LAS VEGAS: After a tumultuous year for Hewlett-Packard Co., new CEO Meg Whitman brought the vendor back to its roots and delivered the messages channel partners wanted to hear in her keynote at the global partner conference: HP is proudly a hardware company first and foremost, and its primary route to market will be through the channel.
The major security vendors have a strong presence at VMworld 2011, VMware Inc.'s [NYSE: VMW] annual user conference. And it's not surprising, given that security remains a top-of-mind concern for many enterprises considering embracing cloud computing.
There's been a change in the channel leadership at enterprise software vendor SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) with the departure this week of Pat Hume, the worldwide channel chief who has led SAP's ongoing transformation from a direct-first company to one that is embracing the indirect go to market, particularly in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) space.
The guest keynote speakers at technology conferences can be hit or miss, but Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) Canada (NYSE: HIT) certainly scored a hit by bringing in Michael Calce, aka Mafiaboy, to speak at its recent Information Forum event in Toronto.
It was nearly an hour into the opening keynotes at the Americas Partner Summit on Monday until a Hewlett Packard executive finally used the C-word: Cisco. But the one-time networking partner was certainty front of mind though as HP re-affirmed its commitment to become the leader in every business segment it competes in including networking.
After a fiscal 2009 that Sun Microsystems executives admit was very challenging for the vendor and its channel partners, the vendor is optimistic about what's in store for 2010.
Technology vendors have often been on the cutting-edge of technology innovation, but the same can't always be said of their design. Manufacturers have more often been concerned about what's inside the box, devoting less time and resources to the look and feel of the box itself.
Customer-relationship management vendor Maximizer says most of its mobile CRM users favour the BlackBerry platform, and the ever-changing dynamics of mobility require more frequent platform refreshes, leading to the recently released Maximizer 10.5 Freedom for BlackBerry.
Hoping to further bridge the gap between the business world and the world of IT, business process management (BPM) vendor IDS Scheer used its Processworld Europe conference Tuesday to announce a further integration of its ARIS modeling suite with BMC Software's IT service management tools.
Long known for its close relationship with another German company, BI vendor SAP, businesses process modeling (BPM) vendor IDS Scheer further widened the breadth of its ARIS process modeling suite Wednesday through an announcement with Microsoft.
IBM's new focus and push around the enterprise data center with come with a new Business Partner program that's still being developed and will be launched later in the year, but Big Blue says partners shouldn't wait to develop the required skill sets within their organizations.
According to IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano the client PC era is over, dead and buried, and not just because the vendor sold its Thinkpad business to Lenovo. Cloud computing is the future, and to underline the point Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt shared the keynote stage at Big Blue's partner leadership forum in the US last week.
The economic slowdown in the US has led Gartner to revise its 2008 worldwide PC shipments forecast downward slightly but the analyst firm is still predicting a strong year, particularly in the mobility space.
NetSuite furthered its verticalization strategy recently with the release of two new editions of its on-demand ERP platform specifically geared towards e-commerce vendors.
The increasing availability, and visibility, of consumer technology is catching the eye of many small businesses looking to cut corners on their IT budgets, but one reseller says it's making life difficult for the channel and an analyst warns SMBs are exposing themselves to substantial security risks.