The VAR Guy

Fonality is jumping off one bandwagon and leaping onto another. The company previously positioned itself as an open source IP PBX phone system provider. But going forward, Fonality is pitching itself as a leading provider of cloud-based phone systems and unified communications for small business. The repositioning also includes a recent CEO change. Here’s a look at Fonality’s new strategy, and the implications for VARs.

SAP’s online application store, dubbed EcoHub, apparently has reached critical mass among software partners and customers. The EcoHub site now offers more than 500 different solutions. That’s a rather impressive figure considering so many other application exchanges have struggled to reach their tipping point. Here’s a look at SAP’s EcoHub strategy — and forthcoming moves involving mobile computing.

The VAR Guy’s sister site, MSPmentor, is working on three separate managed services webcasts for the next few weeks. The webcasts cover everything from SaaS considerations to g0od old remote hardware management strategies. As you may have heard, we cover dozens of attendee questions during our live webcasts. Here’s a look at the lineup.

Amid targeted staff cuts and a push to help VARs bolster their consulting practices, Symantec also is making some product moves. The effort includes four new software suites that attempt to simplify Symantec’s product line. Here’s a look at the strategy.

In some small way, we owe a debt to Palm. For a period of time, nothing was more ubiquitous in mobile computing than the Palm Pilot. But as Palm’s technology fell behind, so did their popularity, until their last ditch efforts — the Palm Pre and WebOS. But even among strong admirers (despite lukewarm reviews) it looks like it’s too little too late. Bloomberg is reporting that Palm has put itself up for sale. Here’s the scoop on the potential end to Palm as we know it…

Hosted phone automation solution provider Ifbyphone has launched their voice-to-text transcription service, accessible to any customer’s application through an API. Like Google Voice, it can be used to send e-mails with transcribed voicemails. Unlike Google Voice, Ifbyphone is giving customers the option of paying for human transcription. Here’s the scoop.

Give Symantec credit: The security and storage software specialist is striving to empower channel partners with more consulting engagements. But the move comes amid an undisclosed number of Symantec staff cuts, a spokesperson for the company confirms. Here’s some perspective from The VAR Guy.

Motorola’s PartnerEmpower partner program has a new Wireless Network Solutions track for channel partners. We recently spoke with Gregory Kalman, VP of channel management for Wireless Networking Solutions, to get a feel for Motorola’s strategy. Here’s a recap of the conversation.

EnterpriseDB, an open source database provider, has recruited MySQL veteran Karen Tegan Padir to head up their products and marketing division. In her new position, Padir will report directly to EnterpriseDB President and CEO (and fellow Red Hat alum) Ed Boyajian. Here’s a look at Padir’s career move — and the implications for both EnterpriseDB and MySQL.

Now that I’ve been living with my Apple iPad for a week, it’s time for a hands-on review from yours truly. Here’s what the iPad is — and isn’t — based on my first-hand experiences. When the iPad was first announced, I had honestly planned on selling my MacBook and replacing it with an iPad. But when I finally broke down a bought an iPad without actually selling my MacBook, I realized that the iPad does a lot of things, but not everything. And in that respect, I’m glad I kept my MacBook. Here are my initial reactions to the iPad.

Ubuntu adoption for communities in the “Third World” seems like it should be a no-brainer: how could a functional, free operating system not prove wildly popular in developing countries?  Nonetheless, I believe Ubuntu use outside rich nations remains limited. Here’s a look at some suggested explanations of that reality, and how to change it.

The VAR Guy is on the road the rest of April, blogging live from many of the top partner conferences in North America. Can you keep up with our resident blogger? Can The VAR Guy keep up with himself? Apparently not: Here are six channel partner blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending April 9, 2010.

IBM is looking to entice Sun Microsystems partners into the Big Blue camp. Specifically, IBM Global Financing is offering up to $500 million in financing to help credit-qualified Sun Business Partners migrate towards the resale of IBM systems. Is this a gimmick or a successful initiative? Let’s take a look.

F5 Networks, as many companies have been doing lately, is joining the bandwagon of providing incentives and rewards for their partners. F5’s calls this the “New UNITY Program Rewards EMEA Partners,” and to be part of it, you’ll have to show you “offer measurable value to join customers” Wondering what that means? Read on to find out…

Ah, the fun stuff. The iPhone, the iPad, Apple in general. It’s hard to ignore the fanatical adoration or abhorrence  to that particular Cupertino company. But nevertheless, iPhone OS 4 has been announced, and there’s a few good reason to be excited, even for VARs and MSPs. Steve Jobs gave the presentation yesterday, and there’s 7 tricks up his sleeve…

Microsoft says Silverlight 4, the newest version of their web-based business application development platform, will be officially released to the public on April13 at the DevConnections conference in Las Vegas. All eyes are on Silverlight 4, less because of its new features, and more because it’s going to be the development platform for Windows Mobile 7 applications. Here’s the scoop.

Is the backup tape half full or half empty at Symantec? On the one hand, CEO Enrique Salem (pictured) is preparing to share his vision at the aptly named Symantec Vision conference. On the other hand, targeted layoffs seem to be under way at Symantec. Here’s the chatter.

When NetSuite kicks off its SuiteCloud partner conference on April 13 in San Francisco, some skeptics will raise the obvious question: Does NetSuite have any channel partners that are profiting from SaaS and cloud applications? Channel Chief Craig West (pictured) surely will provide some insights. But The VAR Guy did a little probing ahead of the conference to get you the answer to that SaaS profitability question. Here it is.

New Year. New CEO. New Partners. That’s the situation at SugarCRM, which is set to kick off its annual SugarCon partner, customer and developer conference on April 12 in San Francisco. So, what can channel partners expect from SugarCon and the open source CRM provider? Here are some clues.

Conventional wisdom says Novell’s GroupWise email platform faces an uphill battle against Exchange Server. But don’t tell that to NovaCoast. The solution provider has roughly 1 million GroupWise seats under management, according to co-founder and CTO Adam Gray (pictured). And over the next year or two, more than 10 percent of those seats will likely be hosted in NovaCoast’s cloud. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy was right. For several months, our resident blogger has been telling readers that Google was developing a conference for CIOs. Google has finally confirmed those rumors. The search giant plans to host Google Atmosphere, a conference for 400 CIOs, on April 12. Amazon.com and Salesforce.com will join the party. Here are the details.

Business intelligence ain’t just for large enterprises anymore. Multiple proponents — including Google, technology distributors and even open source VARs — have helped to stir business intelligence conversations within small businesses. Here are the details.

As you may have heard, Mark Shuttleworth announced his vision for Ubuntu 10.10 a few days ago.  Without prejudicing the more pressing release of Ubuntu 10.04 in a couple weeks, here are some thoughts on what Shuttleworth said, and what we can expect from Ubuntu 10.10 in October 2010.