I’m packing my bags and getting ready to head to Cologne, Germany for the Open-Xchange Partner Summit on Thursday. While there, Open-Xchange — an open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange — is going to talk about its partner successes and monetizing SaaS deployments. But here are my six main questions going into the event.

Among the key issues on my mind:

1. SaaS Strategies: The partner summit’s agenda is covered with cloud-stuff, with Open-Xchange CEO Rafael Laguna expected to spend some time on the subject in his keynote and other panel discussions across the course of the day focusing on SaaS models. What types of channel partners are hosting Open-Xchange and how do they differentiate from traditional Hosted Exchange partners? I’ll find the answers.

2. Unified Communications: Open-Xchange recently announced a partnership with eZuce to provide a combined unified communications solution. I’m wondering if the deal is the prelude to a bigger announcement.

3. Partner Program: Open-Xchange got The VAR Guy’s attention earlier in 2010 with some notable channel moves. How is the company planning on growing their presence in the IT channel? Maybe I’ll have a chance to take the question straight to Laguna.

4. Momentum: The VAR Guy has no reason to believe Open-Xchange would be throwing a big partner party if it weren’t doing well. But there’s no shortage of choices in the messaging and collaboration market — how does Open-Xchange plan on refining their offering and increasing their customer base? Which is a good segue to…

5. The Elephant in the Room: Microsoft’s been the talk of the town since they announced the UC solution Lync and the cloud collaboration suite Office 365. Open-Xchange hasn’t officially reacted to their distinguished competition making those moves yet — but maybe I can poke around and get the temperature of the room.

6. Exit, Stage Left: There is no number 6 and there never will be. This is the first time I’m representing The VAR Guy overseas, and I want to make sure our resident blogger’s reputation for not following the rules is upheld internationally.

The VAR Guy will have dispatches from the Open-Xchange Partner Summit on Thursday, and I’ll be trying to update my Twitter at @MattNLM regularly over the course of my journeys, so stay tuned for some answers.

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