new leader for the Americas, and Telarus, which bulked up its legal apparatus.

Craig Galbraith assembled his monthly gallery for your viewing pleasure.

1. Cisco Vet Becomes Rubrik’s First Chief Commercial Officer

The cloud data management company, tapped Wendy Bahr to oversee several direct and indirect market efforts.

As chief commercial officer, she will lead Rubrik’s hardware and software alliances, channel partners, inside sales and professional services. The company describes its go-to-market strategy as “100% channel.”

Bahr worked at Cisco for 18 years and at one point served as global channel chief.

Learn about Bahr and her new role.