5 Stories We Didn’t Get to Write, Week of Nov. 13

While The VAR Guy works his hardest each week to bring you the hottest channel and vendor news, some stories inevitably have to get left on the cutting room floor. These stories may not have gotten the attention they deserved, but we would be remiss to leave them out entirely. Here are the five stories we wish we had more time to write about this week, but didn't.

Nexenta Joins Cisco Solution Partner Program: Open Source-Driven Software-Defined Storage solution provider Nexenta has achieved Cisco C240 M4 certification for its NexentaStor 4 storage solution. The company is also the latest member of the Cisco Solution Partner Program, giving it the ability to create and deploy Internet of Everything-centric solutions in collaboration with Cisco.

"NexentaStor delivers unified file and block storage services, runs on industry standard hardware like Cisco UCS, and includes all data management functionality to meet the needs of enterprises around the globe,” said Thomas Cornely, chief product officer at Nexenta. “Enterprises are turning to Cisco UCS and NexentaStor for a storage environment that gives superior performance at a low cost."

Episerver Expands Global Channel Program: Digital marketing and commerce solution provider Episerver has added 45 new partners globally this year, signaling an increase in demand for its solutions, according to the company. Approximately 14 of the 45 new partners added in 2015 are based in North America, including Layer One Media, Techtonic Group and AJi Software.

Episerver also added 15 new product extensions to its portfolio in 2015, all of which are delivered through the company’s technology partner ecosystem.

Trend Micro, VCE Expand Alliance for Secure Hybrid Cloud: Trend Micro has joined the VCE Select Program, which allows the company to bundle its Deep Security offering with VCE converged and hyper-converged infrastructure systems. The alliance expands upon Trend Micro and VCE’s existing relationship by providing customers with access to automated security for VDI deployments, additional compliance solutions and new ways to build and scale enterprise applications, according to the companies.

“By joining the VCE Select Program, VCE and Trend Micro can offer customers a seamless experience securing their cloud and data centers, allowing them to focus on business objectives rather than infrastructure compliance and security,” said Partha Panda, vice president of global channel and strategic alliance at Trend Micro. “The close alliance with VCE confirms our commitment to deliver best-in-class security solutions to our customers as they are adopting our joint solution to secure their enterprise workloads.”

Juniper Networks Appoints New Security Chief Technology Officer: Juniper Networks (JNPR) has appointed Kevin Walker as security chief technology offer, responsible for using his knowledge of cybersecurity best practices to build out the networking company’s security portfolio and its overall security strategy, both internally and externally.

Walker is a 25-year veteran of the IT industry and most recently served as vice president and assistance CISO for Walmart.com. His other career highlights include executive-level security roles at Cisco Systems, Symantec Corporation and Veritas Software.

Brocade Hires New Vice president and Security CTO: In other hiring news, Brocade (BRCD) has named former NVIDIA executive Hadi Nahari as vice president and security chief technology officer, responsible for furthering the company’s product security strategy, architecture and portfolio as well as its overall security ecosystem.

Brocade also promoted Chief Technology Officer and Chief Scientist David Meyer as a Brocade Fellow, acknowledging his contributions to the company and the IT field, according to the announcement. Meyer joined Brocade in 2012 and is the founding chair of the OpenDaylight Technical Steering Committee.