Google Pulls The Microsoft Move... On MicrosoftCRN has been following the story of Writely, the web-based word processor bought by Google, for some time now (see Ed Moltzen from last November. But with the announcement of Google's business suite, Barbara Darrow sees Google having an opportunity to out-Microsoft Microsoft in the bundled software space. "Microsoft types pooh pooh the Google threat, countering that Writely et al. are underpowered and feature constrained compared to Word and Excel. What they don't seem to get is that most people blast Office apps for for being "over featured" and overly complex." Posted by Joe Caponi at 08:51 AM, August 30, 2006 CRN Special Report: Training and CertificationCRN takes their annual look at training and certification and find some room for optimism: "The ongoing tension evident in recent years between vendors and channel partners over the proliferation of training and certification programs, rising costs and constantly changing requirements appears to be waning." The report finds the most valuable certification programs in software, networking, systems and storage according to solution providers. Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:30 PM, August 28, 2006 Eleven Things We Can Do WithoutIf Pluto can get booted off the list of planets, Robert Faletra asks if we can boot out channel practices that no longer make sense (if they ever did). At least two, (PowerPoint and Instant Messaging) should probably be retired from the entire American economy, if you ask me. Some more examples: "Channel-neutral compensation is on the top of my list. Why is it so hard to make a decision that you either want the channel to sell your product or not? To me, channel-neutral compensation inside a vendor organization is a signal that the vendor is hedging its bet. Read it all. Posted by Joe Caponi at 01:14 PM, August 28, 2006 RAID For System BuildersThe newest TechBuilder recipe compares SATA-II and SAS standards for building RAID storage systems: "How does this benefit the server system builder? Let's find out by taking a look at SATA-II and SAS. Then, we'll build a RAID-capable server with SATA-II drives that can later be migrated to SAS drives while still preserving our hardware investment and without the need to rebuild the entire system from the inside out." Posted by Joe Caponi at 01:09 PM, August 28, 2006 Solution Provider Marketing TipsThere aren't many businesses harder to explain to the public--or even customers--than solution provider ones. Think Dilbert: "Hey, if you don't want your resources integrated, just say so!" So smart marketing is crucial to grow your business. Heather Clancy looks a one program to do just that. "The buzz on marketing is pretty loud right now. Several times during my IPED experience, the solution providers literally shouted ideas across the room. And, to a person, these executives were interested in raising the profile for their total solutions and not simply some random, albeit vitally important product." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:05 AM, August 24, 2006 The Top Free Linux For The ChannelThe CRN Test Center tests out Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Freespire to find the best free Linux distribution that offers solution providers opportunities to add value for their customers. "Test Center engineers focused on what aspects of a Linux desktop would most benefit system builders, including installation, setup, support, feature set and usability." Posted by Joe Caponi at 09:58 AM, August 24, 2006 Nominate Your Top TechnologistOnline today, VARBusiness is opening nominations for its Technologist of the Year awards, to be presented later this year. Sure, executive vision and channel smarts are key to any successful product, but here, VARBusiness is recognizing those CTOs and product development managers who create the tech breakthroughs we all count on. Posted by Joe Caponi at 05:12 PM, August 23, 2006 New Blog: Going HomeCRN's Jeff O'Heir has launched our latest Channel blog, Going Home. Jeff will focus on the digital convergence and home integration markets, as in this post on the features that define a digital home. But expect more than that from Jeff. For instance, in this post, he shares his recollection of an interview he had ten years ago with John Ramsey, who's daughter's murder remains unsolved today. As CEO of distributor Access Graphics, Ramsey had been featured regularly in CRN and VARBusiness in the years leading up to the crime. "CRN and VARBusiness were the first media Ramsey granted in depth interviews with following his and his wife's initial plea to find the killer. On that July day, Ramsey sat in a conference room at Keystone Resort in Colorado during Access Graphic's New Frontiers partner conference. The company's PR rep had asked us not to talk about the murder. We refused and Ramsey agreed to discuss it." The RSS feed for "Going Home" is at http://www.crn.com/weblogs/goinghome/rss.xml. Posted by Joe Caponi at 05:03 PM, August 23, 2006 Cisco And Microsoft Join In Pandemic DrillBarbara Darrow looks at Strong Angel III: "In essence these guys run a fire drill—more like an Armageddon drill. This year's exercise will take place in San Diego next week with the city's old Naval recruitment training center as HQ. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:56 AM, August 23, 2006 MSP MadnessLarry Hooper is back from XChange and says that VARs are right to be excited about managed services opportunities: "In a spirited standing-room-only session, Ryan Morris of the Institute for Partner Education & Development, a sister group of CRN, said the managed services business could very well turn out to be the savior of the VAR channel, and thus, everything it is hyped to be. And he had the data to prove it. His main proof point: Customers want managed services. Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:04 PM, August 21, 2006 IP-Based Camera SurveillanceThe latest TechBuilder recipe details building a video surveillance system that can enhance facility safety and security, and run over wired, wireless or Power-over-ethernet networks. Phil Dunn writes; "IP-based cameras connect directly to IP networks, record at higher frame rates, and generally have better resolution then Webcams. They can pan, tilt and zoom, and many have one-way or two-way audio capabilities. They also come with monitoring and management software that lets you trigger alarms and e-mail alerts when certain events occur." Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:34 AM, August 21, 2006 Readers Weigh In On H1-BSome responses to Monday's post on H1-B visas and the Channel. On the boards, a reader notes: "Not everyone uses these visas to drive down local salaries. Our company has a wholly-owned subsidiary in Eastern Europe. When we bring staff to the U.S. from that subsidiary, they go on an extended leave of absence there and get full market salary here. The visa isn't a cost-saving tool for us, it is a way to shift experienced staff around when needed." Another emails: "I'm not sure Shahid really knows what he is talking about. I too work with an H1-B. Before you can be employed you have to have a Labor Cert. Which means you are qualified to do the job. The employer has to demonstrate they are paying the going rate. This is policed by the INS in a way that you have to provide pay slips. I can only suggest that Shahid is a little out of touch with what is currently going on." Is the alternative to increasing H1-B visa limits the complete offshoring of technical jobs? What are you seeing in your organizations? Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:22 AM, August 18, 2006 Linux: The Profitable Specialty?Lots of VARs think so, according to this study on Linux solution provider profitability by CMP Technology's Institute for Partner Educations and Development: "There is a perfect correlation between the percentage of Linux-based solutions sold and the relative profitability of those solutions," said Rick Vieth, senior practice manager at IPED, a division of CMP Technology, the Manhasset, N.Y.-based publisher of CRN. "The more experience they have with Linux and the greater percentage of Linux in their business, the more profitable they are." Posted by Joe Caponi at 09:53 AM, August 17, 2006 Annual Report Card Awards '06VARBusiness presented their Annual Report Card awards last night at XChange '06. In the ARC, vendors are rated by their own solution provider partners in one of our largest annual research projects. In nineteen technology categories (operating systems, storage, networking, mobile computing and more), top vendors were scored on product innovation, support, partnership, and loyalty. "But, of course, the highlight of the evening and the epitome of ARC fame is the coveted CMP Channel Group's Channel Executive of the Year Award... The award went to Donn Atkins, IBM's General Manager of Global Business Partners. Atkins took the reigns at IBM's partner organization back in 2004 and has spent just shy of 30 years at Big Blue." Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:20 AM, August 16, 2006 Women Of The ChannelThe latest VARBusiness special report recognizes 50 top women working in the Channel today, along with tips for anyone looking to stand out in business, and an opportunity to join VAR's Women of the Channel community: "The channel--and the IT industry at large--is evolving, and women are becoming a force to be reckoned with across the board. While vendors have been quicker to take on women executives, solution providers are following suit (forgive the pun). In fact, more than 25 VARs on this year's VARBusiness 500 are headed by women" Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:20 AM, August 16, 2006 Dell's Big Battery RecallA burning laptop can ruin your whole day. And in response to numerous reports of trouble with Sony batteries in their laptops, Dell computer is recalling four million batteries. "A Dell spokeswoman said the batteries involved in the recall were sold between April 2004 and July 2006. The battery cells were manufactured by Sony for the Dell notebooks involved, which include "the majority of Latitudes, Inspirons, Dell Precision and XPS" laptops, the spokeswoman said." More details on the recall at dellbatteryprogram.com. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:30 AM, August 15, 2006 Boost Your XP Performance TodayThe latest TechBuilder recipe covers 11 techniques you can use today to clean-up and speed up your own or your customers' XP systems, along with five free third party tuneup tools. "If a client complains that their system's performance has taken a sudden hit, or that stability has suddenly become an issue, you're probably looking at a hacked machine, virus attack, or failing hardware. In all three cases, a repair job is in order. But if a client complains about an older model PC that simply won't run as fast as it used to, that probably means the time has come for a tune-up. That's where this Recipe comes in." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:45 AM, August 14, 2006 H1-B Visas And The ChannelCRN's John Roberts has reader responses to proposals to raise the H1-B quota sharply over the next decade. (H1-B visas permit skilled foreign workers to enter the United States to work for three to six years. Currently, 65,000 H1-B visas are granted each year, and the supply is quickly exhausted.) "While some solution providers have said they would welcome the quota increase, others in the channel have diametrically opposed views. This June report from EETimes.com backs up the contention that H1-B visas are driving down engineer's salaries in the U.S.: ""I work with those H-1Bs, and as far as I know they are getting half of what we get," said Shahid Sheikh, a senior software developer with TAC Worldwide in Jacksonville, Fla. "I get a normal salary. I get $80,000 a year. They get a maximum $40,000 a year." Sheikh, who worked under an H-1B visa when he emigrated from Bangladesh 12 years ago, said the program is "filled with fraud and cheating." He was naturalized about two years ago." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:18 AM, August 14, 2006 Get PatchingThis Windows vulnerability sounds like bad news. "The bug in question is one of 23 patched Tuesday by Microsoft, and one of 16 tagged by the Redmond, Wash. software developer as "critical." It affects all currently-supported versions of Windows, can be exploited without end users lifting a finger, and in some experts' eyes, rivals the bug that led to 2003's destructive MSBlast attack." Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:37 AM, August 11, 2006 New Mac, New Editing ToolsBlogging was quiet yesterday as I moved in to my new Macintosh here at ChannelWeb. Not one of these, (yet) but a still-speedy, dual-processor, MDD "Windtunnel" Mac G4, replacing a slower single-processor "Quicksilver" G4. It's faster. And yes, a little noisy. I'm also enjoying a couple of upgrades to two of my favorite text editors. TextWrangler, in which I'm writing this, is a successor to my high-speed word processor of choice for years, BBEdit Lite. While free, BBEdit Lite was also very fast to open and edit, yet featured regular expression search and replace, a directory listing import I constantly used, case changing tools, and multi-file editing. TextWrangler, to start with, adds color syntax highlighting, a real plus when coding web pages. Also in my OSX 10.4 is nano, the follow-up to pico, my favorite command-line text editor. For more advanced programming, I use jedit, on both Mac and Windows, but for quick notes and lists, nothing beats pico for speed. Nano adds a regex search-and-replace that'll make it much better for advanced editing. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:33 AM, August 11, 2006 Defining Managed ServicesLawrence Walsh talks to a half-dozen MSPs to sort out what it is they actually do: "Solution providers getting into the game have all kinds of definitions for what constitutes a managed service. In fact, some even say myriad definitions are causing confusion in the marketplace, making it difficult to succeed." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:53 AM, August 9, 2006 Big VARs Remain UpbeatAs a whole, the top solution providers in North America turned in solid second-quarter results and are happy with growth prospects going forward, according to the VARBusiness 500 quarterly survey: "Among the respondents, 30 percent said second-quarter server-platform sales were ahead of expectations; 34 percent said those sales were in line with expectations; 66 percent saw storage management either ahead of expectations or in line with them. As for the third quarter, 76 percent of VARBusiness 500 company respondents foresee that server-platform sales will be ahead of expectations or in line with them, and 75 percent foresee the same for storage management." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:15 AM, August 8, 2006 Burke's Rants and RavesA "Channel Yea!" for the newest feature over on CRN TV: Steve Burke's 'Rants and Raves'. Each week, CRN News Editor Burke presents the heros and villians of the channel as only he can. Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:33 PM, August 7, 2006 Prepare Now for Vista PC BuildsYou know Vista PC's will need plenty of memory and fast graphics, but there's more to preparing for the Vista launch. You'll need to help customers choose among five Vista Editions; work though the Upgrade Advisor; and explain how Microsoft has lowballed those hardware requirements. Our latest TechBuilder recipe: What Will You Need For Vista? will get you on your way. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:31 AM, August 7, 2006 Gates Ode Sparks FarksBarbara Darrow notes the action offsite in response to a Robert DeMarzo column on Bill Gates: "One colleague wrote recently that the entire industry owes Gates a huge debt of gratitude for building Microsoft and making their livelihoods possible. His "Ode to Mr. Gates" provoked an--ahem-- interesting thread on Fark. (Be forewarned, some language is not suitable for the faint of heart.)" UPDATE: More from Darrow on Microsoft's many challenges: "There has been a lot of Gates worship since his announced decision to step back from day-to-day duties. But let's be frank: A lot of what's wrong with Microsoft stemmed from the top." UPDATE: Robert DeMarzo responds to the Farking and reprints some of his favorite posts. "I certainly don't think Gates is a saint. He is an opportunistic technologist-turned-business man who profited from the mistakes of his rivals and from the sheer opportunity that ensued in the early PC days." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:12 AM, August 7, 2006 Blu-ray vs HD-DVDThere's a format war brewing in high-end blue-laser optical disk storage. This week's TechBuilder recipe examines the two contenders: Blu-ray and HD-DVD. With major industry players on both sides, this one won't be settled soon: "HD-DVD has a slight advantage, since it was the first out of the gate with consumer products, and since manufacturing process proponents say the technology is more accessible to existing CD/DVD plants. But Blu-ray is looking at a major boost when the Sony Playstation 3 is released, reportedly in November, as the PS3 will sport a Blu-ray drive." Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:21 AM, August 3, 2006 Tech Workers UpbeatA new report shows tech workers happier and more secure than they've been all year, and happier than workers in other industries: ""It's hot out there right now for tech pros," says Kevin Knaul, a Hudson VP. Fueling the confidence of tech pros is heavy demand by employers. "There is definitely more demand than supply right now," he says. "It's a struggle to keep up." Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:18 AM, August 3, 2006 The Vista MistakeThere's a lesson here, regarding biting off vs. chewing, that everyone can learn from. Steve Ballmer: "We made an upfront decision that was, I'll say, incredibly strategic and brilliant and wise -- and was not implementable," Ballmer said [to financial analysts last week]. "We tried to incubate too many new innovations and integrate them simultaneously, as opposed to letting them bake and then integrating them, which is essentially where we wound up." Your 'blue skies' project and your 'bet the farm' project should rarely be the same project. UPDATE: Lawrence Walsh weighs in: "Let's be frank, Microsoft had no choice in taking on more than it could chew. When it took the wraps off Longhorn in 2002, it was on the eve of launching Windows Server 2003 and losing a battle of attrition with malware writers and hackers around the world. End users were going crazy -- and broke -- trying to keep up with the constant barrage of patches for Windows NT, 98/SE and 2000; bug hunters -- people who search for application vulnerabilities -- were making mincemeat out of the newly released Windows XP. The chief security officer of a top 10 bank relayed to me a conversation she had with Bill Gates: "Either you fix this or we're going to find a replacement."" Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:25 AM, August 1, 2006 |
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