The VAR Guy

Michael Dell is a man on a mission, striving to transform Dell for the new age of converged data centers, cloud computing and mobility. And yes, he is placing a huge bet on Windows 8. During an exclusive interview with The VAR Guy, Dell outlined the path forward for his company – and the opportunities ahead for PartnerDirect channel partners. Yes, Dell has an $8 billion services business. But that’s just 1 percent of the IT services market, Dell asserts, leaving plenty of opportunity for partners to cash in. Here’s how.

Today’s Nor’easter and last week’s Hurricane Sandy have combined to seriously impede VAR truck rolls across New York, New Jersey and portions of Connecticut. The need for managed services to remotely recover customer networks — or virtualized network services to restore lost on-premises systems in the cloud — has never been clearer. Here’s why.

EMC (NYSE: EMC) is enhancing and expanding its Velocity Service Provider Program. The changes, effectively Jan. 1, 2013, could help (A) VARs to transform into cloud services providers and/or (B) VARs to find partners that offer EMC-certified cloud storage services. So, how many VARs will embrace the initiative? Michelle De Hertogh, senior director of global alliances and service providers marketing, offered The VAR Guy some clues.

Corporations and service providers are using more and more tools to monitor complex network and cloud infrastructures. But Gigamon is promoting a middle layer (called the Traffic Visibility Fabric) to filter and send the right network traffic information to IT management tools, notes Jim Berkman, director of worldwide channel marketing. From there, MSPs and corporate IT managers can more efficiently manage, analyze and secure networks. Hmmm… That sounds simple enough. But are VARs and MSPs cashing in?

Dell’s (NASDAQ: DELL) march to $5 billion in software revenue includes a systems management group focused on client/end-user solutions; server and data center software; database management; performance management; and data integration. Take a closer look and you’ll see the Dell KACE business within that group, along with the updated Dell KACE K1000 management appliance. Why should partners care? Director of Product Marketing Ken Drachnik (l.) and Senior Product Manager Saranya Babu (r.) offer some insights.

The fifth-annual MSPmentor 250 list is now live. If you’re looking to network with managed services provider (MSP) experts, executives, entrepreneurs, coaches and community leaders — then use the MSPmentor 250 list to build your Rolodex fast. Also, be sure to check out a special addition called Locked in the NOC, a list of the folks who essentially built the managed services industry. If given the chance, you’d want to lock them in your NOC (network operations center), and pick their brains on business, sales, technology and marketing strategies.

Mitel (NASDAQ: MITL), Vidyo and VMware (NYSE: VMW) have jointly produced a solution combining videoconferencing with unified communications (UC) over a virtualized desktop machine.

Maybe Andy Dwyer had it right after all, just 20 years before his time. Does anyone remember Andy? He was the CEO of JWP (Jamaica Water Properties), which started in the 1960’s as a water supply company mainly to local New York regions. But Andy had a vision to transform the company through acquisitions (a lot of acquisitions) into a technical services firm offering systems engineering, facilities management and environmental management systems.

Acronis and SolarWinds have teamed up to offer channel partners a VMware vSphere management and backup and recovery solution combined into one package, an idea the vendors said responds to customer feedback.

Security solutions provider BeyondTrust launched Retina CS 3.5, the latest version of its vulnerability and compliance management platform, which now extends support to managed service providers (MSPs), and also rolled out PowerBroker Mobile, a mobile device management (MDM) platform that integrates context-aware management with vulnerability and patch information.

Through the research he conducted prior to writing the best-selling book, “Good to Great,” Jim Collins discovered a common thread among all the businesses that transformed into successful organizations. “There was no miracle moment. Instead, a down-to-earth, pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process — a framework — kept each company, its leaders, and its people on track for the long haul.”

At Boston HostingCon 2012 this week, watch for cloud storage and software companies to promote two paths for reseller success. Among the names to watch: Asigra, Intronis, Nirvanix and Vembu, among others. Here’s why.

It sounds like a really big happy meal for channel partners. The new McAfee Profitability Stack serves up a range of beefy options to help VARs maximize their security software profits. So, will partners eat up the concept — especially as Sophos, Symantec and Trend Micro (among others) continue to counter the Intel-McAfee combo? Here’s the background.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) apparently is preparing a smartphone. Microsoft is readying Windows Phone 8. Apple iPhone 5 seems set for late 2012. Samsung Galaxy handsets continue to hum along. And RIM hopes to survive and ship BlackBerry 10 in early 2013. Instead of focusing on fierce smartphone competition, channel partners must shift their attention to complete mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) options. Here’s why.

Cloud security specialist Trend Micro is having a busy week, between yesterday’s announcement of the integration of the company’s Worry-Free Business Security Services into the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Server 2012 Essentials console and now the launch of enhanced channel programs and certifications for MSP partners.

Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC12) will generate plenty of Windows 8 news. But if you listen closely, you’ll hear some surprising WPC 12 chatter involving Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) and a range of desktop as a service providers. In fact, here are five WPC 2012 surprises that The VAR Guy has already stumbled upon.

Greetings, and welcome to the latest episode of Distribution Watch, our weekly collection of doings in the distribution space. This week we’ve got news from Avnet (NYSE: AVT), Westcon and Synnex (NYSE: SNX), so don’t touch that remote!

IT consulting firm Perficient has been on a bit of an acquisition spree lately, snapping up Dallas-based business and technology consulting firm Nascent Systems in June, and buying consulting firm Northridge Systems this week for approximately $14.4 million.

It’s the acquisition everyone thought would happen, then didn’t think would happen — Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) announced its intention to buy Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT) for $2.4 billion, snapping it out from under Insight Venture Partners.

Dell is nearly ready to announce its Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT) acquisition, pundits suggest. If true, Dell appears set to gain desktop virtualization, managed services and Microsoft Office 365 cloud migration services. So how will partners potentially benefit from Dell buying Quest Software — if the deal truly is official? Here are some educated guesses from The VAR Guy.

The recent acquisition of Summit Energy has given Schneider Electric a broader energy management services and solution portfolio, evidenced by the company’s EnergyStep Data Center Assessment service, which gives managers a peek at the power, cooling, physical infrastructure and operational efficiencies (or lack thereof) of a data center.

One touch is never enough, at least for Hewlett-Packard (HP) (NYSE: HPQ), which is expanding multitouch business applications across HP thin clients with Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Embedded Standard 7 WS7P SKU.

IT services and software provider Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS) joins the growing list of businesses providing mobile device management (MDM) solutions with the release of its Mobility Solutions Suite, designed to help organizations manage, secure and support smartphones and tablets along with their applications.