The VAR Guy

Ingram Micro has been officially authorized as North America’s VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) Aggregator. The expanded relationship means that Ingram Micro’s channel partners offer can offer VMware’s Pay-as-you-go licensing. Here’s the scoop…

The VAR Guy must be old: During a tech conference this week in Las Vegas, our resident blogger skipped the casinos and headed to a minor league baseball game. There’s nothing like watching America’s Pastime in 100 degree heat. Now that you know how The VAR Guy spends his free time, here are six channel partner blog entries our resident blogger didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending June 4, 2010.

Dell and Practice Fusion have teamed up on an EMR (electronic medical records) strategy. The effort strives to make EMR packages for doctors more affordable and more easily adopted. The Practice Fusion EMR software will be bundled with Dell’s desktops, laptops and other peripherals (e.g. scanners, printers.) But will VARs cash in? Here’s the scoop…

If you had any doubts that the iPad would find usage in the healthcare vertical, turn your attention to Japan. They’ve already used the iPad during surgery. Read on for details and some potential channel implications…

Proponents of the speakerphone, listen up. Headset manufacturer Plantronics is reducing your dependence on that annoying piece of office equipment by making its products compatible with IBM’s Sametime technology. That means Sametime users are now free to pace their office while on a call and not have to rely on their speakerphones.

There’s a lot of talk about cloud computing in enterprises today, but not as much action as you might think. According to Forrester Research, only 1 percent of workloads will actually run in the cloud next year. So, what’s keeping VARs and their enterprise customers from jumping into the cloud? Here are some of the challenges plus a look at why I believe software appliances will propel the cloud forward.

No doubt, managed services is a hot segment within the IT channel. But here’s a timely reality check from HPM Networks, a Hewlett-Packard solutions provider that expects annual revenues to hit $200 million this year — up from about $93 million last year. The twist: Managed services are not a core part of HPM’s revenue stream, according to CEO Romi Randhawa. Here’s why.

A couple weeks ago, Google, along with a number of other groups, famously advanced the WebM codec as a supported video format for HTML5-enabled browsers, in an attempt to finally put forward a standard that all parties involved can agree on.  How far has the Linux community come since then in implementing support for the new codec?  Here’s a look.

InfoStreet, a SaaS company, will be offering a free conference calling and calendaring service for everyone coming June 8. It’s called ‘StreetSmart Meeting’ but is this really anything new? Read on for details…

Call it a healthy hunch. The VAR Guy believes Ingram Micro is preparing to make multiple cloud-related channel moves in the days ahead, and they could involve such partners as Salesforce.com, Rackspace and Microsoft. Here’s the rumor, started by The VAR Guy.

The VAR Guy is watching a rather intriguing trend unfold at the Kaseya Connect User Conference in Las Vegas. The trend involves established and emerging security software companies — like Kaspersky Lab, Symantec Corp. and Scorpion Software — potentially plugging into the Kaseya managed services platform for VARs and MSPs. Here’s the chatter.

Last week all the rage was about the new Wired Magazine Application that came out for the iPad. Apparently, Adobe worked very closely with Wired’s publishing company, Condé Nast, to make the digital edition possible. This week, Adobe unleashed a press release detailing their involvement and commitment to the iPad, despite the whole Flash debate with Apple. Here’s the full details… and even a channel hook for VARs.

ASUS has finally shown off their version of a tablet computer. Dubbed the Eee Pad, it has debuted at Computex 2010, in Taipei. Clearly, ASUS hopes to give Apple’s iPad a run for its money. Here’s the quick and dirty rundown on what to expect from the ASUS effort.

Google is sending a message to the world. The search giant is pushing its own employees toward Mac OS X or Linux, according to a published report. In fact, Google allegedly is dropping internal use of Microsoft Windows because of security concerns. What’s the deal? Read on…

Zoho, the Google Apps competitor aimed at filling the needs of the enterprise space, has launched something unique in the market: unified search across their SaaS applications. In plain English that means Zoho users have a single way to search e-mail messages, documents, contacts, and other content managed by Zoho’s SaaS applications. Here’s the scoop on Zoho Search.

The TurnKey Linux project has launched TurnKey Hub, a service designed to make it easy to launch and manage open-source virtual appliances on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). It’s currently in private beta, but TurnKey Hub caught my attention. Here’s why.

EnterpriseDB, the self-described “Enterprise Postgres Company,” has announced a strategic partnership with data warehousing specialists Netezza Corporation. Under the terms of the deal, Netezza will resell EnterpriseDB’s Postgres Plus Advanced Server as Netezza Migrator (nzMigrator), an Oracle migration tool designed to operate within Netezza’s TwinFin appliance. Here’s the lowdown.

Back in December 2009, I reported on enterprise VoIP services provider M5 Networks and their push to build smarter phone systems for SMBs. Now, fast forward to the present: I had the chance to catch up with M5 Networks CEO Dan Hoffman (pictured) on where the company’s going, how the cloud is helping them get there, and how the Apple iPad fits into their vision for enterprise telephony. Here’s the scoop.

Apprenda, creators of the SaaSGrid application server, has launched a free “Express” version of their flagship product, targeted at providing .NET ISVs and VARs a foundation to develop cloud offerings. Here’s the scoop.

What do Bing Maps, Zune videos, and Windows Update have in common? They’re all powered by the Microsoft Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN), which enhances end user performance by putting copies of your data in different spots across the network, distributing them closer to the endpoint. It’s been available to ISVs and VARs leveraging the Azure cloud platform for free as part of a technology preview, but starting July 1, Microsoft will be charging for the privilege.

Move over, Dick Clark. Oracle Channel Chief Judson Althoff is ushering in the New Year a little early. Specifically, Oracle kicks off its fiscal year 2011 on June 1, and the channel team is taking several steps to ensure the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized effort maintains its focus. Here are the details.

Lenovo’s M90Z is the new all-in-one desktop that’s yet to be released. But that hasn’t stopped Lenovo from talking about it. In fact, Lenovo wants you to know that they put a lot of heart and soul into creating this new machine. Design was an integral focus, and it’s part of the reason that Lenovo is running their “Design Matters” blog. Here are some clues about where Lenovo is heading next.