The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy has been drinking with two fists this week — Coca Cola in one hand, latte in the other. The steady diet of caffeine helped our resident blogger to drive plenty of web traffic. But The VAR Guy still couldn’t meet all of his deadlines. Here are six channel partner-related blog entries that The VAR Guy failed to write for the week ending March 12, 2010:

Red Hat already focuses on Linux, JBoss middleware and virtualization. But there are multiple signs the open source company will make a business intelligence move soon. And Red Hat’s move could involve either Jaspersoft or EnterpriseDB — or both. Here’s some analysis, some speculation and some potential implications for Red Hat’s channel partners.

The VAR Guy’s blog team was in the right place at the right time today. Shortly after the European Union approved Oracle’s takeover of Sun Microsystems (and MySQL), our team was recording a FastChat video interview with Ingres President and CEO Roger Burkhardt. Ingres, you may recall, is an open source database provider that competes with Oracle on some fronts. What does Burkhardt think of the Oracle-MySQL combo? Here’s the scoop.

Alfresco Software, which positions itself as an open source alternative to Microsoft SharePoint, may have found a new door into U.S. federal agencies. Here’s the scoop, along with the implications for solutions providers serving the government vertical.

MySQL, the open source database that Oracle may soon own, has made the leap into Amazon Web Services. Indeed, Amazon says MySQL has come to the cloud in the form of new Relational Database Service (RDS). Plus, Amazon is dropping cloud prices across the board and putting in new high-memory instance options on the Amazone Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) platform. Here’s why VARs should care.

When The VAR Guy arrives at CompTIA Breakaway (Aug. 3-6, Las Vegas), a major gathering of VARs and solutions providers, our resident blogger plans to meet with key representatives from Red Hat and Synnex — co-founders of the Open Source Channel Alliance. Here’s what The VAR Guy has in mind for the discussion.

Tech Data, a $24 billion technology giant with deep Microsoft relationships, has developed a 24-month plan to emerge as “the voice for open source in distribution,” The VAR Guy has learned. The proposed strategy includes potential open source hardware solutions from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Fujitsu. And it has broad implications for the software industry and the global IT channel. Here’s the scoop.

Reports are swirling that IBM is seeking to acquire Sun Microsystems for at least $6.5 billion. If a deal happens, what does that mean for the future of Solaris, SPARC, MySQL and other technologies that overlap with IBM’s core product portfolio? Will HP give Sun a call and offer a competitive bid? The VAR Guy offers four predictions about the potential IBM/Sun combo. Yes, Linux dominates the conversation.

When Sun Microsystems announced financial results this week, The VAR Guy had a moment of clarity: Sun is looking more and more like a larger version of Novell. And The VAR Guy means that in a complimentary way. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy often crows about his successful predictions. But some of his blog posts — including a few about emerging open source solutions like Google Android and Ubuntu Server Edition — missed the mark badly in 2008. Time for The VAR Guy to take a break from holiday meals. Instead, he needs to eat some crow for these five open source statements that were off target in 2008.

Openbravo, the open source ERP and POS specialist, at LinuxWorld shared plans to offer better native support for MySQL, the wildly popular open source database. Well, The VAR Guy just got an update on the effort. Here’s the scoop, straight from Openbravo Chief Products Officer Paolo Juvara.

As Sun Microsystems polishes its channel strategy for MySQL and open source, Avnet Technology Solutions (ATS) is evaluating ways to work more closely with Sun and its partners on the open source initiatives. Here’s the scoop, only from The VAR Guy.

The VAR Guy thought Red Hat Exchange — an online store the software company launched last year — would be an overnight hit. It wasn’t. But after some tinkering, Red Hat Exchange (RHX) seems to be taking off — and giving partners like MySQL and Zimbra a lift as well. In fact, the site’s bookings doubled in Red Hat’s most recent quarter, The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s how Red Hat got RHX on track.

The Global 2000 is nice. The Fortune 500 is very nice. But selling into the Fortune 50 — especially for a small open source company like Pentaho — is extra sweet. Pentaho, which recently launched version 2.0 of its open source business intelligence software, says it has won business with several Fortune 50 companies. And Pentaho’s partner network is expanding. Here’s the scoop.

Barton George, one of the best-known open source evangelists at Sun Microsystems, has left the company. He sent a note to a group of sources — including The VAR Guy — on Sept. 5 indicating that he’s joining a cloud-based computing company in Austin, Texas. Kudos to George, but The VAR Guy has to wonder: Are things growing worse at Sun?

The VAR Guy isn’t making any guarantees, but he hopes Sun Microsystems articulates its MySQL partner strategy next week at the Avnet New Frontiers Conference in Colorado. Here’s why.

As we approach next week’s LinuxWorld Expo, The VAR Guy was reminded of an age-old problem. During a meeting earlier this week in New Orleans, a solution provider told The VAR Guy he just didn’t understand how to profit from open source. Didn’t we put this issue to rest a long time ago? Perhaps not. Here are eight ways VARs can profit from Linux and Open Source.

Linux redefined pricing in the operating system market. Now, Zmanda hopes to apply those same open source pricing pressures in the backup market. Zmanda claims that its backup system costs one-fifth to one-tenth as much as alternatives from Symantec and EMC. But is open source backup — at any price — ready for the enterprise?

The VAR Guy picked up the phone and dialed Sun Microsystems Inc.’s investor relations department. When the call went to voicemail, he left this message: “Are the rumors true? Is Sun seeking to replace CEO Jonathan Schwartz?” Here’s more on the rumor, and The VAR Guy’s depressing reaction to it.

In our “winner take all” society, The VAR Guy is starting to wonder: Can open source companies like Concursive, Compiere and EnterpriseDB ever escape from the shadows of their larger and more successful rivals (SugarCRM and MySQL)? Before you answer, consider these lessons.

Openbravo, maker of open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) and POS (point of sale) platforms, has landed $12 million in new funding. Openbravo’s new funding reinforces growing interest in open, easily customized alternatives to entrenched giants like Oracle and SAP. The VAR Guy traded email with Manel Sarasa, CEO of Openbravo, for his thoughts on the funding. Here’s a look at the email exchange.

The VAR Guy isn’t suggesting that open source companies will launch initial public offerings (IPOs) anytime soon. But a lengthy chat with an open source guru — call him Pele — got our resident blogger brainstorming a bit. Here are three open source companies that could test the IPO waters over the next couple of years.

Generally speaking, The VAR Guy is a procrastinator — except when it comes to timely blogs. In fact, he’s already confirmed plans to blog live from Ubuntu Live 2008, scheduled for July 21 and 22 in Portland, Oregon. Here are five reasons you should care about the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, and the Ubuntu Live conference.