Jessica Davis

IT performance and monitoring vendor Nimsoft is now offering a much more scalable version of its flagship product Nimbus, plus new support for the infrastructure within the LAMP stack. About a quarter of Redwood City, Calif.-based Nimsoft’s customers are MSPs (managed services providers) who use Nimsoft’s service-level monitoring software to help manage and monitor clients’ […]

Competitors to Silverback and EqualLogic—two companies recently acquired by Dell—have been quick to poach partners who may be disenchanted with the idea of working for one-time channel nemesis Dell. The recent timing of Dell’s announced plans to acquire EqualLogic couldn’t have been better for Hifn, an EqualLogic competitor, which announced a new channel program the […]

Dell’s aggressive moves in recent months to acquire technology companies to fill its own functional holes have created a tangled mess for the company’s fledgling channel hopes. Through its acquisitions, and pending acquisitions of Silverback, EqualLogic, ASAP Software and now Everdream, Dell has also acquired a handful of separate channel partner and MSP (managed services […]

Distributor Avnet Technology Solutions has signed a global distribution agreement with Colubris Networks, a provider of intelligent wireless LANs for enterprises and service providers. The agreement will initially be implemented in the United States and Canada. Colubris’ portfolio includes its Intelligent Mobility Solution with 802.11n-ready architecture that allows companies to migrate to the new wireless […]

PC maker Dell has signed an agreement to acquire Everdream, a provider of software-as-a-service solutions for remote service management. Dell said the deal would complement the capabilities it gained earlier in 2007 when it acquired MSP (managed services provider) platform company SilverBack Technologies. Together, the technologies from the two companies will further enable end-to-end remote […]

Expanding into the channel has brought new vendor acquisition opportunities to Dell, as the vendor’s recent buyout of channel-focused storage vendor EqualLogic has proved. EqualLogic became an acquisition target for Dell only recently, according to Paul Bell, president of Americas for the PC maker. “It would have been much more difficult to do an EqualLogic […]

Maintenance contract and warranty management services provider MaintenanceNet has introduced a new software as a service tool to help technology manufacturers, channel partners and customers match up the right services to buy with particular products. Called Service Finder, the new offering allows searching by product name or SKU number to find the right services. An […]

HD video communications vendor LifeSize has inked an agreement with Tech Data to distribute its complete product portfolio. The deal brings LifeSize’s high-definition videoconferencing platform to a new set of resellers that cater to the IT space. The company has traditionally worked with resellers specializing in audio/visual and through strategic partnerships with OEMs that resell […]

Dedicated hosting company The Planet is introducing a revamped Web hosting reseller program following its merger with Dallas-based EV1servers 18 months ago. The Houston-based hosting company’s new three-tier program will offer members a free month of service for each new server purchased during the three-month introductory launch. Servers cost from $69 to $1,100 a month. […]

Resellers who deal in refurbished PCs now have the answer to a longstanding question—can they sell refurbished PCs with a legitimate Microsoft operating system? The answer came last week when Microsoft announced its MAR (Microsoft Authorized Reseller) program. The company created the program to help large refurbishers who wanted to deliver preinstalled legitimate Windows XP […]

VARs will need to alter their business models to take advantage of the growing software-as-a-service market because projects will pay less than traditional on-premises solution integrations. A new report from Forrester Research has found that SAAS is restructuring software channel managers’ relationships with their channel partners because of the difference in what those projects pay. […]

Software as a Service’s next wave of opportunity will come in the form of vertically-oriented industry hubs or exchanges that have the potential to turn traditional customer relationships upside down for ISVs and VARs. That’s according to Colleen Smith, managing director of SAAS at Progress Software, a provider of tools and infrastructure that ISVs need […]