Channel Insider Staff

Small businesses are becoming more comfortable with social media marketing and are using it more when engaging with customers, according to survey data from marketing specialist Constant Contact. The Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey also reports that small businesses still rely heavily on in-person interactions and events in addition to email marketing and Website […]

Dell Kace announced the availability of its new K-Series Advanced line of appliances aimed at medium-sized businesses with 1,000 to 3,500 end-point systems. The K-Series Advanced Appliances include the K1100-ADV for systems management, and the K2100-ADV for systems deployment. The line features quad-core Xeon processors, RAID 5 configuration, high speed drivers and redundant power supplies. […]

By Charles Eaton Like most users of the new iPhone 4S, I’ve been having fun discovering what Siri, the phone’s virtual personal assistant, will say to odd requests. The Apple team has done a great job giving her witty responses. Make a HAL reference, for example, and Siri sighs like she’s heard it a million […]

Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) announced the availability of Symantec Instant Messaging Security.cloud (IMS.cloud) with support for Microsoft Lync. Symantec is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor that supports Microsoft Lync users, helping organizations that communicate using instant messaging platforms address their security and compliance issues. IMS.cloud scans messages and attachments for malware, blocks malicious URLs, protects organizations from […]

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Nov. 14 rolled out the source code for its Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" operating system, signaling that platform is moving closer to prime time. ICS, which symbolizes the unification of the 2.x smartphone branch and the Android Honeycomb tablet branch, borrows holographic user interface traits from Honeycomb, and makes apps tailored for […]

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Nov. 14 peeled away another layer of the multifaceted onion that comprises its search engine by revealing 10 specific algorithm changes the company has made. The company has traditionally closely guarded its search technology signals, or the 1,000-plus factors that help Google.com serve results at such a prodigious clip. Yet Google is endeavoring […]

Small-business owners are battling regulatory challenges and the war for talent, factors that are negatively impacting their bottom line and potentially altering how they vote in 2012, according to the findings of The Hartford’s Small Business Success Study. Despite high unemployment rates, finding qualified talent is a challenge for 59 percent of small-business owners, according […]

Solarflare, a provider of application-intelligent 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking hardware and software, announced it is collaborating with Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO), a specialist in shared data decentralization, on solutions that accelerate applications. A member of Fusion-io’s Technology Alliance Program, Solarflare’s products, paired with Fusion-io products, are designed to minimize latency and increase application performance. Solarflare’s application-intelligent […]

Data storage specialist Drobo has released storage industry predictions for the coming year, based on the company’s interactions with customers, analysts and industry experts, predicting pure cloud adoption will become less common than a hybrid approach that tightly integrates public and private cloud architectures with modern on-premises storage systems a trend the company said will […]

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Nov. 14 added 24/7 phone support in its Google Apps for Business for all issues, providing an additional lure for CIOs considering Google’s paid collaboration suite as an alternative to Microsoft  software. Launched in February 2007, Google Apps for Business (formerly Google Apps Premier Edition) costs $50 per user, per year, or $5 […]

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) began shipping its Kindle Fire Nov. 14, one day earlier than expected. That gives the tablet a bit more separation from Barnes & Noble s (NYSE:BKS) Nook Tablet, which is slated to arrive later this week. The $199 Kindle Fire faces not only the Nook Tablet, but also Apple’s iPad in the quest […]

After several fitful starts and driven by the customer rush to cloud computing, CA Technologies is getting serious about boosting and expanding its channel business. In a session for approximately 1,000 solution providers, system integrators, global service providers and managed services providers, CA Technologies CEO William McCracken stated he intends to drive the channel business […]