First, a little about the Open Source Channel Alliance. Launched in April 2009, the group is striving to promote open source applications to more than 15,000 Synnex resellers. Potentially, the alliance represents a tipping point for open source in the IT channel.

Initially, the group included open source applications in such areas as email, databases and content management. Not by coincidence, many members of the Open Source Channel Alliance landed on The VAR Guy’s Open Source 50 report, which tracks the most promising open source partner programs.

Here Comes HP

Fast forward to the present, and the Open Source Channel Alliance is inviting Hewlett-Packard to the party. Apparently, HP hasn’t joined the alliance — but the hardware giant will attend the fist OSCA event.

At an event scheduled for July 23 in South Carolina, HP is expected to describe how its server and storage hardware can run open source applications within enterprises and small and midsize businesses.

Is this just another geek fest, filled with homeless hackers seeking free food? Hardly. Registrants will be charged $150 for not showing up, according to the event’s registration page.

Joining HP, Red Hat and Synnex at the event will be:

• Alfresco, which positions itself as the open source alternative to Microsoft SharePoint. Earlier this week, Alfresco insider Matt Asay told The VAR Guy’s readers that the company was going and profitable despite the recession.
• Zimbra, which has formalized its partner program since being acquired by Yahoo.
• EnterpriseDB, the open source database provider.
• Likewise Software, which specializes in integration with Microsoft Active Directory. A source close to Likewise says the company is on the brink of profitability.
• Zenoss, a specialist in commercial open source network and systems management.

Missing Pieces

While promising, the Open Source Channel Alliance still has a few missing pieces to fill in. For starters, major open source CRM providers have not joined the organization. No SugarCRM? That ain’t sweet. MySQL also is missing from the party. Still, HP’s participation in the Open Source Channel Alliance’s first event speaks volumes about the growing open source IT channel.

No doubt, open source seems to be gaining traction in the IT channel. A few weeks after the Open Source Channel Alliance launched, The VAR Guy learned Tech Data was considering a similar open source distribution initiative. Officially, Tech Data has no comment but The VAR Guy hears the distributor is still working on an long-term open source strategy.

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First, a little background. The VAR Guy is getting old. Or as Harrison Ford stated in Raiders of the Lost Ark, “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.”

Many of The VAR Guy’s early sources at Microsoft — Jim Allchin, yada yada yada, and Rich Tong  — have long since left the company. So now, The VAR Guy looks forward to quizzing several other Microsoft executives about the company’s various business strategies.

Key players The VAR Guy will be tracking include:

1. Cindy Bates, VP, US Partner Group: Bates is perhaps best known for beging GM of Microsoft US Small Business. No doubt, Windows Small Business Server has a loyal following in the channel. But how will Microsoft connect the dots between SBS and emerging cloud services — plus online storage and online security? The VAR Guy looks forward to hearing where Bates sees Microsoft’s small business efforts going next — both on premise and online.

2. Steven Guggenheimer, corporate VP, OEM Division: Guggenheimer has been a key voice in Microsoft’s netbook strategy. One week after Google surprised the world by announcing Google Chrome OS for netbooks, The VAR Guy looks forward to hearing Guggenheimer’s reaction and his vision for where Microsoft’s OEM business is heading next.

3. Prashant Ketkar, director of product marketing for cloud infrastructure services: Back in March at the Mix09 conference, Ketkar described Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud computing strategy. But The VAR Guy must concede: He needs to hear  more about the basics.

• What is the most basic business purpose of Windows Azure — for partners and end customers?
• How does Windows Azure differ from the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite? In other words, where does one end and the other begin?

4. Eron Kelly, senior director, Information Worker Enterprise Services Marketing: Kelly’s title is non-descript. At first glance, the term “information worker” doesn’t really tell you where Kelly focuses his efforts. But Kelly is the person who can give The VAR Guy a clearer picture on Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and several other SaaS applications.

If you have questions for those and other Microsoft executives, send The VAR Guy an email (TheVARguy@NineLivesMediaInc.com). Or, post a comment below.

And keep your eyes open. Once The VAR Guy lands in New Orleans, coverage of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference will shift into overdrive.

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This week’s moves — from A to T — included:

• The Autodesk Plant Solutions global network has expanded to more than 50 partners worldwide, including Hagerman & Company, one of the largest Autodesk VARs in the United States. The program includes partners that serve the plant design and engineering community.
• ECOMPEX, Inc. has joined the HP Developer & Solution Partner Program (DSPP). The HP DSPP is designed to help independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators, developers and consultants to work collaboratively to fulfill customer needs.
• immixGroup plans to promote FalconStor Software’s storage technology to the government channel.
• Hostway has joined the Microsoft BizSpark program as a Network Partner. The result: BizSpark startups can receive essentially free software to run on servers leased from Hostway.
• Juniper selected Netformx as the online network configuration solution for Juniper’s Worldwide Channels J-Partner Program. The result, Netformx claims, emplowers  Juniper partners to generate quotes, configurations, and facilitate advanced network designs quickly and accurately.
• OSSCube plans to provide customized SugarCRM product and training solutions to customers worldwide. Separately, OSSCube joined the Acquia Partner Program as a Gold service provider.
• QLogic, which makes network infrastructure solutions, says it has simplified its Signature Partner Program.
• Kiosk maker Source Technologies launched a new global partner program for OEMs, value-added resellers (VARs), independent software vendors (ISVs) and distributors.
  
• Teradici, which evangelizes the so-called “PC-over-IP” experience, has launched a partner program for value-added resellers, system integrators, and OEMs seeking to promote remote computing and virtual desktop solutions to their customers.

Whether you’re joining — or leaving — a partner program, let The VAR Guy know.

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… but it’s tricky timing for The VAR Guy. Our resident blogger will be at CompTIA Breakaway on August 5, mingling with  channel leaders from Cisco Systems, Google, Ingram Micro Seismic and Red Hat, among others.

But the Oracle gathering also sounds tempting. According to an email that hit The VAR Guy’s inbox:

You are invited to take part in an intimate event for select members of the blogging community at Oracle Headquarters in Redwood Shores, CA on Wednesday, August 5.

This one-day event will include a talk with Oracle President Charles Phillips, as well as sessions with product strategy and development executives and other Oracle experts.

This time around, The VAR Guy will need to take a rain check because of the scheduling conflict.

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First up, Digium in September will host a series of Asterisk training courses at ITExpo in Los Angeles. Then, Digium will play an encore at the Astricon conference, scheduled for Oct. 13-15 in Glendale, Ariz. Heck, even The VAR Guy is drinking some of the Asterisk Kool Aid. During Astricon, our resident blogger will lead a session on Asterisk in the IT channel. Resellers welcome.

Calling In the Channel

Astricon typically attracts “hundreds” of people who work with phone systems, unified communications and Voice over IP (VoIP), according to a prepared Digium statement.

On the channel front, Digium has signed up distributors across the globe. Prime examples in North America include ABT Technology, Interlink Communication Systems, NextUSA, Westcon Group and Williams Telecommunications Group. Eager resellers include The Fulcrum Group, a North Texas provider of voice and data solutions.

According to a prepared statement:

The Fulcrum Group has deployed and supported Asterisk-based telephony systems since 2007. The company’s current clients include nationally recognized law firms, health care providers, financial services firms, banks, real estate companies, government agencies, manufacturers, performance centers, nonprofits, and research centers.

No doubt, Digium Director of Global Channel Sales Jim Butler is striving to push Asterisk deeper into the channel. And company insiders are working the blogosphere, assuring readers that privately held Digium is profitable and growing.

So far, so good. But let’s keep it all in perspective. Even as Asterisk gains momentum, Cisco Systems continues to employ roughly 67,000 people and generates roughly $40 billion in annual revenues. Meanwhile, Digium is privately held and certainly isn’t in the $1 billion neighborhood yet.

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Yes, CSP is serious about business. But the MSP also is serious about building a winning culture where the NOC engineers find time to relax a bit.

For instance, CSP’s NOC has a Nintendo Wii. When asked if CSP had an Atari 2600 or Intellivision handy, the company replied with a few hours with this photo of Dig Dug displayed on a 50 inch LCD screen.

Don’t remember Dig Dug? Perhaps this will refresh your memory:

Find iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ

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First, the back story. At Cisco Partner Summit on June 4, The VAR Guy reported:

During a private meeting with channel partners, Robbins allegedly told VARs they must “Refuse To Lose” when competing with HP, according to three of The VAR Guy’s trusted sources. And Robbins allegedly tossed in this gem: “I am your personal deals desk.”

In other words, if Cisco partners need a better deal to beat HP on price, the partners should call Robbins directly. The Cisco partners said they wouldn’t take Robbins up on the offer because they don’t want to alienate their existing Cisco account representatives. But the message is clear: The war is on with HP.

Fast forward to the present. Robbins’ words seem to be haunting Cisco… gradually moving from the blogosphere into the IT media. Follow-up stories about the potential Cisco-HP price war have appeared here and here on CRN.

Cisco Channel Blog

Eager to clarify the situation, Cisco is taking its message direct to its own partners — through the company’s channel blog.

In a July 9 blog entry, Cisco Senior VP Wendy Bahr emphasizes value over sales volume:

By knowing they will be rewarded for the value they deliver to the customers, not the volume they deliver to the vendor, our partners have the confidence to build their businesses around solving customers’ toughest issues and addressing their greatest opportunities.

Finally, Bahr addresses the “Refuse to Lose” comment allegedly uttered by Robbins, stating:

So if “value” remains our focus, what did we mean by “Refuse to Lose”?

We recognize that in this challenging economic environment it’s more important than ever that we help our customers realize the value from their IT investment. And at Cisco Partner Summit, we candidly discussed our passion to work with our partners to meet the challenge of competition from price and volume-driven vendors.

Hmmm. So, which “price and volume-driven vendor” keeps Cisco up at night? Bahr didn’t mention names in her blog entry. But Cisco certainly seems to have HP on its mind.

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That’s the situation facing the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC09), which runs July 13-16 in New Orleans. During the event, Microsoft will provide numerous updates on Windows 7, Office 2010, Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, Windows Azure and the company’s overall Software Plus Services strategy.

But with a single blog post on July 7 — announcing Google Chrome OS, a Linux-based operating system — the search giant has once again changed the rules of the game. In a word, Google’s timing was “brilliant.”

Bloggers, IT journalists and business reporters are spending this week examining what exactly Google Chrome OS means to the operating system market, the Internet, mobile computing, and the future of application development.

Many of those same journalists will converge on the WPC09 conference, armed with Google-related questions for Microsoft. It’s going to be a fun week for those who love to whip up conversation. But a challenging week for Microsoft.

Simply put: Microsoft has spent a year stirring up interest in Windows 7 and distancing itself from Windows Vista. Now, Google has injected itself into the conversation with a single blog post.

Balanced Perspective

Plenty of so-called pundits say the Microsoft empire is falling. No doubt, the company is under attack on multiple fronts. But channel partners are a loyal bunch. And several thousand of them will rally to Microsoft’s cause during WPC09 in New Orleans.

Oh, and did The VAR Guy mention that Microsoft’s net income was $2.98 billion in Q3? That’s not revenue, folks. It’s net income — down significantly from Q3 last year, but still a growing mountain of cash for Microsoft’s war chest.

Meanwhile, Google’s own channel strategy is just getting started. Sure, the Google Apps Reseller program has a reasonable following. But thousands of VARs and managed service providers continue to evangelize Microsoft Small Business Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint and a host of other solutions.

And while we’re on the topic of hosting, Microsoft’s Exchange and SharePoint seem to rank atop the list of applications that MSPs and VARs are hosting for customers these days.

Still, Microsoft must be worried about Google’s entry into the OS market. And Google timed the Chrome OS launch announcement perfectly. But Chrome OS faces multiple questions. And Windows 7, quite frankly, looks pretty promising.

Let the games — at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 — begin.

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First, a little background: Reynolds is a well-known channel chief who previously held key positions at Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro and Novell. Less than 24 hours ago, Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis disclosed that Reynolds has joined Dell to run the company’s PartnerDirect global enterprise partner business.

During a quick conversation with The VAR Guy, Reynolds shared some key reasons for joining Dell…

1. Opportunity: Davis approached Reynolds directly, and the opportunity to have a global channel role at a major channel company was exactly the type of post Reynolds says she was seeking. “I’ve worked for companies that have been direct and indirect,” says Reynolds. “I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly.” When Reynolds looked behind the curtains at Dell, she liked what she saw: A global company that was gaining channel momentum.

2. Relationships: Several of Reynolds’ former enterprise contacts at Novell moved over to Dell around the time former Novell President Joe Marengi joined Dell in 1997. These days, Marengi is at AustinVentures. But when Reynolds checked in with her established Novell sources at Dell, she liked what she heard.

3. Economic Turbulence: Most recently Reynolds was channel chief at Palo Alto Networks. But her position was eliminated as part of a corporate downsizing amid the recession. (Reynolds continues to speak highly of Palo Alto Networks.) When Dell’s Davis came calling, the timing and opportunity seemed perfect to Reynolds.

Already, Reynolds has met with Dell’s Asia Pacific team. Next up, she’s heading to Europe to meet with Dell employees and partners.

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1. Branding and Positioning: Google has Chrome (the browser), Chrome OS (the operating system) and Android (the operating system). How are they similar, how do they differ, and which markets does each offering target?

2. Independent Software Vendors: Is Chrome OS simply an operating system to run Google Apps, or will Google offer software development kits to ISVs? Do operating systems still demand native local applications — or can Google get by with support for Web-driven applications and online services?

3. OEMs: Dell and Hewlett-Packard, among others, say they are interested in Google Chrome OS for netbooks. But will that interest drive PC makers to actually ship netbooks with Chrome OS?

4. Linux: Ah, Linux netbooks were hot items in North America a few months ago. But North American retailers seem less and less interested in Linux netbooks. Will a netbook showdown between Google and Microsoft push Linux further out of the netbook spotlight? And what, ultimately, is Google’s own Linux strategy?

5. Channel Partners: Is Google Chrome OS purely a consumer play? Or does Google plan to work with PC makers to push Google Chrome OS Netbooks through the channel?

Update, July 9, 11:37am eastern: How Google Chrome OS could impact Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09)

Our resident blogger will be hunting down answers to those questions in the days ahead.

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The VAR Guy traded email with Unison Chief Marketing Officer Rurik Bradbury.

Among the highlights:

- Unison 2.0: It’s scheduled to launch in September with ActiveSync for full mobile syncing of email/calendars/contacts; encrypted phone calls; multiparty IM chat; open APIs to build hooks into other services, Bradbury says.

- Hosted Unison: Intermedia, a major Microsoft Exchange hosting provider, is running a Hosted Unison beta that will shift into full-gear during Q3, asserts Bradbury. “It’s great for us that the world’s largest MS Exchange host is now offering Unison,” crows Bradbury. The VAR Guy can’t debate Bradbury on that point.

Bradbury adds: “Partners interested in white labeling Unison down the line can join Intermedia’s partner program for free.”

Seeking more details, The VAR Guy plans to catch up with Intermedia during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (July 13-16, New Orleans).

- Partner Program: Bradbury concedes that Unison’s general partner program is “still in the works; we pushed back the launch of this as we are building a more sophisticated partner portal…When we launch, we will give all VARs and partners the ‘premium’ version so they will get leads distributed to them. Our goal is to be an extremely partner-centric company.”

- Ubuntu: Unison also triggered headlines last year by vowing to support Ubuntu Linux. Fast forward to the present, and both Unison Server and Unison Desktop are available in production versions running on Ubuntu, Bradbury says.

Lots of progress and promises. But will Unison become a profitable alternative to Exchange Server and various Unified Communications platforms? And how will channel partners ultimately fit in the mix? The VAR Guy will be watching.

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First, a little background. Yes, Red Hat is solidly profitable thanks to growing sales of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss middleware. Rival Novell often generates profitable quarters but the profits are based on Novell’s complete software portfolio; the company’s SUSE Linux business is not yet consistently profitable, The VAR Guy hears.

Are there any other publicly held, profitable companies built around the open source model?

Bueller?

Bueller?

Private, But Profitable

Now let’s shift the discussion to privately held open source companies. Since they’re privately held it’s often impossible to determine whether they generate profits.

In recent months, The VAR Guy heard privately held xTuple — an open source ERP software provider that’s building a partner channel — is profitable. And now he’s got another example: Germany’s Sopera, which has so far declined venture funding because the company is profitable, according to Managing Director Ricco Deutscher.

Sopera positions its software as a service oriented architecture (SOA) platform, and the company’s partners include Deutsche Post, Eclipse, Microsoft, Novell and Oracle. Based in Bonn, Germany, Sopera plans to push deeper into the North American market, leveraging channel partners, real soon. (Stay tuned for details on that.)

In the meantime, Sopera’s Deutscher reinforces the statement “we’re profitable.”

Anybody Else?

The VAR Guy is struggling to determine which other companies — if any — from the Open Source 50 research report generate profits.

Certainly, businesses like Digium (promoter of the Asterisk open source IP PBX) and Alfresco (the open source alternative to SharePoint) are growing fast. But their privately held status makes it difficult to pinpoint whether they’re profitable today … and/or expect to be profitable soon.

So, The VAR Guy is all ears: Who else in the open source market is solidly profitable?

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