Last Week's News, By The Numbers

Here's a look at five news stories of interest to the channel from last week, focusing on key numbers within those stories.

35 percent – Highest potential discount for new partners of security startup LookingGlass, which is planning a big channel expansion. The program, LookingGlass Cyber Guardian Network, was rolled out in late July and revamps its approach to the channel. Laurie Potratz, the company's new channel chief, told CRN the program is "progressive," providing three tiers: premier, elite and master. Where the program sets itself apart is in removing revenue requirements, instead basing its tiers on mutually agreed targets and business plans.

200 – Number of employees that Amazon Web Services pioneer Datapipe will add to its payroll after buying Adapt, the fastest-growing managed service provider in the United Kingdom. Richard Dolan, Datapipe's senior vice president of marketing, said acquiring a company with more clout and name recognition inside the United Kingdom will make Datapipe more competitive in the request for proposal (RFP) process on the other side of the Atlantic. Adapt is an AWS consulting partner. Adapt's customers will have access to Datapipe's expertise in everything from cloud, automation and DevOps to compliance, security and governance, as well as the support teams across North America, Europe and Asia.

$3.1 billion – Value of business Cisco did in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the fourth quarter of its 2016 fiscal year (which ended July 30), a 3-percent decline that CEO Chuck Robbins blamed largely on service providers. Yet some of the drop was tied to June's Brexit vote, in which U.K. voters approved a referendum to remove the country from the European Union. "We saw (U.K.) customers pause," Robbins said. "We saw them just kind of slow a bit because they're uncertain. And we also saw the impact of the currency devaluation which you would expect. But we remain very committed there."

16 percent – Year-over-year growth for Cisco in its security business, the largest growth area for the networking leader during the fourth quarter of its 2016 fiscal year. It was the third straight quarter in which Cisco posted double-digit revenue growth in security. “[Security] has changed the game for Cisco,” said Robert Keblusek, CTO of Downers Grove, Ill.- based Sentinel Technologies, a Cisco Gold partner.

45 – Number of days (from Aug. 19) solution provider CompuCom expects to complete its acquisition of the Internet of Things division of managed IT service provider Extensys. Will Winn, senior vice president of IoT solution sales at CompuCom, based in Plano, Texas, told CRN the deal would equip his company with Extensys’ “breadth and expertise at the field maintenance and monitoring level.” Extensys, based in Oldsmar, Fla., approaches the IoT market by delivering unified communications with life safety and emergency notification services.