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.

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.

The recent Cisco Partner Summit 2012 in San Diego presented me with a real head-scratcher when Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) execs announced Unified Workspace but didn’t (wouldn’t? couldn’t?) explain what it was. I was so irritated I wrote a blog about it.

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.

Enterasys is quickly moving from being the “best kept secret in IT” to a force to be reckoned with in the networking space. And it has its channel partners to thank.

Enterasys Networks is bringing its partner base to Las Vegas for its annual partner confab, slated for May 15-17, 2012. The venue isn’t as exotic as last year’s event in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but with the amount of information Enterasys has packed into two days, there’s little doubt attendees will notice.

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.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) (NYSE: HPQ) announced an expansion of its ServiceONE Partner Support model to its networking partners in an effort to help them boost profitability with new services revenue streams.

Video communications specialist Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM) is divesting its enterprise wireless voice solutions business for $110 million to an affiliate of private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, signaling a major shift for the company to focus more on unified communications (UC) and video collaboration solutions — those technologies that bring more sales and higher gross margins, according to the company.

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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has extended its 2012 Solutions Incentive Program (SIP) for partners by roughly six months. Current incentives were set to expire June 30, 2012. But the current SIP program has been extended to run through Dec. 31, 2012. Microsoft continues to inspire partners to promote management and virtualization solutions, application platforms, Windows and Lync. Hey, what’s that: Lync? For Microsoft partners late to the Lync game it’s time to get moving.

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.

Infloblox (NYSE: BLOX) has released a network appliance aimed at the service provider space that purports to speed performance of a legacy network up to 25 times by caching domain name server (DNS) requests.

F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) is revving up its engines in support of the new Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)-championed SPDY network protocol with the release of a SPDY gateway for its BIG-IP architecture.

Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR) is making good on one of the pillars of its new Partner Advantage Program by rolling out a Partner Promotions Catalog designed to reward its channel partners for selling solutions rather than point products.

Not content with just connecting businesses, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) apparently also wants in on the data analysis and reporting market, judging from its acquisition of analytics software specialist Truviso.

Networking specialist Netgear’s (NASDAQ: NTGR) latest wireless router for the small-business and home-office market, the R6300 dual-band Gigabit Wi-Fi router, is designed with speed in mind. VARs serving the SMB space may want to take a look, especially as the mobile revolution rages on.

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.

Application performance software specialist Condusiv Technologies, formerly known as Diskeeper, has revised its channel partner program, expanding Condusiv’s Registered partner level and adding a new Premier tier with added incentives.

It seems as though every vendor worth its salt is coming out with technology to harness the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend (or headache, for some). The latest: Enterasys, with its Mobile Identity and Access Manager (IAM).

Networking giant Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) has launched the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Service Provider certification, aimed at developing the skills and knowledge of IT professionals to deploy and optimize next-generation networks. The certification, coupled with the recent release of the CCNA Service Provider and current CCIE Service Provider certification, provides networking engineers with a training and certification portfolio in IP next-generation networks (IP NGN).