The VAR Guy

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.

During the Dell Q1 2013 earnings call yesterday, the PC giant blamed weak notebook sales on growing competition from tablets. The twist: Dell never uttered the word “tablet” during the earnings call. Instead, Dell blamed “alternative mobile computing devices” for the notebook sales shortfall. Um, when did the word Tablet become a dirty word?

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.

The VAR Guy has high hopes for Windows 8, especially in the Ultrabook business market. But there’s some concern bloatware (free trial software most folks don’t want) could bog down Windows 8 systems. The VAR Guy wonders: If the PC industry is so committed to matching Apple’s end user experience, then why does PC bloatware still exist? Here’s the unfortunate two-part answer.

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.

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.

Talk about a familiar theme. Last week, Kaspersky Lab talked about dominating the SMB security software market. This week, McAfee is making SMB security software claims. Next week, Sophos will step into that spotlight — perhaps sharing details about Sophos Unified Threat Management (UTM). 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.

If the steadily growing user base and market share of Skype are any indication, the service, which is now nearly a decade old, will remain widespread on PCs, smartphones and other devices for a long time to come. But for Linux users, the future of Skype support is appearing a bit less certain. Will Skype — owned by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) — still run on open source platforms five years from now? Here are some thoughts.

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.

With mobile-based and Web-based payments on the rise, the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) is reaching out to systems integrators and resellers with a training program for secure installation and maintenance of validated Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) applications into customer environments to support Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance.

On the back of an underwhelming quarterly financial report and the divestment of its enterprise wireless voice solutions business, unified communications specialist Polycom has updated its RealPresence video content management platform for Google Android and Apple iOS mobile devices. The Video Content Management solution will be available worldwide July 2012.

Kaspersky Lab is ready to run at the speed of opportunity with channel partners to capture an “unfair share” of the IT security market, Senior VP Nancy Reynolds told partners today during the Kaspersky Lab 2012 North American Partner Conference. “We believe the [security] market is ripe for a leader and we intend to take control,” said Reynolds. But that’s not all.

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…

VMware (NYSE: VMW) appears to be the only third-party software company with a major presence at Kaspersky Lab 2012 North American Partner Conference (May 10-12, Bahamas). A big theme for the conference, obviously: Security across virtualized environments. But just how deeply are VMware and Kaspersky Lab working together? Hmmm…

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.

Security specialist Norton, a subsidiary of Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC), announced the availability of Norton 360 Everywhere, a security solution aimed at protecting multiple devices and platforms including PCs, Macs and Google Android-based phones and tablets.

Headset manufacturer Plantronics (NYSE: PLT) has established the Plantronics Developer Connection (PDC) for the growing population of developers dabbling in apps designed for what’s called “contextual intelligence.”

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.

Will Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android encounter multiple forks in the road? And if so, does that mean Google Android will fracture into multiple incompatible variants — like Unix did more than two decades ago? Hmmm… The answer is yes and no. Here’s why.

A jury decision has arrived in the Oracle Java vs. Google Android legal case. But the Oracle vs. Google legal feud isn’t over. This is only the first part of what could be a three-chapter legal battle between the two technology giants. Here’s the update for Google Android and Java partners, particularly smart phone makers and ISVs (independent software vendors) that develop Android apps.