Digital Service Providers

Meet Oracle, For the Second Time

Oracle is a channel-friendly company. No matter how many times he reads that first sentence, it’s still hard for The VAR Guy to believe. But it seems to be true. During the 1990s, Oracle’s aggressive direct sales team earned a notorious reputation for competing with channel partners. But feuds between Oracle and its partners are […]

Vista Arrives But Apple Thrives

Microsoft will officially launch Windows Vista and Office 2007 November 30 in New York. InformationWeek is telling readers there are 100 Things You Must Know About Microsoft’s Most Important Product Launch Ever. That’s quite a stretch. Is Vista a step forward for Windows? By most accounts, yes. There’s a place in the world for Vista. […]

CA Employees Air Their Complaints

The VAR Guy opened this morning’s newspaper and read about the latest controversy at CA Inc. Apparently, employees are upset about CA purchasing a helicopter (list price: $12 million) even as employees are forced to pay more for health care and child care services. The VAR Guy has been quick to criticize CA’s management in […]

Lenovo’s Next Move

The VAR Guy has been watching Lenovo — maker of ThinkPad laptops — and scratching his head in confusion. While HP has successfully targeted small and midsize businesses, Lenovo has remained focused almost exclusively on large enterprises and corporate executives. That strategy made sense when IBM, king of enterprise computing, owned the ThinkPad line. But […]

Building An Open Source Server Stack

Selling Linux-based servers is old news. The VAR Guy is telling solutions providers to move up the software stack. It’s time to focus on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and other related open-source applications. How can you get started? Check out SpikeSource, a Silicon Valley startup that promotes open source server stacks. Is SpikeSource a […]

Websense Has 100 Reasons to Celebrate

The VAR Guy was walking through Websense’s halls earlier this week at 8:30 a.m. Despite the early hour, the place was already buzzing with employee activity. The security and web filtering company is busy crafting its channel strategy for 2007. Although Websense has signed up 100 new partners in its most recent quarter, the company […]

Intel Lines Up Behind Linux Suite

Intel is making a big Web 2.0 push that has caught The VAR Guy’s attention. The initiative includes a new Internet suite comprising software from Six Apart, Socialtext, NewsGator, SimpleFeed and SpikeSource. The new suite signals Intel’s strong support for online applications. And supporting SpikeSource, The VAR Guy hears, sets the stage for Intel to […]

Yes, Another Linux Alternative

While most eyes focus on the Microsoft-Novell Linux deal, The VAR Guy is keeping close tabs on another Linux provider that is quietly gaining momentum: Collax Inc. The Boston-based open-source specialist has signed a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro. Collax develops a business server that includes built-in security, networking and communications. It’s available as a […]

Microsoft, Novell: The Hidden Agenda

Ray Noorda is spinning in his grave. The former Chairman and CEO of Novell would be shocked to see his former company partnering with bitter rival Microsoft. But that’s exactly what happened today. Under terms of a new partnership, the duo is working to make Windows and Linux work better side-by-side in the enterprise. The […]

TelePresence Is For Real

The VAR Guy made the trip from Long Island into Manhattan to see Cisco’s TelePresence technology in action today. The trip was worth the train ride. It’s not fair to refer to TelePresence as video conferencing. TelePresence goes far beyond that. Cisco’s design creates a virtual boardroom setting. Imagine six executives seated in a New […]

Look and Listen: Cisco Telepresence

Cisco CEO John Chambers has spent several months hyping telepresence, which is a combination of data, voice and video technology that makes videoconferencing incredibly lifelike. Now, The VAR Guy hears Cisco will unveil a big telepresence initiative within the next few weeks. If Cisco delivers on the promise of telepresence, partners could profit handsomely. Telepresence […]

Prepping For City WiFi

The VAR Guy has packed his bags for Minnesota, where he’ll attend MuniWireless Minneapolis 2006. The event, scheduled for Oct. 22-24, is primarily for city CIOs and municipal leaders who are planning public broadband networks. But many WiFi solutions providers will also attend. If you’re attending be sure to send a note to the email […]

National Stock Option Amnesty Month

The VAR Guy woke up this morning with a grand vision that solves all of the current stock option backdating scandals. Instead of torturing investors week by week with new stock option probes, it’s time for corporate boards and CEOs to prepare for “National Stock Option Amnesty Month.” Under this radical program, CEOs and corporate […]

Cisco Preps Vertical Partner Push

The VAR Guy has been a little distracted lately but is finally catching up on his email. One tip from a pal on the West Coast mentions Cisco Systems’ growing interest in vertical markets. In fact, the networking giant on Oct. 16 is set to announce the Vertical Select Program, which is designed to help […]

Wintel Hits the Road Again

Microsoft and Intel are a bit like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: Past their glory days but still capable of attracting record crowds. Gone are the days when Microsoft and Intel were hyper-growth companies. But the duo still knows how to rally the channel around big product launches. In this case, Microsoft and Intel want […]

Meet Oracle, For the Second Time

Vista Arrives But Apple Thrives

CA Employees Air Their Complaints

Lenovo’s Next Move

Building An Open Source Server Stack

Websense Has 100 Reasons to Celebrate

Intel Lines Up Behind Linux Suite

Yes, Another Linux Alternative

Microsoft, Novell: The Hidden Agenda

TelePresence Is For Real

Look and Listen: Cisco Telepresence

Prepping For City WiFi

National Stock Option Amnesty Month

Cisco Preps Vertical Partner Push

Wintel Hits the Road Again

Galleries

Channel Futures’ People Mover: Carbonite, Ex-Cisco Channel Boss, More

From the Industry

How Connecting Cloud Visibility with Endpoint Security Can Stop Ransomware (Part 2)

Are You Overlooking Hidden SD-WAN Opportunities?

The MSP’s Cybersecurity Recap

Webinars

And the Winners of the 2019 MSP 501 Are…

How to Prepare Your Customers for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 End of Support

White Papers

Addressing Challenges to Profitably Scaling the SMB MSP Business Model

Why Backup is Broken

Disaster Recovery Planning for Today’s Real World Outages

Events

Channel Partners Evolution

Channel Evolution Europe

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

Videos

LogMeIn Central – Powerful Endpoint Management

Marketing with Maggie: Best and Worst Practices for Marketing Your Company and Services

Avant Renames BattleApp, Beefs It Up with Data Center Comps, Network Analytics

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