A tip of the hat goes to InformationWeek for publicizing Microsoft’s Mobile World Congress invitation. (Alas, our resident blogger has been checking his inbox regularly but has yet to receive said invite.) But other than the invitation and the release and download date for the Consumer Preview, which is coming Feb. 29, 2012, there’s not much else to talk about. The VAR Guy wonders, What can we expect Microsoft to show off that it hasn’t already?

If you thought you got a decent window into Windows 8 during Microsoft’s BUILD conference, our resident blogger would be inclined to agree with you. But there is something slightly different here: Instead of the focus being on developers, Microsoft probably will be focusing on how Windows 8 fits around a consumer experience (duh), with home-use cases (photos, music, etc.) and a much-improved Metro interface with more native applications.

But why Mobile World Congress? Microsoft has no plans to put the Windows Phone 7 OS on tablets. Instead, Microsoft is revamping Windows 8 for a tablet/desktop “no compromise” experience. It’s arguably one of the most ambitious things Microsoft is doing in the consumer space. At Mobile World Congress 2012, the buzz likely will be around Android, with a pinch of iOS for good measure and maybe Windows Phone 7 at the tail end. But to have a whole event around Windows 8 at Mobile World Congress? Microsoft clearly wants Windows 8 in the spotlight.

Just take a look at all the Building Windows 8 blogs — between more streamlined network connectivity and push notifications, it’s clear Microsoft has one goal and one goal only: to show how mobile Windows 8 can be. The VAR Guy will reserve further speculation until the event, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t the least bit intrigued. Meanwhile, his suitcase stands at the ready. (Are you listening, Microsoft?)

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A tip of the hat goes to MacRumors for aggregating the data. It turns out repair site RepairLabs apparently received a photo of an alleged iPad 3 rear-case aluminum shell. At first glance, it’s identical to an iPad 2 shell, but a closer look shows rerouted mount points for internal circuitry. RepairLabs suggested a smaller motherboard is likely, which means the iPad 3 will have more room for batteries. New mounting hole locations also suggest a different-style screen will adorn the front of the iPad 3, nicely coordinating with all the buzz about a retina display.

I’m inclined to believe the iPad 3 will not be thicker, larger or heavier, but will be identical to the iPad 2 from the outside, much like the iPhone 4S is aesthetically the same as the iPhone 4. Only after turning it over could someone tell it’s an iPad 3. Keeping the iPad 2 form factor means users can take advantage of the huge amount of accessories and peripherals that have been designed for the smaller iPad 2. It also means Apple and OEMs alike don’t have to build anything new or special to capitalize on the iPad 3 accessory scene.

Apple also may be making design changes on the iPad similar to the lifecycle redesign of the iPhone. The original iPhone was a radical new design, which was quickly redesigned (3G) and recycled (3GS) for a second season, until the iPhone 4. We currently have the iPad original, followed by the iPad 2, and the 3 likely will be identical. The iPad 4, it stands to reason, will be potentially a complete redesign. If this rear aluminum shell is real, the iPad 3 announcement should be coming shortly, maybe even in the next 30 days.

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ZyXEL has christened the new program the ZyXEL Channel Incentive Program, or CIP for short. CIP plans on bringing “increased benefits” to U.S. and Canadian ZyXEL partners by giving them an American Express reloadable funds card. Partners leveraging CIP now have access to money and rewards faster than before. But how does a partner track said rewards? That’s where ZyXEL’s new cloud portal comes into play: The revamped, web-based dashboard will give ZyXEL partners a birds-eye view to track all current promotions, incentives and more.

ZyXEL’s press release was a little light on any extended incentive details, but ZyXEL noted that partners in CIP also will have access to beta testing programs, discounts, training, certification and many other web portal goodies.

Worth noting: These moves are eerily similar to the improvements D-Link has made with its own partner program. It’s quite possible that this signals a level of competition between D-Link and ZyXEL in the channel.

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Google realizes browsers can be portals to more than web pages: they’re home base for browsing, bookmarks and more. Building Chrome for Android (but only Android 4.0, a.k.a., Ice Cream Sandwich) brings that desktop experience down to a tiny ready-to-go package. Google also understands the mobile lifestyle, so Chrome for Android comes outfitted with a bunch of features that make moving from your desktop to your tablet or phone seamless. So, what are all these cool new features?

• Tabs: Not groundbreaking, but always appreciated. Google Chrome for Android features a more elegant tabbing system.
• Sign-in and Sync: Sign into Google Chrome on your Android device and suddenly your desktop favorites and personal settings get synchronized across.
• Get Up and Go: Once synchronized, users can choose to have their desktop Chrome tabs already loaded up and available on their Android phone. Pick up where you left off reading or researching without worrying about bookmarking or sending a list of links to your phone.
• Privacy: The infamous incognito mode is here in Chrome for Android, making it easy to ensure web browsing activity is conducted completely in private.

Google even produced a cute little video about it all:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Again, only Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices can test drive Chrome for Android, which, unsurprisingly, is in beta. But it is readily available on the Android Marketplace should you choose to download it. How Chrome on Android plays into Chrome OS in the future remains to be seen. I anticipate a lot of crossover, but I think Chrome OS will stick around.

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Whitman is scheduled to address the HP Global Partner Conference audience in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Rumor has it The VAR Guy will be in the house for the HP event — one of the Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences of 2012. The VAR Guy will be listening closely for updates on HP’s channel partner strategy. But our resident blogger also wants big-picture updates from Whitman. Among the elephants in the room from 2011 that Whitman must restore partner faith in…

1. HP Leadership: Former HP CEO Leo Apotheker was in place only from November 2010 to September 2011. HP’s board ousted Apotheker after the company’s WebOS strategy imploded and HP’s commitment to the PC market came into question. Apotheker’s tenure was the latest in a long list of CEO hirings and firings in the past decade.

Whitman arrived in September 2011 to restore HP’s credibility with Wall Street, customers and partners. But can she prove to partners that she’s made a long-term commitment to getting HP back on track?

2. HP Hardware: For several weeks in 2011, HP considered spinning off  its PC business (the HP Personal Systems Group). The debate was leaked to the media during former CEO Apotheker’s tenure.

• On one side of the debate, many partners wanted HP to retain its PC business to offer customers total IT solutions.
• On the other side of the debate, some investors wanted HP to shed its PC business in order to improve margins and to focus on growth markets.

HP ultimately decided to hold onto its PC business. Now, Whitman must prove that the hardware debate has ended — explaining why PCs remain core to the HP portfolio.

3. HP Software: Hewlett-Packard has never been a software powerhouse. The much-hyped WebOS strategy was supposed to help HP compete with Apple iOS and Google Android. Former CEO Leo Apotheker promised to make WebOS run on all HP devices — tablets, smartphones, PCs, printers, etc. Instead, HP pushed Apotheker out the door and pulled the plug on WebOS hardware. These days, WebOS is shifting to the world of open source but there are no guarantees for success.

After HP’s WebOS debacle, Whitman must prove to partners that HP’s recent buyout of Autonomy — for $10 billion — was worth the price and offers partner opportunities.

4. The Cloud: At the 2011 HP Americas Partner Conference (HP APC), former CEO Apotheker made rambling statements about HP’s cloud strategy — claiming the company was preparing to compete with Apple iTunes, Amazon Web Services and other big cloud services. Apotheker failed to offer any real details … and he didn’t say how channel partners would fit into the HP cloud strategy.

Whitman has an opportunity to right those wrongs. The VAR Guy will listen closely to determine if Whitman delivers the goods.

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Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and service providers should be seeing something, too: the opportunity to meet the demand for cloud-based services in the small and medium business (SMB) market. Here’s a real opportunity to upgrade your organization’s offerings and bring new solutions to your existing customers, as well as reach customers you couldn’t before.

To deliver cloud services, you may need to make a few business changes. This may be an entirely new business model for you. And, because the decision to move to cloud computing is typically made at the executive level, some of your sales teams may need to invest in executive-specific selling skills.

Also, as the hype surrounding cloud services continues to grow, it’s important to focus on what’s important. For example, most customers won’t care about a lot of the technical details. They just want to know how to access their information and make sure it stays secure. So selling cloud services doesn’t require you to keep a cloud technology “guru” on staff; that’s a function cloud technology and services vendors can fulfill. You can focus on what you do best – solving your customers’ business problems.

The best way for VARs and solution providers to sell cloud services to SMB customers is to discuss the technology’s business advantages as they relate to customer needs and pain points throughout the sales cycle. Describe how the technology can improve their business, drive down costs, and increase productivity and network performance. It’s a value proposition sure to interest them.

Though you don’t need to be steeped in the technology, its not enough to talk about only the cloud’s business advantages. You must also reassure your customers that your cloud services are secure and supported by a reliable, enterprise-level infrastructure technology and services provider.  Your technology and service provider should be able to arm you with information to help you answer these common questions from customers. If not, you might need to reconsider if you have the right partner to help you grow your business.

Do you meet security standards for compliance?

Customers will be looking for cloud service providers that meet their industry’s security compliance standards. Hospitals, for example, have strict guidelines for protecting patient records, just as banks need to ensure client records are encrypted and protected. Consider your target customers and organize your offerings to meet their industry-specific security standards.

Do you offer service-level agreements (SLAs)?

Customers want to know about your service guarantees, planned services outages for their operations, and more. Your service-level agreements (SLAs) with your customer is an important part of your offering.

Do you offer solution deployment flexibility?

The cloud may not solve all your customers’ needs. A cloud-connected approach, on the other hand, will include cloud, on-premise, and hybrid deployment options. For example, your customer may wish to store backup data onsite for fast access, but also automatically replicate the backup data to the cloud for greater disaster protection. Customers can pay only for what they need as they grow or shrink, while minimizing IT budgets or freeing an IT department to focus on other initiatives.

How will my organization’s data be protected?

Failproof recovery is critical; an organization that loses its data is out of business. Be prepared to talk about how your service is backing up its own servers—preferably by replicating backup data offsite to a separate location via secure data transfer that’s optimized for wide area networks (WANs).

What happens in the event of a disaster?

Customers will be looking for your foolproof data backup and disaster recovery plan. They want to know their service provider can get their data—and their business—back up and running quickly in case of disaster.

In summary: When choosing which cloud services to offer to your SMB customers, ask yourself the following questions.

• Does the technology support your ability to get your customers’ data back quickly, mitigate their risk, and decrease their exposure during a disaster?
• Is it reliable, secure and efficient?
• Does it hurt day-to-day performance or, instead, increase network performance and leave mission-critical programs free to do their job?
• Is the technology available in various deployment options—enabling you to tailor a solution to your customers’ needs (and, not coincidentally, giving you more ways you to make money)?

Perhaps most important, does the technology services vendor have your back when something goes wrong? Their service to you should be every bit as good—if not better—than the service you want to offer your customers.

Felix Santos, CISA, CISM, ISSM, is responsible for Compliance and Information Security for EVault, the online backup company. Monthly guest blogs such as this one are part of The VAR Guy’s annual platinum sponsorship. Read all EVault guest blogs here.

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According to F5 Networks, it understands the plights of wide-scale VDI deployments. And if we’re talking about optimization, that might sound like overhauling a VDI infrastructure. But F5 Networks claims to have a simpler solution: Just drop in one of its BIG-IP optimization appliances and you’re off to the races.

In case you need a reminder — BIG-IP technology works by optimizing the traffic that flows through the network, rerouting requests to less-flooded servers and shaping traffic when important data needs priority, such as VoIP or video.

The real whipped cream on this virtualization optimization sundae is that F5 Networks now fully supports the Big Three in virtualization: Citrix, VMware and Microsoft, plus others. We already know F5 Networks has integrated VMware nicely, and now Citrix is getting a little something extra, too. BIG-IP 11.1 offers an integrated web interface for those using Citrix XenDesktop, in addition to iApps templates for simple dashboard-level access to security and settings across an entire VDI infrastructure. (Interestingly, there’s nothing specifically mentioned about Microsoft’s Hyper-V.)

What’s the channel angle? It’s a good question, because there are a few. First, for companies that haven’t deployed VDI yet, VARs could offer a VDI bundle with F5 technology, making it a great way to future-proof a deployment. For VARs looking to add some value to an existing customer deployment, F5 Networks could clearly optimize that existing deployment. Dropping in F5 Networks’ BIG-IP also could create a level of stickiness as a company grows or demands more from its network infrastructure. We’ll continue to keep F5 Networks on our radar as it ramps up its data center offensive.

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In 2011, the buzz around mobile device management (MDM) was rising. Now, just two months into 2012, MDM has gone from subtle buzz to a full forest of cicadas. Tech Data is focusing in on that demand for mobility by appointing Quaglia as president of the TDMobility division. According to Tech Data, Quaglia is uniquely qualified because of his “25-year IT industry veteran” status and subsequent employment with Tech Data since 2006. Before heading up TDMobility, Quaglia was named SVP of U.S. Marketing in 2007, a role he will hold on to, essentially doing double-duty. Tech Data holds a lot of faith in Quaglia, especially since he has been credited with a successful launch of StreamOne, TDCloud and more.

But what exactly is TDMobility, again? Not too long ago, we covered its formation, which is part of ActivateIT, the joint venture mobility business created by Tech Data and Brightstar. Together, these two companies provide an end-to-end mobility solution, which includes mobile phone activation and wireless infrastructure hardware and software.

With Quaglia in charge of TDMobility, he’ll be specifically tasked with the “strategic direction” of Tech Data’s mobility roadmap. Quaglia’s existing marketing chops should also help TDMobility ramp up its “go-to-market execution,” which is deeply important if Tech Data wants its 60,000-or-so VAR customers to jump onboard. TDMobility will ensure it provides resellers a “single, complete solution source to sell and service their end-customer mobility needs … to capitalize on market opportunities in this growing category,” Quaglia said.

Want to hear more MDM noise? Check out Cisco’s MDM survey for the latest trends, along with Astaro’s MDM-friendly access points and Sopho’s expanding efforts in MDM security.

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ADARA Networks’ entire solution portfolio (network optimization and performance scalability) is now being sold “exclusively through Tech Data.” And due to the continued interest in ADARA networking technology, the company is adding two new certifications to the ADARA Advantage Partner Program — the ADARA Certified Engineer and the ADARA Certified Sales Specialist. ADARA believes these are well-suited specializations for partners who are looking to expand their growth opportunities and deepen their value-add of ADARA Networks technology. Partners who complete two Certified Engineer certifications will be eligible for Elite partner status, which, according to the company, includes benefits such as priority access to leads, tier-one pricing and sales incentives.

If you’re interested in ADARA’s networking portfolio, you can get a high-level overview on its site, and for a deeper dive on ADARA’s unique partner program offerings, check out its partner portal page, where you can also join up, if you feel so compelled.

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The SAP HANA announcement is actually twofold: First, SAP HANA analytics now will be infused into the SMB Business One platform. Small businesses now can get “best-in-class operational reporting with SAP Crystal Reports software,” according to the company. SAP believes bringing these advanced data analytics to the SMB can help provide SMBs with the same level of operational agility larger companies enjoy, without breaking the bank. More technically, SAP HANA for Business One “is in-memory data management software on SAP partner hardware,” which means it’s exclusively available inside the channel on hardware the VAR (or customer) prefers.

SAP HANA Edge edition, also exclusive through the channel, is targeted at the higher end with the SME in mind. SAP HANA Edge edition is software that is best linked up the SAP Business All-in-One solution, but also plays nice with SAP BusinessObjects. The technology is essentially the same, but the software is more uniquely suited for real-time analysis of data.

SAP has made a considerable push for SAP HANA, including developing a set of SAP Rapid Deployment solutions that are prepackaged and preconfigured for a smooth rollout. According to SAP, small businesses (and VARs) now have a new opportunity “to bring together structured and unstructured data analysis from any source, as well as transactional applications and analytics, in a single highly scalable, elastic infrastructure for true real-time computing.” If you want to form your own analysis about SAP HANA, visit SAP’s product page, or get a good look at SAP’s partners and partner programs here.

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Simply put: Insight Venture Partners apparently paid far too much when it purchased Ziff Davis Enterprise for roughly $150 million to $160 million in 2007, or roughly 2X revenues, The VAR Guy believes.

Now, Quinstreet is apparently valuing those Ziff Davis Enterprise assets at $17.5 million. Still, those various figures may not represent an apples-to-apples comparison. After all, Quinstreet made an asset purchase but didn’t fully acquire Enterprise Media Group Inc. (Ziff Davis Enterprise’s parent).

The Ziff Davis Enterprise portfolio certainly had some great assets — eWeek, face-to-face and online events, and a big database of IT managers. But Insight Venture Partners apparently funded the 2007 Ziff Davis Enterprise buyout with a $137 million credit facility from GE Commercial Finance.

The situation was similar to a consumer paying too much — and taking out too big a mortgage — during the U.S. real estate housing bubble, The VAR Guy believes. From 2007 to 2011, Ziff Davis Enterprise worked to transform itself into a fully digital media company, but the journey included debt payments that hampered the company’s innovation efforts, our resident blogger believes.

Quinstreet Steps In

Last week, Ziff Davis Enterprise’s bubble finally popped. Quinstreet purchased the Ziff Davis Enterprise assets for $17.5 million in cash, according to that February 7 SEC filing. The move seeks to diversify Quinstreet beyond the education and financial services verticals and into the IT media market — though most of Quinstreet’s focus apparently will involve lead generation rather than content.

Company watchers say Quinstreet appears to be cutting roughly 100 of roughly 130 Ziff Davis Enterprise positions. The Quinstreet SEC filing was short on details but did offer the payment price on Ziff Davis Enterprise. It stated:

“On February 3, 2012, the Company acquired certain assets of Ziff Davis Enterprise from Enterprise Media Group, Inc., a New York-based online media and marketing company in the business-to-business technology market, for $17,526 in cash paid upon closing of the acquisition. The results of Ziff Davis Enterprise’s operations will be included in the consolidated financial statements following the acquisition date.

The Company is currently evaluating the purchase price allocation following the consummation of the transaction. It is not possible to disclose the preliminary purchase price allocation or unaudited pro forma combined financial information given the short period of time between the acquisition date and the filing date of this report.”

(Note: The $17,526 figure is “in thousands,” hence $17.5 million.)

More details of the Quinstreet-Ziff Davis Enterprise deal may gradually leak out in SEC filings over the next few months. But in the meantime, The VAR Guy wishes all Ziff Davis Enterprise veterans best wishes as they navigate the Quinstreet deal and/or pursue new opportunities.

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