The VAR Guy

Forget viral marketing. It’s time for some guerrilla marketing at Dell. Sure, the company’s Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm Web sites generate considerable online chatter. But Dell’s feet on the street are also making noise. A case in point: Dell rolled out a “Partners Wanted” advertising campaign at HP’s big partner conference in Las Vegas last week. Now, Dell Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis (pictured) is joining the fun.

A few months ago, The VAR Guy suggested that open source platforms would increasingly compete with Hewlett-Packard OpenView, IBM Tivoli and other traditional enterprise management systems. He was right. A case in point: Melillo Consulting, one of HP’s top OpenView partners in North America, has embraced an open source IT management platform from GroundWork.

It’s still a niche technology, but The VAR Guy expects TelePresence to generate healthy margins for years to come. A few dozen U.S. VARs already specialize in TelePresence — the next-generation video conferencing technology — but more VARs will likely take the plunge as more vendors focus on the market. A case in point: A TelePresence showdown between Hewlett-Packard and Cisco appears to be looming.

Well, yet another company (Hewlett-Packard) is rallying around the “2.0″ brand. HP today launched a massive “Print 2.0″ marketing campaign. Seems like everybody wants a piece of the 2.0 action — Cisco insiders are chatting about Wireless Mesh 2.0; Autotask’s CEO is evangelizing Managed Services 2.0. And there’s more to come…

The VAR Guy blogged about Cisco Systems’ secret rival back in November 2006. Nearly a year later, that not-so-secret rival is growing up fast.

It’s nice to partner with one rich uncle. But two rich uncles? OnForce pulled off that rare feat this week, launching a new learning and certification initiative with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. The effort will initially focus on Windows Vista and small business solutions.