Doug Kass (bio)

Distributor Tech Data Corp. said that its Healthcare Specialized Business unit, which recently launched a vendor affiliate program, will offer grant writing and tracking services for channel partners selling to healthcare providers and organizations.

The distributor said it has partnered with the American Grant Writers' Association (AGWA) to provide resellers with professional grant writing, review and coaching services at a discounted rate.

In addition, Tech Data has teamed with Input, a researcher that tracks government spending, to help channel partners monitor government grants for health care IT providers.

The grant writing and tracking services will be made available to members of Tech Data's TechMed Alliance, a group of channel partners focused on delivering health care IT solutions.

Specific offerings include grant writing assistance tailored to the level of government, agency of foundation targeted, a five-hour grant writing course and expert review. Resellers may sign up for long-term grant writing support, in the case of larger customers pursuing multiple grant opportunities.

Hitachi Data Systems said that its nine-year long reseller relationship with Sun Microsystems will end at the close of this month, according to an email the storage maker sent to solution providers, a copy of which was posted in a blog entry by Greg Knieriemen, a vice president at Chi Corp., a storage network solutions specialist based in Cleveland, OH.

In the letter, HDS suggested that the breakup was an expected fallout of Oracle Corp.'s acquisition of Sun.

"Due to the recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation, there has been much speculation as to the effect the merger will have on the market, product offerings and partnerships," the HDS letter said.

"As you are aware, Hitachi Data Systems and Sun Microsystems have enjoyed a successful business partnership. On March 31, 2010, the current distribution agreement that Hitachi Data Systems and Sun Microsystems have been jointly operating under for the past nine years will come to an end."

In the letter, Hitachi said that it will counsel solution providers on positioning its products and solutions and associated service issues.

"We are jointly determining the positioning of the products and solutions based on Hitachi Data Systems that you have deployed with clients. We understand you and your customers have questions and concerns surrounding service obligations to the global install base moving forward."

Hitachi said that it will provide "solid transition programs" to assist resellers with the change.

In a statement, the vendor said that "with the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Hitachi Data Systems and Oracle agree that the time is right to evolve this relationship into one reflecting the priorities of both our companies."

Hitachi said that it currently is talking with Oracle to expand their relationship, perhaps to include application integration and optimization.

"Our main priority is to ensure that we are working together to ensure that our customers are being fully supported during this time of transition, and we are both committed to providing the exceptional service both our companies are known for in the marketplace."

Hitachi said it will offer more details on its "expanded relationship" with Oracle in the next few months.

 

A recent study on U.S. broadband adoption conducted by the Federal Communications Commission revealed that affordability and lack of online skills inhibit adoption by some 93 million people in the U.S. currently absent high speed Internet connections at home.

The FCC conducted the study from October 19 to November 23, 2009 in a random digit-dial survey of 5,005 adults--including 2,334 people who do not use broadband at home--to assess attitudes toward high speed Internet adoption.

The study's findings indicate that the biggest hurdle, of course, is money. About 28 million non-users, or 36 percent, don't have high speed Internet access because they can't afford the monthly fees or installations costs, don't have the money to buy a computer or don't want to sign a long-term service contract.

Another 22 percent, or 17 million adults, say that they lack the necessary skills to operate a computer or navigate the Internet, or have some concerns over data security or content on the Web.

And, still another 15 million non-user adults, or 19 percent, believe that the Internet is of little or no use to them. Happy dial-up users, of which there are still a few, also are included in this bucket.

Survey results also indicated that more than one barrier typically impedes non-adopters. Greater than 50 percent of non-adopters chose three or more reasons from a menu presented on the survey.

"The gap in broadband adoption is a problem with many different dimensions that will require many different solutions," said John Horrigan, Omnibus Broadband Initiative director of consumer research.

"Lowering costs of service or hardware, helping people develop online skills, and informing them about applications relevant to their lives are all key to sustainable adoption."

The FCC is slated to present its plan to expand broadband to Congress on March 17, 2010.

Hewlett-Packard Co. said it has elevated Tom Iannotti, currently managing director and senior vice president of its Americas and Enterprise Business, to lead its Enterprise Services unit.

Iannotti replaces Joe Eazor, who moves over to HP's Office of Strategy and Technology as vice president of corporate growth initiatives. Iannotti will report to Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's enterprise business division.

"This strategic transition enables these talented executives to draw on their significant skills and experience to drive HP's growth across our businesses," Livermore said.

HP said that Iannotti is tasked with growing the vendor's enterprise services business by delivering applications, business processes and outsourcing. Iannotti commands more than 30 years of experience with HP and Compaq, managing services in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Eazor is charged with building HP's business in China, India and Southeast Asia. He reports to Shane Robison, HP executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer.

Google Inc. has confirmed reports that it purchased Aardvark, a free question-and-answer web site, for a reported $50 million, continuing its strategy to add users by snapping up services companies.

Reports first surfaced in December in a number of IT publications and web sites that a deal between the two companies was in the works.

Aardvark co-founder Damon Horowitz publicly confirmed the acquisition late last week and Google subsequently began mentioning it in blog entries.

In a blog post, Google director of product management Johanna Wright called Aardvark a "unique technology company that lets you quickly and easily tap into the knowledge and experience of your friends and extended network of contacts." 

In 2007, Horowitz and three former Google employees founded Aardvark as a way for users to ask questions on line and receive answers from other users, sort of a peer-to-peer information bureau on an unlimited array of subjects.

The New York Times, in a February 5th article on the company, called it a "search engine that relies on humans."

As of last October, Aardvark said it had some 90,000 users. With the acquisition, Aardvark said that it will operate as part of the Google family of products, new users can still sign up, and that it had already been incorporated into Google Labs.



 

IBM Corp. is crediting competitive displacements from former Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett Packard Co. customers with prompting Q4 2009 upticks in its revenue share for Unix servers, System x and storage.

The vendor said that it added $200 million from Unix-based customer migration sales in the fourth quarter 2009 and some $600 million for the year.

IBM said that last year more than 800 former Sun and HP customers migrated to its Power Systems, System x and System z servers and storage solutions, 550 of which the vendor said it won from Sun.

Four years ago, IBM launched its Migration Factory program focused on competitive displacements. The vendor said that since the program's inception, some 2,200 former Sun and HP customers have switched to IBM.

IBM said that its share of the Unix server business, based on sales, has jumped 12 points in the past five years, according to figures compiled by researcher International Data Corp.

In Q4 2009, IBM said that its revenue share for Power Systems ticked up four points, System x moved up three points and it also posted storage gains for the period.

The vendor said that, in addition, it moved some HP software customers to IBM software, prompting a 200 percent year-over-year boost in sales.

IBM said that its competitive displacements result from customers in financial services, telecommunications, public sector, health care, retail and the mid-market.









 

Security vendor Kaspersky Labs recently named Kristen Capone, a software industry veteran, to head its Green Team channel program in North America, giving further weight to its stated intention to pump up enterprise sales.

Capone's appointment comes on the heels of Kaspersky's well-publicized hiring of channel specialist Nancy Reynolds as senior vice president of corporate sales. Capone is tasked with managing all sales activity for resellers and distributors in the U.S. and Canada.

"Building upon the foundation of our award-winning Green Team Partner Program, we will keep our existing partnerships strong and drive our new partner expansion objectives for 2010 and beyond," she said.

Prior to joining Kaspersky, Capone directed Macromedia's channel sales program in North America.

McAfee Inc. said it will provide Facebook's 350 million users with a free, six-month subscription to a jointly-developed, custom suite of its security software.

The solution includes McAfee's security software, a special scanning and repair tool and education materials that Facebook will make available to its users.

The agreement spans a one-year time period. After the initial six-month offer expires, Facebook users will be able to purchase the McAfee software at a special discount rate.

Facebook said that it will not profit from its agreement with McAfee. The company said that it is "applying all financial incentives from this partnership to the benefit of its users and will not be taking a share of any revenue from user subscriptions."

Facebook has set up a series of steps its users must follow should their account be compromised, including re-securing the account and learning some best security practices, the companies said.

Custom McAfee technology to clean a user's infected system is included in the process.

A majority of developers plan to move at least a portion of their IT resources to the public cloud this year, according to a recent study by Evans Data Corp., a Santa Cruz, CA-based researcher.

Data from the researcher's Cloud Development Survey conducted at the close of 2009 revealed that 87 percent of the 400 participating developers will move up to half of their IT resources to the public cloud within the next 12 months.

The results, which signal developers' belief and hesitation with the public cloud, show that the "hybrid cloud is set to dominate the coming IT landscape," the researcher said.

Janet Garvin, Evans chief executive, said that the hybrid cloud, which retains elements of public and private cloud environments, addresses security and government compliance issues that act as impediments to public cloud adoption.

"The hybrid cloud presents a very reasonable model, which is easy to assimilate and provides a gateway to cloud computing without the need to commit all resources or surrender all control and security to an outside vendor," Garvin said.

The survey also revealed that most developers (55 percent) prefer MySQL as the database for use in the public cloud, and that 64 percent expect their cloud applications to extend to mobile devices.

The survey examined a variety of issues surrounding cloud development, including time lines for public and private cloud adoption, obstacles and perceived benefits of cloud computing, collaborating and developing in the cloud, tools and architectures for cloud development, and virtualization in the private data center.

Distributor Ingram Micro Inc. said that increased demand for memory and mobile storage prompted it to expand its relationship with Transcend Information Inc., a Taipei, Taiwan-headquartered maker of IT storage and multimedia gear, to include the U.S. market.

Ingram's prior distribution agreement with Transcend has been confined to Latin America and a portion of Asia Pacific.

Under terms of the agreement for the U.S. market, Ingram will carry Transcend's entire product portfolio, including its memory modules, flash memory cards, USB flash drives, MP3 players, portable solid state drives, multimedia products and accessories.

Tom Hogan, senior director of Ingram's components division, called worldwide demand for memory and mobile storage "virtually limitless," and said that the distributor's expanded deal with Transcend presented a "great opportunity for retailers, e-tailers and channel partners to drive incremental sales and enhance their support services."

MJ Cho, Transcend vice president, said that the memory maker has a "great relationship with Ingram Micro in other regions worldwide" and is "eager to replicate this success in the U.S."

On its website, Transcend lists 14 distributors for the U.S. market, including Synnex. The company said it also sells through online retailers TigerDirect.com, PC Connection and Buy.com as well as consumer chains Staples, Target and Crutchfield. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.