The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy was super-busy at the Sage Summit 2011, and not the least of his tasks was a roundtable group meeting with Dennis Frahmann, executive VP of corporate marketing; Himanshu Palsule, executive VP of strategy; and Sage CEO Pascal Houillon. The open-forum Q&A quickly turned into a discussion about Sage’s biggest announcement: the brand. Houillon wasn’t shy in explaining why this change will be the most important and effective change Sage has ever made. But what of the partner reactions, which so far have leaned toward the negative? Houillon said it’s purely emotional. Read on for the details …

Hewlett-Packard is doing some management shuffling in the wake of its recent webOS TouchPad launch. Stephen DiFranco, head of HP’s Solutions Partner Organization, is moving into the position of senior vice president and general manager for the Americas region in HP’s Personal Systems Group (PSG), replacing Stephen DeWitt. Why the sudden shift, and why DiFranco? Read on …

If The VAR Guy knows anything, it’s how to strike up a conversation. When he’s not blogging, he’s talking to partners and getting the scoop on what things look like from the inside. Partners at Sage Summit 2011 were no exception. Here are three interesting whispers The VAR Guy has heard relating to Sage’s latest branding transition and more …

Sage North America CEO Pascal Houillon took center stage at Sage Summit 2011 July 11, offering his vision for the future of Sage. The No. 1 priority? Growth. But not company growth or revenue growth — rather, brand growth. How does Houillon plan on taking Sage’s multiple brands and merging it into one mega brand? Partners working with Sage should perk up — The VAR Guy has the details on what this means for you and the brands you already know, sell and love …

Parallels, the virtualization company that has made running Windows on the Mac a popular pastime for both home users and work users, has launched the latest version of its enterprise version of Parallels Desktop. Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac Enterprise Edition brings new features and better compatibility for widescale Mac deployment. Details follow …

Most people don’t spend very much time thinking about the bars on windows for scrolling up and down. The design team behind Canonical’s Ubuntu, however, is in the process of redefining that component of the user interface, and recently outlined some of the changes to look forward to in coming Ubuntu releases. Read on for details.

The VAR Guy awoke from a deep sleep this morning, reflected briefly on his recent vacation, and then proceeded to Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 in Los Angeles. CEO Steve Ballmer provided plenty of updates during his keynote. But here are the top six rumors The VAR Guy has heard off stage at the conference.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Channel Chief Jon Roskill rallied 12,000 channel partners this morning at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 in Los Angeles. Ballmer briefly conceded that some people think Microsoft has too many products in too many different markets. But Ballmer countered critics by stating that Microsoft competes in only three core markets. Ballmer also tried to provide a reality check between the PC market, the tablet market and cloud computing. Here’s a recap.

Cisco Systems is trying to rally customers and partners at the Cisco Live conference in Las Vegas this week. But there are some off-stage distractions. First up, one pundit speculates that Cisco will cut 5,000 positions in August. And in another sign of the times, Cisco channel veteran Lang Tibbils has left the networking giant to join McAfee. Sure, people make career moves all the time. But Tibbils’ career move reinforces changing times at Cisco.

Just last week we wrote about Rick Hamada taking the CEO reins at Avnet, and wondered whether he might be shifting the company to a cloudy horizon. We reached out for and received Hamada’s thoughts as well as comments from Phil Gallagher, Avnet senior vice president and global president of Avnet Technology Solutions, on the future of the cloud. Read on for the forecast …

In an effort to carve a deeper niche in the IT management market, Quest Software is unifying its global partner program. The company believes its partner program is a crucial part of its success and go-to-market strategy, so to better support it, Quest has revamped and renamed its program to the Quest Partner Circle. What can Quest partners expect to receive? Read on for the details.

The VAR Guy is in the nation’s capital this week, blogging from the Sage Summit 2011, where partners, customers and Sage employees are all converging at one massive trade show and convention. What is The VAR Guy really seeing here on the ground, and what are the key trends partners should look out for?

VoIP-focused VARs take note: M5 Networks and SWK Technologies have partnered to provide complete M5 Computer Telephony API integration with SageCRM. Short and simple details follow …

On the heels of the media unveiling of the Cisco Cius, Cisco Systems now plans to launch its Enterprise Content Delivery System, or ECDS. The VAR Guy has seen much movement in the video content and delivery space, with Cisco doing a good part of the shimmying. Is Cisco working to meld its video collaboration and video content management into one big happy technology? Read on for a bit of perspective …

According to the latest Apple rumors flying around the Internet, a new iPhone and iPad are due up this fall in some shape or form. I won’t care to speculate on the iPhone 5 rumors because I’ve given up guessing Apple’s phone strategy after the Verizon iPhone 4. But a new iPad, in my opinion, has greater industry implications. Will Apple release iPad 2 HD? And if it did, would you want one?

Are you a cash-strapped, budget-conscious IT admin? Maybe you’re a VAR or MSP looking to save a few bones managing some virtualized environments. That’s where VMTurbo says it can help you. The company has launched the VMTurbo Community Edition, completely free for anyone to download. But is it too good to be true?

Just a week after Google+ showed up Facebook, Facebook has fired back with Google+’s two hottest features. Facebook is now offering group chat and video chat, much like +Sparks and +Hangouts. Do I have an opinion? Oh yeah. Here’s what you need to know and what Facebook’s new lineup means for social networking everywhere, including the channel …

In June 2011, The VAR Guy caught up with the channel chiefs of Astaro and Sophos to discuss Sophos’ acquisition of Astaro. Both said for now, it was business as usual for both companies, especially when it came to the channel. Fast forward one month, and the acquisition is complete, which means changes are definitely on the horizon. What can we expect from the combined entities and how will it shape the security landscape? Read on for the details …

When Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 officially launches today (July 6), Symantec says the security platform will meet three design goals: Superior performance, protection and quality. To prove that point, Symantec has lined up several channel partners to deploy Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 across 24 customer sites in the next 24 hours, according to Chirantan “CJ” Desai (pictured), senior VP of the Endpoint and Mobility Group at Symantec. Here’s the update.

The Active Directory Bridge market saw a major shakeup recently as Likewise exited that niche to focus on cross-platform storage. Here’s the scoop, and what it means for the channel:

It was only a matter of time, right? Verizon has officially confirmed it’s killing unlimited data plans effective July 7, 2011. So what is the mobile carrier offering its customers now? The VAR Guy has a few ideas on making the most of the bucket system …

Way back February 2011, we reported Avnet planned to make COO Rick Hamada CEO of Avnet come July 4, replacing Roy Vallee, who moved into the position of  executive chairman. With the Independence Day celebrations come and gone, Hamada is now in his new position. So can we expect changes at Avnet, especially considering its recent moves in the cloud space? Read on for some perspective.

I’ve been singing the praises of the consumerization of IT trend for a long time, mainly due to the likes of mobile device contenders including Apple, Google and HP. Now, an IDC report sponsored by CA Technologies is validating what I’ve been preaching for the last few months: Consumerization of IT is actually shaping the enterprise and creating opportunities. Here’s the quick rundown on IDC’s report …