The VAR Guy

First, the good news: Software as a service (SaaS) stocks performed better than the Dow Jones Industrial Average (down 8.84 percent) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (down 8.57 percent) in January 2009. Now the bad news: SaaS stocks still fell almost 7 percent during the month, according to our SaaS 20 Stock Index. Here’s a look at the biggest monthly SaaS winners and losers, plus a SaaS market forecast from IDC.

When Sun Microsystems announced financial results this week, The VAR Guy had a moment of clarity: Sun is looking more and more like a larger version of Novell. And The VAR Guy means that in a complimentary way. Here’s why.

In today’s episode, Fonality CEO Chris Lyman discusses Asterisk, open source, the IP PBX market and Fonality’s partner strategy. More specifically, The VAR Guy Live: Podcast covers the following five key topics…

 

 Fonality CEO On Asterisk, Open Source and IP PBXes for VARs [11:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Want to know something you can do for free that will help you gain customer loyalty and generate new sales?  My best friend (even though he doesn’t know it) Seth Godin shared this idea and I love it. In fact I’m adding to it. Here it is:

Here’s a look at the top 10 stories managed services stories making headlines on MSPmentor (The VAR Guy’s sister site) this week.

1. Level Platforms, Managed Services Head for Home
2. Join Us: Meet the World’s Top 100 Managed Service Providers
3. Intel Europe Confirms Managed Services, SaaS Deal With N-able
4. The Utility Company’s Franchise Model Catches On
5. Facebook: Don’t Mix Business With Pleasure?
6. Managed Services Growth Rates: Mixed Views
7. Transform Data Protection Policies Into Deeper Customer Relationships
8. Intel: Building Two Managed Services Empires?
9. N-able’s European MSP Push
10. Managed Cloud Services: Build vs. Rent

Keep hanging out with The VAR Guy (he loves the company). But our resident blogger won’t be insulted if you occasionally stop by MSPmentor as well.

“And now, a special economic message from our channel chief.” That sums up recent moves by Microsoft, Dell and now Cisco Systems. All three companies have put their channel chiefs front-and-center with blog, podcast and video messages to partners in recent days. The latest nugget comes from Cisco Worldwide Channel Chief Keith Goodwin (pictured). Here’s the scoop (and the video).

Are Dell and Hewlett-Packard trading blows in the enterprise networking market? Well, almost. Only a day after Hewlett-Packard launched a data center networking offensive, Dell fired back and rallied channel partners around Cisco Systems solutions. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

During the recession — as direct sales teams work overtime to close deals — I am sure many high-tech companies have asked themselves: “Why have channel partners?” While it is a valid question that elicits lots of healthy debate, there is really only one right answer – it’s the revenue. This may be obvious to some, but when you look closely at many partner programs — especially open source partner programs — it is sometimes difficult to determine how partner initiatives drive revenue for the company.

Microsoft’s partner blog on January 27 posted a somewhat dated letter from Channel Chief Allison Watson to the company’s partners. In the letter (from November 2008), Watson offers tips for beating the recession — and begins to educate partners about Windows Azure and Microsoft’s Software plus Services strategy. Sure, the letter is roughly two months old. But it’s as timely as ever.

Lotus Symphony 1.2.1 — IBM’s open source office suite — is now available for Mac OS X, according to a trusted source. The release — along with IBM’s expanding Red Hat and Canonical partnerships –  could give Microsoft Office a virtual (and real-world) headache. Here’s why.

You’re a networking company with traditional hardware trying to compete during the recession. How do you excite resellers while generating media buzz? In the case of Netgear, the company has launched ProSecure — a line of security appliances tied to a cloud service. The Netgear effort includes partnerships with Commtouch and Kaspersky Lab. Here’s the scoop.

Dean Darwin knows how to play an encore. Back at F5 Networks for the second time as channel chief, Darwin today described an expanded F5 relationship with Hewlett-Packard’s ProCurve ONE team. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Now that we’ve launched The Open Source 50, I’ll help readers to explore, question, and understand how open source is changing the world of partner programs and channels as we know it today — and most importantly how we all adapt and continue to grow. What made a good partner program before may not make sense in the open source world and the drivers or reasons why companies partner may now be very different. Here’s why.

The great management guru Peter Drucker said it the best: “profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity.”  In other words, profit is a reward. Here’s what you should focus on first.

Nine Lives Media Inc. — TheVARguy.com’s parent company — is seeking at least three contributing bloggers who can offer balanced coverage of Microsoft and Windows 7, Apple and Mac OS X, and Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux. Here’s what we’re seeking.

Microsoft has extended access to the Windows 7 beta by more than two weeks, suggesting that the software giant has not reached its anticipated goal of 2.5 million beta testers. But let’s not weep for the software giant. Here’s why.

Our SaaS 20 stock index, which tracks software as a service stocks, is now down more than 5 percent in 2009, having slipped a nominal 1.22 percent for the week ended January 23. Here’s a look at the weekly SaaS winners and losers.

Who are the world’s top 100 managed service providers — and what can you learn from them? You can find out if you join us on February 11 at 2:00pm eastern for MSPmentor Live: Meet the World’s Top 100 MSPs.

Shared Technologies, an Elite Nortel Advantage Partner, seems to be hedging its IT bets amid Nortel’s bankruptcy. The Coppell, Texas-based solutions provider has joined the Avaya Business Partner Program. That’s a significant win for Avaya. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy woke up early today and was set to write a blog titled: “What Ever Happened to Scott McNealy?” Sun Microsystems’ former CEO has been awfully quiet lately. Just when The VAR Guy was about to check McNealy’s employment status, a McNealy spotting — involving President Obama — popped up on ZDNet. Here’s the scoop.

If you believe open source is less secure than closed-source software, Ingres (ranked No. 8 in The VAR Guy’s Open Source 50) has a message for you. The open source database specialist is going viral with a low-budget (but effective…) video, which attempts to kill the myth that open source is not secure.

In this episode, Stephen Cho, director of Google Apps Channels, answers six key questions the search giant’s new Google Apps Reseller program. Take a listen.

 

 Podcast: Google Apps Reseller Program [8:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode, Red Hat North American Channel Chief Roger Egan answers six key questions about Red Hat’s partner strategy for the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 and JBoss Middleware.

 

 Podcast: Red Hat North America Channel Chief Roger Egan [10:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download