The VAR Guy

So, word has leaked that the New York Mets’ new stadium, Citi Field, will use Unified Communications from Nortel Networks. Wonderful. Seems right. The Mets (like Nortel) have always been an underdog compared to their crosstown rivals (Cisco, er, the Yankees). Still, The VAR Guy would trade the Mets’ high-tech advancements for one decent relief pitcher who won’t blow a big lead to the Phillies.

The VAR Guy has been researching the unified communications market in recent weeks. And he’s stumbled across an interesting trend: More and more open source startups are pushing into the unified communications market. Here are four prime examples:

Most folks are casually covering Nortel Networks’ acquisition of Pingtel, which specializes in open source VoIP and unified communications solutions. But there’s a bigger story here — much bigger, folks — that most observers have overlooked.

At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, most folks are focused on Microsoft’s Software as a Service (SaaS) strategy. But here’s a quick fact from the event that caught The VAR Guy’s ear: More than 2,500 Microsoft partners have achieved the “Unified Communications Solutions” competency. Should Cisco Systems be worried?

On the eve of Microsoft’s major partner summit in Houston, TechTarget is speculating that Microsoft may one day want to acquire Nortel Networks. Hogwash. The VAR Guy knows at least four reasons why such a deal will never happen.

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.

When Red Hat kicks off its big customer summit June 18 in Boston, the open source giant will bring along a rather large — and surprising — date: Cisco Systems Inc. Why does Cisco plan to hang out at one of the open source industry’s largest events? The VAR Guy has a few hunches.

Say it ain’t so: The glory days of voice-over-IP (VoIP) sales appear over, according to Garrett Smith, one of The VAR Guy’s favorite bloggers. Hey, the party wasn’t going to last forever. And this “bad news” is actually pretty good news. Here’s why.

A quiet revolution continues at Digium, the poster child for Asterisk — the open source IP PBX platform. Many open source companies struggle to line up resellers and solutions providers because, frankly, it’s unclear how to profit from open source. But in Digium’s case, more than 250 partners are banging on the company’s door because Digium really has built a better mouse trap. Here’s the scoop.