The VAR Guy

When you think Barcelona, Spain, you’re either thinking killer vacation or Mobile World Congress. But surprisingly, The VAR Guy is thinking about Windows 8, too. Microsoft has sent an official invitation to certain members of the press to come check out the Windows 8 Consumer Preview at special event during Mobile World Congress. Our resident blogger is intrigued, but will he be packing his bags? Read on …

Quinstreet paid $17.5 million to acquire Ziff Davis Enterprise assets, including eWeek, Baseline, CIO Insight, Channel Insider and other IT media assets, according to a February 7 SEC filing viewed by The VAR Guy. Quick — but unconfirmed — math suggests Ziff Davis Enterprise’s valuation may have fallen more than 85 percent since 2007. So what triggered the steep drop?

Sometimes the world of technology gets a little … technical. But it’s all worth understanding. Case in point: EMC’s new VFCache. It’s going to bring supercharged caching capabilities to servers for anything from storage, database needs or even application performance. How does it all work? Through a PCI Express slot, of course.

How can VARs and MSPs control their destinies, pricing and margins while pushing into cloud storage and online backup services. Get the answers during our next Channel Expert Hour webcast on Wednesday, Feb. 8. Register to learn from two top channel partners –Data Storage Corp. and Bumi (Backup My Info!) — and Asigra. Here are more details…

Ziff Davis Enterprise (publisher of eWeek, Baseline Magazine, CIO Insight Magazine and Channel Insider) has been sold. The buyer has yet to be publicly disclosed but multiple sources on Twitter point to Quinstreet, the lead generation company. Here’s the back story, which was a decade in the making.

The channel ebbs and flows with a variety of partners and vendors, and some shine more than others. That’s why Syncsort is highlighting its partners that exemplify the company’s values. Which partners secured Syncsort’s coveted 2012 Partner of the Year award? The VAR Guy’s got you covered…

ownCloud, Inc., which went commercial fewer than two months ago, may be young, but it’s already pumping out innovative new features for the ownCloud open source framework, including some interesting potential revenue streams. Here’s a look at the latest updates in version 3, out this week.

The VAR Guy may try to squeeze his way into Candlestick Park this weekend to watch the Giants vs. 49ers. But before our resident blogger begins an alleged cross-country journey from New York to San Francisco, here’s a look at the nine most read channel partner news stories from our blog network — The VAR Guy, MSPmentor and Talkin’ Cloud — for the week ending January 20, 2012.

From technology giants like IBM and Intel to smaller–but growing–tech firms like Adtran and F5 Networks, a lengthy list of technology companies announced quarterly earnings results this week. Overall, earnings season is shaping up well. Sure, some technology companies are suffering from isolated hiccups. But the IT market, as a whole, looks healthy. Here’s a look at the Adtran, F5, IBM and Intel results.

Even if you don’t run Linux, chances are good you’ve heard of Ubuntu. You’re probably also familiar with its official cousins: Kubuntu, Xubuntu and the like. But there’s another subset of the Ubuntu ecosystem that gets less play — namely, the medley of unofficial spinoffs built by third parties. Although little discussed, the trends surrounding these distributions that hide in Ubuntu’s shadow reveal a lot about the open source channel more broadly.

Kofax, a business process management company that works closely with SAP and SharePoint channel partners , has introduced an enterprise edition of its signature DotImage solution, which gives businesses a portal to scan, view and annotate documents.

The beginning of a new year presents a prime opportunity for IT channel partners looking to expand into new markets or enter a new, fast-growing vertical. And to help them in that effort, CompTIA has made new 2012 training resources available for IT channel companies via a series of recently published 10-Week Guides.

Now more than ever the shape of consumer electronics affects the ebb and flow of the business world. And once again, fabulous Las Vegas will be the epicenter of it all for CES 2012, Jan. 10-13. So what can we expect the top five trends will be at this year’s event? Here’s a look at the technological landscape for the upcoming year …

Data mobility software provider AutoVirt has gone out of business just months after the company launched its channel partner program for value-added resellers (VARs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators (SIs).

How many times have you said to yourself, “Self, I’d sure love another screen on this laptop,”? Well, your wish has been answered, thanks to GeChic. The company has developed a 13-inch portable USB-powered screen, designed for whatever dual-screen endeavors you’d like to undertake on the go. I’ve received one for review, so here’s the preliminary scoop on my extra 13 inches of viewing space …

Cisco Systems has killed its Umi home telepresence business. The move follows months of speculation about Umi, an expensive high-definition alternative to Skype and other free video conferencing and video chat services. Umi has been on its death bed since at least mid-2011. But Umi wasn’t declared officially dead until now.

The “year in review” pieces that proliferate old and new media alike around this time of year get tedious pretty fast. But because I’ve yet to see a good compilation of the major developments — and there were plenty of them — that affected desktop Linux in 2011, I couldn’t think of any better topic for my last post of the month. That may make me a hypocrite, but if you can forgive a personal flaw, keep reading for a look at how the Linux world has evolved in the last 365 days or so.

It’s no secret that Canonical’s Ubuntu One file-syncing service faces stiff competition from better entrenched rivals such as Dropbox. But recent signs indicate Ubuntu developers may be taking the service in a different direction by adding developer APIs. Will this be enough to differentiate Ubuntu One from competitors? Here are some thoughts.

Of all the arguments that surface during holiday gatherings, the last one I expected to become wrapped up in this season was over whether dual computer monitors are a worthwhile investment. But that was indeed what my geeky family members and I fought over the other day. And since no one agreed with me that they’re not worthy of the investment, I’d like to take this opportunity to make my case to a broader, more enlightened audience, namely The VAR Guy’s readers.

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.

As you may or may not know, Apple rumors are often indirectly confirmed when developers or code spelunkers find new product IDs inside the iOS beta code. But Apple has wised up to how the Apple rumor mill works and deployed an interesting tactic to deter would-be investigators: spamming its own configuration files. Read on for the details …

An interesting guest post from Microsoft over at VMWare’s blog suggests 2012 will be the first year that the cloud “moves from a buzzword to a reality.” Microsoft’s director for Virtualization and Cloud Strategy, Edwin Yuen, detailed the ways companies can achieve this goal, and of course, there’s some channel perspective, brought to you by The VAR Guy himself. Here’s the scoop …

H3 Solutions, creator of Mobile Entree for Microsoft SharePoint, has welcomed OBS into its Mobile Entree Alliance Program. OBS is an Australia-based SharePoint specialist, and adding OBS to its alliance program will allow H3 to extend Mobile Entree to SharePoint users throughout Australia for the first time.