Michael Vizard

Just about everybody has a different opinion concerning how steep the current economic downturn might actually be. But one thing everybody can agree on is that credit has tightened to the point where it’s affecting the willingness of customers to fund new IT projects. With limited access to credit, customers have been husbanding that resource […]

There is a quiet revolution going in terms of how IT services are delivered that is going to have a substantial impact on the revenue streams of solution providers. The first of three new trends in the IT services space is a wave of increased automation that has the potential to eliminate a lot of […]

Like any society, the channel is made up of hunters and gatherers that play a vital role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem. But every now and again the balance between hunters and gathers gets out of whack, and steps need to be taken to restore the natural order of things. That seems to be where […]

All too often perception is reality. And the perception that most people have of IBM is that it likes to be in control. And that need to control things generally results in a predilection for taking most sales opportunities direct. IBM executives are now starting a broad campaign to change that perception by publishing a […]

In the early days of the security boom many customers required solution providers to give them a security assessment for free as part of the effort required to convince customers they needed a particular security product. But as the security market as evolved customers increasingly realize that security assessments are not a one time event. […]

Everywhere you turn these days, it seems server virtualization is all the rage. But from the perspective of the solution providers, server virtualization is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you might be able convince customers that they need to upgrade to a new server as part of a server consolidation project enabled by […]

With all the high profile security breaches in the retail sector and well-documented flaws in DNS servers there is probably not better time than the present to be in the security assessment business.   Just about every customer on the planet right now is realizing that its security posture is probably not as strong as […]

With smart phones increasingly becoming a mainstream element of enterprise computing, mobile computing is an expanding opportunity for the channel. The problem with that opportunity, however, is that it requires solution providers to work more closely with telecommunication carriers that for the most part are channel ignorant. A case in point is Motorola, which has […]

On the surface, the move by Brocade to acquire Foundry Systems for $3 billion is a recipe for channel conflict. Brocade has made most of its money by selling products through OEM partners such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM, who in turn rely heavily on their channel partners to move Brocade’s products. Foundry, in contrast, has […]

One of the most common complaints from the owners of solution providers is how little they personally make from their businesses. Once they cover operating and capital costs, plus payroll, little is left for the owner. Worse yet, there isn’t much left to invest back into the company. As a result, solution providers are frequently […]

There appears to be something fundamentally amiss about the way solution providers are going about building their managed services practices. And what that something is becomes pretty apparent when you take a look at the results of a study conduced by the Pacifica Group on behalf of Untangle, the makers of a security appliance […]

As expected there was a lot of fuss and bother emanating out of Houston this week in the wake of the annual Microsoft partner conference. Once again Microsoft executives led by Steve Ballmer touted the company’s grand vision for Software Plus Services as solution providers again gnarled their teeth about how they will make money […]