This week’s Channel People Making Waves includes individuals at IBM, Dell, Vonage, Metrigy and more. They are the people featured in the top news stories you’ve viewed on the Channel Futures website during the last seven days.

Let’s start with the bad news first. Akamai has laid off 300 workers in the company’s attempt to focus on the highest growth areas, according to its CEO. As much as layoffs are hated, this wasn’t a scenario in which a tech company was making record profit. Find out more in our slideshow above.

When it comes to actual growth, IBM has much to brag about. Partners now generate 40% of the company’s software revenues, up from 15% just two years ago. Rob Thomas, IBM’s senior VP of software and chief commercial officer, said this was definitely a “partner play.”

Finally, experts had a lot to share during the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. This included Reggie Scales, SVP global sales applications, at Vonage, who said that “we’ve all gone from being telco leaders to now being more SaaS-focused, value selling, solution selling.” He added that this can’t be accomplished without the value MSPs bring. Learn more from other panelists and sessions highlighted in this roundup.

And that’s a wrap. If you didn’t catch the previous edition of Channel People Making Waves, you can find it here. Until next time.