Steven Burke

‘Heartbroken’ Bill Gates Mourns Passing Of Paul Allen

by Steven Burke

‘Even in high school, before any of us knew what a personal computer was, he was predicting that computer chips would get super-powerful and would eventually give rise to a whole new industry,’ says Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in a blog post on the passing of his co-founder partner Paul Allen. ‘That insight of his was the cornerstone of everything we did together. In fact, Microsoft would never have happened without Paul.’

Boom Times: Why 2018 Is Shaping Up To Be A Very Good Year

by Steven Burke

With tax cuts spurring IT spending and fueling sales, solution providers say 2018 is shaping up to be a very good year.

Midwest Market Blockbuster: Arlington Computer Products Is Merging With Camera Corner Connecting Point

by Steven Burke

The blockbuster deal creates a combined company with small medium business (SMB) to enterprise reach with $160 million in sales, 250 employees and more than 100 years of family ownership heritage.

Global Game Changer: Computacenter Acquires FusionStorm

by Steven Burke

The blockbuster deal expands Computacenter's headcount in the US by 50 percent and provides the ability for the company to offer a full range of services in the US consistent with its European offerings.

Dell Is Exploring Possibility Of Traditional IPO As Alternative To VMware Tracking Stock Deal: Report

by Steven Burke

"From a partner or a customer perspective, I don’t see either one of those options being more favorable than the other," said Bob Venero, the CEO of Future Tech, a Dell EMC Titanium partner. "The important thing is keeping the DNA of the tight integration between Dell and VMware which is benefitting customers and partners."

Linksys Cloud Manager Aims To Disrupt MSP Networking Market

by Steven Burke

"We are lowering the acquisition cost of SMB networking by an order of magnitude by eliminating the subscription cost of cloud networking to the reseller,” said Linksys Channel Chief Wayne Newton.

HPE CEO Neri: Hyper-Converged Sales Are Soaring, Hitting $1B Run Rate

by Steven Burke

‘For partners. this means they are making more money,’ Neri tells CRN after HPE posts results for its third fiscal quarter ended July 31 well above Wall Street expectations. ‘As we pivot to the new solutions in value compute, storage and intelligent edge this is all good profitable growth for our partners.’

Elliott Management Critical Of Dell-VMware Deal: Report

by Joseph F. Kovar

However, hedge fund manager Elliott has not publicly taken a stance on the deal.

Partners Expect To See Bigger Payoff For HPE Software- Defined Stalwarts OneView, OneSphere

by Steven Burke

‘It makes sense that HPE is going to pay us more for OneSphere and OneView -- that is the underpinning of the overall HPE strategy that is delivering the maximum value to customers,’ says an HPE partner. ‘This is about paying more for value products and solutions that are driving business outcomes for customers.’

The Channel Company CEO Skelley: Partners Need To Evolve To Become Hybrid Solution Providers

by Steven Burke

"Customers are driving partners to a deeper level of engagement and insight into their business," said Skelley. "This is about evolving and adapting so partners remain relevant to their customers to continue to realize great growth opportunities."

HPE Partners Are Driving Robust SMB Channel Growth With SimpliVity, Nimble

by Steven Burke

"We have had three quarters of strong (SMB) channel performance," said Hewlett Packard Enterprise Vice President of Small and Medium Business (SMB) Sales Jas Sood in a keynote at XChange 2018. "We have had great success with SimpliVity and Nimble with a 100 percent channel route to market.”

Forrester SVP: VMware Is One Of The 'Exciting' Stars Of IT Automation Era

by Steven Burke

"I would say in IT automation, one of the more exciting vendors is a vendor that some people think is not exciting, and that's VMware," said Glenn O’Donnell, senior vice president and research director of Forrester in a keynote address at XChange 2018.

Channel Veteran Thomas Jensen Is Leaving HP

by Steven Burke

"He was the face of the channel for HP and did a lot of good work for partners,” said Mark Romanowski, executive vice president for Agilant Solutions Inc., Port Washington, N.Y. “Thomas was the liason, the glue that kept the HP channel together.’’