Six Channel Partner Blogs The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: Jan. 28

Sure, The VAR Guy is tardy with this blog entry. But cut our resident blogger some slack. The VAR Guy has been working overtime on several pieces of big news — including a multi-part interview with Oracle Channel Chief Judson Althoff, who revealed some surprises in a Jan. 27 interview. Still, The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write the following six channel partner blog entries for the week ending January 28, 2011.

7. Solid Start: The VAR Guy has found some evidence indicating Ingram Micro Cloud — a portal for VARs, MSPs and cloud integrators — is off to a fast start. Details should surface really, really soon. But not here. Keep an eye on TalkinCloud, The VAR Guy’s sister site.

6. Movin’ On Up: Amazon Consulting, which serves the IT channel, has promoted Beth Vanni to Vice President. Vanni previously held key channel posts at BEA Systems (now owned by Oracle), Cisco Systems and MOCA (a Sun-centric organization).

5. Feeling Confident: The latest CompTIA IT Industry Business Confidence Index jumped seven points in December 2010. A the current mark of 60 (on a 100-point scale), the index is at its highest point since inception. Sounds like VARs and MSPs are feeling more confident.

4. Guidance, Please: FalconStor Software, which shifted CEOs amid a payment inquiry in 2010, seems to be getting its house in order. The latest move: A new North American Partner Advisory Council to gain insights from roughly 14 channel partners.

3. On the Road Again: Um, February is crazed with partner summits — starting with this week’s Kaspersky Lab North America partner conference in Mexico. Sounds like there will be some cloud surprises at the Kaspersky conference. Stay tuned for that and more.

2. In Growth Mode: Traffic on Talkin’ Cloud — The VAR Guy’s sister site — rose more than 50 percent in January 2011 vs. December 2010. Thankfully, that doesn’t mean readers are abandoning The VAR Guy. In fact, traffic across The VAR Guy and all of his sister sites was up 22 percent in January 2011 vs. January 2010. Not bad for The VAR Guy and his band of merry bloggers.

1. Check the Headline: This is a top-six list. Always has been. Always will be. So there is no Number 1.

Thanks for reading.

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