The VAR Guy

When Marriott International announced plans to embrace AT&T/Cisco TelePresence in hotels worldwide, The VAR Guy couldn’t help but wonder: Did an older Marriott relationship — involving HP Halo telepresence — get unplugged?

After weeks of speculation, Microsoft has essentially killed Response Point — the company’s former VoIP system for small businesses. According to a Microsoft Town Hall meeting today with VARs, the product is in maintenance mode with no future releases planned. Sorry for the following comparison, but Response Point has become Microsoft’s modern day OS/2. Here’s why.

Will Microsoft continue forward or pull the plug on Response Point — a small business VoIP phone system? The answer could be known on June 30, when Microsoft is expected to host a Response Point Town Hall Meeting for VARs. But here’s a clue about the situation: A source close to Microsoft says Response Point will have limited to no presence at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09). Here’s the scoop.

The Cisco Partner Summit 2009 (June 2-4, Boston) attracted more than 1,500 solutions providers (and The VAR Guy, of course). But pull up a chair and listen to this. Cisco’s Virtual Partner Summit, running through June 30, has so far attracted nearly 9,000 channel partners, The VAR Guy hears.

Solutions providers that sell, service and support Microsoft Response Point — a small business VoIP phone system — may potentially learn more about the product’s fate on June 30 during a Microsoft Response Point Town Hall Meeting. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Citrix Systems has found a new way to be a thorn in Cisco Systems’ side. Indeed, Citrix is among the investors pumping money into Vyatta — which positions itself as the open source alternative to Cisco Systems. The Citrix-Vyatta relationship involves networking, cloud computing, virtualization … and money. Here’s the scoop.

When it comes to video, even when Cisco Systems Inc. loses the networking giant wins. A case in point: Less than a week after Cisco touted its Flip video camera and essentially bet the company on video, Apple today unveiled the iPhone 3G S — which allows users to shoot and edit videos from their smart phones. But don’t weep for Cisco. Here’s why.

Cisco CEO John Chambers’ closing keynote at Cisco Partner Summit has started. Here’s a point-by-point recap, including Chambers’ best guess for the timing of a significant economic recovery.

The sleeping giant has awakened. It looks like Cisco Systems is addressing the potential Asterisk open source IP PBX threat — and opportunity. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy at Cisco Partner Summit.

At the Cisco Partner Summit in Boston, Cisco continues to rally partners against Hewlett-Packard. The three latest words of war allegedly come from Cisco’s Chuck Robbins (pictured), senior VP, U.S. Commercial Market. Here’s the scoop.