The VAR Guy

The next MSPmentor Live webcast is today (Wednesday, October 20) at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. During the live webcast, hosted by The VAR Guy’s sister site, guest speakers will describe how you can potentially double your managed security revenues in 2011. Join us as we answer dozens of attendee questions during the discussion. Here’s a closer look at our guest speakers and what we’ll cover.

Hewlett-Packard has mapped out its future and it is Open IT. That, we already knew, since the company has been touting Open IT for about a year now. Now the company is backing up that Open IT philosophy by designing a training and certification program that focuses on the technology, not the product set. Here are the details.

Are enterprises planning to jump to the freshly-announced Microsoft Lync 2010 unified communications solution? An independent survey commissioned by managed messaging provider Azaleos Corp. indicates that for 30% of enterprises, the answer is “yes.” Here’s the lowdown.

When it comes time to compare cloud suites Google Apps and Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), The VAR Guy isn’t the only one who notices that the former tends to focus on the SMB space while the latter’s efforts center on the large enterprise. But that all changes with the launch of Microsoft Office 365, which provides SMBs and large enterprises alike access to cloud productivity, messaging, and collaboration. Here’s the scoop.

Today, October 20, marks 10 days since the release of Ubuntu 10.10.  Now that we’ve had a week and a half to evaluate it on production machines, here are some thoughts on how close it comes to scoring the “perfect 10″ to which Ubuntu founder and financier Mark Shuttleworth aspired when he announced the new release back in April. Now, here’s our perspective.

Lenovo business partners have a new “Black Box” to sell to the enterprise. Lenovo is unleashing the ThinkCentre M75e upon the world, positioning the computer for large enterprises and complex business tasks. Here’s some background.

Astaro is at it again, looking to provide “wireless without compromises.” Specifically, Astaro has introduced a new way for VARs to manage customer access points without spending big coin. But what’s the real deal? Read on and find out…

The SMB Nation Fall conference (Oct. 22-24, Las Vegas) is set to attract hundreds of VARs and IT service providers — and maybe even a former heavyweight champion of the world. There will be plenty of business chatter during the daytime sessions. But when the sun sets, at least five conference parties will arise. Here’s a look at the potential evening action, which should pack plenty of punch.

AppSense has appointed a new VP of Channel for the US, and it’s an interesting grab, since the new appointee is Richard Jackson, a former Citrix executive. He’s being brought on board to expand the channel and address partner growth. Here’s the scoop…

Google may be pushing the Google Apps SaaS productivity suite to businesses of all shapes and sizes, but search remains the company’s bread and butter. Now, those two specialties will finally meet in the enterprise thanks to an update to the Google Search Appliance, featuring a cloud connector that enables search of not only on-premises data but also web services like Google Docs, Google Site Search, or even Twitter. Here’s the scoop.

Sophos and Virtual Computer are working together to create a secure virtual desktop environments. The move comes as Virtual Computer looks to provide protection to their NxTop users. Here are the details…

With so many businesses scooping up Apple iPads for use at work, it’s surprising that Apple hasn’t pushed their channel more. But AT&T is coming in where Apple left off, with the announcement that they’ll be selling all three configurations of the iPad WiFi + 3G to their business customers. Read on for more details about the iPad push…

Most of the hype about touchscreen devices these days centers around the iPad and other highly proprietary hardware.  But Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, has made major bets in recent months that touch-enabled computers will become ubiquitous in the open-source world as well.  It made that belief clear last week when it showcased the Unity interface running on a tablet computer.  Read on for a look.

Fresh off the Red Hat corporate blog comes the news that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 has made Release Candidate. It’s ready now for partners to play with. Read on for the scoop and what RHEL6 is offering…

Shiftboard is a software developer that specializes in smarter SaaS workforce scheduling — and they’ve launched a channel partner program designed to help VARs bring the company’s solution to new markets. Just don’t call it “calendaring.” Here’s the scoop.

Ray Ozzie, the man hand-picked five years ago to replace Bill Gates as Microsoft’s chief software architect, will be leaving his position shortly, according to a Financial Times report. The news is unexpected, but what really has us thrown for a loop is that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer apparently has no plans to fill the position once Ozzie’s gone. Here’s what we know.

The iPad is getting more play in the workplace now that NaviSite is jumping on board. NaviSite specializes in cloud services, so it may come as no surprise they have an affinity for the device. Read on for NaviSite’s new iPad support for management anywhere, anytime…

Every once in a while we test some useful apps that make your mobile devices more suitable for the workplace. For the last three weeks, I’ve had the unique pleasure of using PlainText on my iPad for my blogging needs. If you’re the type who takes notes in meetings, constantly sketching ideas, or even writing up anything on the go, PlainText might be a useful solution for you…because it’s DropBox enabled…

The  next MSPmentor Live webcast is this Wednesday, October 20 at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. During the live webcast, hosted by The VAR Guy’s sister site, guest speakers will describe how you can potentially double your managed security revenues in 2011. Join us as we answer dozens of attendee questions during the discussion. Here’s a closer look at our guest speakers and what we’ll cover.

Synnex has launched a mobile application front end for their e-commerce website. It’s called ECExpress Mobile, and resellers can take advantage of it on any nearly any mobile platform they want. Here’s the scoop…

Who’s afraid of Google? It sounds like the answer might be “everybody in the IT world.” Take, for example, What If Google Does It?, a site designed to provide an answer for VCs who ask the question when you’re in mid-pitch. Here’s a quick look at the markets Google’s made waves in — and at least one where it failed to make a splash.

I don’t need to tell anyone reading this that the biggest hurdle to OS upgrades is application incompatibility – what’s the point in spending money on a Windows 7 license if the software you need to do business won’t run? Enter Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), a new tool released in beta for Windows Vista and Windows 7 designed to transparently run applications in a previous version of the OS (say, Windows XP). Here’s the scoop.

Cisco’s traditional TelePresence solutions typically target large enterprises and executive offices. But we’re starting to wonder if Cisco’s new, lower-cost, consumer-grade telepresence will make the  jump into from residential homes into the SMB market. Here’s our perspective on Cisco umi TelePresence.