The VAR Guy

Yes, even business intelligence partner programs are connecting with the cloud. One prime example: Birst, an upstart in the BI market, says 27 systems integrators have joined the company’s SaaS-centric partner program. Here’s the scoop.

If the RSA Security Conference wasn’t enough to convince you that cloud-based security products are ready for primetime, Panda Security, which bills itself as capital-T The Cloud Security company, announced that it’s experienced 122% growth in its software-as-a-service (SaaS) endpoint protection product line. Here’s the scoop.

Networking solutions provider Westcon has announced the opening of their “virtual demonstration lab,” which lets resellers and their customers test F5 Networks-delivered hosted solutions in a virtualized network environment. Here’s the scoop.

Novell continues to push beyond the SUSE Linux market. Among the major moves: The company is beta testing Novell Cloud Security Service, which is scheduled for general availability in May or June, according to Novell sources attending the Parallels Summit in Miami. Here are the implications for hosting providers and cloud integrators.

Updated: Feb. 23, 2010: A little bit of Tuesday morning chatter: Security software veteran McAfee’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings apparently have hit a major milestone at 575,000 users. Much of the growth was organic. But a good portion of it involved a key acquisition — MX Logic. Here’s the scoop, along with a look at the competitive landscape.

Here’s a little something for you cloud naysayers: Plex Systems, proprietors of the Plex Online software as a service (SaaS) ERP solution, issued their 2009 recap statement — and the highlights look pretty darn strong. Here’s the scoop.

There’s some new buzz surrounding Microsoft Outlook — but it’s coming from a little-known software company called Xobni. The startup provides VARs a way to offer significantly enhanced features to Outlook users by way of a simple plug-in. Here’s what it is and what it can do.

Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile (pictured), like many of his open source peers, has some lofty goals for 2010. With the help of SaaS and on-premise channel partners, Gentile says Jaspersoft — which specializes in business intelligence software — can grow 50 percent and generate positive cash flow in 2010. Here’s the scoop, including a FastChat video with Gentile.

WatchDox, a software-as-a-service document security platform from Confidela, launches its partner program for resellers today. Here’s the lowdown.

Cisco has announced its intent to buy ScanSafe, which provides security to software as a service applications, for $183 million. This is Cisco’s third acquisition in the month of October, if you’re keeping score.

Bloggers are buzzing about Microsoft Office Web — the forthcoming SaaS alternative to Office 2010. But software as a service experts and hosting providers say their customers have yet to ask about Office Web and its anticipated capabilities. Here’s the scoop.

As Microsoft begins previewing Office Web, plenty of pundits are comparing the SaaS productivity suite to Google Apps. But for Microsoft’s channel partners, there’s one big difference between Office Web and Google Apps. Here’s the scoop.

How’s this for a tongue twister: IT hosting specialist The Planet has launched a new Planet Partner Plus program. Here are some quick details for VARs and managed service providers (MSPs).

VARs evaluating a Cloud/SaaS strategy have a fundamental business decision to make: Do you build, assemble, partner or buy your solutions? In all cases, VARs are looking at the best way to rapidly offer new services and create recurring revenue streams from customers. In this blog post, I’m going to briefly discuss each option, touching on when it makes sense (or doesn’t), why, and for which types of VARs.

Still wondering if Google is serious about the IT channel? The search giant plans to more closely integrate the Google Apps Reseller and Postini partner programs, The VAR Guy hears. But that’s not all: New Google tools are helping VARs to migrate Lotus Notes and Exchange Server customers to Gmail. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Symantec CEO Enrique Salem has been talking up Symantec’s Software as a Service (SaaS) strategy in recent months. But the man who will ultimately make-or-break Symantec’s SaaS efforts is Adrian Chamberlain. Here’s the scoop.

Microsoft and Red Hat have launched hosting and cloud partner programs within weeks of one another. But the partner programs are as different as closed source and open source. Here’s the scoop, plus a key ingredient that could Microsoft’s hosting strategy a leg up with channel partners.

Despite new concerns about Salesforce.com’s growth rate, software as a service (SaaS) stocks are outperforming the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq so far this year, according to our SaaS 20 Stock Index. And a new relationship between IBM and Intuit shows where SaaS is heading next. Here’s a look at SaaS trends on Wall Street.

At first glance, Google Apps and Microsoft are the horses to beat in the online software suite race. But The VAR Guy remains preoccupied with a dark horse called Zoho, which just launched Writer 2.0 and continues to gain moment across multiple software as a service (SaaS) fronts.

The Google Apps Reseller program received plenty of buzz a few weeks ago. But software as a service (SaaS) rival Zoho is making noise with its Zoho Alliance Partner Program (ZAPP) — and attacking bigger brands like Microsoft and Salesforce.com along the way. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Even as some VARs begin to embrace open source applications, they must deal with a new force: The shift of open source applications into the cloud and SaaS (software as a service) models. A case in point: JumpBox has pushed a dozen open source applications into the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. Here are the implications for VARs.

Attention bargain bin shoppers: Software as a Service (SaaS) stocks have declined more than 50 percent from January through Nov. 14, 2008, reports MSPmentor — The VAR Guy’s sister site. Our resident blogger doesn’t make buy, sell or hold recommendations. But isn’t SaaS supposed to be the future of software???

The VAR Guy has spent the last two years evangelizing software as a service (SaaS) and open source as a killer combination that VARs need to master. But now Trip Chowdhry from Global Equities Research says SaaS and open source companies will suffer greatly amid the economic turmoil. Here are Chowdhry’s perspectives and The VAR Guy’s observations.