Dell Profits Disappoint as Tech Spending Weakens Dell posted a steep drop in quarterly earnings, citing cutbacks in commercial technology spending. Dell specifically pointed to weakness in Europe and Asia, as well as the U.S. state and local government markets and small business. IBM's Server Market Lead over HP Grows News: IBM widened its market share lead in server shipments over HP in Q2 according to market analyst firm IDC. Dell came in third and Sun Microsystems came in fourth. Avnet Looks to Solution-based Sales News: Avnet Technology Solutions has formed a new organization, Technology Infrastructure Solutions, which combines Avnet s Enterprise Software and Storage business with the Technology and Market Solutions business to better serve resellers, VARs and consultants. Gavin Miller has been appointed to head the new group and plans to leverage a more solutions-oriented approach to helping resellers and consultants build sales. IT Distributors Offer VMware Certifications Blog: Want to get into virtualization, but don't know where to start? IT distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data are creating programs to make it easier for resellers, VARs, solution providers and consultants to cash in on the lucrative and growing market of virtualization. Reimage Works Like Magic to Solve Problems with XP Review: MSPs looking to quickly cure Windows XP problems can turn to Reimage.com for an Internet-based solution that fixes most any XP problem in as little as 30 minutes automatically. How to Build a Green Instant-On PC Tech Analysis: Thanks to Asus, AMD and a few other vendors, an instant on PC that sips power, yet shouts performance is more than just a dream. IT Distributors End Free Ride on Shipping News: Ingram Micro, Avnet and now Tech Data have all instituted new fees associated with shipping, ending the free freight custom that VARs had enjoyed for years. The distributors instituted the shipping or handling fees to defray their costs as freight charges have risen with fuel costs. Synnex is taking a wait-and-see approach to shipping fees. Tech Data: IT Spending Flat News: The IT distributor reports higher year-over-year sales for Q2, in spite of flat IT spending. Hot technologies included blade servers, virtualization, storage and security software. HP on the Hunt with VARs Opinion: HP has adjusted its ParterOne program to avoid merely shifting market share across different solution providers, resellers and VARs, HP is increasing the amount of money available to channel partners that bring in new accounts to HP. The focus for HP is for channel partners, resellers and VARs to land new SMB accounts. HP Reaffirms Channel Commitment After CDW Flap News: Channel partners were sounding the channel conflict alarm recently over an HP/CDW co-marketing plan. But an HP executive says that HP does not approve co-marketing plans that don't include incremental revenue. Are Enterprises Ready for Biometrics as a Security Solution? News: UPEK is pushing biometrics devices and biometric security as mechanisms for online authentication. Are enterprise customers ready to begin widespread adoption of biometric security technologies? Symantec Acquires Windows Security Vendor PC Tools News: The acquisition brings PC Tools computer maintenance, utility and security technologies into Symantec s consumer products Lenovo ThinkPad X301 Updates Company's Notebook Line News: The Lenovo ThinkPad X301 notebook will offer Intel low-volt processors. The Lenovo ThinkPad X301 will also include a solid-state drive with 128GB of data storage capacity.