Channel Strategies for the CIOLast month, news about Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd's surprise exit from the company and Oracle's plan to take more Sun hardware renewal deals direct struck a chord with SearchITChannel.com readers. A lack of SMB VARs in the VMware universe and the expanding channel role in Cisco UCS sales were also popular news stories in August 2010. Here are the top five stories for last month.
1. HP VARs stunned by Hurd's exit
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Mark Hurd's sudden resignation as Hewlett-Packard CEO rocked the company's partner community. Hurd was credited by many clients for nurturing HP partners, but others said his management made HP a very unpleasant place. His departure distracted and alarmed many HP VARs.
2. Oracle to take more Sun hardware renewals direct
Sun hardware resellers took another one on the chin as they learned of Oracle's plans to take their hardware renewal business direct as of Oct. 15. Some Sun hardware VARs are part of the "Sun Manager Program," allowing them to offer first-line support for Sun products. But the October deadline leaves the rest of the Sun partners in a tough position.
3. VMware support still lacking among traditional SMB VARs
No one can doubt VMware's place in the virtualization software market, but many SMB VARs are flocking to Microsoft's Hyper-V. Some solution providers remain unconvinced that VMware's addition of live migration technology to vSphere 4.1 Essentials Plus and Standard editions will outweigh Hyper-V's cost efficiency.
4. Cisco UCS makes channel inroads
Cisco's Unified Computing System is becoming more popular in the channel as Cisco authorizes more partners to sell the hardware. Because UCS is fairly new, networking VARs may be unfamiliar with the server and storage components so selling Cisco UCS remains complicated.
5. VMware turns up the volume on discounts
Details on the new VMware Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) were published in August. Before the VPP, volume discounts were given at the discretion of the VMware partner or distributor.
Check out the top SearchITChannel.com stories from July 2010.
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