Executive Briefing: January 25, 2008

JUNIPER SET TO LAUNCH SWITCH LINE

Juniper is set to take a major step in its bid to compete head-on with Cisco Systems. The vendor next week is expected to launch its first-ever enterprise Ethernet switch offering, a move VAR partners have been pushing the vendor toward for years. The switch line, code-named Hurricane, will launch Juniper into a crowded market and give VARs a competing player to pit against well-established switch vendors like Cisco Systems, Foundry Networks and ProCurve Networking by HP. Still, some VARs are left wondering if it's too late for Juniper to enter a crowded and commoditized market. [READ MORE]

INSIGHT BUYING LEADING CISCO VAR CALENCE

DMR Insight Enterprises's purchase of Calence brings the Tempe, Ariz.-based direct marketer more than one of the country's largest Cisco Systems solution providers. It also gives Insight an entre into managed services, an initiative that could have even more ramifications in the channel than the creation of a $600 million Cisco VAR. Calence has about 120 employees focused on managed services. Those are services that Insight will be able to provide to its existing customer base of 33,000. [READ MORE]

DELL LOOSENS DEAL REGISTRATION

Dell is lowering the minimum amount required to register a deal to $50,000 from $75,000 in February as it continues to refine its nascent channel program. The move comes as Dell claims early success for its formalized partner program that launched last month. Thus far, Dell said it has registered 3,500 partners in the U.S., the bulk of which were already doing business with the vendor. [READ MORE]

IBM LICENSES SERVER TECHNOLOGY TO LENOVO

Lenovo plans to build x86 one-processor and two-processor servers based on IBM's System x server technology. A new licensing agreement with IBM covers rack mount and pedestal servers, but not blade servers. Under the agreement, Lenovo, of Morrisville, N.C., will manufacture and sell Lenovo-branded servers based on the IBM technology. IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., will continue to manufacture and sell its own similar IBM-branded servers based on the same technology. [READ MORE]

PARTNERS WATCH AS MICROSOFT RATTLES VMWARE'S CAGE

With industry speculation boiling over the imminent release to manufacturing of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Tuesday let loose with a barrage of announcements that cast light on how the software giant seeks to compete with (some might say extinguish) VMware and other virtualization vendors. In addition to allowing Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium to be used in virtual environments for the first time, Microsoft is deepening its partnership with Citrix to boost interoperability between Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer, and will work with Citrix to bring to market a set of new desktop virtualization offerings. [READ MORE]