On the road again.

That was the theme for the Channel Partners/Channel Futures edit team this week, despite the year winding down. Our Lynn Haber went to Las Vegas for the Cisco Partner Summit, Edward Gately visited RingCentral ConnectCentral in San Francisco (and later dropped by Scottsdale, Arizona, for PlanetOne’s end-of-year event), and I made my way to Palm Springs for Synnex Varnex. We covered 4,000 miles, and saw the fruits of our labor represented in two of the top stories of the week.

Here’s our top seven.

7. Telarus Signs Thrive Networks, Sharpen Technologies

The Utah-based master agent and its 4,500 partners added the managed services of Thrive Networks to their portfolio, including disaster recovery, cloud, security and networking.

Telarus is growing its managed security services, and Thrive’s offerings should help customers with compliance.

Telarus also announced a deal with Sharpen Technologies, which manufactures an omnichannel cloud contact center platform. Telarus later announce a partnership to add the mobility optimization platform of vMOX.

Check out write-up on Telarus’ new partnerships.

6. Oracle to Buy SD-WAN Vendor Talari

Stop the presses! It’s breaking news!

In probably the biggest story of the year in SD-WAN, Oracle Corp. announced plans to purchase Talari Networks. Multiple market reports have placed Talari in the top 5 for pure-play SD-WAN vendors.

Oracle did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but we know that it’s the biggest acquisition in the space since VMware acquired VeloCloud.

Read the story, which has some analysis from The 2112 Group, C3 Technology Advisors, and a partner of Talari.

5. Tech Data Partner Summit 2018 Featuring HPE, Microsoft

Sometimes we get the privilege of going to conferences in our own backyard.

Edward Gately was on the scene in Scottsdale to cover Tech Data‘s Partner Summit last week. In addition to his stalwart reporting, he compiled a gallery of the event, including keynotes and the expo hall.

Take a look at the gallery.

4. Cisco Addresses Collaboration Portfolio Shortcoming

Lynn Haber took her talents to Las Vegas for the Cisco Partner Summit, where the vendor outlined a cloud-first strategy to its partner audience.

Lynn covered a host of product and strategy announcements. One such announcement was the addition of collaboration integrations and products “to bolster demand and dissipate user disappointment.”

Get details on the integrations.

3. AT&T, Verizon Battle in 5G ‘Cage Match’ at PlanetOne Event

Two of the biggest players in our space went toe-to-toe at the last stop of PlanetOne‘s Tech Tour.

Kevin Leonard, AT&T’s vice president of alternate channels, and Chris Lewter, Verizon’s vice president and general manager of SMB sales and distribution, took the stage for a “5G Cage Match,” in which they talked about what partners can expect as 5G becomes widely available.

T-Mobile and Broad Sky Networks joined them.

Read Edward Gately’s recap of the event.

2. Avaya Unveils New Mission Statement, Tagline and Brand Presence

The unified communications provider launched a new mission statement, tagline and …
…
… refreshed look reflecting its own transformation and its strategic vision for the future. The company said it has been acquiring and investing, and researching and developing products and services during the past year.

Read what John Colvin, Avaya’s head of global partner marketing, told us.

1. RingCentral CEO: Cisco, Avaya, Mitel No Match for Born-in-Cloud

Our big story for the week comes from Edward Gately’s explorations in San Francisco at RingCentral ConnectCentral.

The UCaaS provider, briefed attendees on its vision, and its founder and CEO took some swipes at Cisco, Avaya and Mitel.

Read the recap of what Founder Vlad Shmunis said about his rivals.

That’s all for this week, folks. May your work week be short and your Turkey Day long!