The VAR Guy

Kaseya, the managed services platform provider, has some strong opinions about Dell’s decision to enter the MSP market by purchasing Silverback Technologies. Here’s Kaseya’s take on the situation, which the company shared via email with The VAR Guy. While downplaying the Dell-Silverback combo, Kaseya also plans to offer Silverback customers a special deal when they migrate to Kaseya’s managed services platform.

The VAR Guy is intrigued by Switchvox. The tiny, 15-person company has big plans to integrate Asterisk-based PBXes with open source CRM software. VARs that specialize in unified communications should check out Switchvox’s strategy.

When everyone zigs, The VAR Guy zags. Here’s a prime example: Most folks at the Cisco Networkers Live conference attended a private concert last night, headlined by KISS. The VAR Guy had his ticket in hand — but suddenly decided to head home instead.

The VAR Guy spoke with Switchvox CEO Joshua Stephens today about his company. But the conversation quickly switched from open source PBX telephony systems to hiring talent. Stephens is swamped with resumes from a growing group of nomads.

Don’t misunderstand The VAR Guy: The Linksys product brand remains alive and well, and Cisco remains committed to the Linksys product line. However, Cisco CEO John Chambers suggested that the Linksys brand “will become a Cisco brand over time” during a question-and-answer session on July 24. Plus, there’s talk of TelePresence gradually moving into the SMB market. Here’s the scoop.

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers moments ago called on political leaders to develop a national broadband policy, which would help the United States close the digital divide and compete more effectively on a global scale. He also called on the United States to change its definition of broadband to 100Mbps connections.

Here’s the final part of The VAR Guy’s five-part countdown, highlighting 50 trends and takeaways from the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Oregon.

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers sounded particularly bullish today, when he addressed 10,000 partners and customers at the Networkers Live conference in Anaheim, Calif. Here are 10 key takeaways from his keynote.

If you were to track managed services on the traditional technology adoption curve, where would you place them? Hmmm. Let’s ask an MSP platform provider.

Here’s part four of The VAR Guy’s five-part countdown, highlighting 50 trends and takeaways from the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Oregon. Items 20-11, with the final chapter of our list to follow soon…

Hewlett-Packard is shaking up the thin client market, but rival Wyse Technology doesn’t sound rattled. During a quick chat with The VAR Guy earlier today, Wyse CEO Tarkan Maner predicted HP’s decision to acquire thin-client specialist Neoware would send partners into Wyse’s welcoming arms.

Here’s part three of The VAR Guy’s five-part countdown, highlighting 50 trends and takeaways from the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Oregon. Items 30-21, with more to follow soon…

No, HP hasn’t announced plans to pre-install Ubuntu Linux on selected PCs. But the computing giant has scored a deal to provide up to 5,000 Ubuntu PCs to a major university, The VAR Guy hears.

Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL — the fast-growing open source database provider — believes Microsoft will remain complacent until the company’s bank account begins to shrink.

Hewlett-Packard, as you may have heard, has acquired thin-client specialist Neoware and data center automation specialist Opsware. The deals could generate incremental sales opportunities for HP’s partners.

Here’s part two of The VAR Guy’s five-part countdown, highlighting 50 trends and takeaways from the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Oregon. Items 40-31, with more to follow soon…

Yes, The VAR Guy is attending UbuntuLIVE in Portland, Oregon. He’s already noticed several Ubuntu Linux trends that could potentially benefit solutions providers and their customers. So, it’s the perfect opportunity for a big countdown: 50 things you need to know about Ubuntu. Here are items 50-41, with more to follow soon…

Ubuntu, the fast-growing version of Linux from Canonical, now has between 6 million and 12 million users, according to Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth.

Canonical founder and Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth is calling for an open dialog with Red Hat, Novell and other major Linux distribution providers.

A few days ago, The VAR Guy wrote a blog entry that included a pretty nifty online version of Pac-Man for all to enjoy. One influential fellow — let’s call him Tech Emcee — asked The VAR Guy to dig a bit deeper into the past. His one-sentence feedback on Pac-Man: “Call me when you have Pong working.”

Please forgive The VAR Guy for the headline. He’s actually a Dell Inc. customer. But after reading all of the negative channel press about Dell in recent days, you’d think that Michael is working for the devil himself.

The VAR Guy saw this coming: For months, he has called on Apple to partner with Cisco Systems to ensure the iPhone worked with Cisco-based networks. Now comes word that Duke University (a major Cisco customer) is experiencing network problems — allegedly due to iPhone-related problems.

Sometimes The VAR Guy amazes even himself. Over the weekend, he was drafting a blog entry naming four companies that need to go private. His list included 3Com. (He’ll tell you about the other three companies at a later date.) Now comes word that private equity firms have approached 3Com about a buyout. There are five reasons why 3Com and its VARs would benefit from being private. Here they are…