Tactics for gaining ground in big-vendor territory

In my last entry I wrote about large suppliers and their in-the-field resources and the problems that creates. After all, a larger supplier probably has more local resources than you do. Typically, they have you outnumbered in both engineers and salespeople.

In the past, many resellers have based their value-add on their ability to offer a complete solution. For example, if you’re working with a storage vendor, part of your value-add might have been to offer the backup products that complete the solution. The challenge is that many of the larger vendors already offer complete solutions. They have systems, disk, tape, software, etc.

Today, to avoid being stymied by this, there are two, not mutually exclusive, tacks that you can take. Continued »

Ripped from the headlines: Avatar abuse

By Elaine Hom, Associate Features Editor

Imagine going to jail for a murder you didn’t commit.

Sounds like The Shawshank Redemption, doesn’t it? I’ll bet it’s all too familiar for the woman — who was recently jailed for murdering her husband. Not her real husband, mind you. Her virtual husband.
Continued »

Sun founder Bechtolsheim and former Cisco exec Ullal lead Arista Networks

Many a company has set out to take down Cisco. But Arista Networks — fledgling maker of ultra high-speed Ethernet switches and data center infrastructure — is coming at that task with executive superpowers. The company announced Thursday it snagged former Cisco top executive of switching and data center Jayshree Ullal as CEO and Sun Microsystems co-founder Andreas Bechtolsheim as chairman and chief development officer. Continued »

RSA names partners of the year

RSA recently recognized its top partners at its SecurWorld Partner Conference. Here were the winners:

North America Channel Partner of the Year: Forsythe Solutions Group, Skokie, Ill.
DMR Channel Partner of the Year: CDW, Vernon Hills, Ill. 
East Channel Partner of the Year: Akibia, Westborough, Mass.
Central Channel Partner of the Year: DPSciences, Cincinnati
West Provider of the Year: Network Computing Architects, Bellevue, Wash.
Canada Channel Partner of the Year: Cyberklix, Mississauga, Ont.

Symantec tries to mend its ’stubbed toe’

I’m a Symantec user. At home, I run Norton 360. My work laptop has Symantec AntiVirus. They both work very well. But oh my God, are they memory hogs.

Whenever either computer is running slowly — which happens a lot – I launch the ol’ Windows Task Manager, and sure enough, there’s the Symantec program, eating up RAM like Pac-Man gobbles up dots. At last week’s Partner Engage conference, COO Enrique Salem even admitted problems with product quality, saying, “We’ve stubbed our toe a little bit.”

Now — finally — Symantec’s trying to fix the problem.

Continued »

Bad economy good for VMware? And Microsoft?

VMware posted strong financial results yesterday, despite the weak economy and increased competition from Microsoft.

The virtualization market leader took in $472 million in its third quarter — a 32% increase over last year and more than Wall Street expected. Ashlee Vance of The New York Times says VMware has a leg up when the economy is down, because virtualization helps customers cut their hardware and energy costs. But could that also be good news for Microsoft and its competing hypervisor, Hyper-V?

Continued »

Dealing with large manufacturers

How many salespeople and sales engineers do you want your manufacturer partners to have? Before everyone yells ZERO, let’s think about that for a minute. Different manufacturers have different levels of resources in the field. We’re beginning a series of blog entries on which level makes the most sense for you, and that will vary based on the size and ability of your organization.

Continued »

Call it what you want, recommending green tech thing takes more than a superficial interest

The whole idea of green IT or sustainability isn’t something new to Patrick Ciccarelli, CEO of San Francisco-based Varsity Technologies. But what IS new(er) is Ciccarelli’s broader commitment to what he calls “the triple bottom line.” That is, Varsity is focused on delivering solid economic performance combined WITH environmental performance and social performance. They three are inextricably entwined.

Continued »

Could hosted services spur tension between distributor and partner?

San Diego — Ingram Micro CEO Greg Spierkel faced a funny question from partners at the VentureTech Network (VTN) conference here Thursday morning: “What do we do that drives you crazy?”

Spierkel’s answer?

“Buying from my competitors.” Continued »

Don’t go cheap on me

After three days at SNW, 37 briefings and more than a few meetings with your reseller peers, I can tell you that this is a great time to be in the channel. The resellers I spoke to all indicated that business was good if not great. While they all said it quietly so as to not jinx themselves, they feel that Q4 will be OK, not a barnburner but certainly the wheels are not coming off.

Continued »