The VAR Guy

Nimbus Data Systems Inc., a storage company, has launched the FlashPoint Partner Program and is seeking partners that need alternatives to traditional disk storage arrays.

My time here at the McAfee FOCUS 2011 Security Conference is just about over. I leave you with the details on two major McAfee announcements around partner profitability and network security before I pack up and hit Dallas for the 2011 Tigerpaw User Conference.

Proper communication is the answer to most issues that arise between vendors and VARs, yet many people from both sides of the aisle forget this simple fact. What’s more, vendor-VAR communication is important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. Here are some ways communication can help improve a partner relationship.

It’s Columbus Day here in the U.S., which means many businesses are closed for the holiday. But The VAR Guy is plugging away and in catch-up mode. In fact, here are six pieces of high-tech news for channel partners that The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending Oct. 7, 2011.

Avnet Technology Solutions has ordered 100 Oracle Database Appliances (ODAs) and expects to receive Oracle shipments in mid-October, according to Chris Swahn, VP and GM of Oracle solutions at Avnet. Meanwhile Avnet’s entire vertical market leadership team — across health care, government, retail, energy and financial services — is attending Oracle OpenWorld to build deeper Oracle relationships, The VAR Guy has learned.

In my June post, I mentioned information volumes grew 62 percent to 800,000 petabytes last year. This means that protecting, storing and managing all of this information is becoming an even greater challenge for your customers. Some companies approach the issue of information management indiscriminately, with no organization and little thought for what should be kept and what needs to be thrown away. But given the current emphasis on compliance and risk reduction, we’re seeing businesses become increasingly concerned about their level of preparation for eDiscovery (electronic discovery) requests.

It is estimated that there are more than 122,000 public libraries in the United States. Libraries face many of the same issues educational institutions do when it comes to network security. For example, they must block inappropriate content while balancing the needs of staff versus the community.  The number of libraries as well as their need for IT security presents a great opportunity for VARs. But how can VARs break into the library vertical if they’ve never targeted this market before?

Cloud is quickly becoming the de facto offering for many solution providers, with fairly simple implementation and a monthly recurring revenue stream that can help balance their cash flow. These applications are also of great benefit to their small business clients, between capital savings to continuous and relatively seamless updates.

Lenovo Group‘s Q1 results, announced in the U.S. late on Aug. 17, beat Wall Street’s expectations. Take a closer look at Lenovo’s earnings and you’ll see the company’s business strategy is opposite that of Dell, which reported earnings earlier this week. Here’s the update, and a reality check for Lenovo’s channel partners.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3.0 has entered beta testing. The key goals: Improving RHEV’s management, performance and scalability. Red Hat is positioning RHEV 3.0 for just about everything — server virtualization, desktop virtualization, public clouds and private clouds. But can RHEV 3.0 help Red Hat to gain some ground on VMware? And will Red Hat channel partners rally around RHEV 3.0? The VAR Guy has some strong opinions on this topic.

I’m eating my words. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t do that often. So here goes: Back in my global channel professional days I worked for EqualLogic. I was one of those channel folks who ate, slept and breathed the channel (still am). So when I got the news in 2008 that Dell (one of the less channel-friendly companies) was buying EqualLogic I couldn’t get my resume updated quickly enough. “They just don’t get it and they never will,” are the words I’m about to eat, just in case you were wondering.

EMC is shaking up its channel partner program to help its partners make the best of their sales situations. New incentives, new deal registration bonuses and more upfront discounts are just part of the plan. I had a quick chat with EMC’s Gregg Ambulos, Senior VP of Global Channel Operations And Americas Channel Sales, about the updates to EMC’s Velocity Solution Provider Partner program. Here are the details …

ERP vendor Lawson is looking to find some channel mojo as it seeks partners in North America to help it sell into the food, fashion and distribution sectors.

Distribution company SYNNEX has inked a deal with Kerio Technologies to help proliferate Kerio’s security, voice and collaboration solutions into the marketplace in the United States. Read on for the quick details on what exactly Kerio’s solutions can provide for VARs and system integrators…

Bocada, which specializes in data protection management, is launching a new assessment tool for its partners. The Bocada Prism Assessment Program gives channel partners tools to evaluate customers’ data protection environment and backup infrastructure. The result? A potential value-add that holds real value for the customer. Here are the details …

Netgear and Acronis are forming an extended partnership to incorporate Acronis’ backup recovery solutions into Netgear’s ReadyNAS for businesses. Partners should be happy, since the package is resellable. Read on for the product details …

Fluke Networks is looking to push its network monitoring and analysis solutions deeper into the channel through Ingram Micro. With the ink still drying, Ingram Micro will serve as Fluke’s preferred master distribution partner in the United States for the entire Fluke Networks portfolio. Read on for the details …

HP is launching its Interactive Digital Learning Suite for the educational market, complete with a round of new software tools and solutions to help both students and teachers. What’s the scoop on this interactive learning, and can the HP channel partners capitalize with this package? Read on …

SaaS productivity provider HyperOffice differentiates itself from competitors like Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS by wrapping up its core functions in a familiar desktop shell, accessed through the browser. And now HyperOffice is making a channel play with the launch of a formal reseller program. Here’s the scoop on HyperOffice’s channel value proposition.

Two pieces of channel news from Google today: The search giant’s Google I/O Conference (May 10-11, 2011, San Francisco) could evolve to include more channel partner content, The VAR Guy has learned. Plus, Google says more than 2,000 channel partners have signed up to sell Google Apps — the company’s SaaS productivity suite. That milestone is an important morale-booster for Google’s base of solution providers ahead of the forthcoming channel battle with Microsoft for SMB cloud service supremacy. Here’s the scoop.

Even as Intel acquires McAfee, the chip giant continues to partner with McAfee rivals like Symantec. The latest Intel-Symantec deal deal brings with it Backup Exec 2010 to system builder partners. Here’s a look at the relationship.

The VAR Guy promised that he’d keep an eye on MySQL veteran Marten Mickos (pictured left) in his tenure as CEO of open source cloud platform provider Eucalyptus Systems. Our resident blogger had the chance to chat with him for a few minutes this week and catch up. In ten minutes, Mickos covered a lot of ground. Here’s the update.

Convirture is launching a partner program, featuring virtualization management software for OEMs, distributors and channel play for solution providers and resellers. Here’s the scoop on the company’s plans.