The VAR Guy

How’s this for ironic: The more The VAR Guy moves around, the more weight he gains. Eating at buffets in New York, Las Vegas, San Jose and San Francisco this week didn’t help… If The VAR Guy put down his fork long enough, perhaps he would have written the following six channel partner blog entries for the week ending March 5, 2010:

So much for competing and cooperating. Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard are officially full-time competitors. According to a blog entry and video post from Cisco Channel Chief Keith Goodwin, Cisco “recently notified HP that we will not renew its System Integrator contract when it expires on April 30, 2010, resulting in HP no longer being a Cisco Certified Channel or Global Service Alliance partner.” Here’s the scoop.

Cisco Systems recently disclosed plans to End of Life (EOL) and End of Service (EOS) over $9 billion worth of Cisco gear. That move actually creates new support opportunities for VARs and solutions providers. Here’s why.

Polycom has partnered with VoIP software app vendor BroadSoft to build a hosted solution that enables solution providers to offer unified communication (UC) services in the cloud. It’s the latest in a string of Polycom partner moves. Here are the details.

The blogosphere is buzzing about the latest partnership between Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. No doubt, the duo has a longstanding relationship in the IT market. But The VAR Guy has to ask: Is there really anything all that “new” here? Or was the Microsoft-HP announcement a preemptive response to anticipated competition from Cisco Systems and Oracle-Sun, respectively?

The VAR Guy spent another week chasing (and missing) a few deadlines. Even with his growing staff, our resident blogger didn’t quite cover all the channel chatter this week. Here are six blog posts The VAR Guy didn’t write for the week ending Dec. 11, 2009.

You may not know Denzil Samuels, but that’s about to change. Samuels (pictured) quietly joined Siemens  Enterprise Communications in May 2009. His goal: To completely revamp the unified communications company from direct sales to channel sales. It’s too soon to draw any long-term conclusions but multiple anecdotes suggest Samuels (and Siemens) are making channel progress. Here’s the scoop.

TelePresence just took another step toward consumer homes. The reason: Logitech International, one of the best-known consumer peripheral brands, has acquired LifeSize Communications, developer of HD video conferencing technology. Here are the implications for VARs.

Consider the following scenario: Roughly 10,000 people are set to converge at VMworld (Aug. 31-Sept. 3, San Francisco). In many ways, the conference represents the center of the virtualization universe. But Cisco Systems VP Mark Fulgham (pictured) will be half-a-country away, delivering a virtualization keynote at Red Hat Summit (Sept. 1-4, Chicago). Here’s why.

At a time when Cisco Systems has aggressively reduced its face-to-face event spending and travel budget, the networking giant has signed on to become a visionary sponsor for the Red Hat Summit (Sept. 1-4, Chicago). And Cisco isn’t alone. IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard are also getting cozy with Red Hat at the summit. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy is showing his age with the headline. But it’s the first thing that came to mind as Cisco Systems Inc. launches a TelePresence marketing blitz that includes a contest called “Why I Want My TelePresence.” The Cisco TelePresence marketing push comes at a critical time. Here’s why.

Sure, Cisco Systems’ Unified Computing System and new servers will likely take center stage at the Cisco Partner Summit 2009 (June 2-4) in Boston. But The VAR Guy will also be checking out two other major themes. One involves Cisco’s rumored interest in a small telepresence company. The other involves Cisco’s plans for the Flip video camera (pictured).

When Cisco Systems ships Unified Computing solutions this summer, BlueWater Communications intends to make a splash. The New York-based solutions provider will attend Cisco training seminars in April and May, and expects to receive Cisco’s first Unified Computing solutions in June or July. But that’s not all. During a TelePresence meeting with The VAR Guy on March 20, Cisco and BlueWater executives pulled back the curtain a bit further on Unified Computing.

Tired of Twittering and chatting with FaceBook pals? Looking for a new fatal distraction? Perhaps it’s time to check out Cisco Systems’ online game tournament — called EdgeQuest 2. The game is designed to entertain while fueling Cisco’s lead generation efforts. But are vendor-driven games worth your time — and Cisco’s marketing budget?

Are Dell and Hewlett-Packard trading blows in the enterprise networking market? Well, almost. Only a day after Hewlett-Packard launched a data center networking offensive, Dell fired back and rallied channel partners around Cisco Systems solutions. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

As Cisco Systems gears up to launch a range of consumer electronics for the home, some industry pundits think the networking giant’s consumer focus will fail miserably. GigaOm calls it a “misguided foray into the living room.” On the contrary, The VAR Guy thinks Cisco would be foolish to ignore consumers. Here’s why.

Time for a surprising reality check from The VAR Guy. Conventional wisdom says there’s no margin left for VARs in hardware sales. But Pulse Inc. — a $10 million solutions provider that works closely with ADTRAN Inc. — strongly disagrees. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy will be watching and listening from afar this week as Cisco Systems kicks off a media gathering in Lisbon, Portugal. Alas, our resident blogger couldn’t make the trip because of a travel conflict. Here are the key trends our resident blogger expects to emerge from the Cisco gathering.

As Nortel Networks continues to struggle, The VAR Guy is starting to wonder: Did Microsoft bet on the wrong unified communications partner? Sure, Microsoft works with multiple networking companies — including Cisco Systems. But the software giant’s most strategic unified communications partner is Nortel — a company facing yet another fiscal crisis.

Millions of iPhone users download applications from Apple’s App Store. Now, Cisco Systems is considering a similar online App Store approach in the corporate market. Eventually, the networking giant may launch an online service or central repository to help you find Unified Communications applications and Widgets, The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy spoke with Avnet CEO Roy Vallee (pictured) this week. During the conversation, Vallee expressed optimism that Avnet (the distribution giant) and Cisco Systems Inc. (the networking giant) would eventually work together. Here’s the scoop.

Alcatel-Lucent is bringing in a new CEO, but The VAR Guy remains highly skeptical of the networking giant for three key reasons.

Sometimes, small deals are big indicators about where companies are heading next. Cisco’s $215 million acquisition of PostPath, for instance, speaks volumes about where John Chambers is taking the networking giant. Some folks say it’s a direct attack against Microsoft Exchange. The VAR Guy claims otherwise.