The VAR Guy

The word is out that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen recently held a secret meeting on Adobe’s campus. What was spoken inside the meeting room for over an hour isn’t known exactly. But plenty of folks think Adobe and Microsoft could be kicking around a potential merger to counter Apple. Or, is Microsoft simply ready to abandon its own Silverlight in favor of Adobe Flash? Here’s the speculation.

Solution providers selling into the healthcare and retail verticals may see some real opportunities in two new handsets from Polycom. The UC and telepresence vendor’s 2007 acquisition of SpectraLink gave it a stable of robust cordless and Wi-Fi handsets, and Polycom has since added to the lineup with new models that address specific needs. The latest two models fit nicely into the retail and healthcare verticals – one for its design as a constant-use phone and the other for its integrated barcode reader.

Data Robotics’ backup solution, dubbed Drobo, might not be a familiar name to some, but after you become acquainted, you certainly won’t forget the name. Drobo has some unique features that make annoying backup solutions easy to maintain. Read on about the new Drobo Pro FS, and the channel opportunities Data Robotics provides…

Now that Hewlett-Packard has digested 3Com, HP is ready to serve up a new menu of Converged Infrastructure solutions — including the new HP Branch Office Networking Solution. So what’s the strategy here? Mike Bannic, VP of marketing for HP networking and Flynn Malloy, director of marketing for HP technology service, offer some insights.

Zoho has updated the Zoho Creator cloud database application, giving it integration with their Reports, Invoice, and CRM products — and adding a task scheduler, besides. For those who aren’t familiar with Zoho here’s the update.

This Sunday–the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of the millennium–Ubuntu 10.10, better known to some as “Maverick Meerkat,” will officially debut.  We can’t promise the day will be as momentous as the end of the First World War.  But it will bring a number of major changes and new features to the world’s most popular Linux distribution.  Read on for highlights.

Lenovo and Citrix are teaming up for a blend of virtualization pre-built into the Think-branded line of PCs. Citrix XenClient will be supported on select Think-products like the ThinkCentre M and the ThinkPad X and T. Here are the implications and tech details…

I can’t tell you why the Wall Street Journal is so obsessed with reporting on these Verizon iPhone rumors, especially with the plethora of unnamed sources, but they’ve gone and published the story. “Apple Making Verizon-Ready iPhone By Year End.” Oh, no. Really? I don’t think so.

Zift Solutions, which provides SaaS marketing services to companies and their channel partners, has announced the completion of a $1.5 million round of funding led by VC Kinetic Ventures. Here’s the scoop.

How can VARs enhance business continuity within customer data centers? Kemp Technologies continues to pitch load balancers. And yes, there’s a new fleet of solutions on the way. Here are the details.

Is this hotel pager-friendly? Scores of VARs could learn the answer to that question when they enter (er, stumble into) Caesars Palace Las Vegas later this month. The solutions providers will be in Sin City for SMB Nation Fall (Oct. 22-24). And some of them could wind up in a hotel suite where The Hangover was filmed. Here’s why.

You might remember Pano Logic as those zero-client gurus with the shiny silver box. Recently, Pano has introduced an expanded “open platform” for their zero-client system, which includes Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization support. Read on about Pano’s “vendor independence” and the technical details…

CommVault, the company known for their data management Simpana Software, has inked a deal with Hitachi Computer Peripherals to distribute said software into Japan. Read on for the brisk brief…

Microsoft talks a big game in the channel, but The VAR Guy doesn’t fall for bluster — we want to see action. So when systems integration and IT services firm Laurus Technologies announces that they’re starting a whole new Microsoft Solutions Practice, we take note. Here’s the scoop.

Dell Cloud Evangelist Barton George has a secret he can’t keep: Dell’s cloud solution — known as the Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications — is nearing launch. So, how will Dell position the server for corporate customers and cloud service providers? And what software will it run? The VAR Guy quizzed George during the Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit today in San Antonio, Texas. And yes, George provided plenty of answers.

Within the next few weeks, Rackspace is expected to announce key milestones for OpenStack, the open source cloud computing standard. But how will VARs and managed services providers potentially benefit from OpenStack? The VAR Guy went straight to the source, interviewing Jim Curry, chief stacker for Rackspace’s OpenStack effort. Here’s the conversation, recorded at the Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit in San Antonio, Texas, earlier today.

Microsoft’s virtualization team is taking a close look at OpenStack — the open source cloud computing platform promoted by Rackspace and NASA. In fact, sources say Microsoft Hyper-V will likely gain some integrations with OpenStack, with an official announcement potentially surfacing in late 2010. Here are the preliminary details, only from The VAR Guy.

At the Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit in San Antonio, Texas, Channel Chief Robert Fuller declared that Rackspace is the No. 1 hosting and cloud computing specialist in the industry. From there, Fuller and Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier (pictured) outlined how Rackspace and the company’s cloud partner program will march forward. Plus, Rackspace described how it will unify its four partner programs into a single channel program in 2011. Here are the top 14 highlights from this morning’s keynote.

Motorola is introducing two new tracks to its PartnerEmpower channel program. If you’re a VAR working in the Radio or Mobile solutions space, you might want to read on…

AMD is celebrating the first anniversary of its Fusion Partner Program, and the company has invited distributors to the party. If you’re selling AMD, be it GPUs or CPUs, read on to find out how AMD is looking to accelerate sales with their new distribution program…

Windows Live Essentials represents a pretty major shift in the way Microsoft thinks about the cloud. So it’s no surprise that Microsoft and Dell have partnered to pre-load new systems with the Windows Live Essentials 2011 cloud-connected desktop application suite. Here’s the scoop.

Lenovo, in conjunction with their 60 million ThinkPad sales milestone, is introducing Lenovo’s first business laptops with nVidia ‘Optimus Technology.’ Read on for the details and potential implications in the channel…

The VAR Guy stumbled onto plenty of news and chatter at the Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit, which kicked off today in San Antonio, Texas. The chatter involves some imminent OpenStack news, an expanded Rackspace channel team, and growing cloud relationships with such firms as Ingram Micro and Dell. Here’s the scoop… including the top seven highlights from Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit 2010, Day 1.