The VAR Guy

Looking to take your customers from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7? Microsoft is pulling the curtain back on several transition and migration tools for IT pros and developers. Here’s the scoop.

In the security market, vendors continue to partner up to seal off as many attack vectors as possible. The latest example: Reflexion Networks and Purewire Inc. have taken the latter approach. Reflexion this week expanded its service lineup into Web security, through a partnership with Purewire Inc.

Talk about getting burned on Barbecue Day. Insight Enterprises Inc., a well-known IT solutions provider, handed CEO and President Richard Fennessy a pink slip on Sept 7. Here’s the scoop.

It’s ominous timing: Nortel’s Enterprise Unit — which focuses on unified communications and VoIP — will be auctioned off this Friday, Sept. 11, in New York city. Potential bidders are expected to include Avaya and Siemens Gore. But will Cisco Systems come calling? The VAR Guy doubts it. Here’s why.

After placing its bets for years on Xen, Red Hat moved recently towards official support for KVM, the virtualization hypervisor built into the Linux kernel.  Here’s a look at what this change might mean for Ubuntu, which has promoted KVM from the beginning.

Ubuntu has a clearly stated mission: to select the best components from open source, to assemble and refine them, to encourage ecosystem development and to provide the best possible experience to our users while avoiding lock-in and the creation of monopolies. Our cloud strategy follows this same mission.

Zimbra, the open source email and collaboration software company owned by Yahoo, continues to make progress in the channel. The VAR Guy hears Zimbra now generates 60 percent of its revenue from partners, and hopes to push that figure closer to 70 percent by the end of this year. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

As Lenovo moves from the enterprise into small and midsize businesses, the PC giant has a unique view of the managed services market. Jay McBain, director of SMB at Lenovo, covers the basics of managed services and also provides a deeper dive — describing how Lenovo’s partners can benefit from the MSP trend.

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Um, The VAR Guy is impressed. After 20 years of false starts, Cisco Systems finally seems to be mastering software usability. Still skeptical? Check out this rather impressive video of Cordell Ratzlaff, director of user-centered design, flicking his wrist to push a WebEx presentation from his iPhone to his desktop.

Dell’s U.S. website has started offering Ubuntu 9.04 on a Mini 10V and Inspiron 15N laptop. The move comes less than two months before Microsoft’s Windows 7 launch — essentially reinforcing Dell’s commitment to Ubuntu in some targeted markets. But will Dell pre-load Ubuntu 9.04 on a desktop PC? Here’s some analysis.

Canonical is marching forward with an Ubuntu support strategy that blends channel partners (VARs and integrators) with Canonical’s own Ubuntu hand-holding in large enterprises. Here’s a look at Canonical’s efforts so far.

Hey Monty, who made key channel partner program deals for the week ending Sept. 4, 2009? Here’s a look at new alliances, reseller agreements and partner program initiatives, as tracked by The VAR Guy.

VARs evaluating a Cloud/SaaS strategy have a fundamental business decision to make: Do you build, assemble, partner or buy your solutions? In all cases, VARs are looking at the best way to rapidly offer new services and create recurring revenue streams from customers. In this blog post, I’m going to briefly discuss each option, touching on when it makes sense (or doesn’t), why, and for which types of VARs.

The VAR Guy is hanging out with 1,400 of his closest friends at Red Hat Summit and JBoss World in Chicago. Here are seven key observations — involving Red Hat’s business, channel and partner strategies — so far.

During Red Hat Summit in Chicago, CEO Jim Whitehurst and Executive VP Paul Cormier warned attendees not to get locked into virtualization and cloud initiatives involving Microsoft Windows Azure and VMware. Here’s a recap of the morning keynotes.

This is Podcast No. 2 in a three-part series featuring Trend Micro’s TJ Alldridge. In this conversation, we explore the latest IT security threats facing small businesses, hosted and hybrid security solutions, recurring revenue opportunities, a single dashboard for complete security management, and practical strategies for solutions providers.

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Now that eBay has sold most of Skype to private investors, some pundits may wonder what markets Skype should tackle next. Actually, the answer has already emerged — and it involves Skype plugging into Asterisk, the open source IP PBX. Here’s the scoop and the implications for solutions providers.

Lenovo is quietly working to integrate its mobile, desktop and server hardware with a range of RMM (remote monitoring and management) and PSA (professional services automation) platforms for managed service providers. Frankly, I’m surprised we’re not hearing similar types of statements from more PC vendors. Here are some observations.

Zoho, with an assist from VMware, intends to challenge Microsoft Office Web — the hosted version of Office 2010 that will also run on-premise. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Call it a careful test of partner relations. Take a close look at the Red Hat Summit today, and Red Hat seems to be hugging Synnex in one arm and Tech Data with the other. Of course, Tech Data and Synnex are fierce rivals. So why is Red Hat showing them equal love today? Here’s the scoop.

Red Hat today launched the Catalyst Program, which empowers VARs with complete open source software stacks that could rival traditional closed source stacks from Oracle and Microsoft. Here’s the scoop from Red Hat Summit and JBoss World in Chicago — plus some bigger-picture observations.

It has been nearly a month since Openbravo (the open source ERP provider) introduced support for Ubuntu Server Edition. But Openbravo for Ubuntu is going to require some time before it attracts paying customers, concedes Openbravo COO Josep Mitja. Here’s why.

Imagine the following scenario: You’re an integrator that wants to quickly deploy ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications for your small business customers. Sure, you’re familiar with Microsoft Dynamics ERP. But the folks at Openbravo — an open source ERP provider — would like your attention, too. Indeed, Openbravo says it has launched a QuickStart edition that allows VARs and SMBs to accelerate ERP deployments using on-premise or cloud configurations. Here’s the scoop.