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Putting a Channel Face on the Cloud

Wed, 23 May 2012 15:05:34 -0400

Amazon, Google and others may leverage the channel to compete more aggressively in the enterprise - Theres a lot of contention these days not so much over whether customers should embrace cloud computing as much as whats the right path to get there. This debate has some significant implications of solution providers that are being asked to represent various cloud computing service providers, espe...

Marketing as the Bane of Channel Existence

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:12:15 -0400

As marketing starts to drive more sales, solution providers are in danger of being left behind - Marketing has been the bane of the channel as long as anyone can remember. If a solution provider has any money available to invest in their business they generally opt to do one of two things: recruit another sales person or hired an additional engineer. Unfortunately, the one thing they dont tend...

Expanding the Reach and Scope of Desktop Virtualization

Tue, 22 May 2012 20:42:14 -0400

VMware moves to acquire Wanova - VMware has set out to expand the definition of desktop virtualization with the acquisition of Wanova, a provider of what has been dubbed as intelligent desktop virtualization software. Wanova makes a desktop virtualization offering, called Mirage, that splits Windows into multiple virtual layers. M...

Considering the IBM Watson Possibilities

Tue, 22 May 2012 19:41:08 -0400

IBM looks to the channel to help find new use cases for cognitive computing platform - While the hype surrounding IBMs Watson project far exceeds any current reality, the implications of the next-generation analytics platform on the channel could be as far reaching as they are profound. IBM has already started a number of pilot projects in vertical sectors such as healthcare that wil...

Variations on a Cloud Storage Theme in the Channel

Tue, 22 May 2012 07:10:23 -0400

EMC expands focus on the cloud via a channel that is wrestling with multiple cloud storage business models - Now that EMC has announced that its going to rely even more on the channel to push products and services for the cloud, a lot of solution providers are going to have to ask themselves what exactly is the best business model when it comes to storage in the cloud. At the EMC World 2012 conference thi...

The SMB Conundrum in the Channel

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:00:46 -0400

Demand for leading edge technologies is high, but skills remain in comparatively short supply - It used to be that the small-to-medium (SMB) market was a place the channel sold products and technologies that had matured to a point where they could be safely deployed by organizations that didnt have much IT expertise. But in recent years its becoming clear that there are different classes of SM...

Rightsizing the Cloud Service Provider

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:41:45 -0400

"Cloudbursting" will alter the way the channel thinks about cloud computing investments - One of the issues that solution providers have with investing in the cloud is all the money needed upfront to create a cloud computing service. The amount of capital required effectively puts building cloud computing platforms out of reach for many solution providers, which results in them reselling...

How Mobile Computing Enables the Channel to Transform the Enterprise

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:01:34 -0400

Mobile computing set to become dominant method for accessing applications - Most customers are not particularly enthralled with the software they rely on every day to drive their business. For the most part, they have been making the best of a bad situation. The application they rely on was designed to serve the needs of a broad swath of potential customers, which is ...

The Selling of IT Simplicity

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:27:41 -0400

The complexity of IT is creating demand for products and technologies that are much simpler to manage - It seems like everywhere anyone turns these days IT is getting more complex to manage. The question that begs then is whether there will soon be some sort of backlash against IT products that are overly complex. And if so, is this a trend that solution providers could capitalize on. Certainly part ...

The Future of IT Services

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:39:00 -0400

Automated managed services are transforming the way IT services are delivered - Historically providing IT services has always been a business where the cost of labor was fairly high. But as IT continues to evolve its apparent that as the devices become more instrumented the easier its becoming to automate the IT services process. The latest case in point is Nexsan, a provider ...

Rising to the Cloud Application Management Challenge

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:17:28 -0400

BetterCloud previews management tool for Google Apps environments - By now solution providers have noticed that adoption of Google Apps in business environments has become quite substantial. While that might not thrill many folks in the channel given the margins involved in selling Google Apps compared to Microsoft Office, the fact remains that applications of all t...

Seeing the Larger Big Data Picture

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:51:20 -0400

Informatica 9.5 is latest in a series of opportunities for the channel that are all tied to Big Data - Big Data is one of those mega IT trends that winds up being a gift to the channel that keeps on giving. Beyond the obvious impact of the Big Data on demand for additional storage capacity and the rise of new technologies to implement such as the Hadoop data management platform, one of the more inte...

Playing the IT Services Name Game

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:00:14 -0400

HP expands ability of partners to deliver branded services as part of effort to gain market share - Theres a lot of money to be made in providing IT services provided your organization has the wherewithal to invest in hiring the people that have the skills required to deliver them. For that reason many solution providers have opted to simply resell services provided by vendors, even though that t...

New Intel Core Systems Create Management Play for the Channel

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:56:11 -0400

Lenovo expects to be the first out of the gate with 3rd Generation Intel Core systems - Solution providers today often find themselves caught between two diametrically opposed forces. Its clear to them that many employees at the organization they service would like access to the latest and greatest PC technologies. But the internal IT department is constrained by both budget and abilit...

Virtualization Drives Backup and Recovery Opportunities for the Channel

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:01:06 -0400

Syncsort partnership with NetApp highlights need for data management and protection services - With the rise of virtualization its becoming clear that more companies than ever are struggling with backup and recovery and by extension disaster recovery. There are several key issues that IT organizations are struggling to manage, including fundamentals such as the fact that ther amount of proce...