The VAR Guy

If you can sneak away from the office, feel free to join me at one or more of the following events on February 7, February 14 and March 30-April 1. Each event is designed for managed service providers, solutions providers and small business owners. The events have different themes and formats, but all of them will extensively cover the managed services space.

Perhaps The VAR Guy pursued the wrong career. He’s blogging for free, but could be making $229 per hour or so — that’s nearly $460,000 a year — troubleshooting Windows Vista PCs for his neighbors. That may sound a little far fetched. But check out this amazing math, using some quick cost estimates from The Geek Squad.

Our sister Web site, MSPmentor.net, has identified 100 of the world’s most progressive managed service providers. It’s called the MSPmentor 100. You’ll find a free PDF of the report in the MSPmentor Resource Center (registration required). You can read the PDF off-line at your leisure. Or, you can read individual components of the report online by visiting the MSPmentor 100 main content area.

There’s no free lunch (if there was, The VAR Guy would have found it by now). But Citrix is offering partners three free (or greatly discounted) training perks to help solutions providers grow revenue in 2008. Here’s a quick look at the perks.

The VAR Guy is in beautiful Palm Desert, Calif., waiting for the venerable Demo conference to begin. A quick scan of the dozens of demo-ing companies shows an interesting range of businesses potentially of interest to the channel. Here are 10 companies and technologies worth watching…

Each time Microsoft announces quarterly results, The VAR Guy takes a look to see how the company’s profits stack up against the competition. If you think open source and software as a service will destroy Microsoft, look at this stunning fact: It takes Microsoft only 10 hours to exceed the quarterly profits of Red Hat. Skeptical? Check out the math, and six other jaw-dropping facts about Microsoft’s profits.

The party is over — at least for the short-term — at VMware. Share’s in the company fell 26 percent amid an earnings shortfall and slowing growth rates. Fortunately, The VAR Guy didn’t have any money tied up in VMware. Nor did he write any crazy blog entries predicting that virtualization is the way to ride out an economic slowdown. Besides. he thinks the hot story in virtualization going forward is Parallels Server.

When The VAR Guy first heard about Cisco’s forthcoming data center push back in mid-2007, he was skeptical. What did Cisco — the wiring closet expert — know about data centers? But time and several key interviews have made The VAR Guy far less skeptical. Based on a meeting with a major Cisco partner two weeks ago, The VAR Guy is now convinced that Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 strategy is poised to succeed. Here are five reasons why.

Still skeptical about the managed service provider (MSP) market? Looking to learn from the best? Perhaps The VAR Guy’s sister site, MSPmentor, can give you a feel for the hottest trends — and players — in the MSP space. Check out the MSPmentor 100, which identifies 100 of the most progressive managed service providers in the world. The research project, published today, includes MSPs from across North America, Europe, Australia and other regions.

Give Novell credit. Rather than slamming The VAR Guy for a particularly harsh blog post about the software company, Novell reached out to him and engaged in a healthy dialog. During a lengthy telephone chat, Novell Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon (pictured) discussed the company’s business performance and strategy. Here’s a recap of the conversation, and some updated reactions from The VAR Guy.