The VAR Guy

The security software market continues to attract investors. The latest example: Apax Partners has acquired majority interest in Sophos, the endpoint security and data leakage prevention (DLP) software provider. The deal values Sophos at US$830 million, or more than three times annual revenues. Here’s a look at the agreement and the implications for solutions providers.

Set expectations and beat them. That’s the situation facing Novell as the company prepares for BrainShare EMEA, scheduled for May 18 to 21 in Amsterdam. This is the first time in five years Novell is hosting a BrainShare conference for EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) partners and customers. Novell Chief Marketing Officer and Channel Chief John Dragoon says the event is sold out. Here are the details.

Join The VAR Guy’s sister site, MSPmentor, on May 5 at 2:00 p.m. eastern for our next MSPmentor Live webcast: SaaS vs. On Premises MSP Software. The webcast will be a 40-minute fireside chat — even more interactive — exploring the key business drivers for selecting on-premises or SaaS (software as a services) MSP platforms. Here’s some more background including updated guest speaker information.

How do you monetize open source solutions? The VAR Guy hears that question all the time. Here’s one potential answer: Check out Digium SwitchVox, a small business unified communications system built on Linux and Asterisk, the open source IP PBX. SwitchVox sales grew nearly 25 percent in 2009, according to Director of Product Marketing Tristan Barnum (pictured). Here’s what else Barnum had to say.

Many IT solutions providers don’t consider design as critically important to their business. Because design isn’t a part of most IT professionals’ everyday tasks, website design may seem superfluous when compared to their core business functions. Or they think the nature of the IT industry doesn’t warrant careful attention to their business’ website. That’s a critical error. Here’s why.

Conferencing vendor Polycom is giving its partners another way to turn a profit in the burgeoning unified communications space through its new Professional Services portfolio. The slate of offerings will be available to Polycom customers through Open Collaboration Network partners and certified Polycom partners, as well as Polycom Global Services, which can work with partners to deliver an end-to-end services solution.

Uptime Devices recently popped into our inbox and onto our radar for providing environmental monitoring, physical security and power management solutions. What’s more, I had the chance to talk to CEO Jean-Paul Daemen about the Austin, Texas-based company and what they can provide. Read on about Uptime Devices new Partner Program and why they might be on your radar soon…

In case you missed it, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter to the world about why Apple won’t support Flash. It was lengthy and covered nearly all the bases highlighted in the ongoing war between Apple and Adobe. There was quite an uproar. The Wall Street Journal jumped at the opportunity and interviewed Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen about the sudden ‘attack’. Here’s what you need to know, the bottom line, and what this blogger thinks about the whole ordeal…

Anti-populist geeks often respond to complaints about Ubuntu being poorly documented by insisting that man pages will tell you all you could ever want to know about how your computer works. That may be true, if you’re a geek. But normal people need more than a command-line interface for understanding Ubuntu. That’s where the Ubuntu Manual project comes in.Accompanying the recent release of Ubuntu 10.04 was a new Ubuntu Manual written by volunteers. Here’s a look at this great publication.