A Week In The Sun

VARBusiness preview of Sun's iForce Partner Summit Solaris 9 NI OS

Things heated up on Monday, when CRN's cover story on Sun came out, featuring interviews with Sun CEO Scott McNealy, along with interviews with Sun's head of partner operations, Gary Grimes and global sales, Masood Jabbar.

Once iForce got rolling, attention turned to Florida. Live CRN and VARBusiness coverage included looks at the iPlanet product road map; and iPlanet's role in Sun's overall software strategy; keynotes from Sun President Ed Zander on working with solution providers; channel chief Gary Grimes on on selling services; sales chief Masood Jabbar on expanding Sun's SMB sales; former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani on leadership and teamwork; enterprise services chief Larry Hambly, on upgrade opportunities within Sun's installed base; as well as a look at Sun's plans to expand sales into new markets. Sun also announced the promotion of Whitfield Diffie, creator of public-key encryption, to the new post of Chief Security Officer. Check here for a complete iForce wrap-up.

An Earnings Week To Enjoy

Quarterly earnings came out this week from many of the top technology vendors, distributors and solution providers. Frequently, earnings managed to meet or beat expectations, despite revenue dips, and best of all, comopanies confirmed guidance going forward. Get all the details on earnings from Intel, Internet Security Systems, Razorfish, IBM, CDW Computer Centers, AMD, Bell Microproducts, PC Connections, Siebel, Apple, Sun, Nortel, Documentum, Microsoft, Gateway, and Qwest, or find the whole bunch in our Finanacial News Center.

Coming Up

Next week brings VARBusiness' IT Spending and Strategy report. Online you'll find a complete database of research on where companies are planning on spending their technology dollars. We'll also have breaking news from CA World in Orlando and Internet World in Los Angeles. Stay cool.