Ah, at last. The caffeine is kicking in. The VAR Guy is awaking from a deep sleep, and he’s finally prepared to start blogging this week. But before he does here are six channel partner blogs The VAR Guy didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending March 18, 2011.

7. Same Trend, Different Year: In recent weeks, some pundits speculated that the overhauled Microsoft Partner Network program, which debuted in November 2010, is off to a slow start. But a Microsoft spokesman says partner program renewals in 2011 are on pace with renewals in 2010, suggesting that partners remain loyal to Microsoft.

6. Microsoft’s Canadian Connection: Fully Managed claims to be the first Microsoft solutions provider in Wester Canada to achieve the Microsoft Gold Virtualization competency. No doubt, Microsoft is seeking more Hyper-V virtualization partners to counter VMware.

5. Call It A Comeback?: Generally speaking, The VAR Guy thinks a lot of channel partners spent recent years replacing Novell GroupWise with Microsoft Exchange. However, Novell claims its partner ecosystem for GroupWise — the groupware system — is gaining momentum. Novell says GroupWise has more than 1,200 active solution providers, and the Novell ecosystem of ISVs and channel partners has driven more than 70 percent of GroupWise sales over the past year and continues to gain momentum, the company adds. The VAR Guy is intrigued and checking in with a few GroupWise partners to see how business is performing.

4. And the Honorees Are: So, who are Cisco Systems’ top channel partners? Here’s a list of solutions providers and distributors that were recently honored at Cisco Partner Summit 2011.

3. Juniper Americas Partner Summit: The VAR Guy’s list of top channel partner conferences for 2011 continues to grow. The latest addition is the Juniper Americas Partner Summit (April 11-13, Phoenix, Ariz.). Plenty of new faces should be on hand for the event, including new Channel Chief Emilio Umeoka and VP of Partner Marketing Luanne Tierney.

2. Happy Anniversary?: March 17 marked one year since Autotask (the PSA software provider) acquired VARStreet (the online quoting and product sourcing system). So how has VARStreet performed under Autotask’s ownership? By May 2010, Autotask had doubled VARStreet’s user base. In August 2010, Autotask Chief Visionary Officer Bob Godgart predicted VARStreet could ultimately grow to become a bigger business than Autotask’s traditional PSA market. By November 2010, Autotask Director of Innovation Patric Burns provided some clues about where VARStreet was heading next.

Still, Autotask has been relatively quiet about VARStreet. One potential reason: The VARStreet back-end and front-end systems may have required a bit more polish than Autotask originally expected. But stay tuned: VARStreet updates will surely surface at Autotask Community Live in May 2011.

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

The VAR Guy thanks you for tuning in and joining the dialog on his website. Blogging anonymously can get pretty darn depressing without a vocal audience keeping The VAR Guy on his toes.

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2 Comments on “Six Channel Partner Blogs The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: March 18”

  1. Tim Wessels Says:
    March 21st, 2011 at 5:45 pm

    #5 Call It A Comeback? If the truth be known, I’ve worked with GroupWise since v5.2 and I have current customers running GroupWise v8.x. Over the years some customers traded GroupWise for Exchange usually under duress from some C-Suite executive. That said, I’ve found it increasingly less important for organizations to maintain their own messaging and collaboration systems on premises. Messaging and collaboration are low-handing fruit for cloud computing’s Software-as-a-Service. Microsoft and their partners have provided hosted Exchange services for a number years, but curiously Novell has never endorsed the idea of hosted GroupWise, although it was rumored that GroupWise v8.0.1 could be hosted in the cloud. Novell may feel that they still have a healthy ecosystem existing around GroupWise, but I think it is just a matter of a few more years, certainly no more than five, when most premises messaging and collaboration services will be in the cloud. If I were Novell, I’d be looking at delivering “GroupWise” in the cloud alongside their Vibe cloud collaboration service. Yes, there is a version of Vibe that can be installed on premises (formerly Novell Teaming) but why bother? To paraphrase the Deacon (Dennis Hopper) from Water World, Cloud computing is not just our destination. It is our destiny. If GroupWise is to have a future, it will be in the cloud.

  2. The VAR Guy Says:
    March 22nd, 2011 at 9:10 am

    Tim: The VAR Guy appreciates your analysis. If Novell doesn’t host GroupWise as a cloud platform, then perhaps the company should at least point to GroupWise partners that offer GroupWise as a SaaS service. That move would ensure partner loyalty while also helping to promote GroupWise to customers seeking SaaS solutions…
    -TVG

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