The VAR Guy

While Linux users may suffer the stereotype of being cheap, that isn’t stopping open source OEMs from courting customers willing to pay premium prices for premium PCs. Case in point: eRacks recently introduced a new line of high-end desktops, and System76 followed suit with the debut of the Gazelle Professional Laptop, which, for all its power, actually prices out quite competitively with PCs subject to the “Windows tax.”

Hard disk drive and storage solutions provider Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) evidently wants to add some panache to its storage offerings, snapping up the stylish consumer storage specialist LaCie for about $186 million.

Visual communications specialist ViewSonic rolled out four HD displays featuring low power consumption and attractive price points for businesses looking to add some pop to their lobby or other commercial installation. Listen up, digital signage VARs.

Amid a Dell earnings miss and mass HP layoffs, rival Lenovo said Q4 profits jumped 59 percent. Plus, Lenovo said its PC shipments jumped 44 percent for the quarter ended March 31. So what is Lenovo doing right in the fiercely competitive, price sensitive PC market? Here are four observations from The VAR Guy.

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.

Is Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) poised to become one of your major hardware suppliers? Before you dismiss such an idea, keep close tabs on Google’s recent buyout of Motorola Mobility plus the upcoming Google I/O conference, where plenty of news involving Google Android tablets, Google Chromebooks and smartphones may surface. Here’s a mountain of speculation from The VAR Guy.

Business information and storage specialist EMC (NYSE: EMC) wasted no time rolling out announcements at its EMC World 2012 conference, launching a whopping 42 products focused on the hybrid cloud and acquiring cloud-based sync and share file management provider Syncplicity.

Thin is always in, especially when it comes to all-in-one (AIO) computing, and Lenovo’s IdeaCentre A720 is no exception — the company is billing it as the world’s slimmest AIO, with a hinged screen that enables users to lay the display completely flat.

Gamers are not exactly the first group that comes to mind when one thinks of Linux users.  Yet eRacks, a PC vendor specialized in open source systems, recently launched a new line of high end desktops, called AresPro, aimed at gamers and other customers with specific needs for powerful computers.  Here’s the scoop, and its meaning for the open source channel.

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.

Most pundits say we’ve entered the post-PC era. The VAR Guy respectfully begs to differ. Instead of calling this the post-PC era, a far wiser term is the Every Device Era. Here’s why.

Before you start recommending Ultrabooks (super thin, sleek notebooks) to business customers, The VAR Guy has a simple piece of advice: Look for third generation Intel Core vPro processor-based systems (assuming they work as advertised). Alas, some vendors are pitching consumer Ultrabooks into the business market. But that’s a huge mistake, especially since the third generation Intel Core vPro family (formerly codenamed Ivy Bridge) is finally arriving for Ultrabooks.

What’s troubling the telepresence market? The VAR Guy has been asking that question in recent weeks. First, Polycom (NASDSAQ: PLCM) warned of weak quarterly earnings in April. Then, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) CEO John Chambers last week essentially said the networking giant’s TelePresence sales aren’t meeting expectations. So what’s the problem: The economy and overall IT spending? Or is there a deeper challenge facing telepresence sales going forward? The VAR Guy weighs in.

Lenovo believes its channel partners have been and will continue to be the key to its success as it seeks to overtake the top spot in the PC space and make a name for itself in the server/workstation market — that’s the message Lenovo hammered home during its Accelerate 2012 partner event in Las Vegas.

On the second day of its Accelerate 2012 partner event, Lenovo gave attendees a sneak peek at its upcoming ThinkPad X1 Carbon 14-inch Ultrabook, as well as additions to its  T, X, L and W Series.

Lenovo kicked off its Accelerate 2012 Partner Conference in Las Vegas with an entry-level workstation and two servers representing the company’s new focus on the server space.

As small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) feel the squeeze in data storage capacity, Dell’s Financial Services (DFS) division is reaching out to its channel partners with a zero percent financing program for the company’s EqualLogic storage systems.

So I’m packing my bags for Las Vegas for next week’s Lenovo Accelerate 2012 partner event, May 14-16 at the Mandalay Bay. I’ll admit to a bit of envy at The VAR Guy’s Bahamas gig, but hey, sunshine is sunshine, and Vegas has plenty of it.

Energy management specialist Schneider Electric has launched InfraStruxure for Small IT, the company’s first physical IT infrastructure offering, which integrates power, cooling, racks, security and management components plus services.

Network Hardware Resale (NHR) is expanding its NetSure Maintenance Program to include a global four-hour hardware replacement service to help businesses avoid losing critical time in case of a network failure.

 Computer maker Lenovo launched a slew of ThinkCentre M and Edge Series desktops and all-in-ones (AIOs) sporting third-generation Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) Core vPro processors, including the super thin ThinkCentre Edge 92z with a 21.5-inch high-definition display.

HP (NYSE: HPQ) partners looking for a way to boost their existing services capabilities or those wondering if services are right for them now need look no further than Avnet Technology Solutions (NYSE: AVT), which has joined the HPServiceONE partner program.

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.