The VAR Guy

Attention bargain bin shoppers: Software as a Service (SaaS) stocks have declined more than 50 percent from January through Nov. 14, 2008, reports MSPmentor — The VAR Guy’s sister site. Our resident blogger doesn’t make buy, sell or hold recommendations. But isn’t SaaS supposed to be the future of software???

Dell has revamped its channel blog with more community features, including familiar Web 2.0 capabilities that allow you to see who else is logged into the site. Of course, The VAR Guy was pleased to see MSPmentor — his sister site — mentioned in a post about the managed services industry.

The VAR Guy and his sister site, MSPmentor, are scheduled to record a podcast August 26 with Greg Davis, vice president and general manager of Dell Inc.’s Americas Channel Group. Davis leads Dell’s PartnerDirect channel initiative. If you have questions or comments for Davis, please send them to our editorial director, Joe Panettieri (joe [at] ninelivesmediainc.com).

There’s still time to register for MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange, scheduled for this Thursday, June 12 at 2pm eastern. During the interactive Webcast, hosted by The VAR Guy’s sister site, you’ll have the chance to ask top managed service provider CEOs your most pressing questions.

Are you ready — and qualified — to launch your own business? Before you quit your day job, check in with Mitch York, an executive coach who helps corporate employees become successful business owners. York offers some practical tips and some reality checks to would-be entrepreneurs in a MSPmentor Live: Podcast for May 1, posted on our sister site.

Dell will host a webinar for its managed service provider partners on May 1. The VAR Guy spotted some early details about the Dell webinar over on his sister site, MSPmentor.

The VAR Guy couldn’t make it to Hawaii for Cisco’s recent partner summit. But now he hears that Cisco demonstrated Apple’s iPhone working on a unified communications network. Sweet. Some of the details about the demonstration surface in this April 24 Podcast on MSPmentor.net, The VAR Guy’s sister site.

The VAR Guy’s sister site, MSPmentor, has an interesting scoop today about Ubuntu Linux. The fast-growing operating system, it seems, is leaping beyond PCs, servers and mobile devices. Next step: Network security systems. Here’s the scoop from MSPmentor.