The VAR Guy

Centrify, the one company that looks to rule them all with Active Directory, has officially launched Centrify Suite 2012. The new version promises even better interoperability across Unix, Linux and OS X platforms in addition to new security features that can protect against unscrupulous hackers or users. The VAR Guy spoke to Centrify’s Frank Cabri, VP of Marketing, and David McNealy, senior director of Product Marketing, about the launch. Here’s the scoop …

Android device developmental team CyanogenMod has taken on the task of porting Android to the HP TouchPad, and there are some surprising developments. HP TouchPad owners who bought the $99 tablet for this very reason may want to read on …

HP has confirmed it has begun laying off employees in the Palm division, home of the now-displaced webOS. Since HP announced in August 2011 its plans to sell or spin off the PSG group, the fate of many of HP’s products and resources has been widely unknown. Now, however, it looks like we know.

HP has launched an initiative to bring app store-style shopping to customers of communication service providers (CSPs). VARs, MSPs or even ISVs struggling with their business model might be interested in how HP could potentially reshape their sales paradigm. Read on for the details.

Cisco Systems has published the second of its annual Connected World Technology Report, focusing on the importance of the Internet to the daily lives of college students and young professionals. Considering the fact that Cisco interviewed a generation of people who have never lived without the Internet, The VAR Guy finds the results less than surprising but more than a little sobering.

Our next webcast is today (Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2:00 p.m. eastern). We’ll explore how to Deliver New Customer Value With the Managed IT Services Tools You Already Have. Two MSPs (Rick Vines of Axcell Technologies and Michael Nelson of TLC Tech) and Intel’s Eric Townsend will describe MSP best practices for customer retention and customer satisfaction. I will moderate the discussion and ensure our experts answer your questions. Please join us.

How are Oracle‘s hardware and software businesses performing? Oracle (ORCL) Q1 2012 financial results, released today, provide answers. Software sales were up 17 percent — impressive, given the weak economy –  but hardware sales dipped 1 percent. One potential reason: Oracle de-emphasized commodity x86 servers to more aggressively promote high-end Exadata, Exalogic and SPARC M-Series servers. In fact, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said he doesn’t care if Sun’s x86 server business goes to zero, according to Baron’s. Dramatic words. Here’s the update.

SUSE Linux, now owned by Attachmate, will unveil some partner and customer surprises at Novell BrainShare (Oct. 10-14, Salt Lake City), the company confirms. Meanwhile, Michael Miller, VP of global alliances and marketing, has been polishing partner and cloud services strategies for SUSE. And Miller has been busy meeting with strategic SUSE partners like Microsoft, SAP, VMware, IBM, Dell, HP and Fujitsu. So, what’s the message from Miller to SUSE Linux partners and customers? The VAR Guy got the answer.

Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth announced Wayland graphical server for Ubuntu, the Linux distribution, in fall 2010. Wayland for Ubuntu news made headlines. But almost a year later, Wayland for Ubuntu remains in development and the venerable X server won’t be going anywhere soon — which is not surprising, since replacing a display system that has dominated the open source world for decades is hard work. But when can we expect Wayland for Ubuntu to hit the mainstream? Read on for some updates.

Will Apple release an iPhone 4S or an iPhone 5 in October 2011? It seems like the rumor mill can’t make up its mind, especially as allegedly “new” iPhone parts start to leak out. The latest rumors suggest Apple might hold off on releasing a full-blown iPhone 5 until later in the year, or even 2012. What should we expect for October, then? Keep reading …

The Open Virtualization Alliance is continuing to grow with membership now exceeding 200 companies all pushing KVM and associated open-source virtualization solutions. And now that its ranks have grown, the OVA is detecting a trend among member companies. Read on for the details, with a dash of channel perspective …

Documents and database repositories top the list of eDiscovery needs in the enterprise, according to a recent survey from Symantec, overtaking e-mail as the most called-on source of information. Symantec, naturally, has a few ways to meet those needs, but read on to find out what this paradigm shift means for the channel …

Windows 8 on ARM-based devices has been a source of confusion since it won’t run old x86 Windows desktop applications. The VAR Guy has learned that although this is true, the Windows 8 desktop will not be disappearing from ARM tablets. In fact, it will remain very much accessible for all the desktop-related computing needs of Windows users. Read on for the clarification …

Our team here at Lenovo is very excited about our ThinkPad Tablet, which have started shipping. We know that we have great hardware, but our tablet announcement is much more than hardware. I argue that we have the industry’s first business-class tablet because we are the only vendor who can provide a full suite of services to make our customers more productive and secure.

Join us Wednesday (Sept. 21, 2:00 p.m. eastern) for our next webcast, The topic: Deliver New Customer Value With the Managed IT Services Tools You Already Have. Two talented MSPs (Rick Vines of Axcell Technologies and Michael Nelson of TLC Tech) plus Eric Townsend of Intel will describe MSP best practices for customer retention and customer satisfaction. I will moderate the discussion and ensure our experts answer your questions. Please join us.

Oracle will announce Q1 2012 quarterly results on September 20. Then, Oracle President Mark Hurd will discuss a special database product for partners and customers on September 21. Could some Oracle Exadata and Exalogic surprises be in store? Or maybe an Oracle cloud move? Perhaps Oracle Senior VP Andrew Mendelsohn and Channel Chief Judson Althoff will fill in the blanks. Here’s a preview from The VAR Guy.

One week after Intel Developer Forum 2011 and we’re still getting news from the event. Intel has been steadily growing its solid state storage offerings, and its latest iteration of SSDs have been outfitted with features that Intel believes will meet the most demanding data center requirements. Storage VARs serving massive data centers might want to read on. Intel’s platter-less drives are starting to make The VAR Guy’s head spin …

As companies focus on virtualization, storage and various other data center needs, the physical security of a data center is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. That’s why networking company D-Link is offering its partners a new specialization built around IP surveillance technology. Read on for the details of D-Link’s IP Surveillance Specialization.

The list is growing. First, Apple recruited Peter Hajas, who developed a jailbreak notification system that is eerily similar to what Apple has implemented in iOS 5. Then, Jailbreak.me expert Comex was brought aboard the Apple Mothership for an internship. Now, iPhoneDevTeam jailbreaker MuscleNerd is saying little about his recent visit to the Cupertino campus. Is Apple recruiting its ‘enemies’ to help better its platform? Here’s the scoop …

The open source channel is known for a lot of things, but breathtaking games isn’t one of them. That may change soon, though, thanks to the people behind the open source game 0 A.D., which in its latest iteration brings gorgeous and elegant gaming to the free software world — and it’s still in alpha. Read on for a look at the amazing things these volunteer programmers have accomplished in recent months, and what they mean for the open source channel as a whole.

From Microsoft BUILD to Intel Developers Forum to HP announcements from Senior VP Stephen DiFranco, it was a busy week for the IT channel. And there’s plenty of channel partner program news The VAR Guy still needs to write. So, here are six blogs The VAR Guy still hopes to pursue in the hours and days ahead.

Cloud is quickly becoming the de facto offering for many solution providers, with fairly simple implementation and a monthly recurring revenue stream that can help balance their cash flow. These applications are also of great benefit to their small business clients, between capital savings to continuous and relatively seamless updates.

The third and final day of Intel Developer Forum 2011 saw the chip giant shift its focus from its Ultrabook mobility strategy to its more forward-looking energy-saving technologies including a solar-powered Pentium-class processor concept, baked-in-chip capabilities to boost JavaScript performance, a super-high capacity Hybrid Memory Cube, and the rise of multi-core computing. Here’s the scoop on Intel CTO Justin Rattner’s keynote.