The VAR Guy

Is Red Hat looking for a change of scenery? Perhaps. Multiple published reports suggest Red Hat may relocate its headquarters from Raleigh, N.C, to Boston, Mass. No, wait. Red Hat is moving to Atlanta, Ga. Hold on a second… Red Hat is going to Austin, Texas. What’s the truth? Here’s a best guess, and the potential implications for Red Hat’s partners and customers.

As The VAR Guy looks ahead to the week of October 4, our resident blogger is feeling a bit overwhelmed. Within a five-day period there are four channel-related partner conferences. The gatherings include Ingram Micro VentureTech (San Francisco), MSPWorld (Los Angeles), Rackspace Partner Summit (San Antonio) and Tigerpaw User Conference (Dallas, Texas). What should VARs expect from each conference? And can our resident blogger really use planes, trains and automobiles to attend each conference? Here’s a reality check.

Ferris Bueller took his day off. Bluto had his food fight. And soon, as many as 1,400 geeks, VARs and MSPs may have their chance to dump a truckload of fizzies into a conference pool. Somewhere within the crowd, ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini will be smiling. Here’s why.

Although the new AppleTV has only been in people’s hands for a short amount of time, some early users are tearing the device apart and cracking it open. We already know the obvious: The new AppleTV uses an Apple A4 CPU. But take a closer look and you’ll see how AppleTV may become an Apps platform like the iPad and iPhone. Here’s why.

Sophos North America Channel Chief Matt Fogelgren sees some opportunities to engage disgruntled McAfee and Symantec partners. Plus, Fogelgren says MSPs are beginning to embrace Sophos endpoint security licensing designed for service providers. But that’s not all. Here’s the update from Fogelgren.

Despite continued rumors, Apple COO Tim Cook (pictured) says he has no plans to join Hewlett-Packard as CEO, according to Barron’s. Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard apparently is in contract negotiations with its next potential CEO, even as the company continues to march forward with multiple business priorities. Specifically, HP has completed its 3Par acquisition, and HP Channel Chief Stephen DiFranco apparently is set to attend the Ingram Micro VTN conference in San Francisco. Here’s the update.

Zoho likes to position itself as the enterprise-targeted SaaS competitor to Google Apps, but it still knows that if you can’t beat them, join them. That’s why Zoho takes their Google integration a step further with Gmail contextual gadgets. The move brings Zoho CRM, Zoho Invoice, and Zoho Projects into the conversation. Here are some details.

Not long after announcing its own channel program, Skype has signed a strategic partnership deal with Avaya to provide communication and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes. Meanwhile, GigaOm is calling on FaceBook to acquire Skype. Here’s both sides of the story.

Sophos Global Channel Chief Chris Doggett has resigned to pursue an opportunity unrelated to security and the channel, according to a spokeswoman for the company. Moving forward, Director of Channel Sales Matt Fogelgren will be the top channel exec at Sophos, the endpoint security specialist. Seems like plenty of security channel chiefs have been on the move in recent months. Here’s the update.

FalconStor Chairman, President and CEO ReiJane Huai (pictured) has resigned, effective immediately, amid a payment probe at the storage company. The news rocked the Long Island-based company and its investors, because Huai and FalconStor are considered synonymous, and his storage expertise is well-known within the halls of major software companies. FalconStor’s stock is down 22 percent as of noon eastern today. Here’s the update.

Dell is looking to make the path to the cloud less of a hassle, with their new Virtual Integrated System Architecture (VIS). It’s designed to support a mix of hardware and software  environments to provide customers with the best of the best, without compromising on compatibility. Sound too good to be true? Here’s a closer look at Dell’s VIS strategy.

Lookout Cisco and Apple, there may be a new tablet contender in town. RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook is a tablet computer designed from the ground up to be the ultimate business tablet… But is it? Read on for my opinion based on the hardware, software, and the cold hard dollar…

The big question: How do you develop a SaaS compensation plan for your sales team? The simple answer: Steal a few ideas from MJ Shoer, a solutions provider who’s willing to share his company’s SaaS and cloud compensation strategy. Shoer and other experts are set to speak during The VAR Guy Live webcast today (Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 2:00 p.m. eastern). Here are the details.

Good news for Oracle VARs that want to shift some customers into the cloud. The Amazon EC2 cloud computing platform has announced that all products that run on Oracle Virtual Machine (VM) have been certified to run in their environment with full support from Amazon Web Services and Oracle. Here’s the story.

It’s a small step for Dell and symbolic victory for Ubuntu Server Edition, Canonical’s Linux distribution. Specifically, selected Dell PowerEdge servers are now certified to run Ubuntu Server Edition. Does that mean Dell is shifting away from Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE Linux? And what are the implications for Linux channel partners? Hmmm… Here’s the reality check.

Cisco Systems on October 6 is expected to unveil a new consumer product or experience. Most pundits think the move will involve consumer TelePresence. The VAR Guy’s big question: Can Cisco really compete with free Internet video conferencing options that are gaining momentum across consumer and corporate markets? Here are some educated guesses.

Sometimes a little app floats around and surprises everyone. Even though I’ve been out of the Android game since August 2010, I still follow up on the latest and greatest Android enhancements. One example: ConnectIn provides what business-minded professions have looking for… synchronized contacts that aren’t from Facebook, but LinkedIn. Read on for the quick details and feature set…

Trend Micro — the anti-virus and security software provider — is preparing a push into the online backup market. Long term, Trend Micro intends to help VARs and MSPs profit from managed security and managed storage. But short term, Trend Micro’s storage efforts will start in the consumer market with so-called SafeSync technology. Here’s the strategy.

As part of their years-old Customer and Partner Experience initiative, Microsoft has launched the Global Relationship Study — meaning channel partners and customers alike will have the opportunity to tell Redmond what they really think. Here’s the lowdown.

Another day, another incremental Google Apps upgrade. This time, the search titan is upping its security game on its signature cloud productivity suite with the launch of OAuth support in a bunch of Google Apps APIs for secure data retrieval from the cloud. Here are some details.

Big Blue is buying BLADE Network Technologies in a effort to gain more virtualization expertise and optimize data transactions between servers. The deal is set to close in Q4 of 2010. In the meantime, here’s a bit more background on BLADE Network.

Symantec has launched a “co-marketing initiative” that aims to make it easier for partners to sell multi-vendor solutions. The new Symantec Alliance Network rewards partners for selling Symantec solutions that also involve Dell, ExaGrid, HP, Intel and Quantum offerings. Here’s how channel partners fit in.

Dan Ryan, the former vice president and general manager of McAfee’s network security business unit, recently joined cloud startup Pareto Networks as its CEO. Pareto bills itself as a cloud-based networking solution for branch and remote offices. Here’s a closer look at Ryan’s move, and Pareto’s emerging channel partner program.