The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy did’t attend CA World in Las Vegas last week. But he digested information from a bevy of sources. He hears CEO John Swainson set the tone for an upbeat but relatively low-key event. For CA, that’s a welcome change from the repeated scandals, executive changes and customer showdowns the company used to face. Here are five reasons to believe CA really is a transformed company–and three reasons to remain concerned about the CA’s future.

The VAR Guy didn’t serve brunch today. Instead, he was busy landscaping his sprawling Long Island Gold Coast estate–all 0.18 acres of it. He finally checked his email in this evening. It was filled with buzz about Microsoft and open source CRM. Hmmm. What is Steve Ballmer up to now?

The VAR Guy has written extensively about Microsoft’s problems. But today, he got a stunning reminder about the company’s power. It takes Microsoft only 10 hours of business to exceed Red Hat’s entire quarterly profit. Skeptical? Check out the math, and nine other facts about Microsoft’s profits.

The VAR Guy didn’t intend to pick on Novell when he woke up this morning. But he has to admit: His eyes rolled back in disbelief when he read TheStreet.com’s story headlined “Novell Turns It Around.” Is this the Novell you all know — or is it merely a financial writer trying to pump up a company that remains in transition?

The VAR Guy was half-right. He figured MySQL would launch a partner program during this week’s big customer and developer conference in Santa Clara. He also expected the open source database provider to announce plans for an IPO later this year. Alas, Wall Street may have to wait a little longer.

The VAR Guy is choosing his words carefully for this blog entry. He doesn’t know for certain if Dell plans to pre-load Red Hat Linux on desktop PCs. But circumstantial evidence pointing to that possibility is mounting. Here are the facts.

Symantec is set to announce quarterly results on May 2, but The VAR Guy is focused on the company’s longer-term business. And he’s here to tell you: Something big is coming, folks. And it involves an online showdown with up-and-comer Trend Micro.

Cisco Systems is showing no mercy in the unified communications market. CEO John Chambers wants to bury Microsoft and Nortel. Now, he’s calling on a massive software partner to help knock out the competition.

If you’re a solutions provider seeking to develop hosted applications, it might be time to give Salesforce.com a call. Here’s why.

Welcome to Sunday Brunch for April 22, 2007. Here’s a look at items The VAR Guy is watching this week.