The VAR Guy

Google seems to be a step closer to an inevitable software developer partner program. The latest clue: Google has quietly launched the Google Solutions Marketplace, a kind of Craigslist that helps enterprise customers find Google App solutions from a range of companies. Here’s the scoop.

For a long time, the Ubuntu family has had three members–Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu (sorry Edubuntu; we’re not counting you).  But that may change, with a new project, Lubuntu, vying for official endorsement by Canonical.  Here’s a look at Lubuntu, and thoughts on what its future may hold.

It has been about a month since Digium launched the Asterisk Exchange — an online marketplace to help VARs and customers piece together telephony solutions based upon the open source IP PBX. It’s an intriguing concept — similar to Red Hat’s failed Red Hat Exchange efforts. So can Digium succeed where Red Hat failed? Yes. Here’s why.

Unified communications vendor Polycom is thinking small with its latest telepresence system — small environments and a small price tag.

Intermec Technologies has announced a partnership with HealthWyse and Data Capture Solutions. The goal? Proliferate technology in the hands of health care professions so they can reliably access electronic health records on the go. VARs might be interested in this unique partnership, especially if you’re working in the heath care vertical.

Forgive The VAR Guy for looking tired and bloated. He’s packing on the pounds in the Dominican Republic at the Kaspersky Lab Partner Conference, where food is all inclusive and the restaurants never seem to close. If our resident blogger would stop eating and start blogging, he would have written the following six entries for the week ending Feb. 12, 2010.

Nancy Reynolds, as expected, took the stage today at the Kaspersky Lab Americas Partner Conference in the Dominican Republic. As Kaspersky Lab’s senior VP, Corporate Sales Americas, Reynolds called on partners to double — and potentially triple — their security sales in 2010. Here are three key takeaways from Reynolds.

The VAR Guy is listening intently at the Kaspersky Lab Americas Partner Conference in the Dominican Republic. Business sounds strong. Channel partners sound happy. But nobody is really discussing the one security solution end-customers want most.

Small but growing super-fast in the security software market. That’s the best way to describe Kaspersky Lab’s revenues in the Americas market, where sales have grown from $2 million in 2005 to more than $100 million in 2009, the company revealed at the Kaspersky Lab Americas conference. So, what’s driving that growth — and can Kaspersky maintain its channel-centric focus? Here are some clues from the conference, continuing today in the Dominican Republic.

Full disclosure: When I’m not digging into the cloud market for The VAR Guy, I play a lot of video games. That said, Kotaku, a game hobbyist blog, was the last place I ever expected to hit on what could be the next big trend for Microsoft partners serving the health care vertical: Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game console. Sure, this requires some explanation. So here we go.

It’s a thing of beauty when two major vendors collaborate to offer a solution that actually provides such value that it can practically sell itself. In theory, Polycom and Microsoft just may have done exactly that. The UC vendor and software behemoth have joined forces to offer Polycom Conferencing for Outlook, a unified communications service that integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook to incorporate voice and video conferencing into meetings. Here are the details.

Is Microsoft Office coming to the iPad? It may be more likely than you think. Apple already positioned itself to make the iPad a bit of a content-creator by offering their iWork suite along with the keyboard dock. With MacWorld in session this week (February 8-13th) the Office for Mac Team had some interesting information to share.

There’s a few players in the arena right now for getting your UNIX and Linux boxes to play nice with Microsoft Active Directory, but Centrify wants your attention. They take securing your network seriously but do it with what claims to be a simple solution that VARs and MSPs might want to take note at, especially if you’re a VAR setting up and managing data centers.

You may remember Astaro from our scoop on January 29th. We asked if VARs could turn a profit from using Astaro’s free offerings, and some readers expressed skepticism. But Astaro is looking to get its foot in more doors by dropping prices for their unified threat management (UTM) solutions. So is Astaro worth another look?

Here’s the short story: Open-Xchange, providers of the namesake line of open source-based collaboration tools, now offers a dedicated e-mail appliance. The long story is that it’s a major play by a company that’s proving that open-source doesn’t have to mean unprofitable. Here’s the story.

A small name change can signify a big shift in thinking. In this case, Trend Micro has rebranded its Worry-Free Business Security Hosted suite of cloud-based security tools. The new brand:  Worry-Free Business Security Services. The effort include a major product-wide upgrade — and compatibility with Trend Micro’s remote management product. Here’s the scoop.

If you’re like me, you don’t put much thought into where your multimedia codecs come from: you run a quick “apt-get install gstreamer-plugins-ugly” on new installs and move on to more important things.  But not everyone’s like me, and as Ubuntu moves increasingly into government and the workplace, patent and licensing issues are becoming more and more important for many Ubuntu users.

Today’s forecast on Long Island’s Gold Coast calls for blizzard conditions and 10 to 16 inches of snow. So how does The VAR Guy (allegedly a Long Island resident) plan to stay warm and stay online — especially during today’s MSPmentor 100 webcast? The simple answer: Hide in a local Network Operation Center (NOC), maintained by one of the fastest-growing solutions providers in North America. Here are the details.

For all you Apple partners out there, or maybe those thinking about becoming one; here’s an interesting tidbit from ARNnet.com.au. The Apple channel partner network is launching down-under. Here’s the news…

The VAR Guy speculated months ago that Google might launch a partner program for independent software vendors (ISVs). The fact that they just launched a Google Apps Developer Blog is just fuel for the fire. Here’s why.

So you think you’re running a hybrid cloud/on-premises security solution. Uh-uh. No way. At least not if you believe web security software vendor Websense, who says their new TRITON unified security platform redefines “hybrid services.”

Instead of a big bang, Microsoft’s new cloud platform Windows Azure, has made lots of small news since launching as a paid service on Feb. 1. In this regard, Microsoft is similar to cloud competitor Amazon Web Services, which only breaks radio silence when they have new features to launch. No doubt, Microsoft and Amazon have been trickling important news, so let’s take a look.

Distribution giant Tech Data has joined forces with TechTurn to offer recycling and refurbishing services. What does that mean for VARs? Simply put, you can add recycling services to build revenue if you’re working with Tech Data. What does that entail exactly? Read on…