Hewlett-Packard has scored a small but strategic victory in the server market that highlights how Dell lost touch with some customers. Rackspace, a respected managed service provider and Web hosting firm, is diversifying beyond Dell servers and embracing HP servers. The decision to embrace HP’s servers was first reported in Rackspace’s hometown paper, The San […]
Novell is in trouble again, and its two-time savior Chris Stone is off running a different company. In the late 1990s, Stone helped Novell stage a short-lived turnaround by releasing NetWare 5 with native TCP/IP support. And by the early 2000s, he helped orchestrate Novell’s open source push. But something strange–no, something shocking–happened in November […]
CIOs plan to increase IT spending 5.2 percent this year and 4.8 percent in 2007, according to a survey by Merrill Lynch. The survey results, summarized at Forbes.com, put Ingram Micro and Tech Data in the spotlight. Both distributors, Merrill Lynch noted, are driving healthy IT spending in the small and midsize business (SMB) sectors. […]
Dell’s decision to preinstall Google search software on some of its desktops is a watershed event in the PC industry. Gone are the days when Wintel ruled the PC market as a desktop monopoly. PC vendors have eagerly embraced innovative technologies from AMD, Google, Red Hat and others. Innovation and open competition empower customers and […]
Gartner and IDC have released their latest sales estimates for the server market, and most major vendors are declaring victory. Let’s check the claims vs. market realities. IBM: Based on Gartner data, IBM says it’s No. 1 in worldwide server revenue and blade server revenue. What IBM didn’t say: Mainframe revenue counts heavily in IBM’s […]
Keep a close eye on this week’s Retail Systems Conference in Chicago. That’s where NCR, Novell and other major vendors are unveiling their latest retail-related solutions. NCR kicked off the show by announcing plans to offer Novell’s Linux in point-of-sale terminals. Novell is no stranger to the embedded market. The company’s DR-DOS (remember that?) lives […]
Talk about delivering cradle-to-grave services. BearingPoint says it has helped Texas offer online ordering for birth and death certificates.
For the second time this month, Unisys has made an open source move that warrants your attention. The company has signed a worldwide distribution agreement with MySQL Inc. to support the open source database. The deal comes three weeks after Unisys signed a similar deal with JBoss, a leading provider of open source middleware. So, […]
Eager to cash in on the SMB sector? Want to ride the IBM brand into the enterprise? Distributors are happy to help. Ingram Micro today introduced flexible finance and leasing options, face-to-face regional seminars and other services to help solutions providers support SMB organizations. Separately, Tech Data unveiled new services to help integrators develop, sell […]
For the third time in a month, a prominent CA Inc. executive is leaving the company. The latest departure involves CFO Robert Davis, who is departing “under mutual agreement.” Other recent defections include CTO Mark Barrenechea and COO Jeff Clarke. CA has already warned that its quarterly results, to be announced May 30, won’t meet […]
Okay, we admit it. Some of us were Carly Fiorina fans. She made big promises … developed a grand vision for HP’s merger with Compaq … but failed to deliver the financial goods at HP. Then in March 2005, along came Carly’s replacement, Mark Hurd–a dollars-and-cents guy who previously led NCR’s turnaround. Instead of getting […]
Speculation is growing that Oracle will either acquire or develop its own version of Linux within the next few months. Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund took the possibility seriously enough to publish a 36-page note on the subject this week, according to The Street.com. Sherlund speculates that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison may clarify the company’s […]
By now, you likely know that Keane Inc. President and CEO Brian Keane has abruptly resigned amid allegations of personal misconduct at the IT consulting firm. Mr. Keane denies any wrongdoing. A Keane press release states that the CEO’s resignation was a mutual decision with the board. But if you read the company’s latest SEC […]
When it comes to managed services, many solutions providers focus on security, storage or email. In stark contrast, netASPx–a managed service provider in Herndon, Va.–has successfully positioned itself as a leading provider of hosted ERP solutions. Racine Unified School District recently embraced netASPx to host Lawson Software’s HR, Financials, Procurement and BI suites. The school […]
Wall Street is buzzing about Dell’s latest earnings warning. But instead of worrying about plummeting PC prices and razor-thin margins, the channel should increasingly focus on software and higher-margin services. One interesting option comes from Novell, which today introduced the Open Workgroup Suite. The suite–positioned as a low-cost alternative to Windows Server, Exchange Server, Windows […]
When Cisco Systems announces 3Q financial results on May 9 the company’s channel partners should tune in. Aside from digesting Cisco’s latest earnings and sales data, VARs can pick up key hints about where Cisco is heading next. A case in point: When Cisco announced 2Q results in February, the company highlighted its strategy for […]
If you focus on the server sector, it’s time to change your tune. Instead of focusing on speeds and feeds, you should evangelize heat and power considerations to your customers. In other words, follow the AMD’s lead. The company’s Opteron processor has rapidly captured 22 percent of the server market, and AMD is pushing to […]
Forget Windows Vista. Maybe Microsoft should call the oft-delayed upgrade Windows 2008. Officially, Microsoft says Vista will ship preinstalled on PCs in early 2007. But Gartner is warning enterprises that the upgrade may face further delays. Microsoft insists Vista’s delivery schedule remains unchanged. Even so, the software giant continues to rethink the operating system’s feature […]
CDW is stealing a page from the old Novell Inc. playbook. In the early 1990s, Novell CEO Ray Noorda evangelized his concept of “coopetition”–wherein Novell competed on some fronts but cooperated on other fronts with key tech industry companies. Whistling a similar tune, CDW’s government-focused sales organization (CDW-G) increasingly competes and cooperates with channel companies. […]
Wall Street didn’t like Microsoft’s Q3 results, but VARs certainly should. The company’s Q3 net income ($2.98 billion) coupled with a tepid outlook for Q4 has spooked investors. Even so, there’s a silver lining for VARs. The Q3 results, announced April 27, revealed that Microsoft SQL Server sales jumped 30 percent compared to the corresponding […]
