The VAR Guy

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.

Howdy, and welcome to this week’s Channel Partner Program Roundup, our weekly gathering of channel partner news. This week we’ve got tidbits from F5 Networks, Xsigo Systems and TP-LINK, so tighten your saddle, gather your reins and let’s giddyup.

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.

Energy management specialist Schneider Electric has launched InfraStruxure for Small IT, the company’s first physical IT infrastructure offering, which integrates power, cooling, racks, security and management components plus services.

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.”

Network Hardware Resale (NHR) is expanding its NetSure Maintenance Program to include a global four-hour hardware replacement service to help businesses avoid losing critical time in case of a network failure.

 Computer maker Lenovo launched a slew of ThinkCentre M and Edge Series desktops and all-in-ones (AIOs) sporting third-generation Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) Core vPro processors, including the super thin ThinkCentre Edge 92z with a 21.5-inch high-definition display.

Virtualization management specialist Reflex Systems’ latest version of its Virtualization Management Center (VMC) suite includes features that address the growing needs of Big Data management, including streaming data analysis and customizable analytics.

Adoption of cloud services and use of virtualization continues to grow among SMBs, suggesting resellers should be focusing their attention on these areas, according to the latest IT SMB survey by social business specialist Spiceworks.

Welcome to another edition of Distribution Watch, our weekly assemblage of all things distribution related. This week we’ve got stuff from Westcon, Avnet Technology Solutions and Ingram Micro (NASDAQ: IM), so settle in and we’ll get to it.

Ubuntu 12.04 is codenamed “Precise Pangolin.” But maybe it should be called “Linux that never sleeps.” And that wouldn’t be a compliment. Au contraire — the operating system’s lack of support for hibernation, or the ability to put the computer to “sleep” using no power, is a major flaw in an otherwise great Ubuntu release. And it doesn’t bode well for Canonical’s ambitions of conquering the desktop.

Data storage specialist Nexsan (NASDAQ: NXSN) announced a slew of service and support enhancements for its partners and customer base, including Concierge proactive managed services with 24×7 hardware monitoring and automatic dispatch, international support enhancements, onsite and online training, and on-demand response from support engineers.

Not content with just connecting businesses, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) apparently also wants in on the data analysis and reporting market, judging from its acquisition of analytics software specialist Truviso.

Howdy hey, and welcome back to another edition of the weekly Channel Partner Program Roundup, in which we corral the latest channel partner program news for your reading enjoyment. Ready for this week’s roundup? We’ve got news from ViewSonic, AGT and VMTurbo, so if you’re ready, let’s hit the trail.

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is betting heavily on virtualization with its new Get Virtual Guarantee Program, designed to help customers boost server virtualization return on investment by doubling virtual machine density in existing VMware (NYSE: VMW) vSphere environments when deploying the company’s 3PAR Storage platform.

Small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) are looking to electronic retail and office products stores to obtain Ultrabooks, high-performance, and compact Intel-branded notebooks, according to a report from IT market research firm Techaisle.

With Ubuntu 12.04 released in late April 2012, there’s no shortage of reviews of the open source operating system floating around the Web. But Ubuntu’s less phonetically ambiguous cousin, Kubuntu, doesn’t tend to get as much love. So in the interests of fairness, and of thinking outside the box, I decided to give Kubuntu 12.04 a whirl. Here’s what I found.

Networking specialist Netgear’s (NASDAQ: NTGR) latest wireless router for the small-business and home-office market, the R6300 dual-band Gigabit Wi-Fi router, is designed with speed in mind. VARs serving the SMB space may want to take a look, especially as the mobile revolution rages on.

Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM) scored a major vote of confidence this week when tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) joined the Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC), a group of companies spearheaded by Polycom tasked with developing industry standards-based platforms for high-quality video collaboration.

Performance management specialist Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD) and virtualization giant VMware (NYSE: VMW) announced the latest step in their partnership to help enterprises move to the cloud with Riverbed wide area network (WAN) optimization solutions, which accelerate virtual machines (VMs) moving between clouds — private, public and hybrid — using VMware vCloud Connector.

Unified communications specialist ShoreTel (NASDAQ: SHOR) is shaking things up, management-wise, with Joe Vitalone returning to head up ShoreTel’s channel team as vice president of Channel Management. Tim Gaines will be taking the helm for North America Sales, while Mark Arman will lead International Sales and Worldwide Distribution.

Application performance software specialist Condusiv Technologies, formerly known as Diskeeper, has revised its channel partner program, expanding Condusiv’s Registered partner level and adding a new Premier tier with added incentives.

Computer maker Lenovo (NASDAQ: LNVGY) launched its latest effort to accelerate boot-up times with Lenovo Enhanced Experience 3 (EE3) for Windows 7. A certification available with Lenovo Think and Idea-branded PCs, EE3 computers feature enhanced Windows start-up performance and will come standard on a range of Think and Idea-branded PCs4 shipping starting this month.