The VAR Guy

Summertime temperatures can test the stability of even the most powerful commercial-grade Ethernet switches. When ambient temperatures reach 90 degrees or higher, networking closets located outside can literally bake the components they’re designed to protect. That’s where companies like Sixnet enter the picture. Here’s why.

The latest rumblings ’round the Net involves Verizon planning to cap their unlimited data plans as early as the end of July 2010. So what’s the deal? Could Verizon’s sudden surge in Android phone users be to blame? More importantly, will this really effect the end user?

0 A.D., the open-source RTS game that could radically alter the gaming scene on Ubuntu when it’s completed, recently reached another milestone with its third pre-alpha release.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s playable yet in any meaningful sense. But it has come a long way since we last checked in with the project in March 2010, so here are some updates.

Technical certifications are important to our industry, but it can be difficult to allocate the time to get them done. How do you make sure your techs are up to date with their Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, and HP certifications (and more)? Here are some real-world thoughts from the halls of our solutions provider business in  Tampa, Fla.

Want to steal some secrets to sales success from two of the world’s most successful managed services providers? Today’s MSPmentor Live Webcast (July 21 at 2:00 p.m. eastern) should do the trick. The topic is 5 Sales Tips From Two MSPmentor 100 Companies. Here’s a look at what we’ll cover during the webcast, plus some background on each one of our guest speakers.

AccelOps is looking to raise its profile in the IT channel. The company, which develops data center monitoring software, has launched a partner program for systems integrators, VARs and service providers. The VAR Guy suspects this is the first of multiple partner moves AccelOps is planning. Here’s why.

Nuxeo, a provider of open source enterprise content management, is building a channel operation in North America. The move comes as multiple open source companies prepare for the LinuxCon North America conference (Aug. 10-12, Boston). Here’s a closer look at Nuxeo and the open source IT channel.

Call it a small victory amid broader economic challenges: The IT industry still is a hotbed for new jobs, bucking the economy as a whole in job creation and retention, according to the latest monthly index by TechServ Alliance. Here are some quick stats worth noting.

Siemens Enterprise Communications is banking on the idea that when it comes to unified communications, one Tweet is worth a thousand words. That’s why the communications vendor, as expected, has added social media functionality to its OpenScape UC platform.

If you don’t mind a bit of speculation so early in the game, I’m anticipating that the holiday season for 2010 is going to be chock full of tablet offerings. To get started, Lenovo is committing itself to a fully blown Google Android tablet, dubbed the LePad (the name apparently is inspired by Lenovo’s LePhone success in China). And HP’s webOS tablet rumors are becoming ever more real as they officially file a trademark for PalmPad. Here’s where the tablet market is heading next.

Certeon, known for their wide area network optimization and application acceleration, is “resurrecting” their global channel partner program in effort to drive resellers into “high-performance and cost-effective WAN” solutions and cloud computing markets. Here’s the update.

VMware is preparing to attack Microsoft Exchange across the IT channel. The strategy calls for VMware’s channel partners to begin selling Zimbra — an open source email system — starting on Aug. 1, 2010. Here are the details, which The VAR Guy confirmed at HostingCon.

Intronis recently launched a major product release—our own local backup feature. This feature allows managed service providers to not only parse their critical and non-critical data, but manage it with the same Intronis software they use to manage all their offsite data. What inspired this latest move? Here’s some background.

Application delivery networking vendor Blue Coat Systems is arming its solution provider partners with the ability to perform network assessments for customers and prospective customers via the cloud. Here’s how.

Hewlett-Packard and Red Hat have launched consulting services with two goals in mind: Improve the efficiency of virtualized environments while getting customers to switch from Oracle’s Sun Solaris to Linux. Still, the move raises a few virtualization and channel partner questions. Here’s why.

On the eve of its partner conference in Colorado, Avnet Technology Solutions is digging deeper into vertical markets — promoting data center expertise in banking, energy, utilities and retail industries. Here’s some perspective…

Astaro has launched a new way to protect web servers and applications. Astaro Web Application Security is designed to protect from exploits, scripting, and other attacks, without requiring your IT admin, or anyone else to have any sort of fancy in depth protection knowledge. Here’s some perspective.

How do you eat an elephant? In small bytes. That old saying applies to Canonical’s emerging Ubuntu cloud strategy. Instead of attacking the entire hosting industry and attacking big rivals like Red Hat and Microsoft head-on, Canonical is quietly pursuing 10 hosting partners to pilot Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. Here are the details from HostingCon in Austin, Texas.

Canonical’s Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) sounds like its set to get a boost from IBM. A source attending HostingCon says a deeper relationship between IBM and Canonical could be announced as soon as July 20. And the relationship, which may surface at OSCON, could give Ubuntu and IBM’s DB2 database a lift in the cloud. Here’s why.

When Barton George talks, The VAR Guy typically listens. George is a cloud computing evangelist at Dell. And this week, George is busy describing OpenStack Compute — open source cloud computing software for building reliable cloud infrastructure. Rackspace and NASA are leading the OpenStack Compute charge. But George has emerged as OpenStack Compute’s impromptu evangelist. Here’s how.

The channel media spent most of last week chasing new Microsoft Channel Chief Jon Roskill during Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 (WPC10). Roskill and Microsoft’s executive team say more than 16,000 partners now back BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), Microsoft’s cloud platform for Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. But where does Roskill want partners to head next? He shared some perspectives at a press conference, which The VAR Guy captured in this FastChat video…

Let’s pretend you want to build a Rolodex containing the world’s top managed services experts, coaches, entrepreneurs, sales pros, executives and community managers. Interested? Then please participate in the third-annual MSPmentor 250 Survey, hosted by The VAR Guy’s sister site (MSPmentor). Deadline for participation is this Friday, July 23. We’ll follow-up with a free MSPmentor 250 report in August 2010. Here’s why you want to jump into the survey right now.

Internet monitoring software vendor Awareness Technologies (ATI) has added a mobility function to its data loss prevention solution, enabling companies to monitor what employees are up to with their smartphones as well as their computers.