The VAR Guy

A rather interesting rumor just landed in The VAR Guy’s voicemail. A trusted source claims Microsoft is gradually unplugging its corporate phones and transitioning many employees to Lenovo ThinkPads running Microsoft Office Communicator. Is Unified Communications about to invade Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus? Here’s the (alleged) scoop.

Setting the stage for this week’s Cisco Partner Summit 2009 in Boston, Channel Chief Keith Goodwin (pictured) blogged a bit about his thoughts on Microsoft’s expanded Unified Communications relationship with Hewlett-Packard. Goodwin’s blog had a few interesting items … including a prominent mention of Apple. Hmmm.

Conventional wisdom says Linux application developers are most cozy with distribution specialists like Red Hat, Novell and Canonical. But the folks at Cisco Systems seem to be getting tighter with the Linux developer community, thanks to the so-called AXP (Application eXtension Platform) developer contest. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

When The VAR Guy descends April 1 on VoiceCon Orlando 2009, he’ll meet multiple unified communications (UC) thought leaders. Our resident blogger has plenty of questions, and he’ll be seeking answers during meetings with Avaya, Cisco Systems, IBM and Siemens Enterprise Communications. Here are the top 7 questions The VAR Guy will be asking.

It’s a familiar trend: Smart people leaving Microsoft to launch a company that cashes in on Microsoft-oriented technology. The latest example: A group of Microsoft Unified Communications veterans have launched Unify2, a consulting firm focused on (wait for it… wait for it…) Microsoft Unified Communications. Here’s the scoop.

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.