The VAR Guy

Sparxent, a start-up company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is seeking to acquire managed service providers and VARs that generate roughly $5 million to $20 million in annual revenues. The company, backed by vSpring Capital, today disclosed that it has acquired NetworkD Corp. of Newport Beach, California. Sparxent has also signed a letter of intent to acquire Arbyte of Moscow.

Pardon the interruption. Works With U, the independent guide to Ubuntu Linux, is seeking two contributing bloggers who can write about the fast-growing operating system. Visit www.WorksWithU.com for details.

Don’t let slowing growth at VMware fool ya. The virtualization market remains a fast-growth opportunity — though competition between vendors (Microsoft, Citrix and VMware) is intensifying. In order to help VARs navigate virtualization opportunities, Avnet Technology Solutions has launched VirtualPath University.

Novell is making The VAR Guy look pretty darn foolish. Our resident blogger keeps hyping Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux, yet Novell keeps scoring small victories and picking up momentum. The latest example: Micro-Star International (MSI) has agreed to pre-load Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on MSI’s mini-notebooks. Here’s the scoop.

Whether you’re an established or aspiring managed service provider, time is running out to register for this Wednesday’s MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange Webcast. The event is hosted by our sister site, MSPmentor.

The single most important success factor for entrepreneurs is choosing the right business. Many entrepreneurs make their choice based on what they have done successfully in the past or what they are naturally good at. Those are important considerations but there’s one thing that’s much more critical.

The VAR Guy likes simple messages that cut right to the point. So when Trend Micro launched its new “Worry-Free” security software brand, he was intrigued. What exactly is Worry-Free, and what does it mean to solutions providers? Here are some thoughts from our resident blogger.

I had a dream last night. It was one of “those” dreams. I was walking down a crowded Manhattan street in my BVDs. At first thinking it was normal and then, with increasing dread, realizing it was anything but (unless you are this guy). And then I had a second dream last night. My brother was there. We were in college. It was around finals time. I asked him if he knew when our history class was meeting, because I can’t remember ever going this term. I don’t even know where the classroom is, and I haven’t done any homework—and the final is tomorrow!

Hi Folks. The VAR Guy is testing some site layout tweaks. Please forgive The VAR Guy for all of those “Top 100 MSPs” boxes on the site. They do lead you to valuable info about the managed services market and the MSPmentor 100 list. But we’ll tone down the MSPmentor promos over the next few days as we continue testing site layout, speed and performance tweaks. Thanks for your understanding.

Business and technology alignment. Big businesses talk about it all the time. Now, here are some key lessons in alignment — or misalignment — that apply to big business CIOs and small business consultants alike.