The VAR Guy

Dell surprised lots of folks with a strong quarterly earnings report yesterday. But the company didn’t surprise The VAR Guy. He knew Michael Dell would begin to turn the company around. Still, is Dell’s recent momentum most associated with cost cuts — or is the company beginning to gain some traction with managed services and IT channel partnerships?

Yes, The VAR Guy is heading to Las Vegas on June 1 for the Kaseya User Conference. It should be an educational event for managed service providers and IT leaders. But can our resident blogger focus on the job at hand with so many temptations around him? Here are five fatal distractions — all rated PG — The VAR Guy will need to avoid in Sin City.

Say it ain’t so: The glory days of voice-over-IP (VoIP) sales appear over, according to Garrett Smith, one of The VAR Guy’s favorite bloggers. Hey, the party wasn’t going to last forever. And this “bad news” is actually pretty good news. Here’s why.

When The VAR Guy wants to see the future of technology, he heads back to college. There, he often spots hot emerging trends in IT. The latest involves 18 universities embracing GroundWork Monitor, an open source alternative to traditional network and systems management platforms. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy runs hot and cold on Lenovo. One minute, he praises Lenovo’s ThinkPad brand. The next, he openly wonders if Lenovo can hold off rivals like Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer. Plus, Lenovo’s server strategy — particularly as it relates to Linux — is nowhere to be seen.

Officially, Microsoft isn’t saying much about Windows 7.0, the forthcoming successor to Windows Vista. But Mary Jo Foley’s All About Microsoft blog has compiled an interesting list of potential Windows 7.0 features, functions and design goals. Take a look.

Conventional wisdom says profits and revenues are the two most important metrics for measuring your business success. I believe in a completely different metric, however.

Over the years, I’ve developed a generalized theory about the relative cost of getting things done in Windows versus that of Linux, and as something of a corollary, the reason a lot of people say Linux is too hard, or “not ready for the desktop.”

We’re heading into a holiday weekend. Wonderful. It’s always nice to unplug a bit. But be careful: Technology companies are notorious for announcing bad news late on Friday or even on Saturday during a holiday weekend. Also, three-day weekends are a great time for companies to hammer out big partnerships or acquisitions in quiet solitude. If Yahoo and Microsoft are going to break bread, The VAR Guy believes it will happen this weekend.

After a slight delay, Dell has launched its channel blog. The company now has a Web 2.0 platform that will be both a blessing and a burden. The VAR Guy cautions most companies against launching corporate blogs. But in this case, Dell has made a smart move. Here’s why.

A quiet revolution continues at Digium, the poster child for Asterisk — the open source IP PBX platform. Many open source companies struggle to line up resellers and solutions providers because, frankly, it’s unclear how to profit from open source. But in Digium’s case, more than 250 partners are banging on the company’s door because Digium really has built a better mouse trap. Here’s the scoop.

Conventional wisdom says Google — armed with open source, software as a service (SaaS) and Web 2.0-centric tools — will trounce legacy players like Microsoft. If that’s really the case, then why has Microsoft’s revenue grown more than Google’s since 2002? Skeptical, take a look at this chart and some data culled by The VAR Guy.

Avnet Technology Solutions (ATS) is turning to an old pro to generate new growth at the organization, naming Jeff Bawol as president. It’s an intriguing move. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy is broke. Cash flow looks good for June, but he needs to count his pennies until that time. Still, he keeps hearing about the new 3G Apple iPhone. Speculation is mounting that the new iPhone will arrive in June. Is it time for him to give his old iPhone to his lovely wife — so that he can take the 3G plunge? And if so, does anybody have $400 to spare?

Forgive The VAR Guy for his sarcasm. But American Airlines’ decision to charge passengers $15 to check a bag is a joke. The VAR Guy never checks his bags because airlines LOSE bags. Now, there’s a $15 surcharge for such lousy service? Wonderful. Perhaps it’s time for The VAR Guy to really open his wallet and embrace TelePresence videoconferencing as an alternative to expensive travel on antiquated airlines.

I had a dream last night. It was one of “those” dreams. I was walking down a crowded Manhattan street in my BVDs. At first thinking it was normal and then, with increasing dread, realizing it was anything but (unless you are this guy). And then I had a second dream last night. My brother was there. We were in college. It was around finals time. I asked him if he knew when our history class was meeting, because I can’t remember ever going this term. I don’t even know where the classroom is, and I haven’t done any homework—and the final is tomorrow!

Red Hat today released Enterprise Linux 5.2 — and the company claims the new release includes several desktop-centric enhancements. No, this is not the long-delayed Red Hat Global Desktop. Nor have I tested Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2. But a press announcement highlights several desktop-focused improvements.

I’m disappointed to report that Ubuntu Live 2008, which had been scheduled for July 21 and 22 in Portland, Oregon, has been canceled. I’ve got a note into Canonical PR to see what drove the decision to cancel the conference. (O’Reilly Media, the show’s producer, is referring all inquiries to Canonical.) Last year’s event seemed to have good energy, healthy attendance and some big-name sponsors (Sun Microsystems was among them). So what went wrong this time around? This is pure speculation on my part — and I do await some thoughts from Canonical — but here are the primary reasons events usually shut down. Again, pure speculation on my part…

Openbravo, maker of open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) and POS (point of sale) platforms, has landed $12 million in new funding. Openbravo’s new funding reinforces growing interest in open, easily customized alternatives to entrenched giants like Oracle and SAP. The VAR Guy traded email with Manel Sarasa, CEO of Openbravo, for his thoughts on the funding. Here’s a look at the email exchange.

One of our key goals with Works With U is to show readers that you can truly run your business on open source applications. Yes, operating systems (like Ubuntu Linux) and desktop applications (OpenOffice) are important. But over the next year or two, you’ll see a growing list of corporate-type applications (like enterprise resource planning and point of sale software) shifting to the open source model. The latest example involves Openbravo, which just landed an additional $12 million in funding. Our sister site, www.theVARguy.com, has all the details.

Okay, it has been about a month since Red Hat said it had no plans to offer a consumer Linux release. Lots of folks went ballistic. The VAR Guy didn’t. Instead, he took some time to digest the news. And now he’s ready to say — definitively — that Red Hat made the right decision. Here are five reasons why Red Hat should ignore pleas for a consumer Linux release.

If you want to know when a high-tech market is reaching its tipping point, keep a close eye on Dell Inc. Generally speaking, Dell only jumps into high-volume, mass market opportunities. So the company’s decision to offer TelePresence solutions — designed by LifeSize Communications — is worth watching. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy, our contributing blogger, is stirring up controversy again. His latest blog entry over on www.thevarguy.com examines five reasons why Red Hat should ignore the consumer Linux desktop market. Check out the complete blog entry here.