3Com Seeks Open Source VARs
3Com finished 2006 on a high note, announcing strong quarterly results in December. Now, the company is seeking to accelerate its rebound, launching the Open Network Technology Partner Program.
The VAR Guy is intrigued. Even as networking companies evangelize unified communications, there are only a handful of unified applications for VARs to deploy. Universal in-boxes: Nice. Phone numbers that follow you where ever you are: Cool. But what’s next? 3Com’s new partner program could give us the answer. It specifically targets software and hardware vendors, systems integrators, service providers, consultants and the open source community. Ah, yes: The Open Source Community!
Smart move. During dinner discussions with Cisco a few months ago, The VAR Guy suggested that the networking giant needed to more aggressively engage open source software developers. Those programmers, after all, can unlock the full value of Cisco dual-mode phones, VoIP, telepresence and other converged applications. Seems like 3Com agrees, and is now aggressively courting open source developers on its own.
Will open source developers embrace 3Com? The VAR Guy will be watching.
