Stories You Missed: Gartner Names Leading SD-WAN Vendors; AT&T, Verizon Pay Fine

Gartner ranked the world’s leading SD-WAN vendors, and a carrier partnered with Zoom.

Each week we show you the most interesting stories on our website. This time around our editors covered a wide variety of news. We learned about purchasing trends in unified communications. We reported on a big data center acquisition. And lastly, we covered a big industry leaderboard pertaining to SD-WAN and edge networking.

Take a look at the seven stories below.

7. Channel People on the Move: Fusion Connect, Intrado, Telesystem

Insight Enterprises’ Joyce Mullen

Former Dell channel chief Joyce Mullen landed at a new company.

More than a dozen channel personnel joined new companies last month, in addition to Mullen. Big names, including Lexmark/Tech Data’s Sammy Kinlaw, made the headlines.

Scroll through the gallery.

6. Spending on On-Premises Products Nosediving

UC/collaboration tool spending increased last quarter, according to Synergy Research Group. But there’s a catch.

Synergy reported an 18% decline in on-premises product spending. However, video conferencing equipment purchases did tick up last quarter.

“Any vendor whose focus is on legacy on-premises products, and who doesn’t have a good product story for cloud and hosted solutions, will struggle mightily,” Synergy Research’s chief analyst and research director said.

Edward Gately has the scoop.

5. DataBank Adding 44 Zayo Data Centers in zColo Acquisition

DataBank announced plans to acquire Zayo’s colocation division.

The deal helps Zayo focus on its core network business, while giving DataBank partners an increased geographical reach. The financially undisclosed purchase will close around the end of the year.

Get details of the acquisition.

4. Lumen-Zoom Partnership Puts Pressure on 8×8, Vonage, RingCentral

The CenturyLink enterprise unit now known as Lumen Technologies teamed up with Zoom.

Zoom joins Lumen’s unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) suite, while offering its embedded network security.

“This will provide these channel partners the opportunity to diversify their UCC portfolio offerings with the highly coveted Zoom service with minimal uplift to the existing go-to-market motion already in place with Lumen,” Lumen’s senior product manager said.

Learn more about the partnership.

3. Verizon, AT&T to Pay $116 Million for ‘Shocking’ Conduct in Whistleblower Case

The carriers paid a nearly record-breaking settlement for allegedly overcharging California government customers.

The plaintiffs said AT&T and Verizon failed to fulfil cost-saving service stipulated in their contract. A Verizon spokesperson denied the allegations.

“Verizon settled these meritless claims to avoid a protracted legal battle that would only have benefitted the plaintiff and his attorneys,” the spokesperson said.

Read about the controversy and see how much AT&T and Verizon paid apiece.

2. Windstream Bankruptcy Filing: The Complete Saga

The entire 19-month process is here for you to see.

The business communications giant exited bankruptcy late last month, having eliminated a massive portion of its debt. Many partners who paused their relationship with the company during its bankruptcy are now looking to return, according to Windstream Enterprise’s president.

We decided to put together a full timeline of Windstream’s chapter 11 proceedings.

Take a look at what Edward Gately assembled.

1. Gartner ID’s New SD-WAN Leaders in ‘Magic Quadrant’

The top SD-WAN vendors earned a key recognition this week.

VMware once again triumphed in Gartner’s WAN Edge Magic Quadrant, followed closely by Fortinet and Versa Networks.

We also saw two key departures from the Magic Quadrant, and one company explained why it asked to be excluded.

Check out which SD-WAN vendors made the leaderboard.