The VAR Guy

Oracle President Charles Phillips and his lieutenants seem to be warming up to bloggers. Sure, Oracle continues to strengthen its social media communications with channel partner. But the efforts don’t end there. Next up, Oracle and Phillips will host a few bloggers on August 5 at Oracle’s headquarters. Sounds sweet…

When fall 2009 arrives in North America, Digium hopes to stage an Asterisk uprising. Digium is planning at least two major training and education events for the open source IP PBX. Here’s the scoop, from The VAR Guy.

The folks at Computer Service Partners (CSP) — a managed service provider in Raleigh, N.C. — have distracted The VAR Guy’s staff this week. First came word that CSP has a putting green in its Network Operation Center (NOC). Then The VAR Guy spotted a rather interesting application running in CSP’s NOC: Atari’s coin-op classic, Dig Dug. Here’s the scoop.

Some words echo across the IT channel. A case in point: Back in June, Cisco Systems Senior VP Chuck Robbins allegedly uttered three infamous words that declared war on Hewlett-Packard. Fast forward to the present, and Cisco Senior VP Wendy Bahr (pictured) is striving to soften Robbins’ words with new perspectives. It’s an interesting case study in channel competition, and blogger-driven gossip. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Many writers, including WorksWithU’s Joe Panttieri, have suggested that Google’s recently announced Chrome OS is bad news for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions struggling to establish a foothold on the desktop, especially in the netbook market.  While only time will tell how this development will really pan out, I’m not so convinced it will be to Canonical’s disadvantage.  Here’s why.

Imagine the following scenario: You’re Microsoft — the world’s largest, most profitable software company. Several thousand of your top channel partners are about to meet you in New Orleans for a massive conference. Everyone is wondering if you can (A) retain your established software franchises while (B) pushing deeper into cloud and software as a service (SaaS). Then, an  unexpected hurricane blows into town. It’s called Google Chrome OS — a new Linux operating system. Now what?

When Dell recruited channel veteran Nancy Reynolds to run the company’s PartnerDirect global enterprise channel business, The VAR Guy wondered: What attracted Reynolds to the position? Actually, it’s a three-part answer. Here’s the scoop, based on a conversation a few minutes ago with Reynolds.

The buzz says Google plans to ship an operating system — called Chrome Operating System — for netbooks. But the Chrome OS strategy raises as many questions as it answers. To wit, here are five key questions Google needs to answer to ensure success in the operating system market.

Unison Communications created considerable buzz last year when the company announced a free, advertising-driven unified communications system. Now, Unison is preparing some new unified communications surprises that will debut in September 2009. Plus a hosted beta for channel partners is under way. Here’s the scoop, from The VAR Guy.

I’m not pressing the panic button. I think millions of people remain committed to Ubuntu Linux. But recent events — involving Google Chrome OS, Google Android and Moblin — make me wonder if Ubuntu faces far more competition than Canonical anticipated.

Alas, Red Hat is the only publicly held open source company that’s consistently profitable. Finding privately held, profitable open source companies is like searching for the proverbial needle in the… well, you get the picture. But during a July 7 conference call, The VAR Guy stumbled onto a profitable, channel-driven open source company that’s making the leap from Europe to North America. Here’s the scoop.

How do you leverage one product to promote another product? At Apple, the strategy typically involves giving a free iPod to students that purchase MacBooks. At Lenovo, the strategy is slightly different and fully business driven — and it involves VARs, ThinkPads and ThinkServers. Here’s the scoop.

If you have questions about hosted security — potential business models, recurring revenue strategies, technology considerations, etc. — please email them to me (joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc.com) or post the questions below. I am prepping for a July 15 Webcast (The VAR Guy Live) and gathering reader questions for our guest speakers. Here’s a quick overview of the event.

When asked recently what’s the hottest topic in IT impacting the channel I didn’t have to think twice…the Cloud.  I wrote ‘What Does Cloud Computing mean for the Channel?’ a couple of months ago — talking about the ability for just about anyone to write an application in the cloud and market it.  Google, Force.com, and Amazon have made that a reality.  And the Cloud will certainly generate buzz at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09). Now, for the big question facing VARs.

With Linux Distros taking sides, this week’s announcement that Microsoft promises not to make Necessary Claims against anyone using their patented specifications adds to the confusion. At first glance, this looks like a safe passage for Mono, but as we delve in deeper, we see that not everything is legally in the clear.

Despite misleading rumors on the Web, Google has not changed the pricing or its SKUs for Google Apps. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy, along with accurate pricing information.

Dell Global Channel Chief Greg Davis is calling in reinforcements to help strengthen Dell’s enterprise partner initiatives. Specifically, Dell has hired Nancy Reynolds — a well-known channel veteran — to lead Dell’s global channel business strategy for PartnerDirect, focusing on Dell’s large enterprise channel business.

The VAR Guy took a walk in the park — literally — today with BlueArc Channel Chief Cameron van Orman. The discussion focused on BlueArc’s move into the mid-market storage industry, as well as the company’s continued partner program build-out. Here’s the scoop — and a video fast chat — from The VAR Guy.

When Lenovo launched four ThinkServers a few days ago, The VAR Guy noticed that the systems — designed for small and midsize businesses — emphasized virtualization. Hmmm. So, The VAR Guy began to wonder: Are virtualized servers (running a mix of Linux and Windows) really starting to push into the SMB space?

The VAR Guy is scheduling a few more meetings at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC09). He’ll be listening with both ears, blogging with one hand and sipping latte with the other. If this organized chaos sounds appealing and you’d like to potentially meet… simply send email to TheVARguy [at] NineLivesMediaInc.com.

When it comes to telepresence deployments, Hewlett-Packard’s Halo team has noticed a rather interesting trend:  A year and a half ago, customers were often purchasing 3 to 4 telepresence rooms on their initial purchase. Now, HP is seeing the average initial purchase grow to 8 to 10 rooms, with some customers initially purchasing as many as 30 rooms. Here’s the scoop, from The VAR Guy.

Microsoft has found a way to drive demand for Windows 7 even before the operating system ships this October. Backed by a special temporary price discount, Windows 7 preorders are a hit on Amazon.com and BestBuy.com.

It could be a sign of things to come. Heading into the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09), Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) has agreed to resell Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). CSC’s move represents an inflection point for VARs and managed service providers, many of which are trying to decide whether to host Exchange and SharePoint on their own — or simply resell Microsoft’s own hosted services.