Technology News: 9 Most Read Channel Partner Stories, March 30

Written by The VAR Guy 1
March 30, 2012

The VAR Guy is celebrating the end of Q1 2012. So far, so good. But our resident blogger can't rest on his laurels. Q2 will bring plenty of channel news.

The VAR Guy is celebrating the end of Q1 2012. So far, so good. But our resident blogger can’t rest on his laurels. Q2 will bring plenty of channel news. But before The VAR Guy looks too far ahead, here are the nine most read stories across the IT channel — from The VAR Guy, MSPmentor and Talkin’ Cloud — for the week ending March 30, 2012.

9. Managed Services Pricing: Forever a hot top, readers weighed in as the MSPmentor FAQ tacked the managed services pricing question.

8. Geek Squad and Cloud Computing?: Yes, Best Buy’s Geek Squad is getting into managed services (see #4 below). But that’s only part of the story. Longer term, Geek Squad will offer cloud services. How? Here’s the answer.

7. Cloud Computing Stocks Keep Climbing: We don’t want to hype the cloud computing market. But readers have been checking out our Cloud Computing Stock Index, which is up about 23 percent from Jan. 1 to March 23, 2012. Details here.

6. The Future of Managed Services: Where are the PSA, RMM and BDR markets heading next, and how will the market evolution impact managed services providers?

5. Red Hat Earnings End A Rumor: Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth recently claimed Ubuntu is leapfrogging Red Hat as a Linux server. Perhaps Red Hat’s earnings suggest otherwise.

4. Best Buy’s Other Managed Services Effort: Best Buy acquired mindSHIFT in late 2011 to get into the managed services market. But now, Best Buy’s Geek Squad is also pushing an MSP-oriented partner program. The details emerged here.

3. Cloud Competition: The recent Amazon-Eucalyptus relationship seems focused on one core priority: Beating OpenStack as a standard for cloud services providers. Here’s why.

2. Cisco In the Data Center: A closer look at Cisco’s Unified Computing System revenue stream. Real numbers and real facts with a pinch of analysis mixed in here.

1. Android Comes Home to Linux Kernel: What is the true relationship between Google Android and Linux? And what are the implications for partners? Readers flocked to the answer here.