The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy has sent me to my home state of Arizona to attend the Avnet + Cisco Executive Symposium, a three-day gathering in Phoenix of Avnet and Cisco Systems partners to explore the realm of possibilities in the data center space. Attend an event where I can go for a run outside in February, enjoy a decent plate of chicken mole enchiladas and maybe even stick around to catch a basketball game played by my beloved Arizona Wildcats? Umm, yeah, sure. I’ll go.

Who uses Ubuntu, where and why? That’s a question a lot of parties in the open source channel likely ask themselves. It’s also one that’s hard to answer, since public data on Ubuntu deployment is scarce. But it became a little less so recently with the publication of the results of Canonical’s latest survey of Ubuntu server users. Read on for the highlights.

This week’s VMware Partner Exchange conference in Las Vegas has attracted more than 4,000 virtualization partners — including VARs, IT service providers and technology partners. VMware has unveiled several new programs and solutions competencies — some of which seek to help partners virtualize mission-critical applications like Microsoft Exchange, Oracle and SAP, according to VMware VP of Partner Strategy and Operations Doug Smith. But The VAR Guy wonders: Will VDI (Virtual Desktop Integration) momentum steal the VMware show?

The VAR Guy is headed to the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, Fla., for Parallels Summit 2012. This year’s event by the prolific virtualization and cloud company will be focused primarily on profiting from the cloud. Read on to find out where our resident blogger will be when he’s not waiting in line for a ride at Space Mountain …

Maybe it’s just a sign that I’m getting old, but more and more often lately I’ve found myself thinking thoughts like, “Back in my day, Linux didn’t have X, Y and Z. We did without!” With these sentiments in mind, I decided to put together a list of a few major desktop Linux technologies that millions of users now take for granted, but which didn’t exist only a few years ago. Read on for a look.

As vertical markets expand and compliance rules become even more strict, VMware wants to help. Users of vCenter Configuration Manager for their VM-heavy data-senstive deployment may want to check out the new features VMware is offering to ensure compliance is super easy. Read on for the details …

We’re no strangers to virtualization trends, and neither is NComputing CEO Raj Dhingra. So when he sat down and talked with The VAR Guy about what his company sees in store for 2012, it wasn’t a surprise virtualization would be top of mind.

Data storage is to IT what silverware is to a fancy dinner: it may not be the most glamorous or exciting part of the setup, but it’s a vitally necessary one (unless, of course, the civilizing process has eluded you and you prefer eating with your hands). And like forks and knives, data storage solutions are already plentiful and come in many shapes and sizes. But that hasn’t stopped open source giant Red Hat from making a major bid in this market with its recent acquisition of Gluster. Here’s the scoop.

Technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization are forcing many enterprises to take a good, long look at their WAN performance. So, too, are vendors, hoping to help companies get rid of the slow feeds and extended latencies associated with those new technologies that drag down the network. Now Cisco Systems is jumping feet first into the WAN optimization space with a revamped line of solutions.

Oracle has started to pitch Oracle Linux and Oracle VM at the massive Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. The big question: Are Oracle OpenWorld attendees willing to shift their focus from Red Hat Enterprise Linux and VMware to Oracle’s alternatives?  Hmmm…

The Building Windows 8 blog just keeps on getting more and more juicy. Its latest morsel is Microsoft plans to support Hyper-V in the client builds of Windows 8. Why is Microsoft bringing streamlined virtualization to the masses? Well, read on and find out …

VCE — the Virtual Computing Environment Company backed by VMware, Cisco and EMC — is making the move to distribution this month. On the one hand the move isn’t surprising, based on VCE announcements from May 2011. But on the other hand, Ingram Micro is striving to get ahead of the story — hoping to position itself as VCE’s leading distributor.

Red Hat‘s virtualization strategy is gaining momentum. One key indicator: The open source software company has trained 400 professionals on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV). But that’s not all. Roger Egan (pictured), VP of North American Channels, has revealed several other milestones to The VAR Guy — including plans for a Cloud Partner Symposium. Here’s the update.

There are almost more virtualization tools out there today than even Wikipedia can count. KVM, however, stands out among them as perhaps the only free, non-commercial and open source hypervisor designed for enterprise-grade performance. And it’s come far in its (comparatively) short life — so far, in fact, that it may be time to consider it as a virtualization solution for the desktop as well as the server.

Data centers and virtualization are about as common a pairing these days as peanut butter and jelly, and Westcon Group is hoping its latest Avaya networking switch proves as popular as the tasty lunchtime treat.

Enterasys Networks is urging its channel partners to expand on their success by focusing on three areas of opportunity ripe for its networking wares: data center, wireless and physical surveillance.

A recently released survey from The Business Journals once again proves the trend of consumerization of IT isn’t fading anytime soon. Apparently, more and more employees are leaving laptops at home as tablets become more versatile. The survey conducted was completed by “bosses” of small-businesses companies (those with between five and 499 employees). Read on for some results and some channel analysis …

With Ubuntu 11.04 nearly upon us, it’s time to take a look at the features which headline this latest and greatest version of the world’s most popular open source operating system. Here’s a look, broken down by Ubuntu flavor …

Riverbed Technology, known for its WAN optimization solutions including its Steelhead appliance, has made specific optimizations to support Citrix XenDesktop virtual desktop solutions. If WAN performance issues in virtual desktop deployments have been a problem in your network, Riverbed may have the solution. Read on for the product details.

Looking to bring a greater breadth of offerings in the virtualization space, Virtual Computer and Lenovo are collaborating on an effort that will enable Virtual Computer to ship its NxTop client virutalization solution on select Lenovo computers. Here are the details …

We’re no stranger to Skype here at Nine Lives Media Inc. If you take a look around at any of our sites, you’ll find plenty of Fast Chat videos conducted over Skype. So of course our collective ears perked up when we heard about Skype’s partnership with Citrix to deliver better business collaboration through both web and audio conferencing. Virtualization gurus working with video collaboration gurus? Sounds like a plan …

Microsoft is making itself more known in the desktop virtualization space. Its latest moves include two new updates to Microsoft’s App-V and MED-V that are now part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Package and new thin client-related goodies. Read on for more information on Redmond’s virtualization offerings …

VMware aims to be wind that moves the clouds with its new vCenter Operations solution, designed for both virtual and cloud environments to provide a sort of automated IT-as-a-Service offering that promotes easy resource management. I spoke to VMware’s Rob Smoot, director of product marketing management, about the new technology. Here’s the scoop …