Strategy

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 […]

McLeodUSA Names VP of Sales for Southern Region

McLeodUSA Inc., an integrated voice and data communication service provider, today announced Keith Hatley has been named vice president of sales for McLeodUSAs four-state Southern Region, which includes Arizona, Colorado, Kansas and Texas. Hatley will be based at one of the five new Texas offices recently established by McLeodUSA, and will spend significant time in […]

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 […]

Verizon Sends Invites to 2007 Solutions Partners

Agents were expected to begin receiving invitations to participate in the 2007 Verizon Solutions Partner Program as early as today. The offers, however, do not contain terms and conditions for representing Verizon Business accounts. Jim Smith, a spokesperson for Verizon Communications Inc., said invitations were sent by mail this morning at 1 a.m., so agents […]

American Wireless Offers Latest Helio Phone

Master agent American Wireless has launched Helio LLCs Drift handset along with Helio products and services through its network of dealers. Drift is the third handset by Helio. Produced by Samsung, Drift features a 2-inch high-resolution QVGA display, stereo Bluetooth, 128MB internal memory expandable via microSD, 2.0 megapixel camera, MP3, MPEG-4 and VoD support. Drift […]

IPcelerate Partners With Onit Communications

IPcelerate Inc. said Tuesday it has signed a partner agreement with Onit Communications Inc., a provider of managed IP products and services including business-class hosted PBX platforms. The company said Onit Communications is its first partner to offer both a hosted and an on-site managed network version of IPcelerate products. “This relationship is very important […]

Avaya One Initiative Unites Dealer Programs

Once again, Avaya is retooling its approach to the channel this time with an eye toward simplifying partner engagement by offering a common platform for all dealers no matter the target market or product line. The new Global Partner Program, called Avaya One, will be effective Dec. 1, and was announced to the channel Nov. […]

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 […]

Lenovo’s Next Move

Building An Open Source Server Stack

McLeodUSA Names VP of Sales for Southern Region

Websense Has 100 Reasons to Celebrate

Verizon Sends Invites to 2007 Solutions Partners

American Wireless Offers Latest Helio Phone

IPcelerate Partners With Onit Communications

Avaya One Initiative Unites Dealer Programs

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

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