The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy has been drinking with two fists this week — Coca Cola in one hand, latte in the other. The steady diet of caffeine helped our resident blogger to drive plenty of web traffic. But The VAR Guy still couldn’t meet all of his deadlines. Here are six channel partner-related blog entries that The VAR Guy failed to write for the week ending March 12, 2010:

Amid fierce competition with Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard for partner attention, Juniper has shifted the date of its J-Partner Summit away from rival event schedules to a more reasonable May 24-26, 2010. Smart move. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy has a boatload of blog entries that are worth writing. But time is short and The VAR Guy is looking to exit, stage left for a few hours. So here are six channel entries our resident blogger didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending January 8, 2010.

Hewlett-Packard’s pending takeover of 3Com will be put to a vote on January 26. Assuming the deal gets approved, the takeover could be completed in time for Interop, the networking event scheduled for April 2010. And rumors are starting to fly that HP will potentially counter Cisco Partner Summit with some sort of event. Here’s the scoop.

As Cisco Systems gears up for its April 2010 partner summit, The VAR Guy has noticed a rather interesting development: Rival Juniper Networks appears to have scheduled its J-Partner Summit for the exact same week. Was that a glaring error — or a subtle sign that Juniper isn’t afraid to face Cisco’s Partner Summit head-on? Here’s some speculation from The VAR Guy.

Rewind to June 16. That’s when Channel Chief Judson Althoff promised Oracle would get serious about social networks for partners. Now fast forward to July 7, when Althoff and Oracle President Charles Phillips will attempt to prove the social media point — during the Oracle Virtual Partner Kickoff event. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy would like to thank Everything Channel for the personal invite to the 2009 VAR500 Awards Gala on June 2. The email invite hit our resident blogger’s inbox about 20 minutes ago. Alas, The VAR Guy doesn’t have a tux handy to match his toupee. Plus, he’ll be at the Cisco Partner Summit 2009 in Boston, one of the biggest partner events of the year…

Despite the recession, Juniper is pushing ahead with its annual J-Partner Summit — scheduled for May 18-19 in Las Vegas. During the event, Juniper will promote TCO (total cost of ownership) info that channel partners can communicate to customers, according to Frank J. Vitagliano (senior VP, worldwide channels, pictured) and Blaine J. Raddon (VP, channels). Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy is watching Interop Las Vegas from the comfort of his home office this year. The Interop news wire appears a bit lighter than previous years. And the keynote speaker lineup — while impressive — lacks Cisco CEO John Chambers and other industry titans. Is Interop still popular? Sure. But competition from a different type of event may be stealing some of Interop’s thunder. Here’s the scoop.

So, you’re a Cisco Systems partner hunting for new revenue. Where should you look first: Unified communications? Maybe. Evangelizing 802.11n WiFi deployments? Perhaps. The wiser move, however, may involve a key handshake. Here are the details.

As Cisco Systems kicks off its big Partner Summit in Hawaii, The VAR Guy wonders: Is this the week we finally see and hear dozens of application providers line up behind Cisco’s unified communications strategy?

The VAR Guy is impressed. The big Cisco Partner Summit in Hawaii is still a week away, yet coverage about the event is popping up across old and new media. How did that happen? Given Cisco’s size, it’s relatively easy for the company to generate coverage. But let’s give Cisco some credit: The company understands traditional and new media, and journalism deadline cycles. He’s how Cisco works the system.