The VAR Guy

Yawn… The VAR Guy is recovering from jet lag after a week-long road trip. N-able Partner Summit, SMB Nation and Avnet-IBM Partner Summit are now history. So, what did The VAR Guy learn while on the road? And what blog entries is he yet to write? Here are six channel blog entries that The VAR Guy didn’t have time to publish for the week ending October 29, 2010.

If you’re a small solutions provider — say, a VAR with 50 or fewer employees — then Microsoft would like your attention. As the new Microsoft Partner Network channel program prepares to launch on November 1, Microsoft GM Julie Bennani wants smaller partners to know, “how important the entire channel remains to us, and how important smaller partners remain to us.” What triggered Bennani’s comments? Here are some thoughts from The VAR Guy.

Plenty of education — and numerous parties — await more than 1,100 MSPs and VARs that are set to attend ConnectWise IT Nation (Nov. 4-6, Orlando). When they’re not busy learning about managed services, recurring revenue strategies, business management and cloud computing opportunities, the IT Nation attendees will unplug at the following bashes. Take a look.

This blogger spent 30 seconds in Best Buy looking at the new MacBook Air 11 and 13 inch models. Let’s just say there’s a reason I don’t trust myself with a credit card. Here’s a few quick hands-on impressions…

That’s it right there; nothing special: It’s Palm’s new logo, which handsomely features the HP logo in a circle to the left of it. Does the logo offer some clues about HP’s mobile strategy for Palm and the webOS operating system? The simple answer: Yes. Take a look.

Journeys across the Internet often turn up surprising things in the most unlikely of places, including Intel’s new “Free Press” site — which is in ‘beta’. If the irony isn’t already hitting you, let me spell it out for you. A news site without by-lines run by Intel isn’t much of a news site at all. But is Intel’s elaborate PR front looking to at least offer some objective material? Here’s the the scoop…

To a software developer, the sweetest three letters in the English language are “RTM.” Case in point: Microsoft Lync, the product on which Redmond has pinned its unified communications hopes, has been released to manufacturers — meaning it’s on target for an official November 17th launch date. Here’s a recap of what The VAR Guy knows about Lync so far.

Some skeptics think cloud computing and open source are putting the squeeze on Microsoft’s conventional server and desktop businesses. But the software giant’s latest quarterly results suggest demand for Windows Server, Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 remain incredibly robust. Skeptical? Check out these startling financial results.

Once you have answers to the four cloud computing questions all VARs must ask their customers, you’re faced with the intimidating task of choosing a cloud solution to meet your customers’ needs. All too often, VARs take a shotgun approach to selecting cloud technologies and platforms. Here’s a guide to getting it right.

Most readers already know Microsoft partners can get certified in Dynamics ERP and CRM competencies. So what’s next? Microsoft Dynamics has announced the 2012 launch of a newly restructured incentives program designed to give CRM and ERP resellers better margins. Here’s the scoop.

VMware claims their new educational application — VMware View — can reduce IT maintenance, cost and complexity in the education vertical. So, how is VMware applying virtualization in the classroom? And is it really a solution that belongs at the head of the class? Here’s some perspective…

Netgear was kind enough to send me their ProSafe WMS5316 Wireless Management System (Router) and ProSafe WNDAP350 Access Points for review. Any SMB or even branch office might be interested in this feature-packed solution. Read on about my three months with Netgear.

The VAR Guy promised that he’d keep an eye on MySQL veteran Marten Mickos (pictured left) in his tenure as CEO of open source cloud platform provider Eucalyptus Systems. Our resident blogger had the chance to chat with him for a few minutes this week and catch up. In ten minutes, Mickos covered a lot of ground. Here’s the update.

Symantec recently analyzed Windows 7 migration practices and came up with some interesting figures for do’s, don’t's and what to watch out for. You could read their corporate blog for details — or you can stay right here for the quick and dirty details. Take a look.

Many Ubuntu users will undoubtedly have strong opinions on Canonical’s recent proposal to replace the GNOME desktop with Unity in the Ubuntu 11.04 release.  But for the programmers behind GNOME, one of the open-source community’s most important projects, the announcement might prove to be even more upsetting.  Jon McCann, lead designer for GNOME Shell, recently shared his thoughts on this topic with us–and he was none too charitable in his comments on Canonical.  Read on for details.

It’s worth noting that Office 2010 for the Mac is finally out, and it’s got the most spit, polish and shine of any Office for Mac release I’ve seen yet. What’s more, crummy Entourage is gone, replaced with Outlook. Is Microsoft finally acting like the software company they’re supposed to be? Here’s the quick details on the new release that a Mac-oriented user might care about…

As the economy inches upward, retailers will likely be in the mode to refresh their point of sale solutions. Not by coincidence, Merchant Warehouse is looking to get the word out on their channel and provide more secure and smart payment options for partners to sell. Here’s the scoop…

Overland Storage is launching a new line of products that will soon reach channel partners. The effort involves Overland Storage’s SnapSAN solutions. Here’s a quick overview.

Isilon, a specialist in scale-out storage solutions, has announced two new partner programs: one designed to give VARs the opportunity to provide customers with low-level support, and another to help customers implement and deploy their products. Here’s the scoop.

On the outside, Apple might seem really focused on the consumer, but they care about businesses, too. It’s true. But instead of going it alone, Apple has asked Unisys Corp to sell and take care of business and governmental Mac solutions to help expand that commitment, according to published reports. Here’s the update…

Question: How can a distributor like Avnet Technology Solutions help VARs to push into vertical markets like retail, energy and financial services? Answer: Avnet has hired four seasoned pros with deep vertical market expertise. Who are they? The VAR Guy met the recent Avnet recruits earlier today. Here’s their story.

With the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2010 coming up on Thursday, the Windows Azure team wants to make sure you know that they’re planning a heavy presence with seminars drilling into every aspect of their cloud platform. Here are some interesting things we noticed about their cloud “cheat sheet” to PDC10.

SonicWALL is going granular with their web filtering, something we’re seeing from a lot of network vendors. Read on for SonicWALL’s solution to next-generation firewalls and application control with SonicOS 5.8…