For the week ending Nov. 15, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel, including Presidio, Secuvy, CoreWeave, SAS and Snyk.

The Week Ending Nov. 15

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is solution provider superstar Presidio for a strategic acquisition that will expand its expertise and service offerings in the ServiceNow arena.

Also making the list are data security startup Secuvy for its adoption of a 100 percent channel sales model, AI infrastructure service provider CoreWeave for an impressive investment round, and data analytics giant SAS for its “synthetic data” technology acquisition that will help its customers prepare data for AI tasks.

And developer security provider Synk makes the list for its own acquisition of a company that focuses on security testing for APIs and web applications.

Presidio Boosts ServiceNow Business By Acquiring Majority Stake In Elite Partner Contender Solutions

Presidio tops this week’s Five Companies That Came To Win list for its acquisition of a majority stake in Contender Solutions, one of ServiceNow’s Elite partners, in a move that will boost Presidio’s ServiceNow business, especially around software management services and implementation.

Presidio CEO Bob Cagnazzi (pictured above) said the acquisition of Contender Solutions comes as tech leaders are seeking enterprise management services to automate processes that deliver business outcomes and provide customers with more time to drive innovation.

“We’re excited Contender is now part of Presidio to seamlessly support our clients’ ServiceNow platforms and achieve outcomes that drive their business success,” Cagnazzi said in a statement announcing the deal.

The acquisition comes just one month after Presidio purchased Internetwork Engineering to enhance its networking, data center and cybersecurity sales. Buying Charlotte, N.C.-based Internetwork also helped Presidio to better position itself to serve customers across the Southeast region of the U.S.

Contender Solutions, based in Tampa, Fla., is expected to further accelerate that geographic expansion.

Data Security Startup Secuvy Shifts To All-Channel Model For Growth Push

Secuvy makes this week’s list for its shift to a 100 percent channel model for delivery of its data security capabilities as the startup looks to accelerate its growth with the help of partners, Secuvy CEO Mike Seashols (pictured) told CRN.

Founded in 2019, Secuvy offers a set of AI-powered capabilities for securing data including discovery, classification and DSPM (data security posture management) —the latter of which has become a fast-growing segment in the cybersecurity industry.

Crucially, Secuvy also provides the ability to link various data sources together—both structured and unstructured data—to create a true “data map,” Seashols said.

Secuvy is looking to work with partners that are seeking a highly scalable and accurate data security approach, Seashols said. Some of the partners the startup is already working with include Schellman, Optiv, Wipro, Tevora and ePlus.

And with the all-channel commitment, partners can be assured that “we’re not going to compete with you,” Seashols said. “We’re going to go in there collaboratively.”

Cisco, Pure Storage Among Investors In Nvidia-Backed Startup CoreWeave

AI hyperscaler CoreWeave was a big winner in the funding arena this week when the startup confirmed that it had closed a $650 million secondary share sale with Cisco Systems and Pure Storage among the big-name investors.

The investments were the latest evidence of CoreWeave’s rise as a top provider of Nvidia GPU-based infrastructure and cloud computing services that customers rely on for AI development tasks and running AI workloads. CoreWeave looks to compete with cloud giants Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud in AI services.

BlackRock, Coatue and Fidelity were also among the investors. CoreWeave had a $19 billion valuation in May following a $1.1 billion Series C investment round. Overall, the startup has raised a total of $14 billion.

SAS Boosts GenAI Capabilities With Synthetic Data Technology Acquisition

Data analytics and AI software developer SAS made a significant move to boost its capabilities in the generative AI space this week with the acquisition of the principal software assets of Hazy, a pioneer in “synthetic data” technology.

The move will enhance SAS’ data and AI technology portfolio, providing customers with “critical and timely” synthetic data generation capabilities as they step up their use of AI, the company said.

“Our acquisition of Hazy’s IP represents a pivotal step in our commitment to innovation in the next generation of data management and AI,” SAS CEO Jim Goodnight said in a statement. “Hazy is a pioneer in bringing synthetic data to market as a viable enterprise product, and analysts rank it among the top software providers in its category.”

Synthetic data technology is used to help overcome issues with data availability, access or quality. It’s regarded as key for companies implementing AI systems, especially in industries with strict data privacy and governance regulations.

Snyk Expands API Security Testing With Probely Acquisition

Snyk this week acquired a vendor that focuses on providing security testing for APIs as well as web application security.

The integration of technology developed by the company, Probely, will enhance Snyk’s developer security software and enable greater support for AI-related development, Snyk Chief Innovation Officer Manoj Nair told CRN.

“API testing is going to be super important for secure adoption of AI-native application development and actually building AI apps,” Nair said.

Founded in 2016, Probely offers what Nair described as a “modern” approach to DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing), something which Snyk’s platform has not offered.

The acquisition is the 11th for Snyk since its founding in 2015. It follows the vendor’s January acquisition of Helios, which specialized in capturing security-relevant data from live applications.