Tech News: Five Signs The VAR Guy is A Bad Journalist, Dec. 2

Written by Joe Panettieri 1
December 2, 2011

The VAR Guy spent all of his time this afternoon catching up on email and reader questions. Faced with those distractions, here are five technology news tips The VAR Guy failed to pursue and confirm for the week ending Dec. 2, 2011.

5. Networking Up, Rim Down: It sounds like channel sales for Cisco Systems, Riverbed Technology and F5 Networks are in good shape so far this quarter, according to MKM Partners’ and Tech Trader Daily. But The VAR Guy didn’t follow up because he was too busy watching RIM announce its latest profit warning. Ouch. Probability of Networking Sales Being Strong: 70 percent. Probability of RIM further suffering in 2012: 80 percent.

4. Yahoo or Oh No?: At least two private equity equity firms — and perhaps more — are looking to invest in Yahoo. The VAR Guy suspects Yahoo will solve this funding riddle before March 31, 2012, rolls around. Probability of this Rumor Being True: 75 percent.

3. “Have You Played Atari Today?”: The VAR Guy loves that old jingle. And he loves the (old) Atari company. Some classic Atari video games are launching on Apple iOS — which means The VAR Guy will have even less time to write this weekly column. Probability of this Rumor Being True: 98 percent.

2. Big Cisco Cloud Moves: Watch for Cisco Systems to update the company’s cloud computing strategy for cloud services providers, cloud builders, and cloud managers on December 6. Probability of this Rumor Being True: 98 percent.

1. Office 365 Reality Check: When Microsoft announced new Office 365 cloud milestones earlier this week, Paul Thurott noticed the Lync one-year anniversary and called the Office 365 platform wildly successful. But PC World said the Office 365 momentum announcement was met with skepticism. Thurott is a Windows wizard, but The VAR Guy agrees with PC World’s assessment because Microsoft has not disclosed any actual deployment figures — number of seats, please — for Office 365. Probability of Office 365 Really Being a Hot Seller: 35 percent today; 70 percent by mid-2012.

That’s all for now. Time for The VAR Guy to begin the weekend — though our resident blogger will return if any big, breaking news — or juicy rumors — surface.