Live Blog: Synnex Varnex Spring 2013 (Power of Partnership)

SYNNEX's 2013 Spring Varnex Conference in Orlando, Fla. kicked off this morning with a live band and a brief introduction by Bob Stagner, senior VP of marketing, North America. So what is the distributor up to in the cloud, mobile and education areas for VARs? Also, how are partners like Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) working with Synnex? Follow this live blog tracking today's keynote.

Here's a recap…

Mike Brogan, President, Erb’s Technology Solutions and Varnex Advisory Council President

• There are now 170 U.S. members, 42 CA partners, and 141 vendor reps in Varnex; plus 18 prospective members.
• Tim Lomix, president and owner of SmartPrint Inc., is the newest member of the council.
• He announced a Varnex Public Sector peer group, which is the latest peer group available.
• Current member count is just below 300 members, but target is 350.
• More exclusive offers for members are coming.
  

Bob Stegner, senior VP of marketing, North America, SYNNEX

• "We can't be like the other guys; we have to differentiate ourselves."
• Use Varnex as a gathering place to talk with your existing vendor partners and potential partners.
• Breakout sessions, in particular, are ideal places to build new relationships.
• "Go out of your comfort zone and meet new vendors."
• Take the time to meet at least 10 more resellers, he recommended.

Adnon Dow, Vice President of Global Mobility Solutions, SYNNEX

• Mobility is all about collaboration and the sharing of information; it's like when the cellphone and the Internet came out — taken to the next level.
• Synnex sees some clear mobility challenges. They include business continuity, security, governance, risk and compliance, and insights/analytics.
• "Chaos, in my opinion, creates opportunity."
• The era of disruption is about connecting to anyone to any device to anywhere.
• Connect, move, and control are three areas where mobility platform transform industries.
• Connect includes consumer devices, portable data terminals, rugged computing and M2M.
• Move involves IP MPLS networks, 3g/LTE, WIFI, and RFID.
• And control involves application management, device management, mobile VPN, and insight and reporting.
• Mobility road shows at http://www.mobilitysolv.com.

Aaron Mills, VP, U.S. Midsize Commercial Sales, HP

• Many partners have been asking what's up with HP?
• "We're at a crossroads and a reflection point."
• "Meg has the ship stabilized."
• "We are in our second year of a five-year turn around plan."
• "We are making longer-term investments."
• "We are currently in the fix and build year — ahead of schedule."
• HP wants to be an industry-leading company by 2016;
• About 45 percent of the company's revenue in 2013 is in enterprise services and enterprise group.
• "We are looking for partners in the data center space."
• HP is proactively focusing on midsize commercial businesses (mid-size commercial model).
• "My sales people wake up every day and say 'I work for the the channel.' "
• The new style of IT involves mobility, cloud, social, big data, client/server, PCs, and transactional systems.
• Why did HP invest in 3Com? "We have a networking infrastructure that is designed for the 21st century."  
• Keep an eye on 3Par revenue.
• "We are totally channel led, we can't do it without you."
• Tracy Galloway pitched a range of storage, data and networking solutions for attendees.

Steve Gay, Managing Partner, VARCommerce and Jeffrey Bohlig, Chief Operating Officer, Compar

• OneIT is a platform for VARs to run their business; it leverages Autotask and VARCOMMERCE;
• We are going to add more specific SYNNEX services over time.
• VARCOMMERCE is a single place to run your business.

Reyna Thompson, VP of CONVERGESolv Secure Networking, SYNNEX and Kirk Nesbit, Vice President of SERVICESolv, SYNNEX

• Data is growing annually 35 to 50 percent per year.
• Proliferation of devices and cloud computing are drivers for technology.
• Infrastructure is being taxed, security is a challenge, integrated ecosystems are preferred, and big incumbents are slow to adopt are challenges.
• Big opportunities in IaaS, private cloud
• Taking the private cloud and making it a utility is common practice in the channel.
• Focus on finance as a service: You sell it, backed by Synnex Financial Services.

Check back over the next few days for more Varnex coverage.