NASA: No Vista This YearOther agencies were off the bandwagon first, but Information Week reports: "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the latest federal agency to put a hold on PC upgrades to Windows Vista. NASA has decided against deploying Microsoft's five-month-old operating system anytime this year... NASA has set January 2008 as a "target" for beginning the transition from Windows XP to Vista, according to a spokesman for the federal agency, which has approximately 60,000 Windows PCs. " It will all come down to security... Posted by Joe Caponi at 05:18 PM, April 30, 2007 Sun Puts Out Channel FireIt must have seemed like a great idea. Last week Sun launched its 25 Anniversary Sale, offering direct pricing on some products at half the partner cost. Sun partners were stunned, and responded, in part, by venting their displeasure in our forums. Within three days, Sun had relented and opened the sale up to channel partners. Steven Burke says it's better late than never: "Ultimately, the sales promotion is a Harvard Business School case study on corporate marketing run amok. Sun pulled back and did the right thing. But why did it have to reach a breaking point?" Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:02 PM, April 30, 2007 Tuning Vista With Smart DefragmentingVista's new hard-drive files defragementation utility has gotten bad reviews from systems builders, according to TechBuilder's Andy McDonough: "For starters, Vista's built-in defrag utility doesn't let the user track the defragger's progress, the way XP's defragger did. This is true across all versions of Vista. McDonough has a better way--two in fact--for PC professionals to Keep Vista Running at Top Speed, and he explains them in the latest TechBuilder recipe. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:47 AM, April 30, 2007 2007 GovernmentVAR AwardsLast night, to cap our XChange Government Integrator event in Washington, GovernmentVAR presented its annual GovernmentVAR Awards to top vendors and solution providers serving the public sector. Winners included ASAP Software, ITT Defense Electronics, Capgemini, and Ingram Micro's Bob Laclede, who won Government Channel Executive of the Year. Jill Aitoro, senior editor of GovernmentVAR and author of our Public Eye blog, has the whole story. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:15 AM, April 27, 2007 2007 GovernmentVAR 100The GovernmentVAR 100, online today, ranks the top solution providers serving public sector markets. Led by Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, these businesses seem like a breed apart from conventional networking VARs and IT consultants, but they share many of the same challenges, and provide valuable examples for savvy solution providers. And they've been thriving, as Lawrence Walsh explains: "Add to the challenge of achieving success in the government channel the long sales cycles, different contracting requirements and razor-thin margins and you've got a recipe for low, slow growth. Quite to the contrary, though, government solution providers are knocking the cover off the ball." The complete GovernmentVAR 100 list is online, linked to a page of details on every company on the list, such as this one for Northrop Grumman. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:20 AM, April 25, 2007 New Blogs On Tech and GovernmentAt long last, we've moved Jill Aitoro's Public Eye blog out of it's cramped apartment in Columns and into a shiny new space all her own. She'll continue to look at issues critical to public-sector VARs, including recent posts on E-Filing, the changing role of distributors in the public sector, and possible technology responses to sudden emergencies such as the Virginia Tech shooting: "Plenty of audio systems, including a couple offered by Sarasota, Fla.-based MadahCom, are capable of broadcasting safety sirens, live and recorded voice messages, and visual alerts via secure networks. An emergency notification system automatically contacts people by phone, pager, fax and e-mail, and delivers incident-specific information and instruction." Meanwhile, VARBusiness executive editor Carolyn April has launched Channel Surfing, a new blog focused on technology issues and opportunities in the channel. Early posts include looks at IT Staffing, the growing complexity of channel IT solutions, and an MSP horror story: "Grocery chains open for the day, employees there boot up the inventory-control software being provided as a service by their MSP and, well, system crashes ensue. The MSP then spends two days putting out fires and placating angry customers whose systems were offline... Try them both out. Of course, you can track both blogs via our expanded RSS Feeds service, as well. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:00 AM, April 24, 2007 A New King of the VARBusiness 500Can the VARBusiness 500 get more VAR-focused? Hard to believe, but yes. This year's listing will move the top vendor-services divisions to a separate list, including perennial VAR 500 leader IBM Global Services, ensuring this year's top company will be a full time VAR. Lawrence Walsh has all the details: "More than 50 companies will move to our new top Vendor Services list. Additionally, we are a lot clearer on the difference between a pure-play IT vendor and an independent software vendor. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:08 AM, April 23, 2007 Disaster Recovery In Four StepsAll PC systems eventually fail. Savvy users and solution providers can limit, or even eliminate, the resulting damage, though. Our newest TechBuilder recipe, Build Disaster-Proof Systems covers all the bases in configuring a system that can ride out disaster and come back better than ever. "Most PC disasters can be avoided--or, at least, easily reversed--with minimal planning, expense and time. This is where system builders can offer a value-added solution, and make money in the process... The four key ingredients are: drive partitioning, disk imaging, software protection and hardware fortification." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:51 AM, April 23, 2007 Try Our New RSS FeedsWe've just upgraded our RSS Feed offerings with customizable feeds on topics, companies and even keywords. Along with our existing news, publication and blogger feeds, we've added in specific feeds for coverage of six key vendors (Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft and Symantec); a tool to generate a single feed of coverage of multiple technology and business topics; and a tool to enter any keyword or string -- a company name, a person, a product or technology, even a location -- and keep up with everything we've got to say on that subject. Try it out and let me know how it works for you. If you're unfamiliar with RSS, it's a great way to track web content in real time, and is easy to use in any recent web browser. There's a quick description at the bottom of the RSS page, along with links to some RSS reader sites and software. There's also more from me from last October. Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:40 PM, April 20, 2007 What's Infor's Game?This move by Infor is just stunning: "A few weeks ago, partners received new contracts and were given 10 days -- until April 13 -- to sign. Those failing to do so would be docked a point of margin per day of delay, starting April 16, according to Infor partners with the documents. And should a partner still not sign, Infor would take the maintenance and support business of the partner's customers direct." It's rarely a good move to put all your eggs in somebody else's basket, and it's hard to see this as sound strategy for Infor's partners to follow. At the Channel Mavens blog, they're speculating it may be a psychological game on Infor's part: "We wouldn't begin to suggest that Infor's (or any other vendor's) relationship with its channel partners replicates the ultimatum game, but we're thankful for the opportunity to consider how they might be connected." Or, they suggest, maybe just too much testosterone. And at the ERP Graveyard game, they're simply calling it a 'loyalty oath', that's... "really putting the screws to its partners." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:44 AM, April 19, 2007 Bloat My PC!Is there just too much junk on new PC hard drives? Yes, according to Barbara Darrow: "PC makers and their software buddies are preloading lots of software you didn't ask for and don't want. A new PC is often a morass of "freeware" and craplets that nobody but nobody asked for."
Apple completely agrees. Their latest "I'm a Mac..." commercial takes bloated PC systems head-on. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:04 AM, April 18, 2007 State of Technology--StorageVARBusiness has a harsh message for storage solution providers--wake up! In the latest State of Technology report, VARBusiness finds that most solution providers are missing out on robust growth opportunities: "Storage solution providers of all sizes generated an average of only 18 percent of total revenue from storage-related solutions and services." But it's not only storage solution providers who are missing the boat. The vendors have work to do, too. Robert DeMarzo surveys the scene: "Seagate and Western Digital are front and center in the storage vendor ranks--primarily because of their high-end products and history with the channel. But if you ask me, neither company has really seized the opportunity to move upstream against the likes of EMC, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. They're not crafting a channel story around storage services and higher-margin solutions. It seems like a rather obvious opportunity, don't you think?" As with all State of Technology reports, this one includes exclusive research on solution provider business and technology plans, gleaned from interviews with hundreds of solution providers of all sizes. Topics include: Check out the complete report. Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:40 PM, April 17, 2007 Microsoft's Newest Data Center Goes OnlineToday, Microsoft opens it's newest and data center, situated in central Washington state. "The world's largest software maker will officially flip the switch on tens of thousands of computer servers at the Quincy facility on April 16 and Microsoft is already at work on a massive $550 million data center in San Antonio, Texas... Feel that charge of geek thrill? Better ground yourself. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:38 AM, April 16, 2007 Protect Your Linux Boxes With NUTEnjoying a graceful shutdown of Linux in the event of a power outage is far more challenging than it is in the Windows world. In our latest TechBuilder recipe, A. Lizard spells out the problem: "Linux vendors almost never support UPS directly... So without UPS software, what I have is a functional but dumb UPS. That is, something that will not handle an automatic, safe shutdown in the event of a power outage." He also spells out the solution--the Network UPS Tool (NUT)--along with detailed instructions on setup and configuration to keep your systems safe. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:47 AM, April 16, 2007 Friday The 13th LinkfestUnlucky: I'm stunned at the news I'll have to go on without my morning commute companion, Don Imus--for awhile, at least. Continue reading "Friday The 13th Linkfest" Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:49 PM, April 13, 2007 Getting Started In Managed ServicesLawrence Walsh lays out the hows and the whys of adding managed services to your business portfolio. The why is to build a recurring revenue stream. The how part is trickier: "Those who go the partnering path can graduate to be standalone managed services providers. Those who refer business can always invest in the services infrastructure. And those who build can always look to their peers for technical and sales support." In the comments, ChannelWeb member frankk asks who the best vendors are to align with. "this can be a 'bet the firm' decision and I would like some independent collaboration." The CRN Test Center evaluated some of the contenders in January. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:31 AM, April 12, 2007 Web Training For Retail Staff?I received this question from a ChannelWeb member, and I don't have a good answer, so I'm putting it out to everyone... "Do you have any idea where I can access online, reasonably priced training for retail sales people? I have a retail store that sells the usual variety of computers, laptops, printers accessories, routers cables etc. We have a high turnover of our staff on the retail side and I am finding that I am taking a lot of my time away from enterprise network support and design to train retail staff on the basic of computers so they can sell. For example – what exactly is USB, what is the difference in the processors, what is the difference between SATA and IDE etc." Any suggestions, please post in our discussion forum, or email me at editor@channelweb.com. Thanks! Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:19 PM, April 10, 2007 System Cooling For High-Performance PCsLike Jimmy Neutron's brain, today's high-performance PCs throw off an enormous amout of heat. And without effective cooling, PC components fade fast. Today's TechBuilder recipe examines building thermoelectric and water-cooled systems keep your PCs cool: "Demand for PC-cooling systems should be intense. IDC predicts that 90 million 'gaming ready' PCs will be in homes by year's end . They'll all need high-end cooling systems." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:21 AM, April 9, 2007 We Get Zinged On (Lack Of) Change Of AddressA reader emailed last week looking for a 'change of address' feature for our newsletters. I had to reply that there wasn't one yet, and that resubscribing at the new address was the proper approach. Well, don't tell that to an IT guy. This came back: "Pardon my laughter, but a major web and email based organization has no mechanism for someone to change their mailing address? Except for the PAPER part of it. He's right, of course, and we're (slowly) moving on the problem, trying to connect different databases gracefully. Meanwhile, our reader understands how imperfect systems can arise in organizations--and even be an opportunity for a smart solution provider. He wrote back (in part): "I apologize for the rambling... It is 3:20 AM after a very long couple of days of fire fighting for a company that did not believe in security because they were 'too small to be of interest to any hacker.' Right now, our change-of-address: 100% unhackable. Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:08 PM, April 6, 2007 Pre1 Powers Publishing With FileMakerChoosing a database platform is a critical decision for a small ISV. Pre1 Software has found success by offering publishing solutions based on a FileMaker Server core. "FileMaker Server has provided a significant competitive advantage. We've built a robust product in a few short years, and can develop at a more rapid rate than otherwise," said Mark Jockin, Pre1 general manager. Continue reading "Pre1 Powers Publishing With FileMaker" Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:29 AM, April 6, 2007 Mobile Apps Get PersonalHeather Clancy visits the Accenture Technology Labs, and gets a preview of new mobile applications that provide real-time feedback on what you're doing, including: "A nifty application called Conversation Share, which tracks how much the parties engaged in a discussion are participating. The notion is that some salespeople, for example, often don't realize they are doing too much selling and not enough listening. This service tracks the dialogue using a Bluetooth connection and displays the breakdown in a little pie chart." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:35 AM, April 5, 2007 VARBusiness 500 Signup: Two More DaysThat's all that's left to apply for consideration for this year's VARBusiness 500. Research Director Marilyn O'Hara offers a complete Q&A on the whole (painless) process. But maybe you're not one of the biggest VARs. That's cool. Are you one of the fastest growing? Then CRN wants to hear from you: "CRN is compiling a comprehensive listing of the 100 fastest growing solution providers--as determined by the total growth of net sales revenue between 2004 and 2006--and analyzing the factors that contribute to their success." Not to be outdone, CRN has their own Q&A on the Fast Growth project. Posted by Joe Caponi at 05:28 PM, April 4, 2007 Meet The New TechBuilderMuch as we did with CRN and VARBusiness last month, today we've incorporated TechBuilder as part of your complete ChannelWeb site. You'll still find the same detailed recipes for white box and custom system builders, but now TechBuilder will take full advantage of ChannelWeb's new forums, login, search, 'rate this article' and other tools. In fact, since it's Monday, there's a new recipe: Ed Tittel explains how to Pump Up The Volume With USB-- taking advantage of the uniquitous peripheral connection to network PCs with a wide variety of home entertainment system solutions: "At the high end of the inline sound spectrum are numerous external sound-processing devices that attach to a PC through USB. These support a complete range of audio outputs, including digital optical and coaxial outputs, and multi-channel analog outputs (5.1 is common, but some units even offer 7.1 support). They can also support headphone outputs, microphone inputs, and analog stereo outputs." And that's just one area where USB can come to the rescue of white box and home networking integrators. Editor Peter Krass and his crew are hard at work on new recipes for the coming months, so take a look and let us know what you think. Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:40 PM, April 2, 2007 Taking The MSP Plunge: Prepare For Cold WaterLawrence Walsh talks to one VAR that turned his business upside down to achieve success in managed services: "Scaling is just one lesson Shulman has learned through his metamorphosis. The larger lesson is about business. He's no shrinking violet and readily voices his opinions. One that he vehemently pronounces is the need for solution providers to become better businesspeople." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:40 AM, April 2, 2007 |
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