Part two of our five-part countdown. Everything you need to know–and a few things you’d rather not know–about Cisco’s annual partner conference, held this week at the Venetian Hotel Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Let’s continue the countdown… 100 to 81) Read them here 80) We Do Mac, Too: Cisco demonstrates cross-platform unified communications (instant […]
Everything you need to know–and a few things you’d rather not know–about Cisco’s annual partner conference, held this week at the Venetian Hotel Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Let’s start the countdown… 100) Free WiFi In the Casino: The Venetian has fantastic free WiFi coverage throughout its casino floors and conference meeting rooms. The WiFi […]
The VAR Guy and other journalists continue to hype the showdown between Cisco and Microsoft, particularly in the small business sector. But is a showdown really coming? And what are the potential outcomes? The VAR Guy raised those questions today during meetings with Cisco executives and solutions providers. Of course, the responses are a bit […]
Many of us in the Mac community — The VAR Guy included — became Apple customers because we grew tired of Windows viruses, bugs and security flaws. But is Mac OS X truly more secure than Windows? Or do hackers target Windows more frequently only because of its immense market share? We may get some […]
During a press conference at the Cisco Partner Summit an hour ago, Cisco confirmed the day’s worst-kept secret: The company is making an aggressive move into the small and midsize business market. The VAR Guy hinted about this earlier today. Here are the “official” details from Cisco along with some quick-hit perspectives from The VAR […]
Most networking industry VARs are seemingly in Las Vegas this week for the Cisco Partner Summit. But that hasn’t stopped HP from making some noise of its own. HP has launched the ProCurve Alliance, a membership program designed to offer customers security, mobility, convergence solutions … yada, yada, yada … this news is good for […]
FalconStor Software, a data-protection company launched by several CA and Cheyenne Software veterans, has announced enhancements to its partner program. FalconStor says the new initiatives give VARs a scaled up certified training program, joint marketing initiatives, and new sales rebates to increase profitability and growth. And that’s all The VAR Guy has to say about […]
The VAR Guy has a motto: If the door isn’t locked, he’s going in. About an hour ago, The VAR Guy wandered into the Venetian Hotel’s main conference hall at Cisco’s Partner Summit. There were 2,500 empty seats. So The VAR Guy grabbed one. Cisco executives were rehearsing presentations to be given later today. What […]
Seems like Computer Reseller News has either found or stumbled onto a story here at the Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas. The legacy channel newspaper, er, magazine, on April 2 posted a quick story on its Web site, offering a wish list from partners to Cisco. The list included three requests. The VAR Guy hears Cisco will fulfill at least one of those requests today. Which one you ask? Read on.
First, the requests. Computer Reseller News says Cisco VARs want:
John Chambers runs Cisco Systems. But this evening, Channel VP Chuck Robbins is calling the shots at the annual Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas. At this moment, Cisco’s channel leaders are huddled with Robbins for an all-hands-on meeting at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. He’s walking several hundred Cisco channel managers through the overall agenda, which includes a subtle jab against a big rival.
According to several tipsters in the meeting:
The VAR Guy ran into Kevin Knox, VP of AMD’s Worldwide Commercial Business, Monday morning at JetBlue’s JFK terminal. It had been about a year since he’d seen Knox, who frequently commutes between a New York home and AMD’s offices in Texas and California. Although AMD has been in a financial free fall, Knox and […]
Still wired from the grande latte he chugged down an hour ago, The VAR Guy is sorting through several tips he just received here at the Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas. First up, our resident blogger hears Cisco is evaluating how it allocates joint marketing dollars for VARs. Cisco also is developing new plans […]
The VAR Guy has been spotted at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, loading up on coffee and checking email in the casino’s first floor food court. Free WiFi and caffeine; it’s the perfect combo to get our resident blogger energized for the Cisco Partner Summit. Although the conference program doesn’t start until Tuesday morning, the […]
The VAR Guy rarely writes about executive changes at software companies. But in this case, he’ll make an exception. Former SuSE Linux CTO Jurgen Geck has joined Open-Xchange, the open source email provider, as CTO. Also, CXO Systems veteran Gerald Labie has joined Open-Xchange as CEO. The moves come at a critical time for Open-Xchange […]
Keep a close eye on Cisco Systems this week. The networking giant kicks off its annual partner summit April 2 in Las Vegas. In addition to taking on the usual suspects (Avaya, Nortel, etc.), Cisco will spend the week targeting Microsoft, The VAR Guy hears. During the conference, Cisco executives will describe how the company […]
The VAR Guy is in Las Vegas this week. He’ll sample Sin City’s finest all-you-can-eat buffets (“That boy is a P-I-G pig”), visit a few casinos (“You guys playing cards?”) and squeeze in a few meetings at Cisco’s annual partner summit. How can you make the most of your business trips? Here are seven tips […]
Memo to Steve Ballmer: It’s time for Microsoft to rethink its Windows Vista marketing plan. Sure, Vista has sold 20 million licenses. But everyone from Wall Street to Main Street U.S.A. knows Vista isn’t living up to its hype. Here are 10 logical steps Microsoft should take to jumpstart the Vista sales engine. 1. Keep […]
An interesting debate has started in The VAR Guy’s home. His old Windows XP PC is running out of gas. He was leaning toward a Mac Mini as a replacement. But now, Dell just complicated things. Michael & Company has officially announced plans to introduce desktops and notebooks with Linux. So what’s it gonna be: […]
OnForce, an online marketplace that connects VARs with IT customers, today unveiled a new service that caught The VAR Guy’s attention. The service, called OnForce MarketView Index, provides VARs with some very interesting state-by-state IT project data. The VAR Guy sees big potential for the index. If OnForce plays its cards right, it could become […]
Finally, The VAR Guy believes, Dell is listening to the market. The hardware giant spent recent weeks gathering data about customers’ interest in Linux desktops and notebooks. And on the server, Dell continues to show more love for MySQL–the increasingly popular open source database. Both moves should soon make Dell’s hardware more attractive to customers […]
