The VAR Guy

Despite the challenging U.S. economy, Red Hat sure sounds optimistic. The open source company plans to hire roughly 1,000 people in 2012. And this isn’t a pure Linux strategy. Red Hat also continues to invest in virtualization, storage, middleware and cloud computing. Here’s where channel partners fit into the strategy.

Not too long ago we covered Red Hat’s Q3 2011 earnings, which was cause for concern for some. Despite the company meeting or exceeding its financial predictions, Red Hat’s stock price took a dip. But there is some good news: Red Hat’s positive earnings have earned the company a corporate credit rating bump. How big of a bump? Read on …

Talk about a market disconnect: Most technology company stocks are climbing today, but Red Hat (RHT) shares are falling. Hmmm… has something gone wrong at the Linux and open source leader? Not exactly. But Wall Street insiders seem to be a little concerned about Red Hat’s latest quarterly results. Should partners worry, too? Here’s some insight from The VAR Guy.

The oVirt Project, the open virtualization project designed to build an interoperable development platform for KVM and host-guest VM management, is gaining considerable support and momentum with new industry backers. Read on for which magnanimous group of companies are behind oVirt along with the all-important channel implications …

The VAR Guy definitely has a eye on Ubuntu as it gains momentum across the IT landscape. But what about Red Hat? Outside of Red Hat Enterprise Linux there’s a other baby. Fedora. It’s the open source and ‘consumer’ version of Red Hat’s Linux distribution. But with Fedora 16 comes some very channel-relevant focuses. Here’s the details on the free OS…

Red Hat wrapped up a major channel partner conference last week. But the channel chatter continues within the Linux and open source specialist. Indeed, Red Hat is mulling potential ways to make sure the company’s internal sales team works even more closely with channel partners, according to North America Channel Chief Roger Egan. Here’s the update, and a look at how Red Hat plans to accelerate Linux, virtualization, Jboss middleware, cloud and storage sales through the channel.

Cisco Systems showed up at the Red Hat North American Partner Conference chatting up its renewed relationship and collaboration with the Red Hat team. The goal? To create solutions that make it easier for Red Hat to proliferate into the data center, for both the channel and customer alike. Details coming up …

Red Hat is launching deeper into the cloud with Virtustream, a partnership designed to push Red Hat into the cloud in a cost-effective way. If getting Red Hat on-demand sounds like your cup of tea, The VAR Guy is pouring. Read on.

Data storage is to IT what silverware is to a fancy dinner: it may not be the most glamorous or exciting part of the setup, but it’s a vitally necessary one (unless, of course, the civilizing process has eluded you and you prefer eating with your hands). And like forks and knives, data storage solutions are already plentiful and come in many shapes and sizes. But that hasn’t stopped open source giant Red Hat from making a major bid in this market with its recent acquisition of Gluster. Here’s the scoop.

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst says the Linux supplier is on pace to become the first $1 billion open source company. Whitehurst’s statement is hardly surprising considering Red Hat’s most recent quarterly results. But the $1 billion revenue mark is both good news and bad news for the open source movement. Here’s why.

If you’re been itching for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 to hit the scene, it might be worth the wait. Red Hat is now taking open suggestions on the latest version of its business operating system. That’s right, all “subscribers — users and partners” can discuss what they want to see in the upgrade. Read on and find out how to be heard …

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.

Seeking to promote Ubuntu to resellers and distributors, Canonical is making a surprise appearance this week at CompTIA Breakaway in Washington, D.C. Here, Canonical is outlining seven potential profit opportunities for partners that back Ubuntu, a Linux distribution that has mobile, desktop, server and cloud computing capabilities. Equally important, Canonical is promoting Landscape — a remote management tool — for VARs and MSPs.

The VAR Guy expects Roger Egan, Red Hat‘s North America channel chief, to surface at CompTIA Breakaway (Aug. 1-4, Washington, D.C.). With a little luck and some cell phone speed dialing, The VAR Guy expects to grab Egan for some coffee and conversation about Red Hat’s partner program. In between sips of Latte, here are five questions The VAR Guy plans to raise with Egan.

Pentaho, which develops open source business intelligence software, continues to polish and enhance its channel partner program. The latest effort involves an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) push, which allows partners to embed Pentaho’s software into their own products. The results look promising: First-half 2011 OEM sales grew 170 percent vs. the same period in 2010. In some ways, The VAR Guy is starting to think of Pentaho has a business applications provider rather than an open source company. And that’s precisely the goal. Here’s the update.

Amid its march toward $1 billion in annual revenues, Red Hat continues to invest more money in Jaspersoft — an open source business intelligence company. The VAR Guy has openly wondered — multiple times — if Red Hat will ever fully acquire Jaspersoft. Hmmm…

Open source software has had a hit-and-miss relationship with channel partners. Major initiatives from Tech Data and Synnex, for instance, have done little to ignite reseller enthusiasm for open source email, ERP, CRM and other applications. So, how will open source march forward with resellers? The VAR Guy has some new insights to share.

By most accounts, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss middleware are both solid successes. But can two newer initiatives — namely, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and OpenShift — also gain critical mass, particularly among cloud computing partners? Here are The VAR Guy’s early educated guesses.

The VAR Guy spent some time this week at an Arrow ECS (Enterprise Computing Solutions) open house in Atlanta. Free food, free advice and plenty of cloud talk. But now our resident blogger is home… catching up on email — and delivering to you the following six channel partner blog entries that he didn’t have time to write for the week ending April 22, 2011.

Some of the IT channel’s top names are huddling up this week in Chicago for CompTIA AMM — an annual membership meeting for the Computing Technology Industry Association. No doubt, CompTIA — among the best-known associations serving VARs and MSPs — has undergone some dramatic changes under CEO Todd Thibodeaux (pictured). You might even say that we’re all looking at CompTIA 3.0. Here’s why.

The channel is where it’s at, but we were wondering what’s going on with Red Hat in the channel. Luckily, Mark Enzweiler, vice president of global channels and Roger Egan, vice president of the North America channel sales and development, were happy to discuss the Linux distribution vendor’s plans for the channel in light of emerging business models around virtualization and cloud computing. Here’s the deal:

The VAR Guy is scratching his head in confusion. When our resident blogger’s web site officially launched in January 2008, open source was all the rage. And quite a few open source companies were building channel partner programs at the time. Fast forward to the present and it seems like some open source channel partner programs have gone silent — especially as cloud computing continues to generate so much freakin’ hype. But don’t lose hope. Here’s why.

Even though Nov. 20, 2010, marked Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6′s entry into the world, there’s still plenty going on with RHEL 5. Red Hat has made available RHEL 5.6, which builds upon RHEL 5′s base and continues to support customers who are using RHEL 5 through its anticipated 2014 lifecycle. Here’s what’s new…