The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy eats up channel news like a Hoover on dirt, but sometimes news slips through the cracks. This time, our resident blogger was so busy attending partner conferences that he missed out on FalconStor’s new PartnerChoice partner program. With a mighty mea culpa for missing the news, here’s a rundown of PartnerChoice …

The VAR Guy is always interested in hearing about ways vendors are helping their partners tap new market opportunities. The SMB space, in particular, is full of opportunities. HP is well-aware of the $57 billion market, and has launched its SMB Central portal to help partners feast on the bounty. Here are the details …

Jeannine Sarragossa, director of IT at Camelbak Products, is an expert on Oracle technologies. But even a pro like Sarragossa depends on trusted advisors across the IT channel. One prime example: As Camelbak continues to enhance its internal applications and customer-facing systems, Sarragossa leverages regular advice from Intelenex, an Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized solutions provider in Santa Rosa, Calif.

The VAR Guy’s ears always perk up at iPhone 5 rumors — including iPhone Nano speculation — but now the rumors are getting more interesting. A larger iPhone, perhaps? A slide-out keyboard? The VAR Guy is licking his chops at the prospect of what Apple has up its sleeve …

It’s no secret the enterprise loves the iPad. The VAR Guy has seen enough survey results proving that to wallpaper his office. And now comes further proof from Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, who provided some tantalizing commentary to Barrons.com (part of the Wall Street Journal network) about iPad adoption in the enterprise. But The VAR Guy isn’t as bullish on sustained corporate adoption of the iPad. Here’s why:

Security stalwart Symantec has introduced its latest specialization for partners. The idea is to provide partner differentiation and enhanced competitive advantage — a trend The VAR Guy has seen a significant increase in. Read on for the details.

MSPmentor, The VAR Guy’s sister site, is set to unveil the fourth-annual MSPmentor 100 list and report during a webcast on February 16 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. During the webcast we’ll review the MSPmentor 100 global list, as well as regional MSP leadership lists for North America, Europe, Africa and Australia. But that’s not all…

Attention top managed services providers: The fourth annual MSPmentor 100 survey, produced by The VAR Guy’s sister site, closes TODAY (Friday, December 17). For those who’ve missed our reminders: Here are eight reasons why small, midsize and large managed services providers should participate in the global survey…

Something new? Check out this video…

How can channel partners safeguard customer workloads across physical, virtual and cloud environments? One potential answer comes from Novell, which touts its own Novell Sentinel Log Manager 1.1 as solution for log management, corporate compliance and enhanced IT security. Rick Wagner (pictured), senior product manager, security, describes Novell’s channel partner strategy for Sentinel Log Manager in this FastChat Video.

Last week, The VAR Guy had the chance to sit down with Eucalyptus Systems CEO Marten Mickos for ten minutes — and what a ten minutes they were. That got your resident blogger thinking: are there any other IT industry CEOs who want to take ten minutes out of their day to shoot the breeze with The VAR Guy and talk channel?

The VAR Guy is seeking to answer a very basic question: Where can solutions providers find funding to help enhance their cash flow, win new business deals and drive growth? The VAR Guy’s Channel Finance 25 — an annual report from our resident blogger — will help VARs and MSPs to find the key companies, organizations and financial lenders that can assist with short-term cash flow and long-term growth strategies. Here are the details.

No, you’re not lost. If you’re trying to find WorksWithU — the Independent Guide to Ubuntu Linux — you’ve come to the right place. All of WorksWithU’s content is now integrated into The VAR Guy (www.thevarguy.com/category/ubuntu). Here’s why.

The VAR Guy and his team look a little tired. Time to bring in some reinforcements. We’re currently seeking a senior contributing editor to handle Webcast content development, speaker recruitment, slide and powerpoint preparation and potential event moderation. But that’s not all… Here are the details.

Back in January 2010, when Oracle completed the Sun Microsystems buyout, The VAR Guy issued a warning to Larry Ellison and Company: Don’t Mess Up Java. Fast forward to the present, and Java is at the heart of a lawsuit Oracle has filed against Google. The lawsuit involves Google’s use of Java inside the Google Android OS. Here’s a closer look plus my personal perspectives.

Sure, The VAR Guy is happily married. He’s got a fantastic, beautiful wife and three awesome kids. But our resident blogger is facing a forbidden temptation today. The VAR Guy may actually quit his day job in order to pursue a new career, where he’ll be surrounded by dozens of beautiful, intelligent women 24×7. So, where exactly might The VAR Guy be heading? Here’s the potential answer…

Ming Yong, CEO of Socialwok, the social layer for Google Apps, dropped us a line to announce that his product was getting Buzz — Google Buzz, that is, along with Twitter, Facebook, and RSS feed support. Here’s the scoop on the new feature.

Software as a service (SaaS) stocks extended their 2009 winning streak during the first week of 2010. In fact, The VAR Guy’s SaaS 20 Stock Index rose 2.6% for the week ending Jan. 8, 2010, compared to closing prices on Dec. 31, 2009. Winners beat losers by a margin of 3 to 1. Here’s a quick look at the biggest one-week movers.

Visit Kaspersky Lab’s web site and you’ll notice the top header reads “Home Computer Security.” The VAR Guy expects that to change under Nancy Reynolds, Kaspersky’s new senior VP of corporate sales. Reynolds, a well-known channel veteran, left Dell and joined Kaspersky (the fast-growing anti-virus specialist) earlier this week. In this FastChat video, Reynolds offers some thoughts on where she plans to take Kaspersky’s channel program…

SugarCRM CEO Larry Augustin loves stretch goals. A case in point: Augustin hopes to double SugarCRM’s revenues in 2010. To get there Augustin will need help from traditional channel partners and emerging Software as a Service (SaaS) partners. Here’s the open source CRM company’s strategy.

Hmmm… The VAR Guy’s Web site seems to be getting pretty crowded lately. A bunch of new voices are now blogging for the site — though The VAR Guy claims to remain in control. No need for panic, folks. It’s all part of a plan to continue growing The VAR Guy’s web site in 2010 and beyond.

Cisco Systems concedes that many regional economies remain difficult, but the company believes the worst of the recession is over. So how can VARs and managed service providers begin to focus on growth again? During the Cisco Partner Velocity conference in Paris, Senior VP of Worldwide Channels Edison Peres offers these four tips…

At the VoiceCon 2009 conference in San Francisco, there was growing buzz about softphones potentially replacing standard hard land-line phones. Here’s a quick overview on the opportunities and challenges awaiting VARs and MSPs in the next-generation unified communications market.