The VAR Guy

Yes, even business intelligence partner programs are connecting with the cloud. One prime example: Birst, an upstart in the BI market, says 27 systems integrators have joined the company’s SaaS-centric partner program. Here’s the scoop.

We’d previously reported that hosted Internet telephony automation service provider Ifbyphone had acquired VoIP application development environment Cloudvox, but now it looks like the acquisition is yielding its first fruit. Cloudvox has announced a pay-as-you-go rate of $0.03/minute and some new features for developers. Here’s the scoop.

Canonical’s effort to diversify beyond Ubuntu Linux continue to accelerate. Even as the company preps Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) for April 2010 launch, Canonical is also promoting Landscape — a remote management tool — to resellers and end-customers. And there’s even a cloud management twist. Here’s the scoop.

Ouch. Painful headline. But The VAR Guy is growing tired of social media “experts” trying to make a buck off of small businesses that are desperate to bolster their online identities. So, how can you tell a true social media expert from a pretender? Here are seven clues.

Not too long ago we chatted about SpringSource. Now they’re back in the news again. SpringSource, a division of VMware and Java app evangelist, has unveiled a new site to help the Apache Tomcat community. Here’s the deal…

Wanova is a software virtualization company that’s making some ripples in the big virtualization pool. Launching today comes some new Distributed Desktop Virtualization software and it’s designed to cut costs and be future proof. Does that sound too good to be true? Here’s the deal on the new offering…

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, VARStreet was an aging portal — in some ways, a remnant of the dot-com boom and bust — designed to help VARs source products from distributors. Today, the VARStreet website has been completely overhauled, and VARStreet is striving to engage thousands of VARs and managed services providers. Who’s responsible for this overhaul? The answer: VARStreet’s new owner, Autotask. Here’s the story, and the implications for solutions providers.

Sure, hardware and software companies have built numerous portals for their channel partners. Some are big hits. Others are ugly misses. But here’s a twist: Laurus Technologies,  a Certified Dell Partner in Itasca, Ill., has built a rather intriguing portal that could bolster customer loyalty. Here are the details.

As the big Novell BrainShare conference gets set to start on March 21, Novell’s board of directors is considering an unsolicited offer for the company. But here’s the twist: More software developers seem to be flocking to Novell’s SUSE Linux platform — at a time when Novell’s ownership status could potentially change. Here’s why partners seem to be flocking to SUSE Linux.

The default positioning of window-management buttons in Ubuntu 10.04 has generated a lot of controversy. But given the decreasing importance of these buttons in modern desktop environments, I’m left wondering if the issue is really so important.  In a year or two, after all, window titlebars may be a thing of the past.

For the second time in recent weeks, hosted unified communications is earning some headlines. But this time, the news involves an open source initiative between Open-Xchange (an open source email company) and 4PSA (a VoIP and cloud unified communications specialist). Here are the implications for VARs and managed services providers.

The Oracle vs. SAP battle has spilled over into social media, where the two software giants are taking decidedly different approaches to engaging channel partners. Here’s a look at each strategy and key milestones so far.

The folks over at PC World Business Center are running an article titled, “Five Features the iPad Needs For Business” by Tony Bradley. Bradley raises some interesting points as to why the iPad isn’t quite ready for the prime-time suit and tie type. Naturally, I disagree. If you want to learn why the iPad is already business ready, read on…

In some pockets of IT, thin clients coupled with virtualization are all the rage. The latest example involves Devone IT, an “alternative desktop computing” company that has launched a thin client leveraging XenDesktop and Citrix technology. Here are the potential implications for VARs.

The next sexy industrially designed thing to come out of Apple might not be something you put in your pocket. It could be something you wear. News is that Apple has hired wearable-computing guru Richard DeVaul to work on some new prototyping for Apple. Here’s the scoop…

In a move designed to cultivate their partner ecosystem, IBM is extending development and test services to their enterprise cloud platform, allowing software vendors and cloud service providers to build, debug, and finally deliver applications all through Big Blue. Here’s the scoop.

Red Hat grew up on Linux, but the company’s next generation of growth will involve JBoss middleware, cloud computing and virtualization. That’s the message Red Hat intends to deliver to European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) partners in May 2010.  And again to global partners in June 2010. Here are the details.

Microsoft shipped Exchange 2010 for on-premises customers in 2009. But if you check Microsoft’s SaaS platform — called Business Productivity Online Suite — you’ll notice that BPOS/Exchange Online still leverages Exchange 2007. The big questions: Why do Microsoft’s SaaS application releases lag their on-premises alternatives? And when can customers and partners expect BPOS/Exchange Online to run Exchange 2010? The VAR Guy found some potential answers. Here they are.

Alfresco Software, which specializes in open source enterprise content management, says it more than doubled its partner network in 2009. But here’s the really interesting part: Alfresco partners are earning $10 to $15 worth of services for every dollar of Alfresco Enterprise subscriptions sold. Here are the details.

Data centers are popping up across the country as a never-ending stream of new Internet applications strain the nation’s information storage capabilities. Worldwide demand for data centers is expected to rise 12 percent just this year, and 17 percent in 2012, according to Tieri Research. How can VARs grab their share of the data center opportunity? Here are some suggestions.

VMWare, one of the most prominent names in virtualization, is launching Workstation Version 7.1 as a public beta release. The best part is, it’s free ’till May. What are the new features? Read on…

It’s official, the iPad is coming. Pre-orders have started. With that comes several factoids worth noting. Here’s the wrap-up from the weekend and how Apple plans on getting these ‘magical devices’ into the hands of consumers ASAP…

Lenovo was kind enough to send me a loaner unit for the ThinkPad Edge — which fits somewhere between the netbook and notebook family. I’ve had it for about a month now. Here’s some thoughts and impressions on the 3-month-old member of the Lenovo mobile computer family…