Channel Tech Center

Security has become a cost of networking. Whereas security was once considered a completely separate discipline, it’s becoming increasingly clear that vendors are responding to customer demands for a more integrated approach.
Evidence of this convergence abounds. Security software vendors are lined up to port their wares to network infrastructure platforms from companies such as Hewlett-Packard, [...]

If solution providers wait for vendors to figure out that there are more sophisticated ways to market solutions using Web 2.0 technologies, we may well be on to Web 4.0 before the channel see any actual benefits.
A good example of how Web 2.0 platforms can be used in the channel comes in the form of [...]

One thing that seems to be abundantly clear at this point is that data deduplication and replication have become features of data storage products. CA pretty much led the way on this, with recent offerings from Quantum and Nexsan pretty much confirming the trend. In fact, with Symantec expected to follow suit any moment, it’s [...]

One of the historic problems with unified communications is how disjointed this set of technologies has really been. Most customers are really still unsure what it means to unify their communications and the various components of unified communications solution don’t always work so seamless together.
But at the same time, interest in increasing the productivity of [...]

Anybody selling IT infrastructure in the channel these days knows that great change is upon us. There is a shift towards pre-integrated servers that come complete with storage and switches that are being heavily promoted under the concept of data center convergence. The basic idea is that if all these IT infrastructure components are pre-integrated, [...]

When it comes to PC computing these are the best and worst of times for solution providers in the channel.
The good news, as evidenced by the plethora of systems launched at the Consumer Electronics Show, is that there is more variety of types of PCs than in recent memory. Starting with smartbooks and notebooks all [...]

With much fanfare Google today announced that a Nexus One smartphone is now available directly from Google. On the face of it, this would seem like the opening of the smartphone market, much to the potential benefit of solution providers in the channel.
But while the Nexus One smartphone essentially adds another supplier of phones made [...]

There’s a lot of debate these days over where to deploy various applications. Some folks think everything should automatically juts become a service in the cloud, while others point to a variety of technical, legal and strategic reasons for why that might not be such a good idea.
For example, a lot of existing applications are [...]

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to selling IT on any level is getting a proof of concept deployment set up in the first place. Customers are generally interested in almost anything a credible solution provider has to say. But before they buy something, they usually want to see a working demonstration in [...]

There have been a lot of advancements in the area of telepresence that has gotten a fair amount of attention from customers. After all, the idea of being able to hold meeting using high-definition video conferencing systems that can be used to reduce travel time and budget has universal appeal. The issue, of course, has [...]