Companies placed major bets on cloud, security and the data center in 2016, with six of the year's 10 most important acquisitions for the channel focused around these technology areas.

Vendors, distributors and solution providers spent a total of $133 billion on the year's most significant deals, acquiring more than 230,000 employees from companies delivering a combined $103 billion in annual sales.

Five of the acquired entities are based in California's Silicon Valley, three are based in other West Coast locations, and two are headquartered in Massachusetts. Six of the acquisitions were carried out by vendors, one was carried out by a distributor, one was carried out by a solution provider, and two were enacted by entities outside the IT industry.

Here's a look back at the 10 deals that were most pivotal to the IT channel.