The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy is nearly ready to disappear and celebrate the New Year. But even during a holiday season, there’s plenty of channel partner news worth chasing. And there’s lots of news ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). So before our resident blogger allegedly unplugs for the weekend, here are six channel partner blogs The VAR Guy didn’t find time to write for the week ending December 31, 2010.

7. Earning Interest: A federal judge has ruled that SAP AG must pay interest on a $1.3 billion award that Oracle won against it in a November copyright-infringement case, but not in the amount Oracle originally sought, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hmmm… The VAR Guy wonders if the Oracle-SAP feud will spill over into 2011. Safe bet: Absolutely yes.

6. Open Source Networking: Vyatta, which positions itself as an open source alternative to Cisco Systems, is claiming some big customer and service provider wins. The list of Vyatta customers apparently includes EMC, Dell Cloud Services, the U.S. Department of Defense, Toyota, MIT, France Telecom and Rackspace.

5. Channel Events in 2011: The VAR Guy has compiled a list of roughly 100 channel partner events that are scheduled for 2011. Our resident blogger is double-checking some dates and locations, and he plans to publish the entire list the week of January 3, 2011. Stay tuned.

4. First Look – Cisco Umi: During a recent trip to Best Buy, The VAR Guy checked out the Cisco’s consumer telepresence technology — called Umi. The technology sure looks promising. But will the business model — $599 to buy the system, and $24.99 per month — catch on with consumers? Especially when Skype (when it works…) and ooVoo video services are free? Hmmm… the jury is still out on that question.

3. Tablet Wars: When the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off January 6 in Las Vegas, numerous companies will counter the Apple iPad. Aspiring contenders include Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, RIM and Samsung. But Apple is preparing its iPad 2 enhancements. The big question: Can anybody catch up to Steve Jobs in the tablet race?

2. Thank You: Imagine writing a business plan for a channel blog written by an anonymous author. Would readers engage with the blog? Would sponsors back the blog? In both cases, the answer has been a resounding yes. The VAR Guy’s personal web site launched in January 2008. Fast forward to the present, and traffic is still growing about 50 percent annually. The VAR Guy thanks you for visiting and engaging in a dialog with our resident blogger.

1. Check the Headline: This remains a top six list. Always has been. Always will be. So there is no number one.

Thanks again for visiting The VAR Guy throughout 2010. And check back often. We’ve got some surprises in store for 2011…

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