The VAR Guy

Welcome to the Distribution Watch, our weekly collection of distributor doings that impact the channel. Every week we’ll be bringing you the latest in news and information from distributors near and far. This week we highlight news from Carousel Industries, Arrow Electronics and Avnet Technology Solutions. And so without further ado, let’s get to it.

Our next Channel Expert Hour webcast is today (Wednesday, April 4, 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT). The topic: How to avoid hidden virtualization costs as you build out your private cloud customer strategy. Our confirmed guest speakers include Mark Ortenzi (CEO, ScaleMatrix), Mike Michalik (CEO, Cirrhus9) and Bart Peluso (director of product marketing, CA Technologies). We’ll explore how ScaleMatrix and Cirrhus9 built out their own cloud strategies without breaking their budgets. Register now to join us as we cover dozens of attendee questions.

The VAR Guy’s phone rang. On the other end of the line: Nick Bock, CEO of Five Nines Technology Group, an MSP and IT consulting firm in Omaha, Nebraska. Somehow, the topic of Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2012 came up. Bock’s question: Is The VAR Guy planning a second-annual road trip to Microsoft’s big partner conference? And will VARs and industry pundits be invited to ride along — again? Hmmm…

Tech Data is planning its semi-annual spring Channel Link conference in Las Vegas, with a considerable focus this year on boosting the reseller community. If you’re a VAR looking for an edge up, Channel Link could present perfect opportunity. Here’s why …

When the IBM PartnerWorld 2012 conference kicks off this week (Feb. 27-March 1, New Orleans), The VAR Guy expects to hear plenty of new chatter about IBM’s business analytics and business intelligence strategy. But The VAR Guy wonders: Is Business Analytics really a big, broad opportunity for the vast majority of IBM business and technology partners? Hmmm…

Everyone loves a winner. That’s true in business, baseball and life. But, as is true with baseball, winning isn’t a sure thing — no one has the right answer. It’s what you do with the information you’ve got that can make the difference between making the right decisions and driving your business (or your team) to an early grave.

The Avnet + Cisco Executive Symposium in Phoenix is supposed to be about the opportunities around the data center. Which, of course, includes virtualization, the cloud, supporting the ever-growing ranks of mobile devices in the workplace, etc. etc. etc. But there’s a sub-level conversation happening as well, and it involves how these opportunities are transforming resellers’ way of doing business, from how they approach sales to how they run their own business.

The VAR Guy has sent me to my home state of Arizona to attend the Avnet + Cisco Executive Symposium, a three-day gathering in Phoenix of Avnet and Cisco Systems partners to explore the realm of possibilities in the data center space. Attend an event where I can go for a run outside in February, enjoy a decent plate of chicken mole enchiladas and maybe even stick around to catch a basketball game played by my beloved Arizona Wildcats? Umm, yeah, sure. I’ll go.

Day two of Parallels Summit 2012, and The VAR Guy still doesn’t have a tan. But there’s a great glow around Parallels, which is beaming about its potential success in the upcoming years. Both co-founders of Parallels took the stage for the keynote and explained why, for Parallels, the future looks rosy and bright …

HP kicked off its inaugural Global Partner Conference 2012 (GPC) Feb. 13 in Las Vegas with some major announcements aimed at creating recurring revenue streams for HP’s VARs.

At the HP Global Partner Conference next week, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman will have the opportunity to engage and energize partners. But the event will also serve as a proving ground for Whitman and HP. Indeed, some partners want further assurances that HP is back on track after the company lost its way in 2011. Here’s a preview from The VAR Guy.

There’s still time to register for today’s Channel Expert Hour Webcast. Our topic: How to build cloud backup partnerships that allow MSPs and VARs to control pricing, margins and service level agreements. Two top IT service providers  — Data Storage Corp. and Bumi (Backup My Info!) — and Asigra will offer their perspectives on cloud backup. We’ll cover the questions Data Storage Corp. and Bumi asked while investigating potential cloud storage partnerships.

I’m back in my secret lair here in San Francisco after my trip to Las Vegas for the Juniper Networks Global Partner Conference, and while I was laid low for a day thanks to an unfortunately timed bug, I wanted to share some slightly belated final thoughts drawn from my time on the conference floor, conversations I had with Juniper executives, and just some stray observations.

I’m at the first-ever Juniper Networks Global Partner Conference here at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino in Las Vegas, where the networking company is laying out its channel strategies for the next year. The biggest announcement: the rebranding of the company’s partner play to the Juniper Partner Advantage program, a so-called “pivoting” of its channel strategy aimed at helping VARs stay relevant in a changing market.

One of the most intriguing things about this week’s Juniper Networks inaugural Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas is that the focus was largely taken off the technology side of things (not to say that it was absent), with much of the discussion given over to the new marketing strategies that the changing IT marketplace requires. And to that end, Juniper took the opportunity of having the undivided attention of more than a thousand partners to announce the Marketing Concierge platform and InnoVAR training tools.

The VAR Guy is nearly ready to unplug for the extended New Year holiday weekend. But before our resident blogger disappears for a little rest and relaxation, here’s a look at the top channel partner conferences for Q4 2012.

For a change The VAR Guy is not procrastinating. Our resident blogger is planning his 2012 travel schedule to a range of VAR and MSP conferences. continues to plan his travel schedule for 2012. Want to potentially meet on the road? Here’s a look at the top channel partner conferences for Q1 and Q2 2012. And below, you’ll find a list of the top Q3 2012 channel partner conferences.

The VAR Guy, continues to plan his travel schedule for 2012. And you can, too. Each day this week The VAR Guy shares his list of the Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences of 2012. Today’s blog entry covers Q2 2012.

The VAR Guy, at last, has finalized his list of the Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences of 2012. You can view the list in multiple formats. Check out the in-depth calendar, which lets you sort by month or by extended description. Or check out a simple bullet list, which lets you see all of the Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences of 2012 on a single page. Now, here’s a closer look at the Q1 2012 events that demand your attention…

Dell is crossing the pond in January to take its storage message to partners in the United Kingdom with the first of its 2012 Dell Storage Forums. You may remember in June 2011, The VAR Guy headed to sunny Orlando, Fla., for the inaugural Dell Storage Forum, which marked the first time that Dell Compellent, EqualLogic and PowerVault partners came together for one event, focused on bringing together all those technologies into a “fluid” data infrastructure. Now, Dell is ready to cross the pond and bring the fluidity to London for its European partners.

Microsoft is calling it quits at CES. After the January 2012 event, Microsoft announced it no longer will be a major player in the annual consumer electronics show. Why is Microsoft is pulling out, and more importantly, does it matter? Here’s the rundown …

Join our next webcast today at 2:00 p.m. eastern. We’ll cover five best practices for selling cloud services. Confirmed speakers include Savvis VP Martin Capurro, Mycroft CISO Liz Mann, and CA Technologies Senior Advisor Wendy Petty (CA is the event’s sponsor). We’ll take your questions throughout the webcast. Register now and pose your questions at 2:00 p.m. eastern today.

The VAR Guy is starting to build his travel schedule for 2012. And he’s already spotted a potential date conflict: It looks like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and VMware (VMW) — which do partner with one another — are scheduled to host their respective channel partner summits during the same week, in the same city, for 2012.