The VAR Guy

Eager to unlock new revenue opportunities, MSP software providers are starting to move beyond traditional “recurring revenue” messages in the core managed services market. The goal is to get traditional VARs and resellers using remote management tools and automation systems — even if those VARs don’t switch to recurring revenue business models. Here are the details.

The VAR Guy pulled up a chair and participated in the Channel Happy Hour podcast last evening. The discussion — featuring channel veterans Brett Martin, Gerard Kane and Chuck Lennon — included a Linux reality check for VARs. Lennon, president of TeamLogic IT, said he still isn’t seeing or hearing much about Linux in small business. Here’s why.

As the Cisco Partner Summit and HP Americas Partner Conference approach in late April, The VAR Guy is poking around both camps for some updates on their respective unified communications strategies. During a chat with HP yesterday, The VAR Guy stumbled onto an obvious (but intriguing) advantage HP may hold in the UC market. Here it is.

Now here’s a sure sign that Google is serious about the enterprise market: The search giant has recruited 20-year Oracle veteran Amit Singh to become VP of International Sales at Google. Singh’s mission: Bolster Google Apps in the enterprise.

iCanTek, known for their IP video surveillance, is joining forces with Ingram Micro for its distribution muscle. VARs working with Ingram might want to read on and find out what solutions are now available…

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been picking up some new names to keep tabs on, and Fishbowl is no exception. If you’ve got an inventory problem, VARs might want to jump on board with Fishbowl and their software inventory solution. I spoke to Kirk Tanner, chief marketing officer at Fishbowl and he gave me the details…

When Siemens Enterprise Communications started to get serious about  channel partners in 2009, Channel Chief Denzil Samuels promised a global strategy would soon unfold. Fast forward to the present and Siemens is starting to flex its muscle from Australia to North America. Here’s how.

The VAR Guy and MSPmentor each are hosting webcasts for solutions providers in April. The lineup starts April 7, with The VAR Guy Live’s Four Steps to SaaS Success. Then, the MSPmentor Live webcast on April 21 offers a vPro and Windows 7 reality check. Here’s a closer look at the agendas and guest speakers for both events.

As I recently pointed out over on MSPmentor, Botnets are both a threat and an opportunity for managed services providers and VARs. But how exactly can solutions providers protect their customers? And how can we protect ourselves from the growing botnet threat? Here are some timely steps to help mitigate the threats.

As the State of Massachusetts and other states revise their privacy and encryption laws, I’m receiving a lot of questions from service providers about the impact of laws and regulations on their customers’ data. Many of these questions focus on encryption rules and third-party vendors. Here’s my view on the situation.

Red Hat made a lot of noise with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) back in November 2009. But the open source company has been pretty quiet about RHEV since that time. Until now. Arriving this week is RHEV Beta 2.2 — with a bunch of new features. More than a server strategy, RHEV also has key implications on the desktop. Here’s why.

AMD is brandishing some big guns. In the server sector, AMD has upped the ante with the “world’s first” 8- and 12-core x86 processors. AMD promises their new Opteron 6100 series CPU is going to be blowing rivals (trading under the symbol INTC) out of the water. Is AMD right? Here’s some perspective for VARs working in the server sector…

When Avnet announced plans to acquire Bell Microproducts earlier today, The VAR Guy started to wonder: Do distributor mergers impact product sourcing tools like QuoteWerks, Quosal and VARStreet? Of course, The VAR Guy went looking for answers. Here they are.

When it comes to hardware and software, IBM and Novell have a longstanding SUSE Linux business relationship. So where are the two companies heading next together? Novell and IBM provided some clues during last week’s Novell BrainShare conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Here are the details.

I’m not suggesting that a blockbuster Canonical-Oracle relationship is set to emerge. But there are indications that Canonical continues to make some Ubuntu progress with MySQL — the open source database now owned by Oracle. Here’s some of the anecdotal information I’ve heard.

Does the world really need another traditional, dry technology podcast? Certainly not. But two CompTIA veterans — call ‘em Martin and Kane — are determined to inject some life into the conversation. In fact, the two channel pundits, now busy running companies of their own, are launching a so-called Channel Happy Hour podcast. And yes, The VAR Guy may pull up a seat to the bar. Here’s why.

So, you’re a solutions provider that wants to host face-to-face events and online events. Plus, you’d like to manage your marketing campaigns a bit more effectively. With those goals in mind, Cisco has launched Cisco Partner Marketing Central, a free online destination to help VARs bolster and automate many of their marketing efforts. Here are some details from Luanne Tierney (pictured), VP of worldwide partner marketing at Cisco.

Avnet has acquired Bell Microproducts for roughly $594 million. The Avnet deal values Bell Micro at $7 a share — more than a 30 percent premium compared to last week’s Bell Micro close. The distributor deal potentially strengthens Avnet’s position in the storage industry. Next, The VAR Guy will be watching to see if Bell Micro and the Avnet Technology Solutions (ATS) business unit find some synergies.

JumpBox, providers of IT infrastructure solutions, announced a major upgrade to their offering, including the unveiling of their new product, which delivers open source server applications as a service. Here’s what resellers should know.

After traveling to and from Novell BrainShare, The VAR Guy is ready to unplug for the weekend (or so he claims…). But before our resident blogger heads back to his estate on Long Island’s Gold Coast, here are seven channel partner blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t write for the week ending March 26, 2010.

Magento (formerly known as Varien), the company behind an open source ecommerce platform aptly named Magento, relaunched their Solution Partner Program in April 2009. And in last year’s Open Source  50 report, Magento was listed in the “Best of the Rest” section based on limited information and feedback from solution partners about the partner program. Fast forward to the present, and the company is showing some partner momentum. Magento’s story offers some important lessons for other open source partner programs. Here’s why.

As VoiceCon 2010 wraps up, we’re taking a look at some key themes from Cisco Systems. This year, Cisco unveiled some interesting new technology regarding “intercompany unified communications.” And it’s not just chit chat and e-mails; Cisco is doing video too. Here’s some perspective on the new technology — which is timely info, even if you’re not in the unified communications business (yet).

Some Microsoft chatter: A post at the official Windows Azure blog indicates that the Toolkit for Facebook is now available, allowing Azure developers to build and deploy applications to the social platform quickly and easily. Here’s some perspective.