Brian Madden, a renowned technologist, author and speaker, talks to CRN about why he ended an 18-month sabbatical to join VMware.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here are the 5-Star designees in the cloud technology space for 2018.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here are the 5-Star designees in the cloud technology space for 2018.

Converge Technology Partners, making its fourth solution provider purchase since October 2017, gains a large boost to its cloud business, a closer relationship with IBM and a huge West Coast presence.

HPE Aruba Vice President of Worldwide Channels Donna Grothjan talks with CRN about how she aims to make sure the channel program remains consistent and easy to use even as the company introduces new technologies.

Mountford has been with Riverbed as senior vice president and chief sales officer for about four years and notably spent 16 years at Cisco, where he rebuilt and ran the company's channel program.

Intel no longer plans to issue microcode updates to older Core, Pentium, Celeron and Xeon processors, and partners say that could impact smaller companies that don't update their systems as often.

"What we are most focused on in terms of growth for the business in the next 18 months is around AWS and AWS Connect (AWS's cloud based contact center)," said Nathan Ulery, the managing director of West Monroe's fast growing Performance Services practice.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here are the 5-Star designees in the security technology space for 2018.

Jenni Flinders last led Daarlandt Partners, a consultancy advising tech companies on channel strategy.

Gigamon has hired former Riverbed channel leader Michelle Hodges as its new vice president of worldwide partner sales. In her new role, Hodges will help solution providers embrace selling opportunities around security.

The workflow automation software developer wants to incorporate artificial intelligence into its platform, and now has the backing of an institutional investor experienced in software acquisitions.

Cherwell will use the financing to accelerate its global expansion and market its software for digital transformation and other service management tasks.

Jenni Flinders last led Daarlandt Partners, a consultancy advising tech companies on channel strategy.

The AWS Solution Provider Program replaces the AWS Channel Reseller Program.

Channel sales veteran Jeff Seifert is now the global channel chief at business risk intelligence vendor Flashpoint.

'During the consultative process, 90 percent of the time there's not a single product mention or a single technological concept mentioned most of the time,' Chris Gross, Sanity Solutions vice president, tells CRN.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here are the 5-Star designees in the software space, L through Z, for 2018.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here are the 5-Star designees in the software space, A through K, for 2018.

Wind River has been a player in the industrial IoT market, which has been part of a strategic priority for Intel. However, a top Intel IoT executive says the sale is 'designed to sharpen our focus on growth opportunities that align to Intel's data-centric strategy.'