The VAR Guy

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.