The VAR Guy

Trend Micro has named Ingram Micro its distributor partner of the year, citing Ingram’s cloud and virtualization solution portfolios. What does this mean for the channel at large, and Ingram Micro? Here’s The VAR Guy perspective …

Panda Security is adding to the ranks of its channel team in Britain with the appointment of Paul Chesterfield as channel account manager.

On the job for only a week or so at Sophos, Global Channel Chief Steve Hale has some clear thoughts on Sophos recently acquiring Astaro, a channel-centric security company. During a quick phone chat with The VAR Guy a few minutes ago, Hale made some clear promises to Astaro channel partners. Here’s the update.

The VAR Guy spent most of last week at Cisco Partner Summit, chasing rumors and also asking CEO John Chambers some tricky questions about the recent COO decision. Now, it’s time for The VAR Guy to get caught up on the rest of his work. Here are six channel partner blogs The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending March 4, 2011.

Sponsored Video: Apple is now the Number Three PC maker in North America, trailing only Dell and Hewlett-Packard, according to International Data Corp. But as the Macintosh continues to gain momentum in small business, it’s time for VARs to promote better Mac security, according to Trend Micro. In this FastChat video, Trend Micro SMB Marketing Manager TJ Alldridge describes some Mac security risks and potential solutions.

The VAR Guy certainly has a lot of information floating around in his little mind. But what will he talk about next? Hmmm… Nine Lives Media Inc. — the team that brought you The VAR Guy — invites you to find a clue here…

Sophos North America Channel Chief Matt Fogelgren sees some opportunities to engage disgruntled McAfee and Symantec partners. Plus, Fogelgren says MSPs are beginning to embrace Sophos endpoint security licensing designed for service providers. But that’s not all. Here’s the update from Fogelgren.

Trend Micro — the anti-virus and security software provider — is preparing a push into the online backup market. Long term, Trend Micro intends to help VARs and MSPs profit from managed security and managed storage. But short term, Trend Micro’s storage efforts will start in the consumer market with so-called SafeSync technology. Here’s the strategy.

The vast majority of Symantec’s security and storage business remains on-premises. But the software giant continues to expand its Symantec Hosted Services business, which has attracted roughly 200 new partners worldwide in the past quarter, according to Helen Cendrowski, director of channels-Americas. So where are Symantec Hosted Services heading next? Here are some clues from Cendrowski and some speculation from The VAR Guy.

Trend Micro today announces two new solutions designed to give channel partners a security boost in virtualized and cloud environments: Deep Security 7.5, an update that brings agentless anti-malware to VMware environments; and SecureCloud, a first-of-its-kind public cloud data protection solution, the company claims. Here’s the scoop.

The next MSPmentor Live webcast is today (Wednesday, Aug. 18) at 2:00 p.m. eastern. If you’re trying to expand your recurring managed security revenues then join us for today’s discussion. We’ll take your questions throughout the webcast. Here’s a closer look at today’s guest speakers.

Eucalyptus Systems is set to gather reseller partners old and new in San Francisco on June 22. The reason: It’s time for Eucalyptus to lay out where their open-source cloud platform stands, along with potential channel partner opportunities. Here’s what to expect.

The VAR Guy is watching a rather intriguing trend unfold at the Kaseya Connect User Conference in Las Vegas. The trend involves established and emerging security software companies — like Kaspersky Lab, Symantec Corp. and Scorpion Software — potentially plugging into the Kaseya managed services platform for VARs and MSPs. Here’s the chatter.

Tech Data has agreed to distribute Avaya’s entire portfolio of enterprise communications solutions. The news, which surfaced at Tech Data’s TechSelect conference in Miami, reassures VARs that competition remains alive and well in the unified communications market. And it also bodes well for Avaya’s recent buyout of Nortel’s enterprise business. Here’s why.

Let me start out by saying those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, and all security vendors live in glass houses. We are all one bad update away from crippling our customers. Every major antivirus vendor has at one time put out one of these bad updates which did more harm than good. It is our worst nightmare.  As a great 21st century philosopher once said, “Stuff Happens.”  The question is how do we make sure it doesn’t happen to us or our customers?

The VAR Guy’s head is spinning as he listens in on the security software market. Most of the major players seem to be adjusting or enhancing their channel partner programs at this moment. Here’s the latest chatter from a range of endpoint security and SaaS security companies.

Is the backup tape half full or half empty at Symantec? On the one hand, CEO Enrique Salem (pictured) is preparing to share his vision at the aptly named Symantec Vision conference. On the other hand, targeted layoffs seem to be under way at Symantec. Here’s the chatter.

As I recently pointed out over on MSPmentor, Botnets are both a threat and an opportunity for managed services providers and VARs. But how exactly can solutions providers protect their customers? And how can we protect ourselves from the growing botnet threat? Here are some timely steps to help mitigate the threats.

Miami Beach, New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Jose. How many places can The VAR Guy really be at once? You’ll find out over the next few days. In the meantime, here are six channel partner blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending Feb. 26, 2010.

It’s right around midnight. The VAR Guy should be sleeping. But our resident blogger just heard another wake-up call for entrenched security software providers. The details: Lenovo and Sophos are set to announce an expanded security partnership aimed directly at the channel. The deal, set to debut Feb. 23, calls for Lenovo to offer Sophos security and “data protection technology bundles” with Lenovo Think-branded PCs for corporate customers. Where do VARs fit in? Here are some clues.

Small but growing super-fast in the security software market. That’s the best way to describe Kaspersky Lab’s revenues in the Americas market, where sales have grown from $2 million in 2005 to more than $100 million in 2009, the company revealed at the Kaspersky Lab Americas conference. So, what’s driving that growth — and can Kaspersky maintain its channel-centric focus? Here are some clues from the conference, continuing today in the Dominican Republic.

A small name change can signify a big shift in thinking. In this case, Trend Micro has rebranded its Worry-Free Business Security Hosted suite of cloud-based security tools. The new brand:  Worry-Free Business Security Services. The effort include a major product-wide upgrade — and compatibility with Trend Micro’s remote management product. Here’s the scoop.

Our next MSPmentor Live webcast is Wednesday, October 21 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. We’ll cover six tips that help you upsell managed security services. Here’s a bit more about the webcast…