Jessica Davis

Dell plans to acquire SilverBack Technologies, one of a handful of leading managed service platform companies offering IT monitoring and management services through resellers, the company announced today. The move comes two months after the Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker, which built its business on direct sales of PCs to customers, announced that it would […]

Cisco will again allow individuals within various solution provider organizations to share “roles,” allowing a single person to serve in two roles in the “sales engineer,” “field engineer” tracks or to serve in four roles in the “account manager track.” The change is a roll-back of an unpopular change for a minority of VARs made […]

Tech Data has delivered on its promise to offer an online tool to help VARs take advantage of sales that are as ripe as low-hanging fruit —renewal opportunities for manufacturer-branded service agreements and warranties. The distributor, based in Clearwater, Fla., first announced plans for the free online tool during its partner conference in May. MyOpportunityTracker […]

Billed as a companion product to the customer-centric Microsoft Product Licensing Advisor, the software giant this week has unveiled a partner-centric technology called LicenseWise, designed to help partners make the most of customer licensing deals. The new tool takes the complexity out of a variety of regional licensing configuration tools Microsoft had offered to partners. […]

IT threat detection technology vendor SurfControl has bumped up some of the benefits provided to partners in its channel program and added a handful of marketing tools to help VARs reduce costs. First, the company has upgraded its deal registration, lowering the qualifying deal size from $15,000 to $5,000. In addition, SurfControl has increased the […]

Looking to extend its channel reach, virtualization vendor Virtual Iron has signed a deal with distributor Tech Data Corp. Tech Data will carry the complete line of Virtual Iron server virtualization and management solutions. The companies are offering to VARs free 30-day trials of Virtual Iron to test and evaluate, available at virtualiron.com/free. The non-exclusive […]

D&H Distributing is extending its operation beyond U.S. borders to the north, opening its first international warehouse location in Mississauga, Ontario. The Harrisburg, Pa., company expects the Canadian expansion to yield more than 1,000 new customers for the companys North American base and will establish it as a multinational distributor. D&H caters to small and […]

IP telephone system vendor ShoreTel has introduced a new element to its partner program, providing its VARs with an “ecosystem of technology partners” that can offer more functionality to customers. The solutions include Ingate Systems secure SIP interoperability; DuVoices hospitality messaging and Telrexs call recording. “Best practice IP communications implementation includes tight integration with enterprise […]

Oracles tweaks to its channel program in an attempt to gain more share of the small business market may have made headlines, but the incumbents in the space arent worried at all. Microsoft and Sage Software, two leaders in the segment, said many giants have tried to come down market before, but their attempts to […]

MSP platform provider Kaseya has launched a technology alliance program to create better integration between its own technology and that of other vendors its partners may use. To further that end, Kaseya has released APIs, set to begin a 90-day beta period in July, for partners to write to. Kaseya said the new technology alliance […]

One of the most recognized names in the IT industry has joined with one of the biggest names in the IT channel to bring search capabilities to companies large and small. A deal between Ingram Micro, of Santa Ana, Calif., and Google, of Mountain View, Calif., to distribute the latters enterprise and SMB (small and […]

In an effort to make itself more competitive with Microsoft on the small business side of the database market, Oracle has announced improvements to its VAR ordering process and will allow resellers to order through distributors without having to join Oracles partner program. The new program lets VARs sell Oracle products through any Oracle value-added […]