February, 2012

Tech Data launches mobile technology management services

After a roughly eight-month pilot, distributor Tech Data is rolling out its TDMobility service line to VARs and resellers. The goal is to help technology solution providers work more closely with small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to manage their mobile gadgets and wireless services, according to Tech Data executives.

“It really insulates the VAR from the complexity of buying, selling and servicing mobility solutions,” said Joseph Quaglia, president of TDMobility. The division is operated by ActivateIT, which is a joint venture between Tech Data and Brightstar Corp.

There are two services initially being offered under the TDMobility umbrella. CellManage is a service that lets VARs manage multiple cellular lines through a single portal providing access to billing, deployment, asset tracking and other procurement information. The other service, called TDActivate, enables VARs to participate in provisioning hardware.

The services are available in the United States. Charles Kriete, executive vice president of TDMobility, said the services currently support three major wireless carriers: AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. (Not Verizon.) The distributor also provides solution providers with the ability to manage BlackBerry services (which is considered a separate offering). The length of the wireless contracts, as well as the commission that is paid to the solution provider for recommending or selling a given service or piece of hardware will depend on the sorts of solutions that it is representing, Kriete said.

Don’t make the mistake of limit the definition of mobility to mobile phones or smartphones. TDMobility will cover the gamut of technologies that make up mobile solutions, including rugged or specialty handheld devices, notebooks with broadband connectivity, and telemetry applications.

Solution providers will need to submit an application before they can represent TDMobility services, Tech Data executives said. For the time being, at least, they will need to apply separately to work with each carrier.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com and follow us onTwitter! Here’s how to follow Heather Clancy directly.

Microsoft, GE create health care IT venture

General Electric and Microsoft have disclosed some details around a new 50-50 venture, called Caradigm, that the two companies are creating to target the healthcare IT segment. (Try saying the name of the company out loud, and you’ll get it.)

The company, which will get its formal launch during the first half of 2012 provided it surmounts some government regulatory hurdles, are specifically focused on addressing the need for health care organizations to develop more efficient ways to collaborate through technology. Both Microsoft and GE will contribute technologies to the venture, including:

• Microsoft Amalga, described as a “health intelligence” platform
• Microsoft Vergence, which addresses single sign-on and “context management” challenges
• Microsoft expreSSO, enterprise single sign-on software
• GE Healthcare eHealth, which is positioned as a health information exchange
• GEO Healthcare Qualibria, a platform for sharing clinical knowledge

Both companies also are contributing executives and board members. For example, Neal Singh, currently the general manager of MIcrosoft Dynamics AX Global Financial Management, will be moving over to Caradigm as the chief technology officer and senior vice president. The chief executive officer for Caradigm will be Michael Simpson, who currently runs the GE knowledge sharing and connectivity business unit over at GE Healthcare.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com and follow us onTwitter! Here’s how to follow Heather Clancy directly.

Tech Data introduces one-stop cloud services store

As awareness about software and content piracy increases along with the need for proper licensing management, distributor Tech Data has created a site that creates a way for technology solution providers to streamline software licensing management and to offer cloud-delivered applications and services to small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

The StreamOne Solutions Store represents dozens of different software applications and cloud service offerings. Technology solution providers can use the store’s StreamOne Software License Selector to figure out which licensing policies make most sense for their individual customer, provision the software or service, and then offer a simple invoice. The latter is especially important if a business is selecting more than one application or cloud service, because it helps simplify license management.

Said Gertrud Pillay, vice president of category marketing and licensing operations at PCMall:

“The Tech Data StreamOne platform is unlike anything currently offered within the channel. With the intuitive interface, we’re able to quickly and easily bring greater value and efficiency to our customers by identifying which software solutions and cloud services will help our customers reach their goals.”

From the solution provider’s standpoint, Tech Data’s store not only helps simplify software management tasks, it provides a single location for helping their customers consider different applications or subscription options that they might not previously have considered.

StreamOne also obviously provides a way for independent software vendors or developers to get their applications in front of potential sales and business partners.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com and follow us onTwitter! Here’s how to follow Heather Clancy directly.

Citrix offers training to enable partners, but is the business rationale there?

Citrix Systems just announced its 2012 partner training calendar, including a six-week virtual desktop training course, Citrix Academy. The course is offered in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Santa Clara, Calif., and promises to guide students through basic design and troubleshooting of Citrix products such as XenServer, XenDesktop, XenApp and NetScaler. It also covers complex integrations, optimization and scalability using the same tools and methods the company uses to train its internal staff. Course graduates receive the Citrix Certified Integration Architect (CCIA), the company’s highest certification available.

As a VAR, you may be weighing whether or not this is a good time to take six weeks off of work and go to this intensive training. To help you decide, here some numbers that might help. According to the Virtualization Decisions 2011 Purchasing Intentions survey conducted by SearchServerVirtualization.com at TechTarget Inc., interest in desktop virtualization is growing, with 36% of respondents evaluating the technology, up from 27% in 2010. But actual deployments are lagging, with only 19% of respondents reporting that they had implemented desktop virtualization in 2010 or before, and only 14% planned to deploy the technology in 2011.

Further, only 3.64% of those surveyed said XenServer is their primary server virtualization platform, and 15.43% said XenDesktop is their primary desktop virtualization platform, behind VMware View (26.05%) and VMware ThinApp (16.4%).

These numbers may not reveal the true use of Citrix products for desktop virtualization as some discussions about using the XenClient hypervisor rather than XenDesktop for desktop virtualization have been happening, with security and flexibility cited as the leading reasons. For more information on using the bare metal hypervisor, BrianMadden.com covered XenClient features and functionality recently in an interview with Citrix’s Peter Blum.

Other desktop virtualization options include Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, which may actually be the best fit for small and medium-sized business customers.

Of all the courses offered, evaluating which training session to attend is a business decision I’m sure you don’t take lightly. But let me know. If you’re a Citrix partner, are you considering attending the Citrix Academy? What are the business factors that are driving that consideration? Is desktop virtualization something you are currently offering your customers? Why or why not? Leave your comments below or share your thoughts with me at lrosin@techtarget.com.