PartnerWorld Promises
Among the show's highlights: IBM laid out new services to help partners deploy web services and build Linux-based solutions. CRN's Steven Burke talked to Buell Duncan, GM of developer relations, about IBM's plans to recruit ISVs and developers to "keep Microsoft on the desktop"; and VARBusiness and CRN editors sat down for a lengthy question-and-answer session with IBM Global Services Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Ralph Martino about IGS's growing channel business.
In product announcements, the company showed off its new pSeries web servers, DB2 Express, Domino and Tivoli updates, storage initiatives, and even a high-wow-factor Personal Server, which the company, so far, has no plans to actually market.
One key executive not in attendance at PartnerWorld was IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano. VARBusiness Editorial Director Robert DeMarzo criticizes Palmisano and other top IBM executives for giving the show a pass. "IBM's not sending in the CEO... is akin to sending in an assistant coach to pump up a team before the Super Bowl." DeMarzo contrasted Palmisano with HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who spent spent hours laying out that company's vision a week earlier at HP's partner conference. Catch all the news from PartnerWorld in our News Center.
A Dust-Up At Microsoft
You've heard it before: Microsoft stifles competitors and suppresses new, innovative technolgies. What's unusual this time is the source: David Stutz, a lead Microsoft developer who played key roles in Visual Basic, Visual Studio, OLE/COM, ActiveX and CLI, and who resigned from Microsoft last week. Stutz wants to move on to concentrating on music and wine (who doesn't?), but before he does, he shared a wealth of comments on the sotftware giant's strengths and weaknesses, with the press and on his website. "Stop looking over your shoulder and invent something," he exclaims.
Helping Out Heroes
Last week I poked some fun at some of the e-mail we get here at ChannelWeb. This week I want to share a more serious e-mail about a terrific project.
Denise Kohler, of TecLogicNY, a Troy N.Y. solution provider, wrote about her company's ongoing efforts to refurbish old PCs and provide them at little or no-cost to families with school-age children who wouldn't otherwise have access to home computers. They've now expanded this project to provide PCs to enable families to stay in e-mail contact with loved ones serving in the military overseas. Kohler writes,
"Since my partner is an ex Marine, this endeavor has hit close to home and we would like to direct our focus to helping the families of those who put themselves in harm's way to ensure our freedom. With the imminent possibility of the United States going to war we thought this could be a way of us helping these families stay in touch."
Demand has outstripped their supply of surplus PCs. If you have spare PCs or components and can help, check out TecLogicNY's PC's for Kids page.
In Other News
Intel CEO Craig Barrett, at his company's developer conference, offered a positive outlook on the economy, citing "pent up demand" for the next generation of computing devices.
Microsoft announced plans to buy Connectix to gain a toehold in the server virtualization/consolidation market. (As many ChannelWeb readers pointed out, this will also give them ownership of Virtual PC, the leading Windows-compatibility solution in the Mac OS market. Readers split on whether that was a good thing.)
Coming Up
This year's VARBusiness Partner Program Guide hits the web next week. In addition to features on the state of vendor/partner relations, our web package will include a searchable database of nearly 300 programs from leading hardware and software producers. CRN will feature a storage market special report in their Monday issue.
