John Hazard

Network complexity and convergence will drive 40 percent of enterprises to dabble in managed PBX and telecommunications by 2009, according to a recent survey by In-Stat. Thirty percent of firms with 1,000+ employees reported they will do the same with network security, storage and hosting, according to In-Stat’s Global Managed Services Trends, announced on In-Stat’s […]

N-able Technologies is doing the same thing for hardware-as-a-service that it did for managed services. The managed services platform vendor turned its model of built-in best practices and contacts for managed services on hardware, with a unit and program to assist its Velocity partners in adding hardware-as-a-service to their lineup cards. The program includes the […]

John Paget, the new president of Avnet Technology Solutions, the distributor’s solutions and value-added arm, has experience in each part of the two-tier channel, but still says his focus is on VARs, “the pointy end of the stick.” Paget, whose appointment was announced Feb. 14, has done time at distributors, manufacturers and VARs. “VARs are […]

Last year CompTIA used its VAR-focused lineup of conferences and events to drive home the message that VARs need to move up the value chain to services. This year it’s showing VARs a few routes up the chain, sharing the results of the organization’s wealth of studies and surveys to point out market segments with […]

Microsoft has been releasing Economic Impact studies on the effects of Vista in various metros and regions, but the vista appears too rosy. The eight reports (one on Illinois was announced Feb. 12, but unavailable as of publication), commissioned by Redmond and performed by IDC, divine a significant surge in IT employment and revenue to […]

Symantec, and specifically its channel chief, Julie Parrish, operate with the novel idea that it should be easy for VARs to sell a vendor’s wares. The security vendor announced this week it was removing the coursework requirements attached to its sales and technical certifications and would began making all of the tutorials and study guides […]

TeachMeIT, an IT training and education company, launched a VAR program, giving itself a new route to the enterprise and SMB market and VARs a new route to value-add. The Monmouth Junction, N.J., TeachMeIT bills the program as a means for VARs to add “top-line revenue without adding to the bottom line,” something CompTIA and […]

The mass-market advertising for Windows Vista is here and it’s impressive, according to Microsoft Watch’s Joe Wilcox. Wilcox called the campaign, which he caught during an episode of ABC television’s “Lost,” “approachable and familiar,” like Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” The fact that the campaign is quality is something VARs can use to their advantage, even […]

Microsoft hosted a live Web meeting Feb. 7 to clear up the vista on its retail strategy to reach small and midsize businesses and how it relates to SMB VARs, but the end result was a smudgy view. Eric Ligman, senior manager of community engagement on Redmond’s U.S. Small Business Team, clearly spelled out Microsoft’s […]

Wouldn’t you know it, we had to leave the channel to really get readers’ steam up. It’s rare that channel issues get your blood boiling and rarer that the issues we cover on the pages of eWEEK’s Channel Insider drive readers to impassioned responses. And that remains the case. Channel Insider columnist Pedro Pereira’s commentary […]

John Paget, the only president Synnex’s Technology Solutions Division has ever known, bid his adieu to the distributor Feb. 7, just shy of three years with the company, according to a message sent to partners. Paget, 56, came to Synnex in May 2004 to drive a solutions approach at the distributor known more for its […]

Microsoft, IBM and others are advising partners on how to manage the earlier daylight savings adjustment that threatens to throw off calendar software March 11. In case you hadn’t heard “Spring Ahead” comes three weeks early this year (second Sunday in March, instead of the first Sunday in April) thanks to the Energy Policy Act […]