Scott Ferguson

Just a few days before the Christmas holidays, Dell has issued a reminder to its customers to check their notebooks and return any lithium-ion battery packs that were listed under the voluntary Aug. 14 recall. On Dec. 21, a spokesperson confirmed that the Round Rock, Texas, PC maker had issued the reminder to its customers […]

For IBM and its partners, mainframes are back in style. The Armonk, N.Y., IT giant announced Dec. 19 that nearly 400 of its partners and ISVs have begun to offer more than 1,000 applications based on its System z mainframes that run Linux. The reason for ISVs turning to Linux-based mainframes vary, but Buell Duncan, […]

D&H Distributing wants to get tough with its VARs. The Harrisburg, Pa., IT distributor announced on Dec. 4 that it would start carrying Panasonic’s line of Toughbook rugged and semirugged notebooks. Rugged or “ruggedized” notebooks are built with special metal cases that are designed to withstand shock and exposure to the elements. The internal components, […]

Separate reports from research firms IDC and Gartner point to a more robust market for servers in the third quarter of 2006. This renewed corporate interest in servers reflects the growing popularity of blades and demand for high-end hardware, according to the reports. Overall, server revenue climbed 9.1 percent from a year ago and reached […]

Hewlett-Packard is getting a boost from one its processor partners—AMD. Advanced Micro Devices is purchasing more than more than 700 HP ProLiant BL465c blade servers, a Hewlett-Packard spokesperson said Nov. 21. These servers, which use HP’s Blade System c-Class architecture, already use AMD’s dual-core Opteron processors. The Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker said it was looking […]

Despite a delay of almost a week, Dell released its fiscal third-quarter results on Nov. 21 and beat Wall Street estimates with a net income of $667 million. For the fiscal quarter that ended Nov. 3, the Round Rock, Texas PC maker posted revenue of $14.38 billion, a 3.5 percent increase from last year, and […]

Blue Roads wants to get vendors and VARs talking. To achieve that goal, the San Mateo, Calif., SAAS (software as a service) company is offering an update to its Deal Registration Manager application. Unlike other deal registration program, Blue Roads offers a third-party application that allows both the vendors and VARs a way to share […]

Tech Data, the world’s second largest IT distributor, has tapped Murray Wright, who has worked extensively in Canada’s IT field, as its new sales chief. Wright, who will hold the title of senior vice president for U.S. Sales, will officially start his new position with Tech Data, based in Clearwater, Fla., on Nov. 27, the […]

McAfee is thinking small. The Santa Clara, Calif. security vendor is offering its channel partners a new way to get small businesses to renew their licenses with practically no work on their end. Under this new renewal program, McAfee will send its small business users an automatic alert 90 days before their licenses expires to […]

Cisco Systems on Nov. 6 is launching the second phase of a revamped partner program that aims to make systems integrators and VARs specialists in their chosen fields of expertise. The second of these “master specializations” focuses on what Cisco executives point to as a growing and lucrative field for partners: unified communications. The idea […]

It seemed that everyone at CHIPS Computer Consulting in Lake Success, N.Y., had something to say about the news. “I got an e-mail this morning saying that it was a sign that the apocalypse had come,” said Evan Leonard, the president of CHIPS. What had got people talking was the news that on Nov. 2, […]

A few months ago, StoreVault did not even exist. The company came into being after Network Appliance, a storage appliance vendor based in Sunnyvale, Calif. known for catering its solutions to the enterprise, decided that it needed a different approach to reach SMBs (small and midsize businesses). The company came up with an application, the […]