The VAR Guy

During a chilly Friday in New York, The VAR Guy sat down for a warm bowl of soup — and a conversation with Brocade Channel Chief Barbara Spicek (pictured). Yes, soup was the meal. And the conversation was good. Here’s a recap.

For SMBs, the cloud represents the hugely appealing possibility of having someone else take care of archiving your e-mail, delivering document security, or even managing maintenance contracts. For partners, well, someone has to set them up with those services, right? It’s not all positive, though: keeping chunks of sensitive information in someone else’s data center comes with its own risks. I spoke with David Meizlik, director of product marketing for Websense, about how to avoid problems when moving customers to the cloud.

Move over NETGEAR and Linksys. ZyXel (pronounced ZEE-cell) is promoting a mobile wireless router (MWR) with more options than you can shake a stick at. I think it has the potential to change the way you (and your customers) use the mobile Internet. Here’s why.

Join MSP Services Network (MSPSN) CEO Amy Luby on The VAR Guy webcast this Wednesday, Dec. 16. The topic: How to generate recurring security revenue from Small Business Server customers. Here’s a bit more about the webcast…

The VAR Guy spent another week chasing (and missing) a few deadlines. Even with his growing staff, our resident blogger didn’t quite cover all the channel chatter this week. Here are six blog posts The VAR Guy didn’t write for the week ending Dec. 11, 2009.

Sometimes simplicity works. Consider the situation at Sophos — the privately held anti-virus and endpoint security specialist. The company’s strategy is pretty simple: Pure channel. Pure security. And soon… a formalized approach to managed services, according to Channel Chief Chris Doggett (pictured). Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy has a hunch: Microsoft’s best hope for future growth is Windows Azure, the company’s cloud-based operating system. So Microsoft’s decision to merge Windows Server and Windows Azure into a single organization — called the Server & Cloud Division (SCD) — was a smart one. Here’s why.

Alfresco Software, which positions itself as an open source alternative to Microsoft SharePoint, may have found a new door into U.S. federal agencies. Here’s the scoop, along with the implications for solutions providers serving the government vertical.

When it comes to the mainstream desktop Linux market, Red Hat has mostly sat on the sidelines — letting folks like Canonical (Ubuntu) and Google (Chrome OS) pursue the spotlight. But now, Red Hat is making some serious desktop moves. But not in a traditional way. Here’s the strategy — and its implications for channel partners.

For roughly two years, readers have told WorksWithU they have a difficult time finding Ubuntu desktop and laptop options on Dell’s U.S. Website. Apparently, Dell heard the constructive criticism. Only a few weeks after Windows 7′s launch, Dell is giving Ubuntu more real estate on the Dell U.S. website. Here’s the scoop.

In news that will be of interest to both open- and closed-source developers, Canonical is about to open a new revenue stream by offering a suite of commercial services for deploying and managing Bazaar, the open-source version-control system.  Here’s the scoop, with some thoughts.

When I wrote about my adventures in VoIP telephony back at the end of November, I only discussed the consumer-grade stuff. Well, after I spoke to the New York City-based M5 Networks, I have a new appreciation for what an enterprise-grade system can do (assuming Google doesn’t eat their lunch when they’re not looking). Here’s a little of what partners should know about M5 Networks in particular and VoIP systems in general.

Amid an ocean of unified computing options, Liquid Computing is looking for a little respect. No surprise, CEO Vikram Desai wants VARs to look beyond VBlock (the Cisco, EMC and VMware data center initiative) media coverage. Especially since his company is set to launch a formal partner program in 2010. Here’s why VARs might want to pay attention.

We knew Symantec was planning to evolve its SaaS strategy, but they’d been playing their hand close to their chest. Rewind a couple of years, and many of Symantec’s initial SaaS moves involved the company’s fledgling Symantec Protection Network system. But now, Symantec is reaching out to public clouds — and embracing Amazon Web Services and the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. It’s a significant strategy — but where do partners fit in?

At first glance, Google is making three moves that don’t impact VARs. But take a closer look and Google’s latest efforts could actually have some implications for channel partners. Here are the detals…

Potential good news for government VARs: F5 Networks, Inc says their BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM) complies with DNSSEC 2009 (domain name system security extensions) compliance requirements. Not sure what all that technical jargon means? Here’s the scoop.

As a channel and marketing professional I’ve worked with a bunch of different software tools for (1) marketing automation or (2) content syndication OR (3) social media monitoring.  But I’ve never seen a single tool that does all three things really well. Until now. Here’s the story.

Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN) Group has tapped Deutsche Telekom COO Hamid Akhavan to lead as its CEO. He takes the reins from Mark Stone, who served as interim CEO while a search was under way. Here are some quick details.

Rackspace Hosting, which recently joined our SaaS 20 Stock Index, has restructured its partner program along lines that will probably seem familiar to anyone with prior exposure to channel initiatives.

I recently came into the market for a new Ubuntu netbook, and have been scouring the Internet looking for the best deal.  It’s been a fun experience, but also one replete with frustration at certain large computer vendors with byzantine websites that treat Linux as a dirty word.  Read on for details.

The VAR Guy has openly wondered — again and again — whether Novell will ever connect the dots between its various products groups. A potential answer to that question emerged today. It involves Novell’s Intelligent Workload Management (IWM) strategy, which melds cloud and virtualization opportunities with Novell’s solutions, according to Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon (pictured). Here’s the scoop, and the implications for solutions providers.

Headset vendor GN Netcom is giving its reseller partners the opportunity to learn everything they ever needed to know about headsets with the introduction of its online “Jabra University,” an e-learning portal available through the company’s Jabra Partner Program for North America.

The Netbook World Summit (NWS) is coming to town. That is, if you live in Paris, France. December 8th 2009 will mark the 2nd year of the annual Netbook Summit. It’s an international conference designed to chat, engage and examine the emerging netbook market. This year, it’ll be at the swanky Parisian “Cyclone – Le Studio.” But is there really a need for a big event about a tiny computer? We sure think so.