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Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:27 PM, October 30, 2008 What Will Come From The Cisco Case?So Cisco loses a $6 million judgement to a small VAR that accused it of violating it's reseller agreement. To make matters worse, though, the judge rules elements of Cisco's Indirect Channel Partner Agreement are 'Unconscionable,' a legal term for "forget it." So what happens next? Jennifer Follett reports that Cisco's keeping quiet: "'We're still trying to understand exactly what happened there, so to be honest with you, I'm not sure we're ready to put out an official position from a channel perspective [on] what the implications are going to be for us yet. It's still too early,' said Edison Peres, senior vice president of Worldwide Channels Go-to-Market for Cisco... 'We're still trying to get an understanding and get our arms around what it actually means.' ' Now is no time to hang out in court with your own partners. As Oscar Rogers declares on Saturday Night Live, Cisco needs to Fix It!, and fix it fast. UPDATE: Cisco's thought about it. They're not ready to fix it. Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:50 PM, October 30, 2008 Making The Best Of The Credit DroughtAccording to CRN's latest cover story, Credit Crunch Hits The Channel, solution providers are seeing customers postpone or cancel projects due to financing worries. Of course, leave it to a VAR to find the bright side: "[Mont Phelps, CEO of NWN Corp] thinks, however, that the credit debacle could be a boom for solution providers active in managed services. 'Anything that you can do faster, better and cheaper than the customer, that's going to give them financial relief,' he said. Meanwhile, the Fed's commercial paper lending program is open for business, though it's success in energizing credit markets remains to be seen. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:43 AM, October 28, 2008 Component Vendors: Sign Up For Ultimate PCAt our All Systems Go! event in December, the Channel Test Center will once again be building the Ultimate PC, and they're looking for the top products in every PC component category. If you're ready to compete against the industry's best, enter your products now. Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:50 PM, October 27, 2008 CRN Tech: Smart Desktops, New Virtualization ToolsIn the newest issue of CRN Tech, Test Center engineers try out four products (from Sun, Symantec, Replify and Uptime Software) that promise better management of your virtual server environment: "Some concerns don't go away just because the physical servers have. There are still questions about security, management, maintenance, audits, optimization and availability. In fact, these concerns are even more complicated in the virtual environment because there are multiple layers to focus on..." Also in the issue, the Test Center evaluates three desktop PCs, from Lenovo, Dell and Apple, that offer business-class features at reasonable prices; and build a high-end workstation with help from Puget Custom Computers. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:47 AM, October 27, 2008 Join Us On LinkedInFresh from blogging about Facebook, I have good news for all our LinkedIn users. We've launched the ChannelWeb LinkedIn group for solution providers, vendor channel folks and anyone else involved in the IT channel. Join us (we're currently 174 strong) and we'll share the latest news and discuss business and technology issues. You may just network your way into a big new deal! Try it out, and let us know how we can help you make the most of LinkedIn. Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:42 PM, October 24, 2008 The T-Mobile G1's First WeekThe T-Mobile G1--the first Google Android-based phone--launched this week, opening a new phase of smart phone competition. (See our slide show of the launch event.) ChannelWeb's Andrew Hickey has his hands on a G1, and reports both his positive first impressions, as well as his less-positive second impressions: "Over the last 24 hours, I ditched my BlackBerry and put the G1 through the ringer. While I am overall pleased, there are still a few things that would make it much better, and make the G1 a true competitor against touch screen titans the Apple iPhone 3G and the soon-to-be released BlackBerry Storm." At EETimes, Rick Merritt has a video showcasing Android's web browing capabilities. At G4 TV's "Attack of the Show," Forbes' David Ewalt evaluated the G1 with host Kevin Pereira, and looked at upcoming Android phones that will be soon arriving from other vendors. Next on deck in smart phones: the Blackberry Bold, coming November 4. Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:33 PM, October 24, 2008 I Get FacedAs far as social networks go. I long ago set up base in LinkedIn. You can find me there, and over the years I've slowly accumulated a hundred or so connections, just watiing for the day I need em. Facebook? Let the kids have their fun. I've got work to do. Last week, though, I got a Facebook offer I couldn't refuse--an important old friend whose pictures I wanted to see. So I signed up, anticipating that, like LinkedIn, my account would quietly sit there unless I worked on it. What I didn't anticipate was how efficiently Facebook would get the news of my arrival out. So between 10:20 and 12:37 today, for instance, I've had 10 people add me as Facebook friends. And since most of them actually are my friends, I anticipate that when I confirm those requests, I'll get another, bigger wave of friends. It's disconcerting - like walking into the wrong room and having everyone spin around and look at you expectantly. Consider yourself warned. UPDATE: Why Your Boss Should Never Be Your Facebook Friend Posted by Joe Caponi at 01:06 PM, October 23, 2008 FAQ: 2009 Editorial CalendarsFor a preview of next year's special reports, see our brand new 2009 editorial calendars for CRN, VARBusiness and CRNTech. Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:45 PM, October 22, 2008 Fast Growth Summit And AwardsLast week, Everything Channel rolled into Chicago for the Fast Growth Executive Summit and Awards. Our editors sat down with execs from some of the fastest growing solution provider organizations in the country, and exchanged tips on succeeding in trying times; and finding opportunity even in a down economy. The event was highlighted by the presentation of the 2008 CRN Fast Growth 100 Awards to those companies that managed to achieve both rapidly increasing revenue as well as strategic excellence in their markets. Our slide show, 20 Scenes From 2008 CRN Fast Growth 100, gives more of the flavor of the event. Published this past summer, the Fast Growth 2008 Special Report includes the definitive list of all the VARs that busted their seams, money-wise, this year. Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:44 PM, October 22, 2008 VARs To Vendors: Fix Those SitesJennifer Bosavage has been looking at the Annual Report Card research and has found an area where all vendors were miserable, at best: the quality of their partner portal web sites: "A world-class portal could provide current communications, training and postsales support documentation (even video!) and hit upon all areas that VARs repeatedly said need improvement. Simply put, effort in improving partner portals could pay off in at least three different [ARC] criteria, but sadly, no vendor has stepped up their efforts. Last year, partner portal averaged a dismal 62; in this ARC, VARs gave the criteria an average score of 57." Taking a quick flip through the full scorecards shows all the disappointing details: EMC's portal grade of 75 from their Network Storage VARs was the highest portal grade. (Second place? EMC again, for storage management.) Take it from me, building web sites just isn't that extraordinary an accomplishment. Can't any vendors play this game? Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:47 PM, October 20, 2008 Annual Report Card 2008The awards were presented in August, but it's time to crunch the numbers: the full Annual Report Card is online now. The Annual Report Card is VARBusiness yearly analysis of how technology vendors are rated by their own solution provider partners in the areas of product innovation, support and partnership. This year, fifty leading channel companies are put to the test in eighteen technology categories. You'll find the detailed report cards for each category, and a search engine to display how any company has performed in the last dozen years of the ARC. Features in the report include: a look at the top takeaways of the report; a look at Dell's attempts to crack into the channel; our analysis of how EMC excels at handling channel conflict; and more. Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:30 PM, October 17, 2008 End Of The Storm Botnet?At Dark Reading, they're reporting that the infamous Storm botnet may have been abandoned: "It’s been nearly a month now since the Storm botnet sent its last spam run -- significantly long enough that botnet researchers now conclude this could be the end of most infamous botnet once and for all. Well, good. The worm, which peaked around the start of this year seems to have been laid low by its own fame. Future security threats will be different. Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:28 PM, October 16, 2008 Managing In A HurricaneAs the credit crisis continues, and governments and banks struggle to contain the damage, the channel, as always, finds its own ways to adjust. In this week's CRN, Robert DeMarzo looks at how vendors and distributors are trying to inject liquidity into the system: "The debt levels of the major distributors have fallen to new lows, which should enable them to fund VAR projects or help VARs through this crisis... While Robert Faletra looks at a key opportunity for solution providers to take to their customers: "Developing the expertise to audit a customer's energy consumption and make recommendations that cut costs--and sometimes not even require investment beyond your service fees--is a winning formula. In some cases, customers can significantly cut cooling costs in the data room by doing simple things.... In other cases, it's virtualization or other moves that require infrastructure spend. " And don't miss this week's cover story: The New Face Of Cybercrime. UPDATE: Craig Zarley talks to execs at Tech Data and Ingram Micro about financing: Distributors to VARs: Don't Worry About Credit Lines.
Posted by Joe Caponi at 09:40 AM, October 14, 2008 The Smart Phone ScorecardWe evaluate the three "Goliaths" of touch-screen smart phones: the BlackBerry Storm, the T-Mobile G1 and Apple's iPhone 3G. In our slide show Clash Of The Touch-Screen Titans, the devices are scored on hardware, software and networking capabilities and a winner is chosen. For now. But are they 'real' computers? Information Week asks Is The Smartphone Your Next Computer?, and sees a wave of mobile capabilities about to change the business world in the next 18 months: "Smartphone makers are rushing to partner with software houses, as both see big bucks in giving their customers mobile enterprise access... And software vendors anticipate broader usage--or at least heightened mindshare--for their apps if they can get many more people to spend more time interacting with customer and transaction-oriented data on their handsets." Smart solution providers shouldn't wait for the (smart) phone to ring before getting to know this market... Posted by Joe Caponi at 05:11 PM, October 10, 2008 Taking In The Big PictureThe economy - down, up, down, down, down. You know. To make sense of these things, I turn to my college buddy Barry Ritholtz, whose The Big Picture blog was anticipating trouble in the financial markets more than an year ago. This morning, he posts a lengthy entry spelling out where we are: "In recent years, banks ran into three kinds of trouble: They made loans to people who failed to repay them; they did not keep adequate capital on reserve; they compounded their problems by borrowing money from each other to buy back all of those loans after they had been repackaged as fancy securities... On the plus side, oil's way down, and Ritholtz assures, "I would imagine we are closer to the bottom than to the top."
Two more interesting comparison charts: This bear market vs. the dot-com bust; and John McCain's daily Gallup tracking polls vs. the S&P 500.
Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:13 AM, October 10, 2008 A Word From WozIn an industry full of adreneline-charged characters with outsized egos, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak stands out as a nice guy who's finished first. ChannelWeb recently spoke to "Woz" about the economy, green computing, great gadgets, and getting online around the world: "I travel a lot and I love to get data from my computer through my cell phone. But that's hard here. I was just in Eastern Europe. They've got 7 MB [per second] over 3G. People are buying their Internet for home and they're using cellular, not broadband."
Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:03 PM, October 9, 2008 No Static At AllGood news on the internet radio front: The Senate's passage of the "Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008" will likely save many Internet radio "stations" from going the way of the dinosaurs." Since our parent company unveiled our shiny (and noisy) new cubicle-based workspace a couple months ago, I've become quite a fan of internet radio, including 'eclectic' rock station Radio Paradise, and the spacier sounds of Groove Salad and Space Station Soma on Soma.fm for when I'm concentrating. (Web Worker Daily looked at music for productivity a little ways back. Their advice still sounds good.) Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:31 AM, October 3, 2008 RSS Feed UpdatesI recently received an email from the folks at Fixed Bid Consulting, regarding the ThreatWatch series of articles from our Channel Test Center: "Is there any way I can receive each new post in an email message?" While we are evaluating some 'narrowcast' newsletter options, none are on the immediate horizon. But as I thought about it, I realized there was another way we could easily honor the request -- with a custom RSS feed. On our RSS Feeds Page, you may subscribe to our 'standard' news and blog feeds, but we've also made it possible for readers to roll-their-own feeds based on one or more technology topics, or on individual keywords you're interested in... a company or product name, or even the name of a series of articles. Here's ThreatWatch in RSS feed form, for instance: http://www.crn.com/rss/custom/threatwatch/customFeed.xml I'm happy to report the folks at Fixed Bid liked it, too. Speaking of the RSS Feeds Page, we've just updated it to to give you one-click access to call up our most popular feeds in the most popular feed readers. You'll still find the tools for customized topic feeds and keyword-specific feeds, as well as more general information on using RSS. My slide show on The Best RSS Feed Readers has some more ideas. Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:41 PM, October 1, 2008 |
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The channel never sleeps. Despite economic turmoil and an impending presidential election, plenty's been happening in the solution provider world. How well have you kept up? 
