The VAR Guy

Networking solutions specialist Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) has partnered with storage firm EMC (NYSE: EMC) to automate the management of joint EMC and Brocade storage area networking (SAN) environments, the latest in a bevy of announcements EMC has made this week.

Business IT provider EMC (NYSE: EMC) has been moving steadily toward greater integration with the channel, and its EMC World 2012 conference has given the company an opportunity to not only unveil a host of cloud-based products and services but also turn the heat up on its partner program.

Enterprise software specialist Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is prepping its partners for the release of its next-generation open standards-based business applications, Fusion Applications, with training and certification resources available through the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

ownCloud, the open source channel’s most dynamic file storage project, took another major step forward recently with the release of version 4 of its community edition, offering a suite of new features that position it even more strongly to compete with proprietary data sync services. Here’s the scoop, and why it’s a big deal for the open source community as a whole.

On the heels of its cloud-based mobile device and application management release, SAP (NYSE: SAP) unveiled support and integration with Hadoop environments including an expanded Big Data partner council, which includes a cross-section of startups, hardware vendors and software providers.

Enterprise software giant Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced the release of VM Server for x86 Release 3.1, the latest version of company’s server virtualization solution, designed to support application deployment and simplify data center management.

A survey commissioned by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) indicates SMBs are gaining significant IT security advantages from cloud computing, with 35 percent of U.S. companies surveyed experiencing “noticeably higher” levels of security since moving to the cloud.

Apparently, sometimes you have to hire consultants to help you fire employees. A case in point: Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) hired management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. to organize an HP layoff plan, according to Bloomberg. The layoffs (involving as many as 25,000 to 30,000 employees) could be announced next week, The Wall Street Journal reported. The silver lining in all this: HP will need partners more than ever.

As smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices enter the workspace, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is working to provide a faster experience for virtual desktop users with the VGX service, which allows organizations to virtualize graphics processing units (GPUs) on mobile device and virtual desktops.

Videoconferencing specialist Blue Jeans Network announced integration with Microsoft Outlook in an effort to extend its cloud-based videoconferencing platform to a wider audience of desktop business users. Blue Jeans joins an increasingly crowded field of videoconferencing solution specialists trying to reduce the complexity of unified communications (UC) and support the widest array of devices possible.

McAfee, an Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) security business, continues to accelerate its SMB push with channel partners, according to Senior VP of Worldwide Channels Gavin Struthers. But what exactly is McAfee doing in the SMB market with partners? Struthers, McAfee’s channel chief for about four months now, offered The VAR Guy some updates.

Who are the world’s top 100 cloud services providers (CSPs), VARs and MSPs working in the cloud? You can find the new Top 100 Cloud Services Provider (CSP) list, aka the Talkin’ Cloud 100, here: http://www.talkincloud.com/tc100.

Enterprise software company SAP (NYSE: SAP) unloaded a slew of announcements at its Sapphire Now conference in Orlando this week, including a new wave of mobile apps for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android and RIM’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry devices, and an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) (NASDAQ: AMZN) to offer its cloud-based mobile device and application management platform, Afaria 7.0.

As a company, Inktank, one of the open source ecosystem’s newest commercial enterprises, is only days old. But it has already made a determined foray into the Linux server market with the announcement this week of integration of the Ceph distributed file system into Ubuntu 12.04. Here’s the scoop, and what it says about both Inktank and Ubuntu.

How will VMware (NYSE: VMW) help partners to secure virtualized applications an virtualized infrastructure? Some VMware updates surfaced today at the Kaspersky Lab 2012 North American Partner Conference today in the Bahamas. Here are live highlights from the VMware keynote, which includes Parag Patel (VP, global strategic alliances) and Jonathan Gohnstand (pictured, director of product marketing, networking and security). So here is…

Kaspersky Lab is developing a secure operating system platform. The target market: Utilities, nuclear reactors, financial systems, and other companies that need to defend their IT systems from so-called cyber warfare and cyber terrorism attacks. Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky briefly described the secure operating system project during a keynote this morning at the Kaspersky Lab 2012 North American Partner Conference.

Ahhhh… The sand, the sun — plus security software, mobility and cloud computing rolled into one. The VAR Guy is packing his bags and heading to Kaspersky Lab Partner Conference (May 10-14, the Bahamas). Yes, the destination is a welcome one. But The VAR Guy will also be tracking Kaspersky Lab’s newly expanded channel leadership team very closely. Here are six themes to track at the event.

Distributors and their role in cloud services: it’s the pink elephant in the room that nobody seems to want to talk about. I mean really talk about. Sure, the big boys of distribution have created tons of activity, websites, toolkits and forums around their packaged cloud services, but the question many solution providers are privately asking is: Is there real value to the channel in what the distributors are doing, or are they just trying to remain relevant in a services world where pick, pack and ship is now a given, not a bragging right?

Adoption of cloud services and use of virtualization continues to grow among SMBs, suggesting resellers should be focusing their attention on these areas, according to the latest IT SMB survey by social business specialist Spiceworks.

Where is Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM) heading next in cloud computing, managed services and the IT channel? The answers will emerge within minutes at the Ingram Micro VTN conference at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo. The VAR Guy is seated in the front row for keynotes, which start shortly. Keep checking back. This live blog will contain minute-by-minute updates throughout the morning.

Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM) scored a major vote of confidence this week when tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) joined the Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC), a group of companies spearheaded by Polycom tasked with developing industry standards-based platforms for high-quality video collaboration.

Performance management specialist Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD) and virtualization giant VMware (NYSE: VMW) announced the latest step in their partnership to help enterprises move to the cloud with Riverbed wide area network (WAN) optimization solutions, which accelerate virtual machines (VMs) moving between clouds — private, public and hybrid — using VMware vCloud Connector.

Our next Channel Expert Hour webcast is today (Wednesday, May 2, 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT). Learn how to restore customer data within four hours or less, using the EVault cloud. Pose your questions to two MSPs (EverGreen Data CEO Bob Burns and CoreBTS National Director of Cloud Services Jon McComb) and John Gorsin, senior manager of NA Channel Sales at EVault, a subsidiary of Seagate. Learn about service level agreements (SLAs) for cloud storage, online backup and data protection. Register now to join us.