The VAR guy
Six Channel Partner Blogs The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: Sept. 3
The VAR Guy plans to enjoy the entire three-day Labor Day Weekend here in the U.S. But before our resident blogger unplugs for the extended weekend, here are six channel partner blog entries The VAR Guy’s team didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending Sept. 3, 2010.
7. Growing Channel: Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis says the company’s partner program continues to grow. For Q2, Dell’s Global Commercial Channel (GCC) business was 25 percent of Dell’s overall global commercial revenue (GCC), and Dell’s channel business grew 38 percent in the U.S. in Q2, Davis wrote in a blog entry. Alas, The VAR Guy was hoping to speak with Davis directly about those Q2 results. Perhaps our resident blogger will connect with Davis after Q3?
6. The Show Must Go On (Side 4, Song 1): The VAR Guy had planned to attend a Roger Waters concert (Pink Floyd, The Wall) in mid-October. But the concert date conflicts with the McAfee Focus conference (Oct. 12-14, Las Vegas). Looks like The VAR Guy will need to get Comfortably Numb on some other date…
5. Money Matters: Are venture capitalists getting nervous about their cloud investments? The VAR Guy is hearing rumors that some VCs plan to work more closely with their cloud computing portfolio companies because competition is becoming so darn intense. The VAR Guy is still digging for specifics on this one. But if you’re a cloud entrepreneur and there’s a knock on your door, it could be your VC asking to coming in and stick around awhile.
4. Double Vision: When The VAR Guy spoke with TeamLogic IT President Chuck Lennon on Aug. 31, Lennon was in California. But on a few hours later, The VAR Guy spotted Lennon’s car driving around a neighborhood in Long Island, New York. How can Lennon, a leading solutions provider, be in two places at once? The VAR Guy will share the answer next week.
3. Another Key Hire: Rumors are swirling that Parallels has made another significant hire. You’ll recall that former Microsoft small business guru Birgir Steen recently joined Parallels as president. Apparently, the key hires didn’t stop there. The VAR Guy is still digging for details. Parallels has emerged as a key platform for speeding the launch of SaaS applications. It’s used by many hosting firms.
2. Big Money: Now that Hewlett-Packard has won the $2.3 billion bidding war for 3Par, what will Dell do with all the money it didn’t spent on 3Par? Hmmm… More thoughts on that really soon.
1. Check the Headline: The VAR Guy doesn’t play by the rules. This is a top six list. By skipping that one extra entry, The VAR Guy adds roughly five minutes to his weekend each week. How’s that for efficiency in the channel?
Thanks for reading. The VAR Guy truly appreciates the ongoing dialog here on his website.
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Read More About This TopicMicrosoft Cloud Outage: BPOS Suffers Partial Failure
Portions of Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), the software giant’s SaaS platform, have gone dark for the second time in less than a month. Here’s the update along with perspectives from The VAR Guy.
First, a tip of the hat: Mary Jo Foley reported today’s BPOS outage on her blog, indicating that some North American customers suffered a 90-minute BPOS outage on Sept. 3. A previous outage occurred on Aug. 23. BPOS, as you’ll recall, offers Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and other SaaS applications to end-customers. The VAR Guy has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
In an email reply to Foley, Microsoft stated:
This morning, beginning at roughly 10 AM eastern, some customers in North America began experiencing intermittent access to our data center. We identified a network issue as the source, and the issue was resolved roughly 90 minutes later. During the duration of the issue, customers may have experienced intermittent access to services. Customers received regular updates on the issue via our normal communication channels. We apologize for any inconvenience the issue may have caused our customers.”
Tricky TimingNobody likes site downtime. But Microsoft faces a particularly delicate situation. The company has made progress in recent months promoting its All In cloud strategy. However, Microsoft seems to be locked in a SaaS pricing battle with Google Apps. And many solutions providers are still wondering how — or if — they can generate meaningful profits from BPOS.
At the same time, Microsoft faces competition from its own service provider partners, where hosting companies like Intermedia have beaten Microsoft to market with Hosted Exchange 2010. Microsoft is still working to deliver its latest Exchange 2010 and SharePoint 2010 BPOS releases to customers by the end of 2010.
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Read More About This TopicVARs: How to Monitor, Measure and Report on Workloads
As packaged software goes the way of the dodo bird, what does this mean to VARs? To measure up in today’s anything-as-a-service business environment, where pay-as-you-go data center processing is becoming the norm, you must be able to deliver services more transparently than your competitors. You must provide a single view of business services. And last, but certainly not least, you must become the easiest vendor to work with. In other words, you must be able to monitor, measure and report on workloads—and use this information to benefit both you and your customers. Here’s how.
As the old saying goes, you can only manage what you can measure. In fact, the whole concept of a service level agreement is moot without the ability to monitor, measure and report on availability and other performance metrics. As workload processing works its way onto into the public cloud, SLAs become even more critical. Your ability to help customers monitor, measure and manage their workloads—whether they reside on the customers’ premises or on a third party’s—becomes a must-have capability.
How SLAs will measure up in the cloud is a big debate right now—as it should be. I recently read an article titled Time to Lay Down the Cloud Computing Law for Uptime, by Laura Smith. The article raised some good points about cloud computing SLAs, the need for vendors to define “uptime,” and the fact that no cloud computing laws exist to govern liability for service interruptions. There’s much work to be done here—but monitoring, measuring and reporting on the performance of far-flung datacenters is the key to truly knowing if a service is meeting expectations. Whether you are helping customers move into the cloud, or providing cloud-based services yourself, measurement becomes a critical capability.
Getting StartedThe tools to monitor, measure and report on workloads already exist—however, they need further integration into cloud-friendly packages. Trust me when I say the last thing customers want to buy is yet another one. What they really need is digital glue that bonds all of these tools together.
I’m only aware of one product that does this. And yes, I work for the company that developed it: Novell Operations Center (NOC) is proving to be beneficial for VARs who are helping customers move toward intelligent workload management. It’s an integration engine that masks complexity in heterogeneous environments to provide an end-to-end view of an IT service—even services that are delivered over the cloud. The real differentiator is that it provides “live” reporting, which gives you the ability to take action before a service impacting event.
That’s the kind of tangible value customers are looking for these days—measuring and managing business services and ensuring service-level compliance while keeping line of business managers informed. I’d suggest that you test drive Novell Operations Center and see how it measures up against competitive offerings. If you find something that works this well, I’d like to hear about it.
As the channel continues to evolve, the real value offered by resellers is expertise and knowledge. Being able to make solid recommendations for intelligent workload management products—and effectively implement them—is the new measuring stick for success.
Dan Dufault is global director of partner marketing at Novell. Guest blogs such as this one are part of The VAR Guy’s annual sponsorship program. Read all of Dufault’s guest blogs here.
Read More About This TopicApple’s Government Sales Jump 200%
Apple’s government sales have jumped 200% according to an Needham and Company research report. But that’s not all. Sales to the education vertical and traditional enterprises businesses also surged. Is this a short-term trend for Apple, or are we looking at accelerated vertical market growth of Apple products worldwide? Here are details.
The research report, done by analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham and Company, was covered in bits and pieces, thanks to sites like AppleInsider.com and AllThingsD. Below are the published stats (from IDC figures) that got everyone talking…
As you can see, Apple didn’t just jump in Governmental sales, they’ve broke every market-percentage growth in every category, with the odd exception of education. This blogger chocks it up to educational institutions already having plenty of Macs.
Analyst Charlie Wolf says that “Whether the June blip was a one-quarter phenomenon or something more enduring should be revealed in future quarters.” He says Apple is ”a small fish in three very large ponds” — each ‘pond’ representing the iPhone, iPad and Macintosh computer. Translation? Plenty of room to grow, and indeed, keep growing.
Uncle Sam’s New IT NeedsBut there are larger implications here: What does this mean for the government, or rather, what does this say about the government and the nature of computing needs? Is the US Government buying Macs to avoid potential security risks? Moreover, the large growth in Apple sales in the Governmental and Enterprise segments (very large businesses saw 103% growth) must profoundly affect in some small way the path Apple plans to take with their products.
Once upon a time Apple computers were regarded as corporate IT nuisances and delegated to marketing or art departments in enterprises. Now they’re an integral part of the system, with companies like Centrify integrating Macs into Active Directory. So what’s the bottom line here? VARs and MSPs, ramp up your cross-compatibility engines, or at the very least, be on the lookout for a new wave of machines to support and resell.
Apple is coming, with our without your support.
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Read More About This TopicWindows Phone 7 Released to Manufacturing
The VAR Guy wouldn’t exactly call it “long-anticipated,” but Microsoft has released the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system to phone manufacturing, meaning we’re that much closer to being able to buy a Windows Phone 7 handset. Here’s the story.
Microsoft’s official blog entry claims Windows Phone 7 is the most thoroughly-tested mobile platform they’ve yet come up with, with nearly 10,000 devices getting put through their paces daily. Needless to say, Microsoft is confident in Windows Phone 7’s ability to perform in the real world.
To that end, Microsoft is putting a bow on the package, making sure the devices that support Windows Phone 7 do so smoothly with updated drivers and carrier-specific tweaks. Otherwise, the Windows Phone team’s work is largely done.
“We are ready,” writes Microsoft’s Terry Myerson in the blog.
It remains to be seen if Windows Phone 7 will help Microsoft to regain traction in the mobile market against rivals RIM, Apple iPhone and Google Android devices. Only time — and Microsoft’s developer base — will tell. And we’re closing in on an answer.
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Read More About This TopicHappy 2nd Birthday: Google Chrome Surges In Popularity
A slightly belated “happy second anniversary” to the Google Chrome web browser, which debuted September 2, 2008. And Google’s marked the occasion with the launch of a Chrome 6.0. Here’s a quick look back at the birthday browser, and Chrome’s growing popularity with The VAR Guy’s readership.
Google Chrome’s big innovation two years ago was its “sandboxed” approach to browsing. Every tab in Chrome is essentially its own instance of the browser, meaning that when plugins like Adobe Flash inevitably crash it doesn’t tear down the entire browser. When it launched, The VAR Guy noticed that 4% of all our readers were using Google Chrome as quickly as a week after release, and it looks to continue that momentum. Today, roughly 19% of readers use Google Chrome to browse The VAR Guy’s web site.
Chrome has seen improvements like Mac and Linux versions, browser themes, password manager, extensions, and HTML5 support – that last one best exemplified in this impressive collaboration between Google and indie darling rockers Arcade Fire.
And with Chrome 6.0, Google’s opted not to rock the boat, stripping down the already pretty spare user interface even more, readjusting button locations, improving overall performance and tweaking the color scheme, but otherwise leaving its core aspects in place.
Back in January 2010, I explained why I decided to ditch Mozilla Firefox for Google Chrome. And the truth is, I’ve never looked back. Happy birthday to a personal favorite piece of software.
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Read More About This TopicMicrosoft Leads SaaS Discussion With Price: Good or Bad?
Microsoft has done a lot right with its All In cloud computing strategy over the past few months. But The VAR Guy raised an eyebrow today when he noticed a big, bold pricing calculator on Microsoft’s BPOS Web site. On the one hand, the calculator makes a lot of sense as Microsoft wages a cloud war against Google Apps. But on the other hand, will Microsoft partners grimace as price becomes the default discussion point with end-customers? Here are The VAR Guy’s perspectives.
First, let the VAR Guy set the stage. Microsoft’s BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) Web site prominently displays partner resources for customers that want Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and other SaaS offerings. A sub-page helps end-customers understand the value of working with BPOS channel partners, including VARs and MSPs.
Kudos to Microsoft for putting such a heavy emphasis on its BPOS partners. After all, many software companies forget to mention — or purposely ignore — channel partners on their SaaS sales pages.
Money MattersBut here’s the challenge for Microsoft and its channel partners: Price is starting to dominate the SaaS conversation and even Microsoft knows it. That’s why Microsoft offers such a big, prominent, impossible-to-miss pricing calculator on its BPOS web site:
By promoting a standardized price, Microsoft puts pressure on third-party service providers that offer Hosted Exchange, Hosted SharePoint and other Microsoft-centric SaaS applications. There’s also pressure on small VARs and MSPs that want to charge higher fees for a range of SaaS and managed services.
Still, The VAR Guy realizes why Microsoft so aggressively promotes its SaaS price points. The war is on with Google Apps, and just about every software company is feeling the pressure. Just last night, The VAR Guy ran into a source close to the Symantec MessageLabs team. MessageLabs competes against McAfee/MX Logic in the spam filtering and email security markets. But instead of worrying about Intel’s buyout of McAfee, the source close to MessageLabs was far more worried about Google’s Postini business, which appears to be undercutting Symantec Hosted Services and MessageLabs on price.
Alas, much of the SaaS conversation is shifting to price rather than value and services. That may not bode well for some VARs that made their living off on-premises Exchange and other traditional offerings.
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Read More About This TopicRed Hat, Alfresco Veterans Join Magento for Channel Push
Magento, an open source e-commerce platform provider, seems to be attracting well-known channel and open source talent into its employee ranks. The two latest examples: Jary Carter (former Alfresco Americas channel director) and Michael Goossens (former VP of JBoss EMEA for Red Hat) have joined Magento as part of a rapid staff expansion. Here’s a closer look at Magento’s growth and potential implications for channel partners.
According to a prepared statement, Magento expects to have 180 employees (up from 100) by the end of 2010, and sales are expected to grow 300 percent this year. Of course, it’s difficult to pinpoint exact revenue and profitability figures since Magento is privately held. But Carter and Goossens certainly are two big-name hires for the company.
At Alfresco, Carter grew channel revenue by an average of more than 500 percent per year, Magento says. Alfresco specializes in open source enterprise content management, and typically targets Microsoft SharePoint customers for possible migration. Meanwhile Goossens joins Magento from Red Hat, where he was VP EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) of the organization’s JBoss division. JBoss is the successful open source middleware platform that increasingly competes with IBM and Oracle.
With an assist from Carter and Goossens, Magento expects to further expand its channel partner ranks — which currently includes more than 180 solutions providers worldwide. Magento develops an open source e-commerce platform for online merchants.
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Read More About This TopicMemo to Sun VARs: Another Path to R&R (Renewals and Revenue)
When October 15, 2010 arrives, Sun’s Partner Advantage program will end. Some partners worry Oracle will take Sun support renewal contracts direct, which means partners could lose a lucrative annuity stream. Is there an alternative way for Sun partners to continue to profit from Sun’s installed base while maintaining close customer relationships? Absolutely yes. Here’s how.
To off-set the possible loss of revenue and preserve customers’ hardware investment, it’s prudent for Sun VARs to turn to an Independent Service & Maintenance Organization (ISMO). VARs can then sell maintenance contracts branded as their own and sell more services since partnering with an ISMO allows for multi-vendor coverage.
There are at least nine clear reasons why Sun solutions providers should partner up with an ISMO. They include:
- You will maintain and continue to grow your customer base and recurring revenue, creating a lifetime customer value.
- Pricing is up to 70% off the original equipment manufacturers’ service pricing.
- An ISMO never competes with you.
- You can offer the service under your brand.
- You own your customer relationship. Forever.
- There are 100% guaranteed renewals.
- You will experience improved customer retention.
- You can be up and running offering service to your end user within one business day.
- An ISMO can assist you with your other service needs beyond Sun so that you can provide a more complete service offering to your customers.
That October 15 deadline is looming. After that, your old partner relationship with Sun goes away. Protect your customer relationships and your revenue streams by partnering up with an ISMO. What are you waiting for? For more information visit www.servicekeytss.com/sunservice.html or call 866-441-0496.
Christine Callahan (pictured) manages channel and alliance programs for ServiceKey. Monthly guest blogs such as this one are part of The VAR Guy’s 2010 sponsorship program. Read all of her guest blogs here.
Read More About This TopicOpen-Xchange Launches Outlook Migration Tool
Microsoft Exchange alternative Open-Xchange has launched a new tool to help VARs migrate user data off Outlook and into the open source messaging server. Here’s the scoop.
The tool sounds fairly basic, allowing VARs to upload the standard .PST personal data file from Microsoft Outlook on a local machine to Open-Xchange Server. It’s meant to ease enterprise-wide migration to the (potentially cheaper) Open-Xchange platform, but it can also be used by companies replacing costly Microsoft Outlook licenses with the Open-Xchange web client, according to the press release.
The advantage for VARs in either scenario, says Open-Xchange is that it’s easier to manage policy and compliance rules when all data’s centralized on the server. And once the data is migrated, Open-Xchange says it’s totally transparent to the end user, with all old messages and contacts still in place; it’s only where the data “lives” that’s changed.
It’s always difficult to measure the success of a privately held company. But apparently, Open-Xchange has built up some momentum in the fight against Microsoft Exchange. Tools like this are designed to make the choice a little easier for VARs on the fence between Redmond and open source.
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Read More About This TopicApple’s Fall Event: New iPods, New iPhone Features
When Apple’s Fall media event kicked off September 1, I was there. Not physically, but Apple — for the first time ever — provided a live stream of the event, no longer requiring me to get all my news 2nd hand. Huzzah! Read on for a very quick (I promise) rundown of what was announced and why (I think) you should care…
Apple’s live stream of the event was only available to those running Mac OS 10.6, or an iOS device running version 3.0 or later. I watched the whole thing from my iPad with a few minor hiccups, which forced me to ‘refresh’ the live stream page. Annoying, but far less than spamming the ‘refresh’ button on my favorite Mac site or Gizmodo. Apple did this to make a point about HTTP Streaming.
The LineupiOS 4.1 comes out ‘next week’ while iOS 4.2, which will include the iPad’s debut on the iOS 4 scene, comes out in November.
Why should you care?
- Proximity sensor, Bluetooth and other little bugs have been fixed
- Game Center finally arrives so you can play and challenge friends
- Built-in ability to take HDR Photos
- AirPlay, to stream media from your iOS devices to your new AppleTV
Why you should care?
- iPod Touch gains front and back video camera for FaceTime and HD video. Same innards as iPhone 4 and Retina Display
- iPod Nano gets a touch screen, iOS-like interface for ease of use, music, audiobooks, and multi-touch gestures for easier navigation. Sadly, it loses the video camera AND video playback. Still features a pedometer, FM radio and Nike+.
- iPod Shuffle gets its buttons back, but keeps the voice-over playlist navigation from the last iPod shuffle that had no buttons.
Why you should care?
- Smaller form-factor, tiny black box that looks like a square hunk of cheese
- All about streaming content. No hard drive. No syncing.
- Features Netflix streaming, iTunes streaming, HD TV and movie rentals.
- No love for original AppleTV owners about the possibility of Netflix or other added features
Personally, I’m excited about iOS 4.2 for my iPad, and I’m actually thinking about buying an iPod Nano only because it so closely resembles a much-wanted “iWatch” (as excessive as it may seem). Things I’m bummed about? Even though Steve Jobs said people “loved” their original AppleTV’s, they’re getting left in the dust with no updates, or features to upgrade to. But it’s just like Apple to leave the old behind and push with the new, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
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Read More About This TopicVMworld: Xiotech Sets VDI At $25 Per User
Xiotech is showing off at VMworld 2010, demonstrating a 1,000 user VDI (virtual desktop integration) deployment on a single storage blade. The company claims the VDI set-up can cost as little as $25 per user per year. Here are some details plus some potential implications for the VDI market.
Xiotech, to remind everyone, specialize in Intelligent Application Storage, and has dubbed their proprietary technology “ISE” (Intelligent Storage Element).
They’re currently “challenging” the industry to make virtual desktop infrastructures cheaper than their benchmark of $25 per user annually. Xiotech, other than issuing the challenge sees this the predictable outcome of performance and capacity increases over time, and naturally, Xiotech’s feels their own ISE storage blades are the paradigm of such.
Here’s the price/tech spec breakdown:
- $25 annual cost per user
- Nearly 20 TB and more than 12,000 IOPS in 3U
- 97 percent capacity utilization
- 43 percent fewer drives than a similarly powered competitive array
- 40 percent less rack space than a similarly powered competitive array
- At least twice as many users in 3U, 5.25 inches, than a similarly powered competitive array
Xiotech also is boasting integration with Citrix, Microsoft and VMware.
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Read More About This TopicF5 Networks Offers App-Ready Solution For VMware View 4.5
F5 Networks has caught the WMworld bug, offering a new “Application Ready Solution” for VMware View 4.5. Read on for the highlights, details and feature set…
F5’s new Application Ready Solution for VMware View 4.5 is now offering a plethora of new features:
- Single Sign-On with Secure Access
- High Performance PC-Over-IP (PCoIP) protocol through their BIG-IP Edge Gateway
- High Availability and Scalability with BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager
- Deployment Guidance wrought from F5’s testing with VMware View Solutions for interoperability
F5 is also touting a new “superior” user experience that enables authentication throughout after using the single-sign-on process. Encryption of VMware View transport protocols including the PCoIP protocol, and reduced infrastructure power and space requirements for the data center, by using new server offload functions to optimize the scalability and use of VMware View deployments.
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Read More About This TopicRhomobile Launches Open Source Phone Sync
I don’t have to tell any vendor how hot Apple iPhone apps are right now. Enter Rhomobile, which is launching the new version of its RhoSync SaaS open source offering, enabling developers to keep enterprise application data synced to smartphones in real time. Here’s the scoop.
Rhomobile’s flagship product is its Rhodes smartphone application development platform, but value-adds like RhoSync are how it pays its bills. And with the launch of RhoSync 2.0, you don’t even have to use Rhodes to take advantage of its scalable sync services – the company says it’s now fully compatible with applications in Objective C.
And unlike competitors, the company says, RhoSync supports native push protocols of the kind featured since the third iteration of the iPhone. And it supports No SQL-based databases like the kind Twitter and Facebook use.
Anytime, anywhere data on the smartphone is exactly the kind of idea behind smartphone offerings like ConnectWise Mobile. Helping ISVs get there is only a logical step for a company like Rhomobile.
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Read More About This TopicHelp Wanted: Senior Contributing Editor/Webcasts
The VAR Guy and his team look a little tired. Time to bring in some reinforcements. We’re currently seeking a senior contributing editor to handle Webcast content development, speaker recruitment, slide and powerpoint preparation and potential event moderation. But that’s not all… Here are the details.
On the webcast front, this opportunity requires about 10 hours/week. But we see an opportunity for an expanded role, helping Nine Lives Media Inc. (The VAR Guy’s parent company) to develop and manage content and research across our websites.
The ideal candidate will have:
- An editorial content background, with a knowledge of managed services, the IT channel, and small business management issues
- Strong organization skills, with the ability to recruit guest speakers — VARs, MSPs and industry experts — for webcasts
- Strong editing skills, with the ability to develop, organize and edit PowerPoint presentations for Webcasts
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to potentially moderate webcasts
- An ability to meet all deadlines
To reiterate: The Senior Contributing Editor/Webcasts role likely requires roughly 10 hours per week. Top candidates will be open to an expanded opportunity — helping Nine Lives Media Inc. to further grow its web sites, blogs, research, video content and other emerging types of content.
To apply for this consulting opportunity, send email to Editorial Director Joe Panettieri (joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com). Include your cover letter and resume. And thanks to those who have helped to fuel Nine Lives Media Inc.’s continued growth.
Read More About This TopicRepeat After The VAR Guy: PC Sales Are Not Slowing
The sky is falling. A double-dip recession is here. And PC sales are slowing. At first glance, the IT channel should be worried by PC sales projections. But take a closer look and you’ll discover that PC sales aren’t slowing. Not at all. In fact, they’re generating double-digit growth. Here are the details.
First, the facts: Gartner has revised its PC sales projections downward. During the second half of 2010, Gartner expects PC sales growth to be about 15.3 percent — about two percent below the previous forecast.
The VAR Guy repeats: PC sales are going to grow 15.3 percent in the second half of 2010.
Does that mean PC sales are slowing? Absolutely not. Instead, it means the market isn’t growing as fast as Gartner had initially hoped. And nobody has bothered to ask the obvious question: Was Gartner’s original forecast too optimistic to begin with?
Misleading HeadlinesEither way, misinformation is flying across the web. Even as PC sales potentially grow 15.3 percent in the second half of 2010, we have these head-scratching headlines…
- CIO Insight: Gartner: PC Sales Are Slowing
- CRN: PC Sales are Slowing for the Rest of the Year
- Datamation: PC Sales Are Slowing Down
Far more accurate: Barron’s, which states: Gartner Trims Second Half PC Growth View On Weaker Economy.
Raising KaneThe seeds for this blog entry were planted during the Channel Happy Hour podcast on August 31.
Podcast co-host and MSP Services Network CEO Gerard Kane pointed out all the misinformation about PC sales slowing. At one point, Kane put down his drink long enough to rant long and hard about the IT media industry’s failings on the topic. Co-host Brett Martin apparently was too busy shopping online for new PCs, and didn’t weigh in on the debate.
Then, Chuck Lennon, president of TeamLogic IT, noted that his biggest challenge involved finding more sales people to help TeamLogic IT businesses across the U.S.
Lennon, it seems, faces a wonderful problem: Managing growth.
Far From PerfectAdmittedly, the economy remains troublesome for quite a few high-tech companies. During recent earnings calls, Cisco Systems and Intel both expressed some concern about economic conditions.
But here are two open-ended questions:
- In a bad economy like this, isn’t 15.3 percent PC sales growth for the second half of 2010 pretty darn good?
- Was Gartner’s original forecast — around 17.3 percent sales growth — too optimistic, and was the downward revision merely an attempt to do spin control?
Hmmm… Plenty of questions for The VAR Guy and his loyal readers to ponder.
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Read More About This TopicMicrosoft: 25 Percent of Virtualization Market and Climbing?
At first glance, VMware dominates the virtualization market. But Microsoft’s David Greschler, attending this week’s VMworld conference, doesn’t sound worried. Greschler, director of Microsoft’s integrated virtualization strategy, says savvy channel partners are taking a look at Microsoft Hyper-V and cross-platform management tools like Microsoft System Center. Here’s why.
Simply put, Microsoft has captured about 25 percent of the virtualization market, and the software giant is connecting the dots between Hyper-V, private clouds and public clouds like Windows Azure, Greschler asserts.
When it comes to Microsoft’s virtualization strategy, most VARs focus first on the Hyper-V hypervisor. But Greschler makes a strong case for focusing on Microsoft System Center as well. Using System Center, solutions providers can manage physical and virtual assets — including Hyper-V and VMware-centric deployments, Greschler notes.
Microsoft’s ultimate assertion: While VMware wants to control the entire virtualization market, Microsoft is developing tools that support multiple hypervisors.
Also of note: Greschler claims Microsoft offers a standardized approach to next-generation application deployments and management, whether the applications run on-premise or in the cloud.
Using Hyper-V for private, on-premises clouds or service provider clouds is a natural stepping stone to deploying applications in Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud, Greschler adds.
On the one hand, Windows Azure supports a range of programming standards — like PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby on Rails. But on the other hand, Microsoft’s on-premises, virtualization and cloud strategies all support .Net, so partners and developers can easily move applications from one approach to the next, Greschler asserts.
Dollars and CentsWhat’s in it for partners? Greschler says Microsoft’s virtualization solutions cost end-customers roughly one-third the price of VMware’s offerings. The cost savings, in turn, allow VARs to promote additional services to customers, he asserts.
Greschler and other Microsoft executives — particularly COO Kevin Turner — also are quick to note Microsoft’s market share gains. According to some recent research from IDC, Microsoft has about 25 percent of the virtualization market, compared to roughly 50 percent for VMware. True believers include CH2M Hill, a Fortune 500 firm that’s moving from VMware to Hyper-V.
The most telling statistic of all: Microsoft’s virtualization products have only been available for about two years, but they seem to be gaining traction within Microsoft’s channel. One prime example: The M7 Group spans seven solutions providers that promote virtualization offerings from a range of vendors — including Microsoft.
VMware’s SpinOf course, The VAR Guy within the next few days has to give VMware some equal time on the topic of Microsoft and virtualization.
In the meantime, thousands of folks continue to navigate the trade show flow at VMworld — suggesting that VMware remains as influential as ever. Also, Motley Fool notes that VMware’s stock has risen 158 percent since September 2009 as more customers flocked to VMware’s software. And a survey from CommVault suggests VMware remains the preferred virtualization standard for 83 percent of customers.
Hmmm… Read this blog entry again from top to bottom and it seems like there’s plenty of debate over the Microsoft and VMware market share stats. But this is known: Microsoft and VMware both have growing virtualization businesses…
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Read More About This TopicConnectWise Mobile: PSA For Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile
ConnectWise, which provides a professional services automation (PSA) platform for VARs, MSPs, and IT service providers, has announced the launch of native mobile applications for the Apple iPhone, Google Android, and Microsoft Windows Mobile platforms. Here’s the skinny.
The general gist of the applications, says ConnectWise’s press release, is to enable customers to work on timesheets, schedules, tickets, configurations, and work schedules even when outside the grasp of a 3G or WiFi network. As a New York City resident who spends long stretches underground on the subway, I can attest to the value of that approach.
And ConnectWise says the value doesn’t end there: since you’re carrying ConnectWise in your pocket, SLA compliance gets easier with instant access to essential information, along with quicker response times to trouble tickets, and so on, ConnectWise claims.
Between ConnectWise Mobile and Zoho Docs launching mobile apps, is the smartphone the future of IT services?
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Read More About This TopicEnterpriseDB: Open Source Database Attracts More Funding
EnterpriseDB, which provides enterprise-level open source PostgreSQL database services, has announced its completed a round of funding, adding KT (formerly Korea Telecom) and TransLink Capital to its list of investors. Here’s the story.
While the company didn’t disclose the financial terms of the investments, EnterpriseDB’s press release says that TransLink Capital co-founder Jay Eum has joined their Board of Directors. At TransLink, Eum is also responsible for managing investments in companies like Carbonite and XSigo, so he has experience in the IT space.
Meanwhile, KT, which provided a “strategic investment” rather than full VC funding, says that they were interested in EnterpriseDB for their dedication to the open source philosophy.
“We’ve decided to partner with EnterpriseDB because we share its mission of promoting open source and PostgreSQL solutions that provide freedom from high priced vendor lock-in,” said Sang-Hong Lee, executive vice president, Technology Strategy Office of KT, in a prepared statement.
With veterans like MySQL’s Karen Tegan Padir on their team, and with companies like IBM and Red Hat investing in its future, EnterpriseDB remains one of the most intriguing open source companies to watch in the second half of 2010.
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Read More About This TopicVMworld: Virtual Computer Unleashes NxTop 3.0
Virtual Computer, which focuses on distributed desktop management, has launched NxTop 3.0 at VMworld, offering — you guess it — new features and better compatibility. Read on for the details…
New in the NxTop 3.0 suite, is a slew of distributed management features, featuring stand-alone bare metal hypervisors, quick booting virtual appliances both cloud and server based, and new computing perks along with a list of new hardware support. NxTop 3.0 is also going to be aimed at any organization size, consumer to enterprise. NxTop also offers a remote help desk, distributed desktop management, and PC and VDI compatibility.
Features and flavors include:
- NxTop Enterprise: Desktop virtualization and management solution for large organizations; includes NxTop Business with added distributed remote-office management and help-desk support.
- NxTop Business: Desktop virtualization and management solution suitable for organizations from 5 to 500 users operating in a LAN environment.
- NxTop Express: Free desktop virtualization and management solution for five users.
- NxTop Workstation: Free stand-alone Type 1 hypervisor with local virtual machine installer and a quick-booting virtual appliance for access to server- and cloud-based applications.
You can download NxTop Express and Workstation from Virtual Computer while Enterprise and Business versions will arrive later this month (September 2010).
Environmental and money-saving features of NxTop 3.0 include ‘Hierarchical Management’ and policy-based ‘Bandwidth Throttling’ between NxTop Center and client hypervisor. There’s also local creation of VMs and complimenting the broad list of hardware support comes support for serial ports for “older printer devices used in banking and health-care environments.”
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