The VAR Guy

So, you’re a VAR looking for new customer and project engagements. With that goal in mind, roughly 10,000 VARs now use an online marketplace from OnForce to win on-site IT service contracts. What’s next from OnForce? The VAR Guy toured the company’s new headquarters near Boston, and met with CEO Peter Cannone and Senior VP Paul Nadjarian. Here are 10 key takeaways from today’s conversation.

The VAR Guy caught a chill last evening during a road trip from New York to Boston. But he wasn’t the only person suffering from shrinkage. Seems like Wall Street has turned from hot to cold on tech outsourcing companies like Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro. What the heck happened? All it took was one chilly call between Cognizant and financial analysts to send some investors running for the exits.

Still skeptical about the promise and payoff of managed services? Maybe you should pay a visit to Nimsoft. The managed service platform provider says 3Q 2007 sales grew 130 percent compared to 3Q 2006. Nimsoft says it also achieved EBITDA profitability, though The VAR Guy doesn’t pay that much attention to that financial metric.

Bob Skelley, VP of channel development at EqualLogic, woke up to a big challenge today. His company, EqualLogic, just got acquired by Dell for $1.4 billion. Now the real fun starts for Skelley, who must assure partners that EqualLogic won’t walk away from them.

Lots of folks — including The VAR Guy — expect Google to announce a mobile software/phone strategy on November 5. Now for the rather interesting twist: The VAR Guy wonders if Ubuntu Linux will be Google’s preferred platform for a range of forthcoming mobile devices and services.

I’d love to hear from readers who know a bit about the new Everex PC that Wal-Mart is carrying. It sounds like an under-powered PC to me. And at $200, I wonder if it’s too cheap to be an effective Web/personal productivity home computer for my kids. Anyone have any thoughts? I already have a Dell Ubuntu PC (I like it) and a MacBook Pro (I love it). I’m leaning toward an iMac for my next family PC. But I’m wondering if there are some good, reliable, low-cost alternatives with Ubuntu pre-installed. Thoughts on the Everex system — and alternatives — are welcome.

The VAR Guy is going to throw a little gasoline on the unified communications fire. Microsoft has spent recent weeks formalizing is enterprise partner strategy. But a source close to Cisco says the Microsoft strategy is nothing more than an imitation of an old Cisco game plan. If these were two ladies, The VAR Guy would pull up a chair in anticipation of a compelling cat fight. But in this case, it’s more like clash of the titans.

It’s another small step for Linux on the desktop, and another great leap for Ubuntu — one of the fastest-growing flavors of Linux. Retail giant Wal-Mart is now offering Ubuntu-based PCs from Everex. The $200 system signals growing interest in Windows alternatives among mainstream consumers. Next up, watch for Ubuntu to land on some niche small business servers.

The VAR Guy has spotted a rather interesting trend in his email inbox. In recent days, he’s received a flood of email about the unified communications market. Seems like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and several other companies are now using online and face-to-face events to educate target customers about unified communications.

It’s another small step for Linux on the desktop, and another great leap for Ubuntu — one of the fastest-growing flavors of Linux. Retail giant Wal-Mart is now offering Ubuntu-based PCs from Everex. The $200 system signals growing interest in Windows alternatives among mainstream consumers. Next up, watch for Ubuntu to land on some niche small business servers.

Voltage Security, which specializes in encryption technology, has launched a partner program that pushes security as a service (SaaS) opportunities out to channel partners. According to the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, the program delivers recurring revenue opportunities to security VARs, managed service providers (MSPs), integrators and solutions providers.

The VAR Guy is eating a bit of humble pie today. Our resident blogger has openly questioned whether Lenovo could build a successful global PC business. After some hit-and-miss financial results, Lenovo finally showed some strength today with its latest quarterly earnings. Plus, the company shedding the IBM moniker from its PC lineup two years ahead of schedule.