The VAR Guy

Oracle President Mark Hurd and Channel Chief Judson Althoff are set to rally and educate 100 Oracle Specialized channel partners tomorrow at the company’s Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters. The gathering, set for February 2, will include product roadmaps and strategies to help partners leverage Oracle as a partner growth engine. Here’s some insight from The VAR Guy.

Lenovo is quietly planning to accelerate its server initiatives in 2012. But first, the PC giant is focusing like a laser on a four-screen initiative — smart phones, tablets, PCs and smart TVs. To execute on all fronts, Lenovo will need more channel partners. But will Lenovo’s channel become saturated with partners along the way? Lenovo North America Channel Chief Chris Frey (pictured) says absolutely not. Here’s why.

For many organizations, finding the right solutions provider or VAR is a critical task. Enterprises as well as SMBs look to their solutions provider for guidance, and now more than ever for backup. As data continues to grow (for most SMBs, up to 50 percent annually), solutions providers can help their customers choose which backup model makes the most sense for their organization.

Avaya has confirmed Jeremy Butt, vice president of worldwide channels, is leaving the company at the end of March 2012, after almost four years with the organization.

When McAfee today announced a new channel chief the company did not issue a press release. Nor did McAfee call a press conference. Instead, the news surfaced right on the McAfee channel blog. And the headline didn’t specifically mention the channel chief change. Take a closer look and the McAfee communication strategy is similar to Cisco Systems’ channel tactics. That’s smart and hardly surprising. Here’s why.

McAfee has named Gavin Struthers senior VP of worldwide channels, succeeding former channel chief Alex Thurber, who resigned last week to join Tripwire.

McAfee Channel Chief Alex Thurber is exiting the Intel-owned security software company to pursue a new opportunity, according to sources in the know. The sources tell The VAR Guy that McAfee’s channel commitment remains firmly in place. No cause for panic, folks. Thurber is a talented guy but The VAR Guy suspects a McAfee successor is in place. Here’s the background.

When Google shifted the CEO crown from Eric Schmidt to Larry Page in 2011, The VAR Guy wondered: Does Larry Page value channel partners — or would Google ultimately shift more and more of its cloud services to a direct sales model. Fast forward to the present and some answers are starting to emerge.

Despite the challenging U.S. economy, Red Hat sure sounds optimistic. The open source company plans to hire roughly 1,000 people in 2012. And this isn’t a pure Linux strategy. Red Hat also continues to invest in virtualization, storage, middleware and cloud computing. Here’s where channel partners fit into the strategy.

ChannelEyes, a channel-centric social media network built by former Autotask CEO Bob Godgart, apparently will offer a pilot launch to “early access” partners on January 12, according to a company blog entry. ChannelEyes claims to have signed up “thousands” of channel partners and more than 500 technology vendors. But can Godgart — and fellow Autotask veteran Jay McBain — continue the ChannelEyes buzz beyond the pilot?

Virginia (“Ginni”) M. Rometty officially succeeded Sam Palmisano as IBM CEO on January 1, 2012. Rometty appears to inherit a strong IBM. But some investors worry IBM’s earnings growth will slow in 2012. Plus, is IBM’s channel focus — increasingly involving business analytics and business intelligence — too narrow for some partners? The VAR Guy offers some insights — plus key IBM channel leaders that VARs and MSPs may need to engage.

According to a recent research done by the Society of Information Management (SIM), IT budgets, salaries and staff turnover rates have returned to pre-recessionary levels, indicating optimism among CIOs and IT executives. Even at the beginning of the economic collapse, IT budgets were expected to rise, albeit only slightly. With IT budgets continuing to tighten, what does this mean for technology partners?

Partner relationships traditionally have not been one of Siemens Enterprise Communications’ strengths. Despite its reputation as having a strong communications and UC portfolio, its reputation as less-than-friendly toward its partners has held it back from being a real player within the channel.

The dust has finally settled and the world’s largest technology event, better known as Oracle OpenWorld, has come and gone. Although thoughts of this colossal undertaking may have dwindled for some, three buzzwords used to reflect Oracle’s pioneering vision at the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Forum still remain fresh in my mind: Innovation, Engineering and Execution.

Brocade’s channel partner program has received its annual program overhaul, with Brocade adding a slew of enhancements designed to further reward its existing partners and entice new partners to the networking vendor.

Recognizing its channel program has had its share of issues — not the least of which include complicated pricing programs and a focus on volume selling — Avaya is working to make changes that both streamline and add value for its channel partners.

Dot Hill Systems, which develops storage solutions, has bolstered its Connections Partner Program. The enhancements specifically target VARs that are seeking to promote enterprise-class storage solutions into the SMB market, according to Brad Painter, VP of worldwide channel sales at Dot Hill.

Recently at our annual partner conference, we talked about the opportunities for partners around key IT trends including cloud, virtualization and mobility. Cloud computing in particular seems to be a hot topic of conversation, on the minds of IT administrators and executives alike. And, just like your customers, you are probably trying to figure out how it will affect your business. After all, some businesses are adopting the cloud wholeheartedly, while others are taking a more cautious approach. Fortunately, cloud computing presents new opportunities for SMB partners to reach more customers than ever before.

Yawn. It’s just past midnight here in New York. The VAR Guy is getting ready to go to bed — with a big bowl of ice cream, of course. But before our resident blogger signs off for sweeter pursuits, here are six pieces of high-tech news that The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending Nov. 4, 2011.

Red Hat wrapped up a major channel partner conference last week. But the channel chatter continues within the Linux and open source specialist. Indeed, Red Hat is mulling potential ways to make sure the company’s internal sales team works even more closely with channel partners, according to North America Channel Chief Roger Egan. Here’s the update, and a look at how Red Hat plans to accelerate Linux, virtualization, Jboss middleware, cloud and storage sales through the channel.

At Symantec Partner Engage 2011, The VAR Guy spent time at a few roundtable discussions featuring some of Symantec’s top brass, CEO Enrique Salem and Channel Chief Randy Cochran. Here’s the scoop on their thoughts regarding everything from McAfee to mobile device management …

The VAR Guy spent this week covering Dell World, Symantec Partner Engage, N-able Partner Summit and a Synnex partner gathering. Forgive our resident blogger if he didn’t have time to cover every piece of high-tech gossip this week. To appease you, here are six piece of high-tech news for channel partners that The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending Oct. 14, 2011.

The VAR Guy has already outlined his predictions for Symantec CEO Enrique Salem’s discussion at the Symantec Partner Engage keynote. But what else is coming out of the Phoenix oasis that is the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort? Our resident blogger would love to tell you. Read on …