CRN

🧵 Here's where you can vote throughout our 2026 Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs: okt.to/pelQcX. -- 1/4

Access to data prepped for use in AI training, inference, and so on helps ensure storage systems aren't bottlenecks to full GPU and AI app performance. @CRN looks at 13 storage vendors that brought their best AI offerings to NVIDIA’s GTC conference. tinyurl.com/5a49ybx2

Round 2 of the 2026 @CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is underway! Vote here: okt.to/gq3MoI. Who do you think is heading to Round 3 from the Transformation region? 🤔 Here are the Round 2 matchups: - Christine McElduff, @Cloudflare vs. Scott Lannum, @HP - @ChannelSkell, @AWNetworks vs. @jennsea1, @RedHat @RedHatPartners

“Turbulence” is just one word to describe what solution providers are feeling in their day-to-day business as constant fluctuations in hardware prices and availability have them striving to meet customer needs while keeping their eye on the bottom line. For our March cover story, @CRN Senior Editor @DylanOnChips spoke with the following solution provider executives about how the ripple effects of the memory shortage are wreaking havoc on their businesses: - C.R. Howdyshell, CEO, @Advizex, a @Myriad_360 company - Harry Zarek, president, @CompugenInc - Kent Tibbils, vice president of marketing, ASI Corp. - Marty Bauerlein, chief consumer and commercial officer, @dandh - Stefan Hellersperk, president, ACS Computer Services - Mike Turicchi, vice president of marketing and strategic relations, @InfoNCS - Dave Guzzi, global channel chief, @intel - Alexey Stolyar, chief technology officer, International Computer Concepts (ICC) - Prashant Singh, vice president of revenue operations and partner alliances, @InsightEnt okt.to/xnhiC6

STARTING NOW: Channel Madness 2026 Round 2!! Vote now through Tuesday, March 24, at 12 PM ET: crn.com/rankings-and-l….

With no end in sight for tech shortages, is there a silver lining? @CRN Assistant News Editor Mark Haranas explores the topic in this week's edition of CRN Channel Essentials. Subscribe to receive the latest edition of the newsletter in your inbox today, featuring insights from Irfan Khan, CEO of Google-focused solution provider @cloudsufiinc, @nutanix CEO @RajivRamaswami and Krish Prasad, who leads @Broadcom’s @vmwarevcf Division: okt.to/OloD3M. CRN Channel Essentials is a weekly newsletter written by a CRN editor on a particular news story, topic or trend that is pertinent to the channel community. @NutanixPartners

Channel Madness 2026 Round 1 results 👀: @CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers has prevailed as the winner in the tournament’s first-ever overtime matchup against Schneider Electric’s Gordon Lord in the Acceleration region! Rogers will face @OpenText’s Michael DePalma—a quarterfinalist in last year’s Tournament of Chiefs—in Round 2. @jfollett breaks down all of Round 1’s results here: @OpenTextSec okt.to/Hjhlpf

ENDING IN 15 MINUTES: Vote in the Channel Madness Round 1 overtime matchup between @SchneiderElec’s Gordon Lord and @CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers: okt.to/x3uHAB

You have less than an hour left to vote in the Channel Madness Round 1 overtime matchup between @SchneiderElec’s Gordon Lord and @CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers! Vote now: shorturl.at/WzhNW

For the first time ever in Channel Madness history, a matchup is headed into overtime to determine who will move on to Round 2! The overtime matchup between @SchneiderElec’s Gordon Lord and @CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers runs today until 4 PM ET. @jfollett details the rest of the Round 1 results here: okt.to/wkPaY5

You have *10 MINUTES LEFT* to vote in Round 1 of Channel Madness! 😅 Vote here before it's too late: crn.com/rankings-and-l….

Channel Madness Round 1 ends in one hour!! 🚨 Vote here before polls close today, Wednesday, March 18, at 12 PM ET: crn.com/rankings-and-l….

Nutanix has launched its new Agentic AI software stack, with deep integration with @nvidia, that offers a cloud operating model to drive NVIDIA GPU efficiency and agentic AI transformation for customers. Here’s what you need to know about the new @nutanix Agentic AI offering with NVIDIA: @NutanixPartners okt.to/i0ZMoB

Nvidia’s Americas channel chief said this year’s award-winning channel partners stand out for embracing the company’s AI infrastructure technologies to help the many enterprises that are still trying to figure out how to best use AI. crn.com/news/ai/2026/n…

.@Hammerspace_Inc is looking to grow its presence with partners & customers that need to prep data for AI inference apps. Co-founder and CEO David Flynn, in an exclusive interview with @CRN, discussed Hammerspace’s expanded relationship with @nvidia. tinyurl.com/3e3zxw6s

IBM has completed its $11 billion acquisition of @confluentinc and its real-time data streaming technology, the companies said today. Technology synergies between Confluent’s real-time data platform and @IBM’s technology portfolio, including watsonx.data, IBM Z and IBM MQ, will provide artificial intelligence applications and agents with critical AI-ready data, according to the companies.

Channel Madness Round 1 UPDATE 👀 Two matchups are currently tied ahead of the final day of voting: - @SchneiderElec’s Gordon Lord and @CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers have been trading shots all day and are dead even in the Acceleration region - @Corero’s @MichelleRagusa has overcome a deficit and is currently tied with tournament rookie, @Fortinet’s Landon Scott Meanwhile, in the Innovation region, will @1Password’s Larissa Crandall hold off @exabeam’s Craig Patterson? 🤔 @jfollett has all of the details ↓ @FortinetPartner okt.to/uigMPd

Amazon Web Services (AWS) partners who will lead the future are solution providers who understand that AI isn’t just a product but critical to how businesses operate and are managed, Brian Bohan, director and global lead for @awscloud’s consulting center of excellence, explained. Learn what the AWS partner of the future looks like, about the typical AI migration cycle, and the new generation of AI-native partners, according to Bohan: @AWS_Partners okt.to/fXVT7e

Channel Madness Round 1 voting ends in 24 hours!! Some of the wildest matchups of the round are taking place in the Evolution region, where @Sophos’ @Scottjbarlow was trailing Friday but then surged ahead over the weekend to jump out in front of @PureStorage’s Hope Galley. @jfollett has all the details from Round 1 so far: @SophosPartners @PurePartners okt.to/ETMbuQ

Dell Technologies has continued its belt tightening in Fiscal Year 2026, bringing its total headcount down by 27 percent from Fiscal Year 2023 to Fiscal Year 2026. @StevenJBurke has the details: okt.to/RHsqnw

Congratulations to the U.S.- and Canada-based solution providers recognized on our 2026 Tech Elite 250 list! These companies have achieved top-tier status within the partner programs at some of the leading IT vendors. You can learn about them all here: okt.to/UgMevC.