Independence LinksI'll be away a few days, but here's a head's up on the best of ChannelWeb: This week we've launched the latest edition of our quarterly State of Technology report, this time examining opportunities in networking. Networking: Growth In VoIP, Video, includes details on our research into VARs networking choices, as well as a look at the 20 Most Strategic Networking Vendors. This week will be remembered as Bill Gates last as a full-time Microsoft employee. End. Of. An. Era. Don't miss our 10 Examples Of Bill Gates Telling It Like It Is, and Information Week's Peek Inside Bill Gates' Head. Enjoy your summer, Bill! Coming up next week, watch for CRN's Emerging Vendors Special Report. Many solution providers find they can enjoy better margins, offer unique solutions, and avoid channel conflict by choosing lesser-known hardware and software partners. We'll run down the pros and cons of that approach, and toss in a databank of almost 200 small, but growing vendors in a variety of tech categories. Next week is also the last to apply for our Executive of the Year award and our Fast Growth/Retail directory. Happy Birthday, America! And you too, Canada!
Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:15 PM, June 27, 2008 Desktops and Notebooks; Networking and SecurityWe've just posted two terrific PC slide shows: 10 Cool Desktop Computers; showcasing the state of the art in full-size PC development, including beauties from AOpen, Sony and Alienware; and The Year of the Notebook, highlighting units where power gets packed in tightly with portability, from the MacBook Air to the HP Mini Note to the Panasonic Toughbook, and more. Cool Desktops comes to us from this month's issue of CRN Tech. Online, you'll also find the Channel Test Center's reviews of all in one networking products, malware filters, Nokia's enterprise-level smartphones, and ROBObak's storage-as-a-service tools. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:23 AM, June 24, 2008 Plugging Into The Retail ChannelWhen we say we're "Everything Channel," we're commiting to bring you news and information on every route to market for technology solutions. It won't surprise many of you to hear that the world of retail is a significant slice of the technology purchase pie, even among larger organizations, and certainly among smaller ones. So we have a number of initiatives in the works to provide more information for you on the Retail sector. To being with, we've launched our Retail news section, covering the key issues and most important players in that marketplace. With our acquisition of Vision Events, we're now pleased to host the RetailVision web site and conference series. Our next RetailVision conference will take place in August in San Diego. Finally, we're focusing our powerful research laser on retail. To that end, we've opened up applications for our first Fast Growth 50 list for retail, in search of "the 50 fastest growing computer/electronics/software retailers in the U.S." Applications are open now through July 8. If you're a retailer, Apply Today. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:27 AM, June 23, 2008 Summer Solstice LinkfestTonight, at 8:00 EDT, our sun reaches it's highest point as seen in the northern hemisphere, we enjoy our longest day*, and summer begins. In honor of the sun, some links: Continue reading "Summer Solstice Linkfest" Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:37 PM, June 20, 2008 Sign Up For Channel Executive of the YearOur highest honor for vendor executives, Channel Executive of the Year is open for applications now. Oracle's Rauline Ochs took the top award last year at our XChange '07 event, and this year's award will be presented at XChange '08 in Dallas, TX. Executives will be judged on "the influence his or her channel organization has over corporate strategy, demonstrable innovation, major accomplishments, partner satisfaction and visibility within the industry." Apply Today!
Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:20 PM, June 20, 2008 Firefox 3 Day 2This morning, Mozilla's Spread Firefox site is reporting nearly 11,000,000 downloads of Firefox 3, including over 8,000,000 during Download Day itself. Further, they're claiming a browser market share of "around four percent at the end of Download Day." From the looks of it here, they may be doing better than that. Our own ChannelWeb visitor statistics show Mozilla 3 (including beta versions) jumping up over 10% of our total this morning. How is Firefox doing otherwise? At the Red Ferret Journal, Nigel is overjoyed: "The beauty of it is that the 15,000 small things that improve it really do add value, they’re not just there for feature bloat or to show off. Get it. At InformationWeek, they're concerned about the lack of focus on enterprise features: "'It's just one more app to support,' Ericksen VP of technology David Pluke said in an e-mail. He just hasn't seen any compelling reason to switch from Internet Explorer or add support for Firefox... [Though] Boeing and Fidelity Investments are among the companies that support or encourage Firefox use." A security exploit has already been discovered (though it affected earlier verions, as well). While at Lifehacker, they've already put together a whole batch of extensions and tips for using Firefox 3.
Posted by Joe Caponi at 07:12 AM, June 19, 2008 Firefox 3 Download DayRemember system crashes? Those "why did my computer just reboot and what happened to everything I was working on?" moments? Thankfully those days are pretty much over, though I do still see regularly see application lock-ups on my Mac, where one program will retreat into itself and refuse to acknowledge my concerned mouse-clicking. A "Force Quit" will be required to get it running again, or even a "Kill" command from the Terminal. Since I've stopped using Lotus Notes, just about the only program that still locks up on me is Mozilla Firefox. So I'm looking forward to today's release of Firefox 3, promising improved stability and better handling of whatever the World Wide Web throws at it. While Internet Explorer 7 is certainly a big improvement over IE 6, as a web developer, I still find Firefox a far more accurate renderer of my HTML and CSS code, and I use a number of Firefox plug-ins to extend it's functionality. (See our slide show comparison of Firefox vs. IE.) On bMighty, Fred Paul says the new Firefox is fast: "The first and most important thing you'll notice is that Firefox 3 is fast. Not just a few ticks faster than Firefox 2 and IE6 or IE7, but significantly and noticably faster. I was stunned the first time I loaded a page in FF3. It finished loading while I was still getting ready to see how long it would take. There's lots more to Firefox, but it would be the browser of choice for that alone." Our own Test Center liked the improved malware defenses: "Reviewers purposefully infected the test PC with some particularly annoying adware programs. IE infection was immediate, but Mozilla was able to stave off the malware. The pornographic pop-ups and site redirections that occurred after installing the malware became a nuisance in IE 8 but did not happen with using Mozilla." Firefox 3 won't be available via automatic update for version 2 users, yet, but the Mozilla folks are still eager to get it into your hands. With with "Download Day," they're going for a record. Gayle Kesten reports: "Finally, with Firefox 3 -- and some clever marketing -- Mozilla is pushing to set a world record for the most software downloads in a 24-hour period. Its pitch: 'All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours.'" Download Day got off to a bit of a rough start, but is on track now. See live stats here. Download Day continues until 11:16am Pacific Daylight Time today. Posted by Joe Caponi at 08:00 AM, June 18, 2008 Hot Topics FeedbackLast month, I posted 20 Great-Looking Solution Provider Websites, a slide show highlighting some of the most creative work on display in our business. Derive Technologies, one of the sites I mentioned, not only trumpeted their achievement on their website; but their design firm, Mitra Creative did as well. They deserved to. I also heard from Kristine Buyers, director of Marketing Communication at Dewpoint, who shared the news that the company has since launched a redesign of their site. My initial take on it is that they've definitely made the site even more professional-appearing, and have kept a bit of the cheerful yellow color from their logo, though I do miss the playfulness of the old look a bit. Two months ago, I blogged about the trouble at British Airways Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport outside London. I'm happy to say things are going better now, but not before we heard from a number of ChannelWeb members actually caught up in the Terminals' numerous opening-month problems, including one reader who notes: "This has actually happened on the same scale with every single major airport that has opened in the last 15 years or so, including Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Bangkok, Thailand. I think you guys should do an in depth piece on how solution providers could be used to help gauge the capacity requirements and anticipate the contengenices that invariably crop up with projects of this scale!" Some recommendations from the vendor community: In response to my post on the launch of Acrobat.com, Michele Wyman of Box.net emailed about her company's services, "a SaaS file system which offers robust online file storage and sharing tools, and also features a collaboration platform." There's a free offering, as well as subscription models for businesses. Are you and your customers embracing 'cloud computing' solutions? In addition, in repsonse to my post "Virtualization Eases Desktop Woes", Angela Jamison pinged me from Jumpbox, "an innovative provider of virtual appliances." JumpBoxes are: "A virtual appliance for an Open Source application that is focused on a single task (or single application) and is carefully crafted to capture the best practices for how the application should be implemented... The JumpBox Open Collection is full of JumpBoxes for the most powerful apps available.." Entry-level business pricing looks very reasonable. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:40 AM, June 17, 2008 Seizing Midmarket OpportunitiesWe discuss midmarket customers quite a bit on ChannelWeb, and for good reason--it's the sweet for solution providers looking to grow their businesses. This week's CRN takes an in-depth look: VARs Race To The Midmarket. Craig Zarley says the midmarket has held strong in the face of rough economic winds: "The recession everyone has feared simply isn't showing up in the burgeoning midmarket. As a result, solution providers once focused on the enterprise and those catering to small business are now adjusting their business models in a race to the middle." The cover story also includes a look at how VARs can build up midmarket relations; a slide show on Also in today's CRN: Apple's MobileMe Will Crush Microsoft and Google (If it Works): Ed Moltzen says that Steve Jobs has done: "what Google and Microsoft have tried but have failed to do: Define the cloud, and turn it into a broad-based, software-as-a-service offering for anyone." Lessons Of A Lifetime: a profile of VARBusiness 500 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Bruce Geier, CEO of Technology Integration Group. Dell, The Innovator?: The direct giant has lined up some channel partners for its resurgent notebook lineup. EMC's New Juggling Act With The Channel: EMC is another formerly direct vendor reaching out to the channel, according to Robert Faletra: "It wasn't that long ago that EMC couldn't spell "channel program." Now it finds itself building out a channel that's not only comprised of high-end enterprise VARs, but with Iomega and other acquired products is focusing on the need to have a retail and small-business channel as well." And Robert Demarzo evaluates Oracle's claim that "Two Heads Are Better Than One". Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:09 PM, June 16, 2008 Virtual Trade Show--Opening Shortly!Our virtual trade show, World Without Wires examines solution provider opportunities in wireless solutions, and begins in a few minutes at 11:00 ET. Register now! Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:49 AM, June 12, 2008 ChannelWeb Named To BtoB's "10 Great Media Web Sites"BtoB magazine covers the business publishing marketplace, and last year named ChannelWeb one of their "10 Great Media Web Sites." Well, it's happened again. BtoB has just included us on their list of 10 Great Media Web Sites for 2008, and in addition, we are the only site to appear on the list both years! This year, we're sharing the honor with sites like AviationWeek, CNNMoney, the Hollywood Reporter and Marketwatch.com. In the Channelweb profile at BtoB, they say: "One way in which ChannelWeb stands out among most of its peers is with its array of work-flow tools... The Lead Generator enables the channel audience to send marketing e-mails to targeted lists of IT end-users; the Solution Provider Locator helps IT end-users find VARs... Thank you, readers, for your support, and thanks to BtoB for the recognition! Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:49 AM, June 10, 2008 Coming Thursday: Our Wireless (Virtual) Trade ShowOne bright spot in the current economy is that the market for wireless solutions remains robust and margins are healthy. Our next Virtual Trade show, "World Without Wires," conming Thursday, dives deep into solution provider wireless opportunities. The exhibit hall will feature products and program information from the top wireless vendors. Meanwhile, education sessions will feature: our Test Center editors; Intel's Steve Dallman; executives from ScanSource, Net@Work, Future Tech, and ePlus; and Everything Channel President Robert Faletra. Like any show, there'll also be networking, giveaways, live chats and more. Sign up now, and stop in anytime Thursday, 11 - 5, Eastern time.
Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:56 AM, June 9, 2008 Bouquets And Basketballs For The VARBusiness 500Tuesday, I did follow my colleagues into New York City for the VARBusiness 500 awards. Held at Gotham Hall, which is just as dramatic and Batman-y as it sounds, the awards were only three blocks from Madison Square Garden. That was appropriate, as our keynote speaker, famed basketball coach Rick Pitino, enjoyed some (but certainly not most) of the top moments in his career right there. I covered Pitino's talk in this slide show. Rick preceeded the actual presentation of the VARBusiness 500 Awards, to some of the country's top solution providers and organizations, including awards to Executive of the Year Rich Fennessy of Insight; Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and TIG CEO Bruce Geier; and Presidio, our Company of the Year. The awards capped a full day of scrutiny on the solution provider marketplace. Earlier sessions examined green computing, the state of the current market for IT spending; and the prospects of the overall economy. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:34 AM, June 6, 2008 VARBusiness 500 Awards TonightIt's quiet in the office today, as most folks have already headed for New York and today's VARBusiness 500 Awards Conference. Highlights include panels on how solution providers are navigating the current economy; addresses from economist Todd Bucholtz and and Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino; and tonight's VARBusiness 500 Awards themselves, honoring excellence among the top solution providers. Look for more coverage starting tomorrow. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:07 AM, June 3, 2008 Acrobat.com: Web-Based Apps, With FlashToday, Adobe has launched Acrobat.com, a suite of free web-based tools to facilitate creating and sharing multimedia documents and enabling web-based conferencing and screen-sharing, along with an upgrade to it's Acrobat Software line. Information Week looks at the multimedia angle: "Though PDF and Acrobat Reader have become synonymous with documents, Adobe sees a powerful potential in adding multimedia to the mix. 'Video and audio have become ubiquitous on the Web, and our customers are becoming increasingly interested in and comfortable with using those content types,' Adobe director of product management Rick Brown said." At WebMonkey, they're anticipating that the software will come into it's own when 'offline' synching of documents is available: "Aside from a much slicker interface, Acrobat.com doesn’t offer many features above and beyond what you’ll find in Google Docs or Zoho Office. However, when the AIR version gains offline syncing capabilities, Adobe may possibly have a real winner on its hands. Other potentially interesting developments include the possibility of integrating Photoshop Express, the company’s online version of Photoshop, into the suite." While at WebWorkerDaily, they're a litte more sceptical: "We’re big fans of many web services, from Flickr to del.icio.us to GMail. But these are all services that we can derive substantial value from without dragging our co-workers along. We don’t expect an immediate rush of everyone to sign up for Acrobat.com accounts." Finally, on the official Acrobat.com Blog, they're anticipating big things: "Over time we will provide businesses with premium subscription services such as workgroup capabilities, administrative controls, more advanced document workflows and additional capacity. But in the meantime, we're confident that our free services will provide great value to millions of users." UPDATE: The Channel Test Center's Mario Morejon says solution providers have a valuable new tool: "Adobe is extending one of its core technologies, Flash, to the Software-as-a-Service realm and, in so doing, is poised to catch up very quickly to Microsoft and Google in the online productivity space. It's an aggressive move and, frankly, a welcome one that will only ratchet up the competition." Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:56 PM, June 2, 2008 |
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