Also in this week's top stories: BlackBerry launches its Classic smartphone and Unisys names a new CEO.

Perficient said Thursday it is acquiring Zeon Solutions, a 400-person IT consulting firm focused on developing and supporting e-commerce services.

Cosentry rolls out new managed security and compliance offerings in response to a bevy of data breaches and more stringent regulatory enforcement.

Equinix adds IBM SoftLayer to its burgeoning network of partners, bringing with it direct access to IBM's full portfolio of cloud-based enterprise applications -- a first for Equinix's emerging platform.

Data breaches, critical vulnerabilities and dangerous cybercriminals made the biggest news headlines in 2014, while two technology giants oversaw historic changes to their product portfolios.

They'll wait to do a tech refresh, and move off on-prem. They'll also consider a hybrid model. It's really driven by established vs. emerging.Via itbestofbreed.com

CRN assembles a number of lists and rankings throughout the year, including the Solution Provider 500, the Fast Growth 150 and the Tech Elite 250. CRN recognizes the 26 solution providers that did earned a spot on all three lists with our first-ever Triple Crown honors.

The back-up and recovery company shows off its new swanky headquarters to CRNtv. Channel Sales VP David Maffei talks about Carbonite's partner program and new CEO.

Oracle got into the cloud computing game fairly late, but it's now growing much faster than some of its key competitors, its top executives said during its Q2 earnings call.

BlackBerry COO Marty Beard says the company's new pact with Samsung will include partners and that building up those relationships is one of CEO John Chen's 'top three strategic goals.''

Tiffani Bova, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, outlined the top 10 IT cloud and business trends.Via itbestofbreed.com

Tiffany Bova, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, outlined the top 10 IT cloud and business trends.Via itbestofbreed.com

Solution providers tell CRN the Sony Pictures breach could have been detected if the firm had visibility over its network and data, strong security policies and the tools to enforce them.

Mark Conley, the former longtime channel chief at storage data protection software vendor CommVault, is bringing his channel expertise to flash storage developer SolidFire.

IT Best of Breed pulled together 10 critical areas that solution providers can address when assisting clients in bolstering their security posture. Via itbestofbreed.com

From the Cisco-VMware SDN battle to the sudden ouster of Juniper Networks' CEO, here's a look back at 10 of the biggest networking stories of 2014.

The BlackBerry Classic includes some familiar features that loyal BlackBerry customers have loved -- as well as some new and improved specs with the hope of enticing a new generation of users.

Here, CRN highlights 10 startups that we've deemed to be the coolest in 2014 by finding innovative ways to separate from the pack.

To protect against tfiles becoming compromised, Covata's software issues keys for accessing data on a onetime basis after vetting users, says CEO Trent Telford.

VMware pretty much owns server virtualization, but many startups are doing interesting and innovative things with storage, management and networking. Here are the 10 coolest of 2014.