Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) $13.9 billion bid to buy Electronic Data Systems (EDS) made it through U.S. antitrust review, the companies reported Monday. The deal still hinges on approval by European regulators and a vote by EDS shareholders, who will meet July 31.

It remains unclear how the deal will affect channel partners from both companies. HP CEO Mark Hurd has said that there will be no bumps in the road for channel partners since EDS and HP play mostly in different fields. Still, concerns run high among partners and will until the future unfolds after final approval. It is also unclear what will happen to the long-term relationships EDS holds with HP competitors like Cisco Systems, Dell and IBM. Read more »

The VAR community has been abuzz since it became public that a silver-level Cisco partner sued the vendor for poaching a customer and handing it off to AT&T Business.

The twittering is because most partners agree they’ve had the same problem but never taken any action for fear of losing their businesses.

Last week SearchITChannel.com ran a story about Infra-Comm Corporation suing Cisco on claims that the vendor violated the deal registration process by passing along a multimillion dollar customer to AT&T at the very same pricing structure Infra-Comm had negotiated. Sources close to Cisco said the company lived up to its obligations under the deal registration agreement by providing exclusive pricing and protection to Infra-Comm, but couldn’t stop the customer from wanting to change VARs.

Read more »

Avaya appointed former Motorola channel executive Jeremy Butt to be its worldwide channel chief today. The appointment is the latest in a series of executive changes at the company in recent months.

Butt most recently served as vice president of worldwide channels for Motorola’s enterprise mobility business, and he is credited with greatly expanding the division’s channel reach globally. Read more »

WiMax is having a rough life — and this week epitomizes that.

The wireless protocol for broadband access — known in long form as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access — started off the week on a high note. On Monday, six tech heavy hitters, including Cisco Systems, Samsung Electronics, Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Sprint and Clearwire formed the Open Patent Alliance.

Read more »

MySQL execs took to the road this week, talking up the database’s increasing relevance to big businesses.

The message at a Boston event Tuesday night, was that Sun Microsystems’ buyout of the open source database company gives MySQL easier entry into very large accounts.

Read more »

I’d be remiss if I didn’t report in this week from the Cisco Partner Summit, where I’m helping the company’s Industry Solutions Partner Network team with some breakout panels and communications activities.

The themes I’m about to recount were plucked from the main keynote address hosted by Worldwide Channel Muckety-Muck Keith Goodwin and featuring Goodwin’s ultimate boss, Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers. For those of you who aren’t/weren’t here, some highlights:

1. Partner to Partner Collaboration: This topic gets a big-time boost with the introduction of something called the Cisco Partner Exchange. Basically, this is a social network where approximately 8,500 Cisco Certified Partners, managed services providers, distributors and application partners can search for other partners that might be able to extend their reach on a particular project. Cisco is backing up this introduction with a channel survey it conducted with Illuminas Research that found collaborative projects between Cisco partners accounted for approximately 31 percent of revenue within the partner ecosystem. Another very compelling case for collaboration: 78 percent of the resellers who responded to the survey (about 500 in call) reported that collaboration helped them increase deal/project sizes. Partner Exchange is meant to support collaboration in cyberspace by letting partners create skills profiles that include not only info about their Cisco specializations but about other technologies they might support.

2. Data Centers: Cisco is upping the ante with both a new set of Nexus switches (developed by Nuova Systems) as well as incentives for VARs investing in a data center practice.

The Nexus 5000 Series are meant for consolidation projects. It supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet PLUS Fibre Channel over Ethernet Data Center Ethernet and virtualization. The new switches are supposed to start shipping in May starting at $36,000 for a fixed configuration, 40-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch. Cisco also evolved its Value Incentive Program and will start rewarding VARs that invest in a data center practice starting in August.

3. Software: This one is a bit of a surprise, given how other vendors are supporting and selling their software as a service (Saas) offerings. That is, by selling them direct. But, Keith Goodwin says Cisco is creating a referral program for its WebEx offerings that will not only reward partners for the initial deal but for recurring activity on the service. You can expect this program to emerge in the next two to three quarters. What’s more, WebEx will continue to morph to allow for more and more different types of connections (and collaborative settings) that are independent of device. Hmmm. Is Cisco becoming a software company?

John Chambers was his usual prophetic, evangelistic self, focusing on developments that are drivin where he is asking Cisco to place its bets. The company now has 22 priorities, which range from very broad initiatives such as mobility to very specific ideas, such as “routers in space.” Talk about an emerging market! Collaboration and Community are the two big themes underlying most of Chambers’ thinking. Focus on markets in transition, Chambers advises partners, if you want to increase revenues. “If you focus on your competition, you are already behind,” he said.

I buy most of this, certainly, but the one thing that niggles at me as I write this is the big push that Cisco is putting on collaboration through tools such as social networks, video conferencing, instant chats and so forth. It’s not that I don’t believe this is the way to go, it’s just that I think many people are overwhelmed about how to handle many of these services – many of which currently reside in different silos. I believe in the power of the individuals, but collaboration in chaos could actually result in a decrease in productivity. My two cents.

More later this week from (poor me) Hawaii.

April Fools Day gives reporters a chance to write the faux headlines they would like to craft but can’t. At least for real

Here are the top creations from the SearchITChannel staff.

Gartner recommends using more acronyms

Microsoft changes gears, embraces open source

CompTIA offers new certification in undersea IT

Google Earth shows iPods, Macs in Gates mansion

Ballmer seen jogging with Apple T-shirt, hastily removed

Dell backs up partner-friendly meme, cans entire sales staff

Vendors clamor aboard “Service as a Service” bandwagon

VMware names Jamiroquai new CEO

Dueling Cisco/Microsoft unified communications plans to connect devices and people that, frankly, should never be connected. To anything. Ever.

Oracle to rely almost exclusively on channel to serve businesses with exactly 47.3 employees

Prospective Microsoft Gold VAR peruses program qualifications, opts for early retirement

Red Hat partner finds pigeon, er customer, willing to pay for free stuff

Windows XP SP3 to ship tomorrow, no today, no June 1, no May 15, wait! next year! oh never mind …

Microsoft code-name generator on the fritz, trade press freaks

The first five are courtesy of Matthew Donnelly, who’s clearly given this a lot of thought. Numbers six and seven come from Yuval Shavit–and he nails the whole hyped “as a service” meme. Rivka Little tossed off the Cisco jibe. The Jamiroquai item comes courtesy of Colin Steele, and yes, oldsters will probably have to Google this reference.

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.

Are you a citizen of Second Life? Does it make sense to build a business establishment in a fake world?
Unclear, but some VARs, including Ira Chandler, president of Curbstone Corp.,  are aboard. Here he is. Or rather, here his avatar  is:

IBM and Cisco have built their own virtual online presences, IBM on Second Life and Cisco with its own “PartnerSpace.”  Here’s what that looks like:

And here:

For more on VARs in (virtual) space, see Alice LaPlante’s story on SearchITChannel.

One of the toughest parts of being an IT writer is deciphering the press releases that vendors send out to pitch their latest products, services and partner programs.

Some are well written, informative and easily understandable. But a lot are heavy on what the Wall Street Journal recently labeled “gobbledygook“: buzzwords, run-on sentences and phrases that no human being would ever utter during the course of normal conversation.

These kinds of press releases may be OK for highly technical audiences, but a lot of times they’re confusing for the end users that channel partners deal with every day. In that spirit, here’s a sampling of some of the week’s worst offenders:

EMC
More Than 1000 Customers Select RSA Envision Platform for Business Acceleration, Feb. 12: “Given the modularity and scalability of the RSA enVision solution, the customer base ranges from large global organizations that need to manage security and compliance in complex, global IT environments, to small businesses that value the simple deployment and out-of- the box reporting capabilities.”

Red Hat
JBoss Unveils Technology Futures with New Community Projects, Feb. 14: “These projects offer sophisticated capabilities that enterprises can readily leverage to advance open source middleware into their organizations.”

Kaseya
Kaseya Empowers MSP Customer Success with New Managed Service Resource Program (MSRP), Feb. 12: “Part of the “Marketing Toolkit” element of Kaseya’s emPower Program, a comprehensive set of service offerings and support resources designed to ensure successful implementation of Kaseya’s IT Automation Framework, the company developed the MSRP as a result of its ongoing efforts to “empower” its customers to exceed expectations and effectively transition their business to the managed services model.”

Cisco
Cisco Fuels Commitment to Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in Asia Pacific with Special Solution Bundles, Feb. 12: “The collaborative platform uses Web 2.0 technology to facilitate dynamic interaction between customers and partners. … The system thus provides an efficient method of communicating with customers and employees to help improve service and increase business agility.”

Bell Micro
Bell Micro teams with Hitachi for SMB storage solutions, Feb. 7: “Hitachi’s SMS 100 is an entry-level storage system designed to fulfill the requirements of SMBs with burgeoning data growth and data protection requirements and enterprises with distributed branch offices looking for simple-to-manage storage offerings that are easy to integrate with the Microsoft Windows platform.”

What will be the defining partner issues of the coming year? Here’s a completely unscientific take on what solution providers of all stripes should watch for.

One: Will Dell’s new-found (or born again)  channel religion take? Can EqualLogic’s Don Bulens endow what partners see as Darth Vader with his good partner karma?

Two: Will VMware forestall the coming-from-everywhere virtualization onslaught? Current players like Citrix/Xensource are gunning for it as are VM newbies Oracle and Microsoft. If Microsoft stumbles with its Windows 2008/Hyper-V combo, VMware’s head start may prevail and its lock on enterprises continue. Should Hyper-V soar, Microsoft could be the go-to virtualization player at least in smaller companies and then it must wrestle with vexing licensing issues. How to adjust pricing when customers will have to buy fewer copies of the OS?

Three:  Will single-core, single-processor computers go the way of the buggy whip and the Edsel? Could be.

Four: Can/will Google transform itself into a power within the firewall? It’s using its appliance and apps as Trojan horses but will IT really tolerate this consumer-led push? Can it afford not to?

Five: Conversely, can Microsoft transform itself into a software-as-a-service power? Microsoft, unlike Google, has to defend its on-premise turf. Will it figure out how to bring its partners along for the ride? Or throw them under the bus?

Six: Can Hewlett Packard beat back Dell’s new partner efforts to build on its hardware dominance? Will HP partners defect?

Seven: Can Microsoft regroup from its  under delivered Vista? Will SP 1 re-invigorate the market, spur “killer app” development? Or will Redmond simply declare victory and start hyping the next release?

Eight: Will computer retail survive/prosper? Was  CompUSA’s demise a sign of things to come in retail consolidation or just a specific case of mismanagement and missed opportunities?

Nine: Will the iPhone parlay its blockbusting consumer popularity into the enterprise? Will it “work well with others” as in existing  corporate e-mail and other systems? Or will the corporate classes cling to their Blackberries?

Ten: Will Microsoft sort out its self-hosted ERP puzzle? The company wants to offer hosted options for its apps but so far has been publicly mum on what could be called “ERP Live.” Maybe it can’t figure out which of its four (count ‘em, four!) ERP lines should be the underlying code base?

Bonus item: Who will win the unified communications marathon? Networking powerhouse Cisco or application dominator Microsoft? Or could there be a dark horse?

Barbara Darrow, a Boston-area reporter, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net.