The VAR Guy

Counting on the impending ubiquity of cloud computing and hoping to make its mark as an innovator in the space, Riverbed has developed two products it hopes will make life easier for IT administrators going ethereal.

Dell’s recently disclosed plan to acquire Boomi could push the PC giant deeper into the cloud and broaden its channel at the same time. How’s that? Here are the details.

Google has enlisted the number-crunchers at Forrester Consulting to answer a simple question: How much is faster collaboration worth to businesses? More specifically, Google was looking to quantify the ROI of switching to the Google Apps cloud suite — and came up with a very impressive figure of 307% over three years. Where did that eye-popping figure come from? And is it accurate? Here’s some perspective.

rPath, the self-described “service factory for on-demand IT,” has released rBuilder 5.8, which adds automated Microsoft Windows server application deployment. The company says it’s a natural extension of its work doing the same in Linux server environments. Here’s the scoop on how rBuilder can potentially eliminate some headaches.

Nine Lives Media Inc., publisher of The VAR Guy, remains in growth mode and we have big aspirations for 2011. We are currently seeking talented freelance professionals to assist our sales, marketing, Webcast, blogging and video efforts. For a list of current freelance opportunities please visit our corporate careers page.

The VAR Guy is seeking to answer a very basic question: Where can solutions providers find funding to help enhance their cash flow, win new business deals and drive growth? The VAR Guy’s Channel Finance 25 — an annual report from our resident blogger — will help VARs and MSPs to find the key companies, organizations and financial lenders that can assist with short-term cash flow and long-term growth strategies. Here are the details.

Repeat after The VAR Guy: Red Hat wants to be more than a Linux company. The latest potential proof: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6) has arrived. Look under the hood and you’ll find Red Hat bolstering its virtualization strategy with KVM (Kernel-based Virtualization). Simply put, Red Hat hopes RHEL6 and KVM provide a one-two punch against VMware and Microsoft’s Hyper-V. But is Red Hat really ready to challenge entrenched virtualization rivals? And will channel partners embrace Red Hat’s strategy? Here’s The VAR Guy’s best guess.

Skyfire ranks among the hottest apps in the Apple App Store, providing an interesting and Apple-approved way to watch Flash content on your iPhone. The app basically reads the web page, figures out where the Flash content is, then re-encodes it on Skyfire’s cloud to view inside a pop-up in the app browser. And it’s a money maker. Implications on the mobile scene? Oh yeah…

Westcon and Tech Data continue to promote highly targeted opportunities to VARs and integrators. At Westcon, the buzz this week involves security. And over at Tech Data, the distribution giant says it has doubled its health care business with channel partners. Here’s the update on both fronts.

GI Partners has successfully played matchmaker for portfolio companies The Planet and SoftLayer, merging them into one hosting service monolith with 24,000 customers using 76,000 servers in 110 countries. The VAR Guy won’t say “he told you so,” but here’s the scoop.

In mid-2010, Intermedia decided to bolster its Microsoft Exchange business with a new SMB-targeted hosted PBX service to provide customers with low-cost Internet telephony integrated with their messaging system. Fast forward to the present, and Intermedia is ready to brag about their customer momentum, with adoption doubling month-over-month since August 2010. Here’s the scoop.

Fall is in the air in New England and I am still sifting through the thousands of product announcements from Oracle OpenWorld 2010 (held in September).  One of the questions I keep being asked by solution providers is “What does this new Oracle Linux Kernel mean to me?” Knowing how astute the VAR Guy’s readers are, I jumped at the chance to share my thoughts on this exciting announcement.

Question: How do you ensure channel partners embrace your cloud computing, managed services and SMB initiatives? Answer: Make sure you bang the drum for your partner program, using a predictable, repetitive beat. That’s the strategy at Cisco Systems Inc., which has been organizing multiple briefings with the media. Here’s the update.

As the managed services market continues to evolve, how should you adjust your pricing strategies for 2011? Before you answer be sure to join The VAR Guy’s sister site for the next MSPmentor Live webcast, scheduled for Wednesday, November 17 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. During the webcast, two top MSPs will share at least five managed services pricing tips. Here’s a closer look at our guest speakers and the what we’ll cover.

Scaling is important when it comes to campus networks and data centers. The ability to use one switch for multiple uses in any number of environments can be critical as more enterprises look for ways to save money and reduce the agita often involved in network design and implementation.

Two pieces of channel news from Google today: The search giant’s Google I/O Conference (May 10-11, 2011, San Francisco) could evolve to include more channel partner content, The VAR Guy has learned. Plus, Google says more than 2,000 channel partners have signed up to sell Google Apps — the company’s SaaS productivity suite. That milestone is an important morale-booster for Google’s base of solution providers ahead of the forthcoming channel battle with Microsoft for SMB cloud service supremacy. Here’s the scoop.

It bears repeating that imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery. And clearly, Microsoft is taken with Google. So much so that they’ve tried to manufacture their own cultural phenomena. You’ve heard about product placement in TV shows and movies. But what about catchphrase placement? A prime example: In a recent Hawaii-Five-O broadcast, characters “Bing It.” Huh? Read on for details.

Dot Hill, known for their “Assured” suite of storage solutions, is expanding its product line  to tackle growing virtualization storage needs. It’s called Dot hill AssuredUVS solutions, available both in Datacenter and Standard versions. The goal is to bring storage virtualization to the SMB and SME markets. Here’s the plan…

Amazon CloudFront, the content delivery network for IaaS provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), had upheld the proud cloud tradition of an extended (paid) beta ahead of its official release. But now, CloudFront is generally available to all customers, with new support for any origin server and a new SLA guaranteeing 99.9% availability. That’s quite a lot of jargon. Read on to make sense of it all.

Riverbed is looking to solidify its hold in the Federal Market by acquiring Global Protocols LLC. Simply put, Global Protocols provides application performance in satellite networks, which is critical to helping government organizations leverage the Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS). Channel implications? Maybe…

If you trace human nature back far enough—to even before agriculture—you get to a point in time when people hunted and foraged for their food—for their very survival. They did this in small teams that were bound together by mutual dependence and a common objective. They counted on each other’s hunting prowess. And their goal was simple: to eat. These people survived in groups.

The VAR Guy certainly has a lot of information floating around in his little mind. But what will he talk about next? Hmmm… Nine Lives Media Inc. — the team that brought you The VAR Guy — invites you to find a clue here…

There are still a lot of questions around the upcoming Microsoft Office 365 cloud suite — it has the very ambitious goal of delivering unified communications, productivity, and collaboration as a service to businesses of all shapes and sizes. But much of the Office 365 attention thus far has focused on SMBs. What can it do for larger organizations? Hmmm… A new Microsoft blog series aims to answer that question. Here’s the scoop… plus The VAR Guy’s perspectives.