The VAR Guy

Even if you want to ignore the healthcare vertical, vendors won’t let you. Intel caught The VAR Guy’s attention today by announcing a new notepad-like device for medical personnel.

The new tablet computer, developed with Austin, Texas-based Motion Computing, boasts wireless connectivity, RFID support, a digital camera and other tools that push computing right to the hospital bedside. The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center collaborated with Motion Computing on the device’s development, according to the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal.

Still, tablet PCs can get lost or stolen—which means VARs will need to find ways to secure data on the devices. One potential alternative is ViewSonic’s ViewPad technology. In order to comply with HIPAA and other privacy regulations, ViewSonic’s tablet devices contain no hard drive and instead forward medical information privately and securely to local servers. If the device disappears or gets stolen, there’s no risk of patient data walking away, too.

HP has finally woken up to the software market. As The VAR Guy predicted four years ago—and The Wall Street Journal reported today—HP wants to be the industry’s next big software company.

During a recent trip to a coffee chain in New York, The VAR Guy noticed new digital signage advertising a special brew of the day.

The Macintosh will never succeed in small business because it doesn’t run accounting software. That myth may finally die, now that Apple and Intuit are hosting free events in Apple stores across the country.

Microsoft has finally released a service pack for SQL Server 2005 that makes the database fully compatible with Windows Vista and Office 2007. The service pack is welcome news for SQL Server partners, who had been in a holding pattern as Microsoft rolled out its new desktop operating system and productivity suite.

Forget Sin City. The real action is in the other Las Vegas—located in New Mexico. That’s where Solana Technologies, a wireless integrator, is deploying a mesh WiFi system for the city’s police department.

The VAR Guy knows Windows Vista will eventually run on most corporate desktops. But early sales in the consumer market have been softer than some analysts expected. For those of us who covered Windows 95′s launch more than a decade ago, Windows Vista has been a yawn. These 10 questions—and their answers—reveal why Vista isn’t the hit some pundits expected.

The VAR Guy received an invite today to attend Microsoft Convergence, a CRM-type event March 11-14 in San Diego. The VAR Guy is intrigued. After several false starts, is Microsoft finally gaining some serious momentum in this market? Perhaps he’ll find the answer in San Diego.

The grape vine just sent The VAR Guy a rather interesting tip. A big networking company  is prepping a new storage strategy. The initiative will involve VoIP and Ethernet VARs. Details should surface in about two weeks.

Are managed services hot or hype? New research by CompTIA suggests solutions providers see real opportunities in the MSP sector. The top five investments organizations plan to make in managed services are (1) security; (2) storage, backup and disaster recovery; (3) Web or e-mail hosting; (4) network monitoring and administration; and (5) application subscription (i.e. software as a service).

During dozens of executive roundtables in 2005 and 2006, The VAR Guy heard CIOs express interest–and doubt–in RFID. Is 2007 the year RFID finally catches on?

A recent lawsuit alleges that Dell pumped up its revenues and profits through a secret rebate program with Intel. Now comes word that Lenovo may have a similar deal with Intel. For VARs and investors alike, these alleged deals make it difficult to truly measure how PC companies are performing. The VAR Guy isn’t sure what to make of all the rumors.

Did MIT ban deployments of Windows Vista? Not quite. At least one trade magazine says “Vista Flunks at MIT,” but the university tells The VAR Guy that’s not really the case.

The VAR Guy is keeping an eye on 4G Metro, a solutions provider that specializes in WiFi for public transit.

Is The Oracle of Omaha abandoning The Oracle of Silicon Valley? Not quite, but The VAR Guy hears that a Berkshire Hathaway company has decided to jump from Oracle/Siebel to Centric CRM. That’s one small step for open source applications and one giant leap for the tiny CRM specialist.

Virtualized servers are the rage. But virtualized desktops could be next. That’s the message from Margaret Lewis, director of commercial ISV marketing at AMD.

When IBM announced its so-called Open Client Solution earlier this week, The VAR Guy wondered: Do any customers actually want open solutions that easily run across Windows, Linux and Mac OS? The answer, according to Adam Jollans, a Linux strategy manager at IBM, is “absolutely yes.”

The VAR Guy is catching up on email from a few old sources. One of them mentioned that Astaro Corporation, which develops unified threat management (UTM) security appliances, has launched a Managed Service Provider Program.

There’s nothing worse than a geek who lacks business skills. If you fit that scenario, check out UC Irvine’s Situational Leadership for IT Managers course March 10 and March 17.

The VAR Guy, like everyone else, has been waiting for 802.11n to become an official WiFi standard. But technical hurdles and vendor debates have repeatedly delayed the higher-speed wireless standard.

ADTRAN is using a familiar formula in a bid to grow sales this year: Develop IP telephony solutions, recruit some strategic partners and take aim at the SMB market.

While U.S.-based IT companies seek to establish a foothold in Asia, Buffalo Technology is moving in the opposite direction.

The VAR Guy will be watching closely when the LinuxWorld Open Solutions Summit kicks off Feb. 14 in New York. Here are six trends and key developments to note ahead of the show.