CRN’s Five Companies That Came to Win edition for the week ending April 10, 2026, featured Lenovo, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Caylent, NWN, and Plugable. The five were selected for distinct channel-business developments: an acquisition, partner-program changes, an acquisition by an AWS partner, a cybersecurity service launch, and an investment tied to channel expansion. This identifies that specific edition; it does not establish that it was the latest edition as of October 8, 2026.
What the five companies did
| Company | Development CRN highlighted | Channel significance |
|---|---|---|
| Lenovo | Closed its acquisition of enterprise storage provider Infinidat; deal terms were not disclosed. | Expands Lenovo’s enterprise-storage position with Infinidat’s storage and backup product families. |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Introduced or updated multiple partner initiatives, including a unified Partner Central hub and Partner Revenue Measurement. | Changes partner resources, program benefits, and incentives rather than introducing a consumer product. |
| Caylent | Acquired Pronetx, a customer-experience consultancy with Amazon Connect expertise. | Extends the AWS partner’s AI-focused services into customer experience. |
| NWN | Launched NWN Cybersecurity, combining in-house services with managed detection and response through Arctic Wolf. | Adds security services to NWN’s managed-services offering. |
| Plugable | Received a minority equity investment from Acer and said it planned to expand channel presence. | Supports growth in distribution and channel sales for its laptop-peripheral business. |
Lenovo: acquisition expands its enterprise-storage portfolio
CRN reported that Lenovo closed its acquisition of Infinidat, whose product families include InfiniBox SSA all-flash arrays, InfiniBox hybrid flash and disk arrays, and InfiniGuard backup appliances. The transaction terms were not disclosed. CRN also reported that Infinidat had raised $370 million cumulatively and had a $1.6 billion valuation in 2017; those are historical figures reported in the 2026 roundup, not current valuations or independently audited measurements.
AWS: partner programs, tools, and benefits
AWS made the list for a collection of partner initiatives rather than a standalone consumer product. CRN highlighted a unified Partner Central hub, Partner Revenue Measurement, the Partner Greenfield Program, benefits for Think Big for Small Business, cash benefits for managed services, and an AI assessment fund. The roundup reported a network of 130,000 AWS partners; that is the figure stated in the 2026 article, not a current independently verified count.
Caylent: Pronetx acquisition adds customer-experience expertise
AWS partner Caylent acquired Pronetx, a consultancy specializing in customer experience and Amazon Connect. CRN described the deal as a way to extend Caylent’s AI-focused services into customer experience on AWS. Caylent CEO Valerie Henderson framed the rationale this way: “the intelligent enterprise is not complete until customer experience catches up.”
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NWN: cybersecurity combines in-house services and MDR
NWN launched NWN Cybersecurity with in-house penetration testing and virtual chief information security officer (vCISO) services, alongside managed detection and response (MDR) delivered through an Arctic Wolf partnership. CRN’s coverage also described ransomware protection as a service and round-the-clock detection, mitigation, and resolution.
NWN CMO Andrew Gilman described the company’s offerings as a “fully managed penetration testing as-a-service platform that’s ours that we’re deploying. And we have ransomware protection as-a-service, which is built in-house here,”. CEO Jim Sullivan said the combination meant “now you have full-stack managed services, along with a managed security player, all embedded into one pane of glass,”. In a separate CRN article, Sullivan said the offer addresses safer environments across on-premises and cloud settings and multiple domains and security solutions.
Plugable: Acer investment accompanies channel expansion
CRN reported that Acer made a minority equity investment in Plugable, a maker of laptop peripherals including docking stations and external GPU enclosures. Plugable said it intended to expand its channel presence. CEO Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy said, “With the investment, we were able to almost double our channel and field sales team, so we’ve been expanding distribution and our channel partners—and that’s been our fastest growing part of our business,”. CRN reported nearly 700 Plugable channel partners in the 2026 article; the figure should be read as reported there, not as a current count.
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The five developments are not directly comparable on one performance scale: they include a completed acquisition, partner-program changes, a service launch, and an investment. A useful comparison is what each change could mean for channel participants, while distinguishing completed events from programs or expansions described as new or intended.
Rank #3
- New reach or capacity: Lenovo’s acquisition adds storage offerings; Caylent’s deal adds customer-experience expertise; Plugable’s investment is tied to channel expansion.
- Partner economics and enablement: AWS’s initiatives concern partner tools, programs, and benefits.
- Expanded service offering: NWN’s launch combines in-house capabilities with an external MDR partner.
- Evidence limits: CRN’s roundup reports these developments but does not provide a shared measure of financial performance or outcomes across the five companies.
CRN’s roundup is the source for the selection and reported company developments; its separate NWN coverage supplies additional cybersecurity detail. The edition establishes which companies appeared in the week ending April 10, 2026, not which companies appeared in the newest weekly edition as of October 8, 2026.
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Rank #4
- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
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