The VAR Guy

The top three IT problems plaguing SMBs are all related to hardware, according to a recent survey from Wakefield Research that was sponsored by Hewlett-Packard. The problems involve low-performing hardware (46%), out-of-date hardware (37%) and unreliable hardware (23%), leading to suboptimal computing efficiency and an overall loss of productivity.

The VAR Guy hopes to watch this evening’s Miami Heat-Chicago Bulls Game 3 showdown. But before our resident blogger turns his attention to South Beach, Miami, here are six channel partner-related blog entries that The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending May 20, 2011.

There’s another knock on the door. This time it’s Meaghan Kelly, VP of strategy and SMB at Hewlett-Packard. Kelly is sitting down with The VAR Guy in San Francisco to offer some updates on HP’s channel strategy, cloud and business relationships. Here’s the conversation…

Today is shaping up to be a rather busy day. The VAR Guy is going speed dating at a secret location in San Francisco. Among the alleged guests stopping on by: Google’s Jeff Ragusa, Hewlett-Packard’s Meaghan Kelly, i365′s Valerie Fawzi and McAfee’s Alex Thurber. There was also a great conversation with Symantec but … yada, yada, yada … The VAR Guy can’t share details yet. Our resident blogger is loaded up with latte and a WiFi connection. Stay tuned. And for information about future speed dating engagements send email to TheVARGuy [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com. Use the subject line “Speed Dating.”

The VAR Guy is packing his bags this evening for a trip to San Francisco. But before he embarks on this latest road trip here are six channel partner blogs The VAR Guy didn’t write for the week ending May 6, 2011.

When it comes to spotting the next big channel opportunity, The VAR Guy keeps tabs on Hewlett-Packard VP of Channel Strategy and SMB Meaghan Kelly. Indeed, Kelly (pictured) is leveraging an HP Startup and VC Council to uncover new opportunities for HP and its SMB channel partners. Is the strategy working? Take a look…

Talk about aggressive multitasking. First, HP CEO Leo Apotheker slammed Oracle. Then, Apotheker shifted his attention to cloud computing during the HP Americas Partner Conference today in Las Vegas. The “Everybody On” cloud vision was ambitious, including plans for an HP Cloud, an app marketplace and developer tools that will serve the consumer, SMB and enterprise markets. Here’s a recap.

Hewlett-Packard has come up with a new design in wireless access points that can handle more traffic than standard 802.11 technology – good news for networking VARs working with high wireless-traffic clients such as healthcare facilities and educational environments. Here’s the deal:

Hewlett-Packard may have just missed its expected earnings for Q1 2011 by a hair, but the shortfall was enough to send Wall Street into crisis mode and trigger a sell-off of HP stock.

Maybe it’s the residual effect of Mark Hurd’s sudden departure from the company in September 2010. Or maybe it’s new CEO Leo Apotheker simply cleaning house. Either way, Hewlett-Packard’s Board of Directors has undergone a major shakeup, with five new directors named and four being shown the door.

The VAR Guy is nearly ready to disappear and celebrate the New Year. But even during a holiday season, there’s plenty of channel partner news worth chasing. And there’s lots of news ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). So before our resident blogger allegedly unplugs for the weekend, here are six channel partner blogs The VAR Guy didn’t find time to write for the week ending December 31, 2010.

The VAR Guy is settling in quite nicely at the Avnet-IBM Partner Summit. For a poor, anonymous blogger, The VAR Guy seems to be living large at the event — hosted at the JW Marriott resort in San Antonio, Texas. What does The VAR Guy expect to hear at the event? Sit back, relax and enjoy the setting as The VAR Guy describes six early observations from the Avnet-IBM conference.

Hewlett-Packard has mapped out its future and it is Open IT. That, we already knew, since the company has been touting Open IT for about a year now. Now the company is backing up that Open IT philosophy by designing a training and certification program that focuses on the technology, not the product set. Here are the details.

As The VAR Guy looks ahead to the week of October 4, our resident blogger is feeling a bit overwhelmed. Within a five-day period there are four channel-related partner conferences. The gatherings include Ingram Micro VentureTech (San Francisco), MSPWorld (Los Angeles), Rackspace Partner Summit (San Antonio) and Tigerpaw User Conference (Dallas, Texas). What should VARs expect from each conference? And can our resident blogger really use planes, trains and automobiles to attend each conference? Here’s a reality check.

Apparently, The VAR Guy isn’t in the audience at Oracle OpenWorld. Or is he? Either way, the first day of Oracle OpenWorld 2010 included plenty of SaaS, cloud and competitive surprises. Can’t keep pace with all the news? Here are seven highlights from day one of Oracle OpenWorld, plus the potential implications for channel partners.

Hewlett-Packard continues to open its wallet wide, this time acquiring ArcSight for $1.5 billion. The deal potentially strengthens Hewlett-Packard’s enterprise security and compliance management software portfolio. Moreover, ArcSight has a channel partner program for traditional VARs as well as managed security service providers (MSSPs). Here’s a closer look at the deal.

Talk about irony: Hewlett-Packard is now the world’s largest technology company. But that designation means HP is under attack on at least four fronts — from traditional rivals like Dell and IBM, to emerging rivals like Cisco Systems and Oracle. Can Interim CEO Cathie Lesjak keep HP in growth mode? Hmmm… Here are some insights.

Even without Mark Hurd at the helm as CEO, Hewlett-Packard remains on the prowl for potential acquisitions. The latest example: HP has offered a bid to acquire 3PAR for $1.6 billion, a 33.3 percent premium vs. an offer proposed by Dell last week, notes CNN money. HP Executive VP Dave Donatelli — a potential candidate for HP’s CEO slot — appears to be driving HP’s side of the discussions. Here are the details.

Jim Sherriff’s new role as head of Cisco Systems’ U.S. and Canada channel strategy raised key question — mainly, how does his enterprise experience qualify him to lead Cisco’s North American channel partners? I had the chance to take that question straight to Sherriff. Here’s what he had to say.

At the recent Ingram Micro Cloud Summit, some pundits predicted cloud computing would kill small business servers. But don’t tell Microsoft. The software giant is preparing two Windows Small Business Server upgrades. And one of the upgrades — code-named SBS Aurora — will have some integrated cloud capabilities. Partners like Diskeeper, Hewlett-Packard, Level Platforms and Symantec are signing on. Here’s what VARs need to know.

Hewlett-Packard has completed the Palm acquisition. And if you read between the lines it sounds like HP will leverage Palm’s technology for more than smart phones and tablet computers. Indeed, HP seems poised to deploy webOS on netbooks. Here are the details.

HP is releasing a new Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) module for the HP A5820 data center switch. The module is designed to prevent a “fork-lift” upgrade, allowing incremental updates and migrations for FCoE. HP is also introducing new TippingPoint S-series solutions. Here’s the scoop and some channel implications…

As small business IT solutions potentially shift into the cloud, some VARs and MSPs are striving to identify pieces of infrastructure (and recurring revenue opportunities) that can’t float away into a rival’s cloud. The idea, as ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini recently stated, is to find opportunities that allow you to drop anchor — forever — in your customers’ small business offices. So, what’s the most reliable IT anchor of all? Which single managed service opportunity will never go away? Hmmm…