The VAR Guy

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.

Sometime later this year, The VAR Guy suspects, Cisco Systems will announce a more aggressive ISV (independent software vendor) partner initiative. Among the key potential partners: Microsoft. Indeed, there are signs the two tech titans plan to work more closely together on a range of fronts — especially within corporate data centers leveraging the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). Here’s the update.

Cisco Systems is offering a voluntary early retirement package to a portion of the networking company’s U.S. and Canada employee base, a Cisco spokesperson confirms. Channel VPs and top Cisco salespeople — among other distinguished folks — will not be eligible for the offer. Here’s the update, along with insights from The VAR Guy.

Looking to shift its focus back to its core enterprise expertise, Cisco Systems has announced it is shuttering its Flip camcorder business and — for the most part — exiting the consumer market. The company is calling its move a “comprehensive plan to align its operations;” in other words, Cisco is scaling back to what it does best. What does that mean for its channel partners, its consumer products as a whole, and the industry at large? Read on for our unique perspective.

The big question: Can Cisco Systems — and Cisco partners — continue to command premium prices as rivals like Hewlett-Packard push hard into the networking market? Cisco CEO John Chambers says the conversation with customers isn’t about price. Instead, Chambers says even the most price-conscious customers — businesses like Wal-Mart — are willing to pay a premium for solutions that deliver true business value. Chambers covers that point — and more — in this FastChat Video.

At Cisco Partner Summit 2011, CEO John Chambers is sitting down now to meet with the press — and even anonymous bloggers like The VAR Guy slipped into the room. So what are the opportunities — and challenges — facing Cisco and its channel partners at this very moment? Here are perspectives from Chambers and Executive VP Rob Lloyd. Oh, and there was plenty of chatter about Cisco’s decision to recently announce a Chief Operating Officer reporting to Chambers. Here’s why.

At Cisco Partner Summit 2011, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers held a fireside chat with several thousand channel partners this morning. His key message: Cisco won’t compete with channel partners in the cloud and other areas as market shifts accelerate.  Also, Chambers said Hewlett-Packard is not taking share from Cisco in the switching market. “We will go [forward] together” with channel partners as the world shifts from “an information economy to a networked economy,” Chambers said. Here are the top highlights from the Cisco Partner Summit 2011 keynotes this morning.

The VAR Guy concedes: The days of big, fat hardware margins will never return. And the IT channel has pushed far beyond traditional distribution models. But take a closer look and you’ll find big tech companies like Cisco, Dell, HP and Oracle professing their love for key distributors — especially this week, as thousands of VARs flock to distributor events across North America. Here’s the update.

Cisco Systems on October 6 is expected to unveil a new consumer product or experience. Most pundits think the move will involve consumer TelePresence. The VAR Guy’s big question: Can Cisco really compete with free Internet video conferencing options that are gaining momentum across consumer and corporate markets? Here are some educated guesses.

Last week, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers said he wanted to partner with Larry Ellison and Oracle, rather than compete with Oracle. This week, Cisco is backing up those words with some action at Oracle OpenWorld. Here are the details.

Question: How do you invade corporate data centers? Answer: You get really cozy, really quickly with data center software companies like VMware and Oracle. That’s part of the strategy unfolding at Cisco Systems Inc., which will have a major presence at the VMworld and Oracle OpenWorld conferences in San Francisco. Here’s the analysis.

The Cisco Partner Summit and HP Americas Partner Conferences have ended. The VAR Guy is packing his bags and heading for home. But before he gets cleared for takeoff, here are six channel partner blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t write for the week ended April 30, 2010. Some of them are quite juicy, if The VAR Guy says so himself.

During a briefing at Cisco Partner Summit in San Francisco, CEO John Chambers said the company has emerged as the top player in every market Cisco has entered. And he intends to continue that winning streak without entering commodity markets — an indirect reference to HP. Chambers and CTO Padmasree Warrior offered additional insights during a media briefing that ended moments ago. Here are the top 18 highlights from the discussion.

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers is set to sit down with The VAR Guy (and a few dozen other media members…) today at Cisco Partner Summit. Stay tuned for a FastChat video with Chambers. In the meantime, here are the top 10 highlights at Cisco Partner Summit from Wednesday, April 28.

During the dot-com implosion, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers took an unusual step that set the tone for appropriate, responsible executive leadership during bad economic times. Now, the executive leadership at Ford, General Motors and Chrysler should follow the example Chambers set back in  2002. Here’s why.

Move over, John Chambers. Apparently, Forrester Research has spotted your future replacement — Jane Chambers — at the Cisco Live conference in Orlando. Here’s the scoop, and the video evidence to go with it.

New Cisco Systems Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior is preparing to take center stage at Cisco Live, a massive customer event that starts June 22 in Orlando, Fla. This is the first time Warrior will grab the spotlight at a big Cisco event. Here’s what to expect, along with five key anticipated trends at the conference.

The VAR Guy and many tech industry watchers breathed a collective sigh of relief on May 6, when Cisco Systems announced relatively strong earnings. Our resident blogger warned readers earlier this week that Cisco would make-or-break Wall Street, based on the company’s results. Overall, things look good at the company. But there was an area of weakness, notes our sister site, MSPmentor.