Monday Morning Impact – October 31

Dell Partners with System Integrators for IoT Deployments

Dell has announced that Systems Integrators (SIs) have now been added to the Dell Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions Partner Program, which currently has an ecosystem of over 50 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). This program expansion is reflective of Dell’s effort to build a holistic ecosystem of IoT solutions that span industries, including energy, manufacturing and transportation.

“We’re passionate about providing our customers with a comprehensive IoT ecosystem to help them innovate and move an idea from concept to reality,” said Jeff Brown, Vice President, Global IoT and Embedded PC Sales, Dell EMC, Global OEM Solutions. “By adding SIs into the mix, we are helping to bridge the gap between IT and OT, and transform IoT into a profitable market reality.”

The program combines a global, multi-tiered network of experienced technology providers including SIs, ISVs, and IHVs, all supported by Dell’s broad portfolio of IoT-enabling assets, which are designed to help organizations develop, deploy and maintain leading-edge IoT solutions.

Channel Impact^®
Partners are in the midst of evaluating the IoT trend with an eye towards better understanding potential opportunities and differentiators that their companies might leverage. Efforts to bring integrators more tightly into that environment are likely to solidify channel relationships and drive further success.

Lenovo, Nimble Storage Partner in the Data Center

Lenovo and Nimble Storage have announced a strategic partnership intended to transform data center capabilities by delivering new levels of efficiency and scale, and reducing the amount of time that IT teams spend managing infrastructure through the use of predictive analytics supporting the automation of service activities. This partnership brings together Lenovo’s server technology with Nimble’s All Flash storage offerings and InfoSight Predictive Analytics.

In the first wave of these offerings, Lenovo announced its ThinkAgile CX series of converged infrastructure solutions, which has storage capabilities powered by Nimble Predictive All Flash arrays. Lenovo plans to integrate its XClarity infrastructure management software with Nimble InfoSight, which leverages predictive analytics to automate the support experience. The two companies also intend to work together in creating “self-healing” system management capabilities across the entire data center infrastructure, including storage, compute, and networking.

“This strategic relationship with Nimble enables us to deliver a state of the art all flash offering, further extending the industry’s best customer experience by leveraging the predictive analytics platform, InfoSight, all while providing a lower TCO,” said David Lincoln, executive director and general manager of Server, Storage and Solutions Business Unit, Data Center Business Group, Lenovo. “Through this new alliance, we are able to deliver a continuous integration of hardware, software, and analytics support, establishing the means to develop the next generation all flash data center and drive strategic value for our customers.”

Channel Impact^®
The alliance aims at increasing data center resiliency through early problem identification and automated intervention across the infrastructure stack. This initiative is expected to provide IT professionals the opportunity to redeploy resources from day-to-day maintenance tasks to strategic revenue-generating projects that will create value and drive business growth.

Avnet Completes the Acquisition of Premier Farnell plc

Avnet announced that it has completed its acquisition of Premier Farnell plc in an all cash merger for approximately £691 million.

Headquartered in Leeds, United Kingdom, Premier Farnell is a global distributor of electronic components that utilizes a digital platform to provide access to a variety of products, services and development software. The company supports a registered community of more than 430,000 members in 36 countries with multi-channel sales and marketing resources that combine traditional field sales and contact resources with ecommerce interfaces.

“By pairing our deep expertise in large volume broadline distribution with Premier Farnell’s specialization in proof of concept and design, we can offer true end-to-end solutions that accelerate a customer’s time-to-market and moves their products seamlessly from prototype through to volume production,” said William Amelio, Chief Executive Officer of Avnet. “As technology reaches deeper into more products and innovation proliferates through the Internet of Things, the ability to reach a wider base of engineers earlier in the design process will be critical to our future growth and success.”

Channel Impact^®
This move is likely to substantially expand Avnet’s customer base and worldwide footprint.