The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy was distracted by the usual stuff this week. Deadlines. Meetings. Vendor calls. And classic arcade games. Here are six blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending Jan. 29, 2010.

Alas, The VAR Guy abandoned his New Year’s resolutions this week. Our resident blogger is drinking Latte again. Lots of it. But all that extra caffeine didn’t help The VAR Guy to meet his daily deadlines. Here are six channel blog entries our resident blogger didn’t write for the week ending January 15, 2010.

The VAR Guy has openly wondered — again and again — whether Novell will ever connect the dots between its various products groups. A potential answer to that question emerged today. It involves Novell’s Intelligent Workload Management (IWM) strategy, which melds cloud and virtualization opportunities with Novell’s solutions, according to Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon (pictured). Here’s the scoop, and the implications for solutions providers.

Novell is shaking up its channel strategy in Europe. The VAR Guy reached out to Novell Chief Marketing Officer (and Channel Chief) John Dragoon for his thoughts. Here’s what Dragoon had to say.

After a one-year hiatus, Novell plans to resume its BrainShare conference for customers and channel partners in 2010, according to Chief Marketing Officer and Channel Chief John Dragoon (pictured). Somewhere, SUSE Linux fans should be celebrating. Here’s why.

Novell has found a creative way to put Netbooks and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 in the hands of IT managers and channel partners — even with Microsoft sitting in the same room. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Despite the recession, two areas of the IT channel — open source companies and managed services specialists — are pressing ahead with partner and customer conferences. The latest example involves Pentaho, an open source business intelligence company that plans to host a partner summit in April.

Welcome to The VAR Guy Live: Podcast Edition. In this episode, Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon responds to five key questions about the company’s SUSE Linux strategies, broader software efforts and partner initiatives.

 

 The VAR Guy Live: Podcast 001, Novell's John Dragoon: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

How bad is the economy? Novell has just canceled BrainShare, one of the IT industry’s long-standing events. Initial perspectives from Matt Asay (Blogger, The Open Road). Plus, here’s the official statement from Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon.

Microsoft is sending another $100 million toward Novell as part of an ongoing Windows-SUSE Linux relationship. Here are five things Novell should do with that dough.

Leave it to The VAR Guy. Novell has just started a search for a new channel chief to replace Pat Bernard, and our resident blogger is already offering advice to Bernard’s potential replacement. Whoever lands the position, The VAR guy hopes he or she will take the following four steps.

The VAR Guy didn’t attend Novell BrainShare. Or did he? Somehow, our resident blogger apparently crashed the Collective Soul concert hosted by Novell.

Ubuntu Linux is moooovin’ on up in the Linux server neighborhood. When Sun announced a major open source initiative targeting small and midsize businesses this week, a lot of people failed to realize that Sun would include servers certified for Ubuntu. Here’s the scoop.

As The VAR Guy reflects on the latest news out of BrainShare, one number sticks in his head: More than 700 partners — representing ISVs, integrators, consultants, VARs, etc. — are at the event. Not a bad showing. The VAR Guy connected with Novell’s Channel Chief, Pat Bernard, for more perspective. Here are five key takeaways from the conversation.

Novell didn’t deliver any home-run news during BrainShare on March 17, but the software company did manage to smack a few solid singles during the day. Overall, the buzz from Utah sounded pretty upbeat. Here’s a look at Monday’s developments, and The VAR Guy’s take on the situation.

Former Novell CEO Ray Noorda used to speak about coopetition — the need to both cooperate and compete with technology companies. But the current Microsoft-Novell relationship is giving new meaning to the term coopetition, especially during this week’s BrainShare.

At first glance, Novell’s desktop Linux goals are humble. Novell insiders tell The VAR Guy they’d be pleased if SuSE Linux eventually captures 1 percent of the overall global desktop market. So, how is Novell’s desktop strategy performing so far — especially vs. Red Hat and Ubuntu? Here are key clues from two top Novell sources on the subject.

The grand experiment is over. Wal-Mart has locked Linux out of its stores. The retail giant has stopped selling Linux-based PCs — though Walmart.com will continue selling the so-called Green gPC from Everex, according to the Associated Press. What does this mean for the open source desktop movement in the consumer market? Here are some thoughts from The VAR Guy.

During a phone call a few days ago, The VAR Guy listened intently as Novell’s VP of Global Channel Sales, Pat Bernard, described her four-point strategy to rebuild the company’s partner organization. Although Novell faces an uphill climb in several areas, Bernard’s experience in the enterprise software space could be a plus.

The VAR Guy skipped last week’s Novell BrainShare event because of other pressing deadlines, but he got a comprehensive brain dump from a senior IT manager who attended. Here are some hits–and misses–from the event.

The VAR Guy just had dinner with a buddy of his. Call him The Network Guy, a savvy IT manager who just returned from Novell’s Brainshare. Lots of info to share from the show. Stay tuned for updates over the weekend. But the hit of the event appears to be Novell advertisements that poke fun at the current “Hello, I’m a Mac…” television ads. The VAR Guy loves ‘em. If Novell throws these ads on CNBC, he suspects the company could have a hit on its hands.

Amid deadlines at the office, The VAR Guy didn’t attend Novell’s BrainShare conference this week. But several of his trusted sources are feeding him info from the event. One loyal tipster says Novell is quietly launching a thin client offensive with Wyse Technology. Although The VAR Guy has criticized many of Novell’s recent moves, this thin client approach is super smart.