The VAR Guy

When Microsoft begins shipping a small business IP phone system code named “Response Point” later this year, many pundits expect Cisco to counter aggressively with rival IP phone systems. The VAR Guy begs to differ. Instead, he expects Cisco to call in reinforcements from Southern California.

The VAR Guy briefly studied computer science in college before moving in with a bunch of pals, finding a girlfriend and switching his major to an easier topic. But during his brief tour of duty in his college’s computer lab, he did learn a bit about Fortran, one of the earliest programming languages. Now comes word that Fortran pioneer John Backus has died. In one famous quote, Backus in 1979 told an IBM internal magazine, “Much of my work has come from being lazy.” Now that’s the kind of computer science hero The VAR Guy can envy. Thank you for your work and rest in peace, Mr. Backus.

Business intelligence VARs, listen up. Sure, SAS Institute has been quiet this year. But The VAR Guy hears SAS Channel Chief Miles Mahoney is planting the seeds for several spring announcements.

Admittedly, the headline is a bit of a stretch. But The VAR Guy believes Intel has reached a key inflection point: Even as the chip maker works to promote Windows Vista, Intel continues to expand its relationship with Red Hat.  A decade ago, Intel would have never announced big-time partnerships with Microsoft rivals during a major Windows product launch. But these days, Intel–and its customers–are much more “open” to alternatives.

SWsoft, the company that makes the popular Parallels virtualization software for Mac OS X and Windows, is preparing an encore for departmental servers, The VAR Guy hears. The move could provide VARs with an innovative solution for running Windows, Mac OS and Linux side by side on a single departmental or small business server.

When it comes to writing about Nortel, The VAR Guy feels a lot like Charlie Brown. You’ll recall how Lucy always pulled the football away just when Charlie Brown was ready to kick it. Again and again, good ol’ Charlie Brown falls for the prank, swings his leg, misses the ball and lands flat on his back. Good grief. Charlie Brown never learns. Apparently, neither does The VAR Guy and other IT watchers… especially when it comes to covering Nortel.

Unified communication is, um … actually, there are dozens of definitions. But during an Ingram Micro event this week in Nashville, Microsoft managed to deliver the clearest definition yet.

The VAR Guy is in Nashville for an Ingram Micro event. Nice people, nice city … but he wants to get home to New York. Unfortunately for him, a snow storm is about to bury the Big Apple. Can you help him get home?

The open source community has had The VAR Guy’s ear since yesterday’s big Red Hat announcements. Much like Microsoft’s influence over software developers in the 1990s, Red Hat has seemingly rallied all of the major open source application providers to support the company’s forthcoming online store–known as the Red Hat Exchange (RHX).

Talk about strange timing. About a month ago, The VAR Guy was visiting Cisco Systems’ headquarters to meet with several of the company’s channel executives. As the conversation began to focus on unified communications, The VAR Guy told Cisco they needed a killer application to really demonstrate the power of the technology. His exact words to the company were: “What you need is a WebEx-type of application.” Apparently, The VAR Guy was onto something.

After Red Hat announced a new initiative to promote integrated business applications earlier today, The VAR Guy did a little digging for more info. His key question: Would ISVs join the so-called Red Hat Exchange (RHX)?

Among a flurry of announcements from Red Hat today, the open source giant unveiled the Red Hat Partner Federation and the Red Hat Exchange (RHX). The big question: Will third-party application providers support the Red Hat initiatives?

It’s either a slick marketing move or a great technology initiative–or perhaps even both. F5 Networks checked in with The VAR Guy this morning, telling him about a new strategy to optimize networks for Microsoft applications.

If you’re a small VAR, keep your eyes on much bigger rivals in the weeks ahead. Their financial performance could give you some clues about IT spending trends for the rest of the year.

Novell and Microsoft this evening announced that HSBC is standardizing on Windows and SuSE Linux. A good win, to be sure. This news follows two impressive Novell business developments that The VAR Guy covered earlier today.

The Microsoft Dynamics team, which focuses on ERP, plans to work closely with 500 ISVs to target five vertical markets: manufacturing, distribution, retail, services and public sector. Microsoft outlined its vertical market ERP strategy at the company’s Convergence show this week in San Diego.

Mark Enzweiler kept his promise. In November, the Red Hat channel VP told The VAR Guy that he was piecing together a next-generation partner strategy for the company. Several small announcements followed, but Red Hat’s ultimate channel strategy “Roadmap” didn’t surface until today. An encore, involving some sort of Red Hat online store and/or a complete open source platform, could be announced as soon as tomorrow.

The VAR Guy has taken some shots at Novell over the years. Having written about the company since 1992, he hasn’t been upbeat about Novell’s prospects since, um, the arrival of NetWare 4 more than a decade ago. But two Novell-related developments caught his attention today.

The VAR Guy truly enjoyed watching Cisco and Nortel trade blows at last week’s VoiceCon in Orlando. During the conference, the two networking giants used partners and the media in a bid to one-up each other in the unified communications market. But VoiceCon was just Round One.

When The VAR Guy heard about Microsoft’s latest ERP strategy, he got déjà vu all over again. The company says it plans to increasingly promote Microsoft Office as a front-end to its Dynamics ERP software. Hmmm. Microsoft has partnered with SAP on a similar strategy in the enterprise space.

Nuclear reactors didn’t melt down. Power grids didn’t go dark. But a lot of IT managers and integrators spent the weekend troubleshooting time issues related to the early arrival of Daylight Savings.

The VAR Guy doesn’t write too frequently about giant integrators like Computer Sciences Corp. But the company’s new SaaS Acceleration program caught his attention.

The VAR Guy scratched his head in confusion when he heard about Microsoft’s new partnership with CompUSA. The retailer hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire lately. You might even say the company is going down in flames as it closes stores across the country.