The VAR Guy

Siemens Enterprise Communications is breaking the tradition of selling third-party session border controller technology for its OpenScape Voice offering by developing its own SBC technology.

Back in the day when telecommunications and IT were two separate technology categories, value distributor Westcon was one of the first to recognize the two would be one sooner rather than later. Its legacy in the communications space and its focus on networking have since put the distributor high on the list of top-line vendors looking to serve a reseller base that understands the meaning – and impact – of convergence.

I just returned from a trip to the Scottish Highlands in search of the Loch Ness Monster and the Bonnie Prince. While I’m sad to report that both remain elusive, I did spot Ubuntu in use by a small business where I least expected it. Here are the details.

Mention the word “mesh” in tandem with the term “outdoor network” and chances are you’re bound to be met with a grimace or two from seasoned IT professionals who spent way too much time trying to optimize a traditional campus-wide mesh network. The technology, after all, is inherently flawed – each hop on a mesh network reduced output so significantly that the user experience was severely impacted (at which point the user would give up and go find a Starbucks for a decent wireless connection).

Palo Alto Networks is looking to move into your data center with its new GlobalProtect PA-5000 series. The offering also marks the fourth release of PAN-OS, making this the first time new hardware and software have been paired to provide enterprise-level capabilities for ‘next-generation’ firewalls. What does that all boil down to? Here’s the information, straight up …

PC vendor Lenovo and WinMagic, which specializes in whole-disk encryption, have joined forces to create a security solution for ThinkPad and ThinkCentre. Lenovo SecureDoc, being demonstrated this week at RSA Conference 2011, provides central management of self-encrypting hard drives. With data loss prevention solutions continually on the rise, Lenovo could be on to something.

Websense is expanding its distribution agreement with Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions (ECS) to North America. Until now, Arrow ECS has carried Websense security products through ECS, but only in Europe. Read on for the meat and potatoes of the expanded partnership …

Kaspersky Lab is setting its sights on the bronze medal in security as it gains market share and becomes more of a household name, said Eugene Buyakin, Kaspersky COO, during the company’s 2011 Americas Partner Conference, held in Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Kaspersky Lab peppered the first day of its 2011 Americas Partner Conference in Riviera Maya, Mexico, with a slew of new product announcements and partner offerings as well as hints of upcoming technologies designed to strengthen its partners’ collective bottom line.

Kasperky Lab is hosting its annual Americas partner conference Feb. 3-6, 2011, in Riviera Maya, Mexico, and while the weather will be a welcome respite from the brutal winter here in the North East, it’s a safe bet partners actually will be more focused on what Kaspersky can do for them.

Moscow-based security vendor Kaspersky Lab has received funding from private equity firm General Atlantic to fund the next stage of its growth strategy, according to the company.

Dell is pushing deeper into the data protection and encryption world. The latest move is called “Dell Data Protection | Encryption.” Designed to be a flexible and easily managed endpoint solution, Dell has high hopes for where it’ll play out in the real world. Dell’s channel partners should take note because  “Protection | Encryption” is for more than Dell computers…

I’m heading off to “Fabulous” Las Vegas for the Symantec Partner Engage Conference this year. What can we expect Symantec to talk about this year, and where is the Symantec channel partner program headed? Here are some questions I’m looking to answer during the next few days…

CMT and MobileIron have joined together to create a multi-OS smartphone management protection solution. That’s a mouthful, but read on. This has potential to be part of a new trend as users become increasingly more mobile…

If your company — or your customers — run Google Docs a lot, you might have been disappointed when you discovered Google Docs was not editable on your iPad. That’s about to change. Google’s own blog details some updated features coming soon. Read on for the scoop and speculation…

Westcon Group, the value-added distributor, is focusing even more aggressively on the security market. Two prime examples: Andrew Warren is now VP of the Westcon Security group, and Westcon has agreed to distribute Palo Alto Networks’ portfolio of solutions. Here’s a closer look at each move.

Instead of competing with last week’s VMworld noise, Cisco and Citrix waited a few days to discuss their growing virtualization relationship. Specifically, Cisco and Citrix, who are no strangers to virtualization, are working on a new solution to provide high-definition virtual desktops and applications to all users in an enterprise, without breaking the bank. Can it be done? Read on for the details…

Vyatta, the company that bills itself as the open source alternative to Cisco Systems, has completed their Phase-2 Certification of IPv6. Translation: Vyatta’s NetworkOS software can now support the continuing growth of new protocols. Here are the quick details…

Imprivata has inked a partnership with VMware. The move integrates Imprivata’s OneSign secure user access solutions with VMware. In theory, the partnership will offer partners and customers more secure access to virtual desktops. Here are the quick details…

Riverbed is expanding their relationship with Microsoft by combining Riverbed WAN optimization with Microsoft’s Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG). The solution is bundled together into on single appliance. Here’s a bit about the effort.

VPNs have long been the standard for securely accessing data from outside the corporate wall. But can such technology be trusted to keep secure the data that lives in the virtual world? F5 says yes, with the latest version of its FirePass SSL VPN.

Sophos, the endpoint security software company, is taking aim at Apple on the security front. Specifically, Sophos notes that Apple very quietly updated their XProtect.plist in Mac OS X 10.6.4 — which stores information about Mac malware. Sophos decrees that since there’s no mention of the update in Apple’s release notes, Apple is trying to quietly suggest that there are no threats to the OS X operating system and that Apple isn’t offering true virus protection. Here are the details…

If you use Windows software on Ubuntu 10.04, chances are you’ve encountered the new feature in Lucid Lynx that prevents .exe files from being run without the executable bit set.  This might be good and well for some users, but is it really the best approach to security?  Here are some thoughts.