For the week ending March 6, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel including Alkira, Nasuni, ThreatLocker, Apple and Qlik.
The Week Ending March 6
Topping this week’s 5 Companies that Came to Win list is network Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider Alkira for unveiling a major revamp of its channel program to help partners grow their services revenue.
Also making this week’s list is Nasuni for its strategic acquisition of Resilio, a developer of high-performance file synchronization and edge acceleration technology.
ThreatLocker got the cybersecurity market’s attention with its expansion into zero trust network and cloud access tools while Apple wowed with a wave of new products including new MacPro laptops and M5 processors.
And business intelligence and data integration tech developer Qlik scored in the personnel department this week, naming channel and sales veteran Michael Gray as the company’s new global channel chief.
Alkira Unveils Connect Channel Program To Help Partners Cash In On AI-Driven Network Modernization Demand
Network Infrastructure-as-a-Service specialist Alkira this week rolled out Connect, a completely overhauled channel program aimed at helping partners grow their services revenues because of increasing demands on enterprise networking due to AI.
The time is right for the new program because legacy networking models aren’t keeping pace with enterprise cloud and AI tasks, Doug Houghton, Alkira director of global channels, told CRN.
“AI is impacting everyone in our space. Legacy networks don’t accommodate the elasticity that an AI application needs, from distributed LLMs to all of the different agentic agents that are sitting in different places,” he said.
Connect is expected to drive significant growth for Alkira, and Houghton has a goal of doubling revenue through partners.
The new Connect program was built with partner profit at the forefront and includes tiered margins, quarterly rebates, MDF and SPIFFs to help global systems integrators, MSPs and AI-focused partners attach high-margin services on every deal as opposed to reselling product, Houghton said.
Though Connect Services Attach Plays, part of the new program, partners will be able to standardize and scale high-margin offerings such as network modernization assessments, segmentation and compliance design, and migration, the company said.
Nasuni Adds High-Performance File Synchronization Capabilities To Its Tech Portfolio With Acquisition
Nasuni, a leading provider of unstructured data management technology, makes this week’s Came to Win list for its strategic acquisition of Resilio, a developer of high-performance file synchronization and edge acceleration technology, Nasuni said Wednesday.
The acquisition strengthens Nasuni’s ability to improve end-user access to data files “by removing friction from how distributed teams access and collaborate on shared content,” Nasuni said in a statement announcing the acquisition.
Combining Nasuni’s cloud-native file services with Resilio’s synchronization and caching technology will create a unified platform that Nasuni said will provide high-speed access to shared files across offices, remote sites and environments.
“Our customers already rely on Nasuni to manage, protect and activate their enterprise file data on a global scale,” Nasuni CEO Sam King said in a statement. “With Resilio, we’re extending our platform to help improve enterprise productivity while continuing to simplify operations and protect IT environments.”
Resilio’s technology, including its flagship Active Everywhere Platform, delivers high-performance file access even in bandwidth-constrained or remote environments. The integration of Resilio’s technology with the Nasuni File Data Platform will reduce dependence on VPNs, stand-alone synchronization tools, and disconnected point solutions while expanding support for a broader range of enterprise workloads, according to the companies.
ThreatLocker Unveils Zero Trust Network And Cloud Access
ThreatLocker got the cybersecurity market’s attention this week with its expansion into zero trust network and cloud access tools, with the aim of delivering a massive protection boost for MSPs against phishing and network exposure threats, ThreatLocker co-founder and CEO Danny Jenkins told CRN.
The major product portfolio expansion was announced in connection with ThreatLocker’s Zero Trust World 2026 conference in Orlando, Fla.
ThreatLocker’s debut of zero trust network and cloud access offerings brings the company’s deny-by-default approach in a bigger way to SaaS and mobile devices, Jenkins said. The unveiling follows a year of work by ThreatLocker, which has built 14 new data centers—a dozen of which are in the U.S.—to support the products.
The new offerings provide a dramatic increase in security capabilities for MSPs that are often on the front lines of protecting against accelerating phishing attacks, Jenkins said.
With the zero trust cloud access product, ThreatLocker is protecting against the effectiveness of compromised credentials in key SaaS applications such as Office 365, Salesforce, Jira and ConnectWise. For zero trust network access (ZTNA), ThreatLocker has eliminated exposed ports and the need for VPNs while enabling users to access internal resources securely, as if they were in the office.
Apple Debuts New Laptops, MacBook Neo And M5 Chips
Apple reminded everyone this week of the company’s product design and development prowess, unleashing a slew of cool new products this week.
Some of the new offerings are powered by Apple’s new M5 Max and M5 Pro processors, which leverage Apple’s Fusion Architecture. The M5 Max boasts a new up-to-18-core CPU with six super cores and 12 all-new performance cores, optimized for power-efficient, multithreaded pro workloads.
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops incorporate the new processors, alongside new AI capabilities and the Apple-designed N1 wireless networking chip. The latest MacBook Air laptop, available in 13-inch and 15-inch models, also runs on the new M5 chip.
Also making their debut were the iPhone 17e, a new addition to the iPhone 17 line, and the new iPad Air.
Qlik Names Channel Veteran Michael Gray Its New Channel Chief
Business intelligence and data integration tech developer Qlik this week named former Arctera and Veritas channel and sales executive Michael Gray as the company’s new global channel chief.
“Michael will lead our global channels and alliances organization with a focus on driving alignment, increasing partner impact, and enabling partner-led growth,” said Qlik CRO Bian Hamel in a LinkedIn post Monday announcing Gray’s appointment.
“With his extensive experience in developing high-impact global partner programs, I know that he’s going to make a huge impact here,” Hamel said.
Gray joins Qlik from Arctera, a provider of data compliance, resilience and protection systems and services, where he served for nearly a year and a half as vice president, global channels and alliances.
Before his stint at Arctera, Gray was regional vice president of cloud solution sales at Veritas Technologies for more than two and a half years. Before that he worked at Oracle for more than five years, including holding positions of regional vice president of North America alliances and channels for Oracle Open Cloud Infrastructure and regional vice president of Oracle Open Cloud software sales.
Gray, whose formal title is senior vice president, global channels and alliances, fills the vacancy created in January when David Zember left the company.
