The VAR Guy

Hewlett-Packard‘s board may fire CEO Leo Apotheker, according to multiple mainstream media reports. Apotheker faces intense pressure as HP navigates strategic and profit challenges. Apotheker has made some controversial moves but he isn’t HP’s biggest problem. Instead, the biggest issue facing HP involves media leaks that undermine confidence in the company and Apotheker’s management team.

SUSE Linux, now owned by Attachmate, will unveil some partner and customer surprises at Novell BrainShare (Oct. 10-14, Salt Lake City), the company confirms. Meanwhile, Michael Miller, VP of global alliances and marketing, has been polishing partner and cloud services strategies for SUSE. And Miller has been busy meeting with strategic SUSE partners like Microsoft, SAP, VMware, IBM, Dell, HP and Fujitsu. So, what’s the message from Miller to SUSE Linux partners and customers? The VAR Guy got the answer.

It’s not Skynet — not yet anyway — but IBM has made a breakthrough in building a new type of CPU. It’s calling the experimental silicon a “cognitive computing chips” because they were built and designed to emulate the way the brain works. What does that mean for the channel, and more importantly, the world? Here’s just a few thoughts …

Most VARs in the open source channel are happy just to get free code contributions from their users. Canonical, however, has taken community engagements one step further with the announcement of a user-driven hardware-certification program. Will it work?  Here are some thoughts.

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.

In an effort to extol the benefits of IBM’s database software, IBM has launched a program to entice Oracle software clients to migrate to IBM software. Additionally, the company is offering no-interest financing and training and support for those willing to make the switch. Sound interesting? Read on for the details.

The titans of the tech industry are turning profits. Intel and IBM are off to a great 2011, with Q1 earnings bolstered by Intel’s chip proliferation and IBM’s systems strategies. Read on for the numbers…

It looks like Big Blue may be trying to counter the VCE (VMware, Cisco, EMC) world with its latest ‘standardized’ approach in the marketplace. IBM’s new Pre-Engineered Technology Service Model aims bring a streamlined, one-stop shop approach to its services and solutions. The goal is to provide a quicker, more robust and less expensive near-turnkey offering than traditional multi-vendor deployments have in the past. So what is IBM’s end game? Read on for some perspective.

It’s often been said that there’s no such thing as too much information. But for a company whose data stream has become a river, dealing with the deluge can often feel as overwhelming as trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon. And with more data being created every minute, it can be easy for a company to stop fighting the undertow.

Sputter, sputter. The VAR Guy is running on fumes today. The recent VMware Partner Exchange and IBM PartnerWorld conferences, both in Orlando, were high-octane events that drained our resident blogger’s energy. So it’s time to recharge this weekend… before running off to Orlando again — this time for Parallels Summit (Feb. 22-24). In the meantime, here are six channel partner news blogs The VAR Guy didn’t find time to write for the week ending February 18, 2011.

ISVs in the market for a mobile application development platform might want to check out WorkLight. The company is launching a partner program for ISVs and OEMs looking to capitalize on the growing demand for mobile applications that integrate with the workplace. Intrigued? Read on for the details.

Communication is key in moving ahead, and Arrow ECS is planning on making virtual chatter a big thing for resellers. Launching the site at IBM Lotusphere 2011, Arrow ECS hopes its new “Virtual Bench” social networking site will help resellers help other resellers resell. Cute. Here are the details:

Not too long ago IBM released a survey showing that many SMBs are planning on spending and expanding their cloud infrastructure, which meant that VARs have the potential to cash in on the trend. Now, SANpulse Technologies, which focuses on SAN optimization, has released the results of its own survey showing the majority of large enterprises are looking to refresh their technology lineup, and fast.

IBM today launched a Virtual Desktop for Smart Business push — which allows Windows or Linux desktops to be hosted and managed centrally. The VAR Guy is intrigued. But the Big Blue effort sounds suspiciously like a previous initiative called the IBM Client for Smart Work package, launched in 2009 with Virtual Bridges and Canonical (the Ubuntu Linux advocate). So how does IBM’s latest virtual desktop push differ from earlier efforts? Here’s the update.

IBM and ARM have decided to extend their existing collaboration for CPU development. The goal is to provide the “next generation” of mobile CPUs that are smaller, more dense and more powerful system on a chip (SoC) designs. With Microsoft announcing at CES 2011 that it will support ARM CPUs and SoCs in the future, should Intel be worried?

Answer: It’s the first computer of its kind to understand natural human language and will prove it in a three-day competition on the quiz show “Jeopardy!” Question: What is IBM Watson? Now, the details.

Avnet has kicked off 2011 with one acquisition (of itX Group Ltd.) and one divestiture (of New ProSys Corp.). The moves come shortly after Avnet announced some key end-of-2010 appointments to bolster its HP and IBM solutions groups. The distributor seems to be doing some serious moving and shaking. Here’s the update.

Straight from Round Rock, Texas, comes the news that Dell is set to acquire Compellent Technologies for its storage and virtualization expertise. Here’s some insight on the deal, including how it could benefit Dell’s growth and why storage VARs should care:

Continuing its quest to make good on its commitment to integrate technology it acquired with its Nortel enterprise buy, Avaya has updated the Agile Communications Environment (ACE) to work seamlessly with its Aura communications platform, the company says.

IBM has lined up 15 European partners for a cloud computing research initiative. How will North American channel partners potentially benefit from cloud computing experiments performed on the other side of The Big Pond? Hmmm… Here’s some speculation from the VAR Guy.

Cloud migration specialist Binary Tree is no stranger to Microsoft’s BPOS SaaS productivity platform, with a stated focus of moving customers from legacy messaging systems to Exchange Online. And now Binary Tree has signed a strategic partnership for Microsoft to use their software tools when migrating customers from the IBM Lotus Notes to BPOS. Here’s the story.

IBM has launched the “Federal Community Cloud” targeted at — who else? — the federal government. The new tech is designed for secure and private cloud environments. Here are the quick details…

Bocada’s Prism data protection and management suite is getting an overhaul with Prism R2. Designed to intuitive and provide useful information at a glance, Prism R2 is being touted as the first and only “multi-phased Data Protection Service Management model.” Here’s the details…