March, 2009

Security is security is security

We in the high-tech industry (and media) love the word convergence. You’ve heard seemingly forever about the convergence of voice and data networks. More recently, the buzz has shifted over to how the physical infrastructure concerns of companies are merging with their technology infrastructure concerns.

One great example is expressed in the recently formalized partnership between 1NService (a group of regional integrators and services companies that collaborates to help extend their members’ scale) and PSA Security Network (a cooperative of security systems integrators with expertise in access control, video surveillance, intrusion detection, and other environmental safety systems).

The two organizations have been flirting with collaboration for some time, based on the notion that the IP network is a great place to consolidate both cyber-security and physical security concerns. The new arrangement allows for members of either organization to get involved with the other one at reduced expense. PSA Security and 1NService are seeking to encourage cross-enrollment and are putting together a unified advisory board to focus on matters of security concerns of all types.

A great example of how a network integrator might benefit from this sort of relationship is Data Systems Worldwide, a 1NService member that has become heavily involved in video surveillance solutions over the past year. This focus has helped the integrator (which began life as a classic Cisco Systems VAR) penetrate dynamic verticals such as gaming and hospitality, which are somewhat more recession-proof then traditionl industry segments. Here’s some more information.

If you’re exploring whether or not to add physical security solutions (think door control systems or surveillance), you should check out the PSA Security Network organization.

Storage efficiency: Go beyond cost savings

You’re feeling it full force — the impact of the economic downturn — and so are your customers. For the last two quarters, conversations have turned from “How do I expand?” to “How do I contract and cut costs?” Resellers, in the race to find projects and products that can help their customers reduce costs, also need to find solutions that will increase efficiency.

Most cost savings storage solutions — inline compression, data deduplication and even archiving — all involve putting more data in the same or less space. But even with these tools in place, your customers still have to manage an ever-increasing volume of data. Continued »

The silence of the tweets

Twitter is down today. As it was last week.

This is only mentionable because there are a lot of people at TechTarget (and everywhere) who are tweet addicts (tweetaholics?). They tweet therefore they are, i guess. Anyway, it’s relevant because there are a good number of VARs and integrators who likewise use Twitter to prospect for business, converse on problems of the day etc., find relevant partners or even prospective employees.

Just as with IM, which started with the kiddies and then spread to fogies ( like me),  Twitter’s  gotta get with the program. If it’s a business application, it has to act like one and (gasp) maybe even charge for interruption-free service. But there’s another problem:  Too many tweeters seem to tweet instead of actually do anything worth tweeting about. Oh well. Here’s an illustration.

Before you howl, at least i didn’t say what Steven Colbert said.

Update: Minutes after this posted, Twitter came back online. You can breathe again twit-tards!

McNealy on IBM rumors

What is Scott McNealy’s take on the much-reported IBM/Sun combo under discussion? According to Alex Barrett, pretty much what you’d expect.  As in:

“I can’t comment, but if we were to buy IBM, I can tell you that we would open source AIX, DB2 and all that proprietary mainframe stuff…..But we only have $3 billion in the bank, and I’d want to keep at least $1 billion, so I don’t know about the ROI.”

Barrett attended an executive breakfast in Boston Wednesday featuring the recently elusive Sun chairman. You can bet when Sun planned this little lovefest, it didn’t expect to be facing the IBM tsunami. The subject, after all, was supposed to be Sun’s big bet on open source technologies and solutions blah blah blah. But of course what everyone wanted to know was all about IBM. And Scooter didn’t disappoint.

The value of focus

Spreading your technical knowledge too thin is a very common mistake that resellers (and manufacturers) make. A great example is the issue of what VMware storage protocol to use. There are three choices: iSCSI, Fibre Channel or NFS. Many solutions support all three.

But whether you represent a solution that can support all three protocols is really not the point. The point is: Are you equally comfortable with all three? Continued »

Verio pumps up internal support for channel partners

Verio is the latest tech vendor to rustle up some extra resources for partners struggling in this unpredictable economic climate.

At its partner conference earlier this month (yes, it still held one), the hosting and managed services company (which is owned by NTT Communications) announced a couple of lead-referral initiatives that are part of its viaVerio Partner program, including a migration assistance plan.

Continued »

Possible Sun deal opens can o’ worms for IBM

Here’s a reminder that Microsoft isn’t the only tech vendor known for its hardball tactics. When it comes to monopolistic practices in the computer business, many say IBM wrote the book.

Continued »

Sun-IBM as Tupac-Notorious BIG

Storage Soup has the best take on the much-talked about IBM-Sun takeout story.  IBM as Biggie Smalls? Brilliant.

As for VARs, most seem to divide along party lines. IBM VARs love it, Sun VARs, not so much. Mike Davis of Applied Computer Solutions sees only good.

But then again, he does a lot of business with both sides–six figures in IBM and eight figures in Sun. Talk about win win.

Disk archiving: How do you know it’s not the next ILM?

Disk-based archiving is a popular topic today, one that you might be bringing up with customers or maybe they’re even asking you about it. As we detailed in our article on archiving basics, archiving is the movement of old data off of primary storage and onto a secondary storage tier. Archiving isn’t a new practice; what is new is the use of disk instead of tape or optical as the medium for that archive.

A lot has been written lately about archiving or optimizing primary storage. But you need to be able to separate hype from reality. The investment of time and money to purchase lab hardware and learn how to use it can be very costly. Picking a technology that’s going nowhere can be deadly. So how do you know that archiving won’t be the next ILM? Continued »

Eaton powers up VAR program

I write quite a bit about how servers and storage are adapting to improve the energy efficiency of data centers, but one piece of the equation that sort of gets short shrift in terms of coverage (what else is new!) is the uninterruptible power supply or the power distribution unit. Honestly, that’s because these products sort of sit in the gray area of responsibilities between the facilities team and the IT department. Everyone sort of assumes you need them, but they don’t really take time to understand what a good or bad UPS can do.

Continued »