The VAR Guy

Setting the stage for this week’s Cisco Partner Summit 2009 in Boston, Channel Chief Keith Goodwin (pictured) blogged a bit about his thoughts on Microsoft’s expanded Unified Communications relationship with Hewlett-Packard. Goodwin’s blog had a few interesting items … including a prominent mention of Apple. Hmmm.

Sure, Cisco Systems’ Unified Computing System and new servers will likely take center stage at the Cisco Partner Summit 2009 (June 2-4) in Boston. But The VAR Guy will also be checking out two other major themes. One involves Cisco’s rumored interest in a small telepresence company. The other involves Cisco’s plans for the Flip video camera (pictured).

Hewlett-Packard and Cast Iron Systems are partnering on so-called cloud integration services for small and midsize businesses. The strategy aims to promote HP’s hardware, and includes the company’s 25,000 VARs across the United States. Still, HP needs to connect the dots between SaaS and managed services for channel partners. Here are some quick observations.

The VAR Guy has not used WiFi or Ethernet for the past four days. Yet, he remains online — Blogging, Tweeting and chatting with readers. How is that possible?

When the Cisco Systems Partner Summit 2009 kicks off June 2 in Boston, a key Oracle channel representative will be present. The VAR Guy isn’t predicting big Oracle-Cisco news, but Oracle’s presence and interest in the Cisco event highlights how the worlds of networking and software continue to converge.

Give JetBlue credit: It strives to offer free WiFi service to travelers — in airports and in flight. But so far, those efforts haven’t really impressed The VAR Guy. And the latest effort is downright disappointing. Here’s why.

Tech Data, a $24 billion technology giant with deep Microsoft relationships, has developed a 24-month plan to emerge as “the voice for open source in distribution,” The VAR Guy has learned. The proposed strategy includes potential open source hardware solutions from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Fujitsu. And it has broad implications for the software industry and the global IT channel. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy tried his best to fully unplug during the extended US holiday weekend. But his offline nap ended when two rumors landed in his inbox. The first involves a $20 billion Microsoft partner launching a major open source initiative, and the second involves a potential telepresence company acquisition. Here are the early details on both items.

Despite new concerns about Salesforce.com’s growth rate, software as a service (SaaS) stocks are outperforming the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq so far this year, according to our SaaS 20 Stock Index. And a new relationship between IBM and Intuit shows where SaaS is heading next. Here’s a look at SaaS trends on Wall Street.

Are they in denial or do they really have reason for hope? The Microsoft Response Point VAR Council was “encouraged” by a call with Microsoft to discuss Response Point, a small business VoIP system whose future direction remains uncertain. Here’s a recap of the call, plus The VAR Guy’s observations.

The VAR Guy would like to thank Everything Channel for the personal invite to the 2009 VAR500 Awards Gala on June 2. The email invite hit our resident blogger’s inbox about 20 minutes ago. Alas, The VAR Guy doesn’t have a tux handy to match his toupee. Plus, he’ll be at the Cisco Partner Summit 2009 in Boston, one of the biggest partner events of the year…

Cisco Systems is extracting revenge on The VAR Guy. Since around 2006, our resident blogger has asked Cisco channel insiders to join a range of social networks and collaboration sites. Some beta. Some real. Some successful. Some pitiful. Now, Cisco is turning the tables and pulling The VAR Guy into The Vibe — a social network built for Cisco Partner Summit 2009. Should The VAR Guy go into the light?

When Lenovo decided to push deeper into the consumer retail market in 2007, some pundits wondered how the corporate PC giant would master the retail computer industry. Hmmm. The VAR Guy has accidentally discovered a few answers to that question.

Canonical’s fledgling channel partner program for Ubuntu just got a healthy assist from IBM and Virtual Bridges, two key partners that are promoting Ubuntu as a low-cost alternative to Microsoft desktops. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy’s sister site, MSPmentor, has scheduled its next managed services webcast. The June 10 event will focus on Hardware at Your Service. We’ll welcome your managed services questions throughout the one-hour event. And we’ll focus on the following mix of Technology and Business topics.

Microsoft is warming up its marketing machine for Windows 7. An example: The software giant is telling channel partners Windows 7 Professional offers 10 key benefits to small and midsize businesses. But are those benefits the real deal? The VAR Guy offers a reality check.

Isn’t it ironic: Microsoft (the king of independent software vendor relations) is mulling the fate of Response Point VoIP for small business. Meanwhile, Digium (the upstart company known for Asterisk) is building an online community for ISVs and partners that want to write unified communication applications. Hmmm. How will this story play out?

Many business owners attempt to be “everything to everyone.” This is not a winning formula. In fact, the ‘right’ things you need to do include narrowing your solution offerings and becoming focused on core competencies. These will be the real winning strategies for today’s IT service firms.

The VAR Guy has been eating crow on this little item most of the day. On May 19, two channel partners told The VAR Guy that Dell planned to stop offering AMD processors on its servers. Then, The VAR Guy saw an alleged email from a Dell channel representative to the resellers, apparently confirming the news. Only, both Dell and AMD on May 20 said The VAR Guy was wrong. (Dead wrong.) Yes indeed, Dell is moving forward with AMD on servers.

When Trend Micro announced its Worry-Free Business Security 6.0 upgrade earlier today, some managed services news was tucked away within the announcement. In fact, VARs and managed service providers (MSPs) can also leverage a free remote management tool from Trend Micro. Here are some quick perspectives.

Numerous anecdotes suggest that managed service providers (MSPs) are holding up better than traditional resellers in the recession. Now, CompTIA (the Computing Technology Industry Association) is backing up those assumptions with research. Here’s a look at some of CompTIA’s latest findings about the MSP industry.

Forgive The VAR Guy if he sounds like Yogi Berra today, but our resident blogger has deja vu all over again. The reason: The folks at OpenBI, a systems integrator in Chicago, have scored yet another win promoting Pentaho’s open source business intelligence software to customers. This is becoming a familiar story for OpenBI and Pentaho’s channel. Here’s the scoop.

In my previous blog entries (Part I and Part II),  I discussed our need at Magento (an open source ecommerce specialist) to create meaningful distinction between partner levels that would ultimately drive value for partners, customers and Magento. Now, let’s take a closer look at the effort.