The VAR Guy

Sometime before 2009 ends, old pals Intel and Microsoft will likely market the benefits of Intel vPro PCs and laptops running Windows 7, The VAR Guy hears. The target market: Established and aspiring managed service providers seeking to remotely maintain customer systems — for a profit. Here’s the scoop.

And you thought The VAR Guy was dangerous with a keyboard. Now, he’s armed with a video camera. Is he the next Steven Spielberg? Hardly. But here’s a preview of things to come… The VAR Guy’s new FastChat video center is open, and plenty of new video content will flow into the site during CompTIA Breakaway 2009 (Aug. 3-6, Las Vegas). What happens in Vegas… gets broadcast on TheVARguy.com.

Unison Communications — which develops unified communications software on Centos, Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux — is preparing to launch a partner program within the next few weeks, The VAR Guy learned during VoiceCon. Here are the early details.

This just in: A start-up company, currently working in stealth mode, intends to acquire multiple VARs, integrators and managed service providers. Total combined revenues for the acquired companies will be about $100 million to $120 million.

CompTIA Breakaway, held in Orlando, Florida, this week, was a successful conference for hundreds of VARs and managed service providers. Foolishly, open source companies that need channel strategies skipped the show. Here’s why The VAR Guy was alarmed.

The VAR Guy has been on the road non-stop in recent weeks. He’s blogging live from F5 Networks’ partner summit this week, before heading to CompTIA Breakaway (Aug. 5-7, Orlando) and LinuxWorld (Aug. 4-7, San Francisco). What does The VAR Guy expect to see? And does our resident blogger ever stop working long enough to go home? Here are some answers.

An old friend sent The VAR Guy a rather interesting YouTube link today (see above). In it, Google describes its software as a service (SaaS) strategy to VARs, IT consultants and managed service providers. Yes, folks. There’s a channel play for Google Apps. Here’s a look at the video. And a big thank you to Virus Woman for sending along the link.

Pardon me for briefly interrupting The VAR Guy. I hope you’ll join me at 2pm eastern today (Thursday, June 12) for MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange. When we began planning this managed services webcast, we made a conscious decision to avoid vendor hype and product pitches. Instead, we’re going to explore how you can maximize your managed services revenue — without necessarily adding headcount to your company.

When The VAR Guy wants to see the future of technology, he heads back to college. There, he often spots hot emerging trends in IT. The latest involves 18 universities embracing GroundWork Monitor, an open source alternative to traditional network and systems management platforms. Here’s the scoop.