The VAR Guy

Cisco Systems has killed its Umi home telepresence business. The move follows months of speculation about Umi, an expensive high-definition alternative to Skype and other free video conferencing and video chat services. Umi has been on its death bed since at least mid-2011. But Umi wasn’t declared officially dead until now.

In May 2011 we wrote about Polycom’s partnership with Motorola to offer its video collaboration software on the Xoom tablet. Now the company is expanding its tablet base and has put a name to the offering: Polycom RealPresence Mobile.

Looking to shift its focus back to its core enterprise expertise, Cisco Systems has announced it is shuttering its Flip camcorder business and — for the most part — exiting the consumer market. The company is calling its move a “comprehensive plan to align its operations;” in other words, Cisco is scaling back to what it does best. What does that mean for its channel partners, its consumer products as a whole, and the industry at large? Read on for our unique perspective.

A little more than a year after Polycom launched its Choice partner program for VARs, solution providers and distributors, the company is reworking Choice to reward those partners who focus on video solutions.

The Comstor division of Westcon Group has added the Tandberg line to its stable of Cisco collaboration offerings, providing its reseller customers with video solutions ranging from the desktop to the conference room.

So, you’re worried about cloud computing solutions moving into the SMB market. Will VARs and MSPs remain relevant? Absolutely yes, according to ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini. During a keynote at the ConnectWise IT Nation conference this morning, Bellini described 19 areas where VARs and MSPs can generate revenues and profits even if cloud computing moves into the SMB market. Take a look.

Greetings from San Antonio, the latest stop in The VAR Guy’s latest road trip. And what a road trip it has been. Here are six channel blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending Oct. 22, 2010.

Cisco Systems has completed its buyout of Tandberg for $3.4 billion in a effort to expand and improve their telepresence business. But the news arrives as upstarts like Zenith Infotech and Vu Telepresence also enter the market. Here’s the deal.

At first glance, Vu Technologies is a telepresence upstart that has very little experience in the IT channel. But take a closer look and you’ll discover that Vu Technologies apparently is a sister company to Zenith Infotech — a backup and disaster recovery specialist that serves thousands of VARs and MSPs worldwide. Here’s the scoop.

TelePresence just took another step toward consumer homes. The reason: Logitech International, one of the best-known consumer peripheral brands, has acquired LifeSize Communications, developer of HD video conferencing technology. Here are the implications for VARs.

The VAR Guy participated in a high-definition video conference with Zenith Infotech CEO Akash Saraf yesterday. Our resident blogger was in Pennsylvania. Saraf was in India. The video and audio connections were rather remarkable — nearly “telepresence” in terms of quality. But the system wasn’t made by a big, high-end networking company.

Time for The VAR Guy to eat a little crow. A few days ago, he pointed out all the challenges facing Telepresence (next-generation video conferencing) and one particular vendor’s struggles (Polycom). Now, for the flip side of the story: Polycom and Alteva have an intriguing partnership that pushes TelePresence into small business. Here’s the scoop.

Once again, the IT pundits were wrong. Lots of “experts” said the video conferencing and TelePresence industries would enjoy a boom during the economic bust. The reasoning: Executives are cutting business travel to save money, and opting instead for video conferencing and TelePresence. But here’s the problem: Not all video conferencing companies are built equally. Consider the situation of Polycom (a big, established player) vs. LifeSize Communications (a nimble start-up).

Millions of iPhone users download applications from Apple’s App Store. Now, Cisco Systems is considering a similar online App Store approach in the corporate market. Eventually, the networking giant may launch an online service or central repository to help you find Unified Communications applications and Widgets, The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s the scoop.

Move over, John Chambers. Apparently, Forrester Research has spotted your future replacement — Jane Chambers — at the Cisco Live conference in Orlando. Here’s the scoop, and the video evidence to go with it.

The VAR Guy has been hyping TelePresence — that next-gen videoconferencing technology — for nearly two years. But is anyone (outside of Cisco Systems Inc.’s own offices) actually using TelePresence? You bet. Here are nine key data points to consider.

Forgive The VAR Guy for his sarcasm. But American Airlines’ decision to charge passengers $15 to check a bag is a joke. The VAR Guy never checks his bags because airlines LOSE bags. Now, there’s a $15 surcharge for such lousy service? Wonderful. Perhaps it’s time for The VAR Guy to really open his wallet and embrace TelePresence videoconferencing as an alternative to expensive travel on antiquated airlines.

If you want to know when a high-tech market is reaching its tipping point, keep a close eye on Dell Inc. Generally speaking, Dell only jumps into high-volume, mass market opportunities. So the company’s decision to offer TelePresence solutions — designed by LifeSize Communications — is worth watching. Here’s why.

After several false starts, TelePresence — that next-generation video conferencing solution — is finally gaining traction in selected high-end vertical niches. Still, TelePresence will need to overcome at least two more major challenges before it goes mainstream, The VAR Guy believes.

Generally speaking, The VAR Guy loves reading The Wall Street Journal. He welcomes longer in-depth reporting and investigative pieces. But he was recently shocked to read a misleading blog entry about Hewlett-Packard and Telepresence on The Journal’s Web site. The piece is a disservice to everyone — vendors, resellers and customers — who are evaluating Telepresence systems at the moment. Here’s why.

At the big VoiceCon conference in Orlando this week, just about every vendor is evangelizing some sort of “unified communications” solution to attendees. Alas, many of these solutions are nothing more than recycled voice-over-IP offerings backed by new marketing spins. But The VAR Guy sees some hope amid all this unified communications hype.

VoiceCon kicks off March 17 in Orlando. But tech vendors are getting a jump on the event with unified communications announcements this week. Here are seven unified communication trends that will emerge at the show, The VAR Guy predicts.