Time for The VAR Guy to get back on the road. Next stop: McAfee Focus 10, a major conference that’s expected to attract more than 700 McAfee channel partners. But before The VAR Guy lands at McAfee Focus, here are six channel partner blog entries our resident blogger didn’t have time to write for the week ending October 8, 2010.

7. Next Cloud Moves: A published report suggests Microsoft is getting ready to release SharePoint 2010 into the BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) cloud. The VAR Guy suspects Exchange 2010 will also launch on BPOS before the close of 2010….

6. A View From the Field: MSP Service Network CEO Gerard Kane spent most of the week at a national Synnex partner conference. Although the Ingram Micro VentureTech conference earned most of the week’s distributor headlines, Kane says VARs shouldn’t overlook Synnex. Kane says the event stirred “great discussions with peers, a congenial southern-fueled set of sessions, and an impressive vendor show floor. I would give this event a 9. Lots of key VARs who are making money and vendors who are creatively figuring out how to get a share of wallet. Like a dancing with the stars for the channel.”

The VAR Guy thanks Kane for the report, and looks forward to Gerard’s next Song of the Day (GSOD).

5. New Leadership: Within the Ingram Micro VTN, Greg Starr of I.T. Works (U.S.) and JoeAnne Hardy of WBM Office Systems (Canada) are handing over the community leadership reins to Jim Veraldi of Micro Strategies (U.S.) and Rob Bracey of Quartet Service (Canada) at this event. The VAR Guy is checking in with Veraldi and Bracey to see where they see Ingram Micro VTN heading next.

4. Mixed Channel Mood: The latest CompTIA IT Industry Business Confidence Index delivered an “ever-so-slight increase of 0.2 percentage points in September” as worries about where the U.S. economy is headed were balanced by greater optimism from information technology (IT) firms about their own prospects. Looking ahead, IT industry professionals express a greater degree of confidence in a return to growth. The six-month outlook for the index equates to a five-point increase, CompTIA says.

3.  Cisco’s Next Moves: Cisco sounds like it’s really, really close to making some small business and commercial channel partner moves. The VAR Guy is listening closely for more clues…

2. Finding SaaS Apps: Rackspace, as expected, has launched AppMatcher, a so-called “matchmaking engine” that helps channel partners and end-users to locate specific SaaS apps, regardless of the hosting provider. The VAR Guy will be watching to see if channel partners jump onto the AppMatcher bandwagon. In a somewhat similar move, Parallels continues to update the Parallels Partner Storefront, which allows SMB customers to find and access more than 100 apps and services.

1. Check the Headline: This has always been a top six list. The VAR Guy has never played by the rules, and he isn’t about to start now. By writing one less nugget, The VAR Guy has a few more minutes to goof off each week. It’s a delicate balance…

That’s all for now. Check back soon for live coverage of McAfee Focus 10.

Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Weekly Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook;   Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.