The VAR Guy

Astaro, the Unified Threat Management company we’ve come to know over the past few months, is looking to beef up it’s channel strategy. For 2010 Astaro is looking is to implement some new growth strategies and they’re feeling pretty optimistic. Here’s the run down…

Let’s be honest, here. The VAR Guy and friends mainly focus on VARs and MSPs in the traditional IT industry. But there are some hidden opportunities in the Automatic Data Collection (ADC) industry. That’s the message from Intermec’s Scott Anderson, global channels manager and Jim McDonnell, senior VP of global sales. Here’s what they had to say.

It has been a few months since Novell launched the SUSE Appliance program. So we checked in with Novell to see how the effort was going so far. Matt Richards, director, emerging technologies, and Steve Hale, VP and worldwide data center channel lead, offered me a few updates on Oct. 30. Here’s a recap of my conversation.

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.

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.

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.