Let's Get Serious

For that matter, so are many other would-be Linux giants that still have failed to put in place formal support for VARs, systems integrators and ISVs. I've got news for you guys: The grassroots thing has been wonderful. But if your community expects to keep gaining market share at the expense of Microsoft and other commercial applications vendors building atop Windows, you can't keep up this laissez-faire attitude with respect to the channel.

Months after Red Hat promised to extend its support beyond bigger systems integrators and vendor-direct services arms, it still has failed to put in place any kind of meaningful structure for smaller solution providers. This could be suicidal from several perspectives.

First, I urge Red Hat to consider the glaring example of BEA Systems. As you can read this week in one of our lead news stories by Senior Editor Elizabeth Montalbano, the company appears to be on the path to self-destruction, according both to Wall Street analysts and its own partners (few as they may be). One of the application-server vendor's perpetual Achilles heel has been its channel strategy. Almost from the day that former channel chief Rauline Ochs left the fold, its true commitment has been questioned. Which has left IBM and Microsoft to have a field day with their competitive products and channels.

Second, it's very clear that Red Hat's most vocal rival Novell has two things going for it that Red Hat doesn't have: the NetWare-installed base and an astonishingly resilient set of partners who can actually help it make something of SuSE Linux. Guess what Red Hat? Microsoft is chasing that NetWare-installed base even more seriously than ever, with specific competitive win programs for its partners, which primes Novell partners for potential deals, but leaves you where?

Until Red Hat and others get smarter about their partner strategies, they won't truly get under Microsoft's skin in any kind of systematic way. In these days of closer corporate scrutiny, grassroots enthusiasm just won't and can't be taken seriously in smaller enterprises or in the boardrooms of would-be customers who need more handholding and coaxing than the open-source movement's leaders can provide on their own.

Who in the Linux community really gets the channel? Send your comments and ideas to CRN Editor HEATHER CLANCY at [email protected].