The VAR Guy

That thump you may have heard a few days ago was The VAR Guy hitting the wall. After three days at the 2012 Avaya U.S/Gov Sales Leadership and Partner Conference chock full of presentations, meetings and conversations with execs and channel partners alike, our resident blogger quite literally dropped.

The VAR Guy, in Las Vegas? Again? Of course he is. This time, our resident blogger will be shacking up at the swanky Cosmopolitan for Synnex’s distribution event, Varnex. What does The VAR Guy expect to encounter — in the way of channels news, that is? The top five trends are coming up …

Has the week gone by already? The VAR Guy can’t argue with the calendar, so here’s another roundup of this week’s distribution news in the channel. Avnet makes a few acquisitions, Tech Data focuses on the SMB and Ingram Micro celebrates its 15-year anniversary as a public company. Full details follow …

Apple has released iOS 5.01, the first over-the-air update for the iPhone to address a few issues that have cropped up recently. Details on the  iOS 5 tweaks along with how smooth the update went are all coming up …

Turn the wayback machine to January 2011, and you’ll remember I reviewed the Samsung Focus with Windows Phone 7. You’ll also recall I was less than impressed. Fast forward to today, and Microsoft has released Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango.” Microsoft’s platform, marketplace and mobility mindshare have all matured considerably, so I’ve decided to give it another go, since Microsoft has once again loaned me a Windows Phone. This time around will the Mango be ripe?

Apple continues to accelerate a direct sales model into small business customers. But the iPad and iPhone maker is also taking intriguing steps to engage channel partners. Among the moves worth watching: Apple (AAPL) met with VARs and MSPs this week at the HTG Peer Group gathering in Orlando, Fla. The Apple-HTG meeting was held in conjunction with ConnectWise IT Nation. Here’s why.

Roughly 1,600 people are attending this week’s IT Nation conference, hosted by ConnectWise in Orlando, Fla. Known in its early years as a gathering place for managed services providers (MSPs), the IT Nation conference has significantly expanded its messaging to engage resellers and VARs as well. Here’s why.

Roughly a year and a half after Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs’ open and very frank letter discussing Apple’s decision to not support Flash on mobile devices, Adobe has thrown in the towel. The company has ceased development of mobile Flash and is now turning its efforts to HTML5, to the tune of 750 jobs. Here’s the scoop …

Pano Logic is giving its tiny, cube-shaped zero clients yet another round of upgrades and compatibility improvements. This time, Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View will be fully supported platforms for virtualization, thanks to Pano System 5. Read on for the details on Pano Logic’s vendor-agnostic virtualization box …

HP has launched a new service, part of HP’s Instant-On-Enterprise initiative, that helps companies migrate to complete Windows virtualization platforms that suit their needs. The HP Client Virtualization Analysis and Modeling service plans on delivering a complete virtualization migration path in three simple steps. The VAR Guy has the details, so read on.

The blogosphere is buzzing once again about the fate of webOS, after HP came to no decision about webOS during a meeting ostensibly to determine its fate. The VAR Guy posed the question, Is it simply too late for webOS? but I ask the question, Does it even matter?

Recognizing its channel program has had its share of issues — not the least of which include complicated pricing programs and a focus on volume selling — Avaya is working to make changes that both streamline and add value for its channel partners.

The VAR Guy definitely has a eye on Ubuntu as it gains momentum across the IT landscape. But what about Red Hat? Outside of Red Hat Enterprise Linux there’s a other baby. Fedora. It’s the open source and ‘consumer’ version of Red Hat’s Linux distribution. But with Fedora 16 comes some very channel-relevant focuses. Here’s the details on the free OS…

What’s the leading cause of storage growth in your data center? It’s probably virtualization — as the SMB and midsize-business community continue to shrink their data centers with virtual servers, the space saved is often replaced by data appliances. But NetApp is releasing an addition to the FAS2000 family to help reduce the complexity that can accompany all that storage and make it easy to administer. Tech specs on the new unit are coming right up …

Value-added distributor Westcon Group has scooped up Sentronics, a VAD dedicated to physical security, electronics and technology. Is there a trend brewing around building physical security for businesses? Maybe. Here’s the scoop on the new digs…

Is RIM headed for tougher times than initially anticipated? Barclays just downgraded RIM’s stock. We typically don’t spend much time tracking stock upgrades and downgrades. But in RIM’s case, the Barclays downgrade arrives as RIM shares are already trading around a 52-week low. No doubt, 2011 was a bleak year for RIM. Can the BlackBerry maker turn its business around in 2012?

This month, the Dot Hill channel team interviewed Charles Bass, vice president of alliances and strategic accounts at Promark Technology — one of the premier value added distributors in the United States, who had some great advice for resellers when evaluating vendor channel programs.

Avaya is making moves to shift its partners away from selling product and into selling solutions that address customer needs, citing a maturation of its technology portfolio and changing market demands.

The VAR Guy was ready for a conversation about standards during the 2012 Avaya U.S./Gov Sales Leadership and Partner Conference; specifically, whether SIP is gaining ground as the de facto communications standard. But Avaya SVP Alan Baratz beat our resident blogger to the punch during his presentation by declaring Avaya picked a winner with its decision to build with SIP.

Dot Hill Systems, which develops storage solutions, has bolstered its Connections Partner Program. The enhancements specifically target VARs that are seeking to promote enterprise-class storage solutions into the SMB market, according to Brad Painter, VP of worldwide channel sales at Dot Hill.

Palo Alto Networks is updating its network security portfolio with a new trio of products, specifically designed to deal with new threats, protecting branch offices and adopting consumerization of IT practices. The effort includes security solutions that now blanket Apple iOS devices. I spoke to Rene Bonvanie, VP of marketing at Palo Alto Networks, about the new efforts and the all-important channel perspective. Here’s the scoop…

Remember the good old days, when web search involved typing instead of just asking your phone a verbal question? Kidding aside, verbal search technology like Apple Siri remains a niche solution compared to Google Search. But Google Chairman Eric Schmidt claims Siri is a potential competitive threat. In fact, Schmidt mentioned Siri as evidence to show Google isn’t anti-competitive when it comes to search. But is Siri really the future of search, or is Siri merely a parallel option to the search we all know and love today? Here’s some thoughts…

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Barnes and Noble must be enamored with Amazon’s business model. Indeed, Barnes and Noble has just announced the Nook Tablet — a device that apparently targets the Kindle Fire‘s core markets. Will the Nook Tablet stack up. And more importantly: what is going on with Barnes and Noble?