The VAR Guy

It’s almost like Google is “half pregnant” with the baby of openness. On Jan. 11, 2011, the company noted in its Chromium Blog entry that Google Chrome would no longer support H.264. The reason? Google wants to create a platform that is entirely built to “enable open innovation.” Yet, Google hasn’t removed the built-in Flash player. That doesn’t sound too open to me. Here’s how Google kludged what could have been the boldest move in browser history:

From the outside, a dark cloud has stood over FalconStor Software since founder ReiJane Huai resigned as CEO in September 2010. But inside the halls of FalconStor, there are signs of real change within the storage company. Indeed, The VAR Guy witnessed them first-hand today. Newly named CEO Jim McNiel is leveraging a Hoshin strategy to prioritize strategic goals within the company. And new VP of North American Sales John Turner — a Symantec and Veritas veteran — is working closely with VP of Channel Management and Global Alliances Brendan Kinkade to bolster partner relationships. But that’s not all.

FalconStor Software has named James P. McNiel as president and CEO, and the storage company has recruited Symantec veteran John W. Turner as VP of North American Sales. The FalconStor moves arrive a few months after former CEO ReiJane Huai resigned amid a payment probe at the storage company.

The VAR Guy’s sister site, MSPmentor, will host two timely webcasts for established and aspiring managed services providers over the next few weeks. On January 26, MSPmentor Live will explore the key questions MSPs must ask before upgrading their RMM (remote monitoring and management) software platforms and before purchasing new platforms. And on February 16, MSPmentor Live will unveil the annual MSPmentor 100 list and survey results. Here’s some more background on each webcast.

Pano Logic, a 100 percent channel-focused company known for its virtualization solutions and super-lightweight zero clients, has launched a new version of its virtualization system back-end, dubbed Pano System 4, and a new zero client featuring comprehensive under-the-hood upgrades. I spoke with Dana Loof, executive VP of Marketing and Aly Orady, company CTO and co-founder, about the new offerings and channel implications …

Sponsored Blog: Wow, it’s 2011 and where has the time gone? If you’re like me, you hate to make resolutions, but this time of year does make you stop and consider. It’s not just time to take stock of our personal lives, but of our business as well, and then consider where and how to invest in 2011.

It’s snowing here on Long Island. The VAR Guy’s neighborhood is expecting up to 18 inches of the white stuff. If the forecasts are correct and some roads become impassable, thousands of resellers and VARs on the East Coast won’t get to work on January 12. Alas, performing on-site customer maintenance won’t be possible. At times like this The VAR Guy wonders why traditional resellers and VARs don’t embrace RMM and PSA software that thousands of MSPs take for granted. Here’s why.

It’s finally here: iPhone on the Verizon network. For Verizon customers, it’s like Christmas on a three-week delay. But it’s worth the wait, right? For some, the Verizon iPhone is the best thing that ever happened to carriers and cell phones. Or is it?

RELDATA, a New Jersey-based firm that specializes in unified storage solutions, has announced that industry veteran and former Sun Microsystems VP Victor Walker will be taking the reins of command as the company’s new CEO. That announcement comes alongside the claim that RELDATA’s revenue has grown 135 percent year-over-year — and its reseller program is growing at the same clip. Here’s the scoop.

Blue Coat is stepping up its security game in the SMB space with its new ProxyOne security appliance. I spoke with Sasi Murthy, senior director of product marketing at Blue Coat, about the new features and channel applications of the 1U unit. Here’s the scoop …

It may come as no surprise that a security company is recommending people increase their computers’ levels of protection, but a recent survey by Symantec shows that SMBs aren’t taking security seriously enough. I spoke to Bernard Laroche, senior director of SMB product marketing at Symantec about the findings.

Computer hardware vendor ZaReason recently announced the addition of Trisquel, a Linux distribution comprised only of completely free code, as a pre-installed software option on its products. Here’s the scoop, along with some notes from the company’s CEO on the motivations behind the change.

Apropos of the recent trend in tablet consumerization of IT is F5′s latest announcement of two new iPad and iPhone apps. They’re now available, free, in the iOS App Store for IT admins to use. Designed to provide “secure and optimized corporate network access,” these apps are F5′s first foray into iOS — a platform for which the company has high hopes for the future.

Robert Muglia, president of the Servers and Tools Business unit at Microsoft, is leaving the company this summer after 22 years of service, and just as the company is betting heavily on its future in the cloud computing space.

Tablet devices are probably the hottest consumer technology right now, and for good reason. It’s a form factor everyone is craving, and the technology has matured to the point where a device 10 inches in size is actually lightweight and very powerful. But the vast majority of the tablets available are geared for the consumer space — not exactly a plus for a channel. Or is it? Is there a way VARs and MSPs can take advantage of the tablet craze and make some money? We’ve got three ideas:

That didn’t take long … Within hours of the Mac App Store launching, hackers figured out how to circumvent the apps’ DRM (digital rights management). What are the implications now and how could this affect future digital distributions?

In the past I’ve discounted the rumors that a Verizon iPhone was coming in January 2011, but new evidence has lead me to believe I could be wrong. As CES 2011 wwas wrapping up, Verizon sent out invitations to the media about a special event Jan. 11, 2011, at Lincoln Center in New York City. Other than The Wall Street Journal reporting that this is the moment we’ve all be waiting for, popular gadget blog Gizmodo, which leaked the iPhone 4, has not been invited to the event despite having a close relationship with Verizon. Why would that be?

The VAR Guy is dragging a bit this Friday. Despite the recent Holidays, our resident blogger feels like he needs another vacation. Perhaps The VAR Guy will truly unplug this weekend. Seriously. But before The VAR Guy walks away from his keyboard here are six channel partner blog entries he didn’t have time to write for the week ending January 7, 2011.

Juniper Networks has spent recent months searching for a new global channel chief. Now comes word that Juniper Europe channel veteran David Small is leaping to McAfee for a similar position. Here’s the update on both items.

Panasonic – a company known more for its consumer electronics prowess than its enterprise applications – has added 3D to its HD Visual Communications system, offering an advanced depth of field ideal for any situation in which that extra dimension would be helpful.

It’s only been roughly 24 hours since the Mac App Store launched, but already trends are emerging. What are developers’ strategies? What’s selling and what’s not? More importantly, are there channel implications? The answers may surprise you. Read on for the details …

As Apple, Google and Microsoft battle for mobile supremacy, Canonical — promoter of Ubuntu Linux — is preparing its own mobile moves. Ubuntu 11.04 will ship in April 2011 with a kernel version customized for OMAP 3 ARM processors, according to Ubuntu developer notes. Does this mean Canonical hopes to target more types of mobile devices in the future? Here’s the scoop, along with some thoughts.

CES 2011 officially kicked off the evening of Jan. 5 with Microsoft’s keynote address. President and CEO Steve Ballmer gave a jovial summary of Microsoft’s dominion while being flanked by a plethora of Microsoft evangelists showing off new technology, new games and new devices. Multi-touch and tablets were a focus later on in the presentation, with excited presenters all around. Some snazzy devices were shown off, too (HP and ASUS); but it begs the question: Can form factor win over when the operating system really doesn’t offer something new for personal computing?