INDUSTRY ISSUES
Diversinet turns to the channel to boost sales PAGE 8
SUPPLIER POV
Check Point increases staff to support partner growth PAGE 12
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Charting the channel’s travels for 2012 and beyond Tech Data talks trends, tactics Canadian Cloud Computing shifts gears, opts for partner status
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contents
12.04
FEATURED THIS ISSUE THE INCREASINGLY-GRADUAL RECOVERY
With input from IT and business managers, we chart the steps in a slow progression.
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inDustry issues Diversinet adopts a new marketing stance. Plus Veeam extends ONE to support Hyper-V.
channel PersPective Tech Data’s company-wide and Canadian leadership come together to talk trends, tactics and what to expect from distribution.
suPPlier Pov Check Point’s new initiatives for 2012 include a focus on “3D reports” and adding new staff in Canada to support the growth of Canadian partners.
focus on clouD Once a cloud infrastructure operator itself, Canadian Cloud Computing opts for partner status instead.
focus on security Partners and consultants are called upon to help organizations develop policies and provide monitoring services for better BYOD.
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4 cco view 6 channel news 20 tracker networks
We’re seeing an upward trend in business activity, and an increase in the number of vendors using special pricing as standard practice.
24 Program uPDates
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NetApp targets big data, D-Link ups channel access.
26 on location
Forget World of Warcraft. CA Technologies has a game designed to help resellers view the need for the cloud from the client’s perspective.
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28 test beD
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30 Distractions
As a genuine competitor for Apple’s MacBook Air, HP’s Folio 13 Ultrabook should start infiltrating boardrooms everywhere.
Featuring news you can’t use – but should know. This edition: Microsoft picks on its past.
april 2012 | 3 | channel insider canada
cco view the 2012 forecast: how full is the glass?
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by MiChael o’neil
t’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you develop a market forecast. You start by poking through the surveys – in our case, 1,009 of them – trying to glean some insight as the data is compiled. Then, if you’re lucky enough (as we are) to have respondents who provide yearover-year input, you parse through those results, trying to understand how this year differed from last for the 300-plus organizations from which you have that patterned data: how many of those that reported a decline last year are calling for better times this year? How has the rate of increase changed for those that have had successive increments in their IT budgets? From there, you analyze the overall survey data, running results through models that have been fine-tuned over half a decade. What does the current data mean for small business? For server spending? For the outlook in government, or in wholesale/retail? How do the findings – for operations and product acquisitions, down to the level of seven hardware and software categories, within three enterprise size segments, and across nine industry sectors – compare with last year? Or with the year before, when we were first emerging from the Great Recession? This sounds like a set of intricate tasks, and it is – but there’s a quiet excitement to it too, as the numbers come together and begin to tell a story of how the Canadian IT landscape will change in 2012. And this is where the real analysis begins: in linking the data to the impressions built through the thousand-plus web and print stories that we have published over the past 12 months, and the thousands more conversations, releases, and event presentations that we’ve seen and heard over that period. How are the big-picture concepts that pepper these communications – analytics, BYOD, cloud, collaboration, consumerization (and we haven’t even reached the Ds!) – reflected in the data? What can the numbers tell us about whether or how these trends are
likely to evolve in 2012? And based on all of this – what guidance can we provide to our research customers, the CIO and IT manager members of our IT Insight Exchange, and our IT in Canada and Channel Insider readers? That’s been the experience here at IT in Canada and within our research arm, IT Market Dynamics, since about the beginning of March. And at the end, we stand up with a number, 3.49% - and with a set of related findings that are tugging at the edges of this column, begging to be analyzed and let loose for discussion. Through the course of the next few months, we’ll trace the highlights for some of the industry sectors and product categories contained in the forecast. For now, though, let’s start at the top. The 3.49% growth that ITMD anticipates for Canadian IT spending in 2012 represents a very tepid rate of increase – it’s much lower even than the 3.78% we saw in 2010, when we were limping past the recession. Increase in new product spending, at just over 3.1%, is expected to be even more meagre. And yet, the glass is not as empty as this last paragraph would lead you to believe. After two preceding years of growth, this 3.49% figure actually represents more than $3.25 billion in new IT spending. Small business is expected to grow more slowly than the overall market – but our figures suggest that there is more than $400 million in new 2012 product and service revenue available to the Canadian channel in this segment alone. So… how full is the glass? Nobody who read the numbers, or listened in on the conversations that I’ve had with Canadians across the IT supply chain, would believe that it is brimming. There is, though, a lot more activity today than there was last year. It may not be possible for the channel to merely skim the froth to achieve growth in 2012, but – as in any other year that offers at least some customer budget flexibility – companies that can connect customers with IT business value can ensure that there is more than just a puddle in the bottom of the goblet.
april 2012 | 4 |
Volume 2, Issue 3 EDITORIAL Michael O’Neil | Chief Content Officer michael.oneil@itincanada.ca Stefan Dubowski | Editor stefan.dubowski@itincanada.ca Christopher Rogers | Senior Staff Writer chris.rogers@itincanada.ca CONTRIBUTORS Jason Doel ART & PRODUCTION Elena Pankova | Senior Art Director elean.pankova@itincanada.ca David Potocki | Art Director davidp@precision-multimedia.com CHANNEL INSIDER CANADA SALES Patricia Bush | National Account Manager trisha.bush@itincanada.ca ONLINE Michael Howe | CTO michael.howe@itincanada.ca EVENTS Sandra Service | Events Manager sandra.service@itincanada.ca CIRCULATION Denys Cruz | Circulation Director circulation@itincanada.ca CORPORATE INQUIRIES John R. Jones | Publisher john.jones@itincanada.ca HOW TO CONTACT CHANNEL INSIDER CANADA Telephone: 905-727-4091 Editorial issues: Michael O’Neil, Chief Content Officer, IT in Canada network michael.oneil@itincanada.ca Business issues: John Jones, Chief Operating Officer, IT in Canada network john.jones@itincanada.ca SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES For help with subscriptions, please contact circulation@itincanada.ca To subscribe to Channel Insider Canada in print, as a digital magazine – or to receive our daily e-newsletter – please visit us at www.itincanada. ca/registration Channel Insider Canada is published 10 times per year and is found on the web at www.channelinsider.ca One year subscription rates: One year subscription rates: Canada, $50, US $60 (US) and foreign $90 (US). Single copies $5.00. Please add HST where applicable. Complimentary subscriptions available to qualified Canadian readers. When notifying of an address change, please include address label to ensure continuity of service. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in whole without the permission of copyright owner. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. REPRINT INFORMATION High quality reprints of articles or additional copies of the magazine are available through IT in Canada. Please contact us by phone at 905-727-3875 x336 Canadian Publication Mail Agreement # 41382532 All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without written consent; inquiries should be addressed to circulation@itincanada.ca
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14.03.12 11:53
channel news
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C ochran departs Symantec, Eldh named channel chief
Symantec partners have received a letter from Symantec’s SVP America sales, Rick Spring, informing them that channel boss Randy Cochran is leaving Symantec to pursue other opportunities. For Symantec’s fiscal year 2013, John Eldh, who partners will know as VP channel sales Americas, will take over Cochran’s position. When Cochran spoke to Symantec partners at Partner Engage 2011, he announced Symantec Endpoint Protection.cloud and Backup Exec.cloud for U.S. and Canadian partners. In a blog post, he said he was proud of the partner ecosystem. “I’m seeing some very successful collaboration between partners with complementary offerings.” In the same post, Cochran restated the company’s partner focus: “Our vision is to give every Symantec partner more opportunities to be successful with us.” Eldh recently headed Symantec’s go-to-market strategy for its .cloud offering in the Americas and created partner distribution teams to extend the reach of Symantec.cloud services in the market, Spring said in the letter. Eldh has spent the last seven years with Symantec and has been a sales executive for over 20. With Symantec he has held sales leadership positions in the Americas and EMEA, and he has also been regional VP of U.K./Ireland and the Nordics. Prior to joining Symantec, he was with Gartner Group for 15 years. “Under John’s leadership in FY13, we will put a relentless focus on driving growth in the Americas by leveraging the strength of our partner ecosystem,” Spring said. “We are excited about the new opportunities and leadership strength that John brings to this role. Our goal is to build on the foundation of our partnership with you. Symantec continues to be a channel-led company, with the majority of our business flowing through you, our partners.” The letter affirms the company’s commitment to the ecosystem that Cochran helped create. “We remain deeply committed to our partners and look forward to continuing our joint success as we begin our new fiscal year,” Spring said.
ymantec furthers mobility play with buy 2 SNukona In other Symantec news, the company announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire mobile application management (MAM) provider Nukona. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is expected to close in April after passing the requisite regulatory conditions. The big draw from Nukona is its enterprise app store that allows enterprises to distribute, secure and control applications without controlling the device itself. Apps can be iOS, Android and HTML 5, allowing for a wide array of new devices in enterprise environments. Symantec has been snapping up mobile device management (MDM) solutions to strengthen its offerings to support bring-yourown-device (BYOD) environments. The company bought MDM provider Odyssey Software earlier this year. The base of Symantec’s offering will now be formed by Odyssey, which provides the foundation for device enrollment and
april 2012 | 6 |
management. The Nukona acquisition will provide application distribution. In a statement CJ Desai, SVP, endpoint and mobility group at Symantec, said, “As the adoption of mobile devices and apps continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, one of the biggest challenges for customers is to protect and manage the native apps, data and John Eldh led Symantec’s .cloud strategy and created environments of these devices. partner distribution teams. The acquisition of Nukona helps us further address the ‘consumerization of IT’ and ‘bring your own device’ trends by helping organizations protect and isolate corporate data and applications across both corporate owned and personally owned devices.”
3 Diskeeper becomes Condusiv Technologies
As of March 5 the high-performance optimization and maintenance software vendor Diskeeper has a new name: Condusiv Technologies. After a company launch event the firm welcomed its employees back to work with rebranded offices, signage, and stationery. It also plans to launch an aggressive global rebranding campaign designed to reinforce new marketplace positioning while introducing the new brand to clients and the public. “This is more than a rebrand – we are a completely new company with a fresh technology focus,” said Gary Quan, SVP product strategy. “Condusiv’s new roadmap extends beyond corporate defragmentation and into intelligent SSD caching, advanced optimization, virtualization, cloud, and big data. Expect to see new products from us shortly and wait until you see what’s in store for the rest of the year. We are passionate about helping people and businesses become most productive.” Shortly after being appointed in September 2011, CEO Jerry Baldwin reviewed the intellectual property and leadership of the company. “I realized that I had inherited a very talented team with deep engineering expertise and a passionate desire to develop leading high-performance software... innovative products that would have extremely positive measurable impact on our customers’ business, economic recovery and macroeconomic growth,” he said. “We are a very different organization today than we were when the company was founded in 1981. Adopting a new name and brand identity is a logical next step in our growth strategy...” The name change follows 31 years of business with Fortune 100 to Fortune 1000 companies. The company was founded in 1981 as Executive Software. Representatives said the name Condusiv is derived from the word “conducive,” meaning “contributing to making an experience better.”
EEBURGER unveils new partner offering for SAP customers 4 Smid-market
Global business integration and secure managed file transfer (MFT) solution provider SEEBURGER has announced a new partner
channel insider canada
program expansion into a number of business-to-business solutions for partners serving mid-market SAP customers. The new offering is designed to enhance the value of current SAP deployments. The SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS), which channel partners can now offer, provides a central platform and data hub for configuring, executing and managing multiple B2B processes. It also eliminates the need for print solutions that add deployment and management overhead. The BIS includes the SEEBURGER B2B Gateway, which automates trading HP’s Z820 workstation features up to 16 processing cores, 512GB memory and 14TB of storage. partner communications, while the company’s MFT provides Lifecycle Controller Log, remove enable and configure for a secure and auditable exchange of sensitive and/or large files number of components, and more than 65 scripts. that exceed email attachment limitations. Other pieces include Along with the announcement came news from Dell of application integration capabilities to enable data exchange OpenManage Essentials, a management console which monitors across applications, and SAP solution extensions that provide fully the health of Dell servers, storage platforms and switches. The automated order-to-cash, SCM monitoring and related functions. solution interfaces with the Dell KACE K1000 Management As SEEBURGER has aimed this new offering at the mid-market Appliance; OpenManage Essentials sends user-defined server, customer, specific advantages include a single platform that can storage and network health status alerts to the K1000 service manage multiple business integration and file sharing functions; desk. pre-configured packaged solutions for specific industries; and a The new servers offer increased performance per watt up to WebEDI option that makes it possible to exchange purchase orders 101 times over Dell servers from 10 years ago, expanded fresh air and other transaction messages electronically, even to customers offerings for all PowerEdge gen-12 servers, OpenManage Power without an in-house EDI infrastructure. The solution is built on Center, 300% more SQL Virtual Machines per rack and other one consolidated view and takes a modular approach, making it benefits. possible to add new components as required. There are options for cloud, managed services and on-premises deployment. Interested partners should note that all SEEBURGER business HP refreshes Z workstation lineup with companies generating revenues of less than $500 million After unveiling the new Z1 all-in-one workstation at HP GPC 2012 annually is delivered through the channel. In 2011, the company in February, HP has now launched a full update to the rest of its upped its partner resources to include a dedicated channel Z-series workstations: Z820, Z620 and Z420. The new workstations and alliance team, pre-sales and consulting support, sales and have been updated to include the eight-core Intel Xeon processor technical training, marketing campaigns and even a new partner E5-2600 family and offer up to 512GB of DDR3 RAM. portal. The Z820 workstation is built for the most demanding tasks In a statement, Rohit Khanna, EVP, global channel and alliances and can provide up to 16 processing cores and up to 512GB ECC at SEEBURGER, said, “This is an opportunity for channel partners memory to compliment 14TB of high-speed storage and dual to increase business from their existing customers as well as new NVIDIA Quadro 6000 graphics cards. This amount of power is prospects who have built their IT infrastructure around SAP.” aimed squarely at the specific needs of companies in mechanical computer-aided design, video and animation, and oil and gas industries. Dell intros new Gen-12 PowerEdge servers The Z620 model can house single- or dual-socket processors and The new PowerEdge 12th generation server portfolio (R820, also has the capacity for up to 16 processing cores and up to 96GB R720, R720xd and R620 rack servers, the M620 blade server, of ECC memory. Quieter than the Z820, the Z620 can house up to the T620 tower server and C6220) are based on a shared Dell 11TB of storage and an NVIDIA Quadro 6000 card or dual Quadro infrastructure that was built on the Intel Xeon processor E5 family. 5000 cards. The new servers include an update to Dell’s embedded systems For mainstream needs the Z420 can leverage up to 8 processing management tools, the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller cores from Intel’s Xeon E5-1600 and E5-2600 families. It has up to 6 (iDRAC6) with Lifecycle Controller 1.0, with iDRAC7 and Lifecycle 64GB ECC memory and 11TB of HDD space. It can use an NVIDIA Controller 2.0. Quadro 5000 card or dual NVIDIA Quadro 2000 graphics cards. The new tools include agent-free monitoring of over 400 sensors, bare-metal deployment and provisioning, an enhanced Continued on page 19...
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april 2012 | 7 | channel insider canada
INDUSTRY ISSUES
Diversinet appoints CEO, adopts new marketing stance Toronto-based mobile security company aims to use the channel to bring its technology to market. by Stefan Dubowski
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iversinet has a new permanent CEO – and a new marketing mantra that positions the Toronto-based mobile technology company as a “Care Coordination Engine” provider for the health-care industry. Last month Diversinet announced that it had chosen Dr. Hon Pak to be the new permanent CEO. He had been serving as the interim CEO since December, following the retirement of Albert Wahbe. A member of the company’s advisory board since last September, Pak had a 28-year career with the U.S. Army. He was the first physician CIO of the U.S. Army Medical Department, and he was the organization’s first chief medical information officer. He was also president of the American Telemedicine Association. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and holds a medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. In an interview, Pak explained that under his leadership, Diversinet is taking a new direction. Whereas the company used to present a series of mobile technology tools that health-care organizations can use to build secure, mobile communication systems, now it’s presenting those tools as a single solution designed to address care co-ordination among different healthcare professionals and agencies. “We were articulating what we had as a toolset capability for hospitals, which really did not do well,” he said. “Now we’re repackaging it to some degree.” Care co-ordination is an important aspect of efficient healthcare, he said. “Because management of chronic diseases is a significant part of health-care costs, and they’re only rising, we have to get at chronic diseases. To do that, you need care co-ordination.”
Patient-centred approach Dr. Pak explained that the solution requires a “patient-centred” approach with a team of health-care professionals focused on prevention rather than cures. For that to happen, health-care agencies need to invest in developing electronic health records, analytics capabilities and other technologies. “But there’s a last-mile issue, the patient-engagement piece,” Dr. Pak said, pointing out privacy and security concerns make it difficult for health-care providers to communicate electronically with patients. “We’re looking for a way to engage patients and hope that they will be activated and accountable for their care. Mobility clearly plays in that last mile in engaging patients in ways that have never been done before… That’s where Diversinet comes in.” Diversinet’s MobiSecure technology uses smartphones and tablets to provide secure connections between people and their health-care information and providers. The company’s products april 2012 | 8 |
include the Care Coordination Engine – a mobile applicationdevelopment environment enabling secure patient engagement and two-way communication – and the MobiSecure SDKs, a set of mobile and web application programming interfaces affording Care co-ordination is the key to Diversinet’s future success, says Dr. Hon Pak. development of custom mobile applications across multiple platforms. Diversinet has struggled to realize a profit. Net loss for the third quarter of 2011 was $1 million, a bit worse than the net loss of $933,000 a year earlier. Net loss for the first nine months of 2011 was $3.9 million. Pak said it’s encouraging that the company is pulling in revenue, but connecting with the market has been difficult, due to two things. “One is the message was not at all clear as to who Diversinet was and what the product delivered. Second, it was selling to the wrong level. It wasn’t using to the channel. It was going to health-care organizations and saying, ‘Look at what great tools we have; we can build you whatever you want in mobility.’ While we had amazing technology based on security, the way we were selling it just didn’t take.” Alongside the product repackaging, Diversinet is changing its approach to the market, turning to the channel to bring its offerings to health-care organizations. “We believe that the world is not about trying to sell tools to health-care delivery systems, but rather working with channel partners like systems integrators, case-management companies, disease-management companies and others that really are better channels for us, and allowing them to use our tools to sell their solution in a packaged way,” Dr. Pak said. He said health-care providers and administrators in Canada and the U.S. are well aware of the pressing need for efficient, effective health care; they seek ways of improving care while slowing cost growth. That bodes well for Diversinet, he said – the market is maturing, which means it might be less of a struggle to get prospective clients to invest in the company’s mobile, secure communications offerings. channel insider canada
Veeam extends ONE to support Hyper-V
Move indicates that Microsoft is making its presence known in the virtualization market, analyst says by Stefan Dubowski
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rganizations using both Microsoft’s and VMware’s hypervisors have a new management option spanning both systems, now that Veeam has extended its ONE system to support the two virtualization platforms. Partnered with both Microsoft and VMware (Veeam is a Microsoft Gold Virtualization partner and a member of VMware’s Technology Alliance), the company is also changing its branding strategy: whereas ONE used to describe a set of separate software solutions, it now points to a fully integrated system encompassing monitoring, reporting, and business-unit analysis in a single installation. A data protection, recovery and management solutions provider out of Columbus, Ohio, Veeam is adding support for Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server to its ONE solution for VMware. ONE v6 includes real-time monitoring, documentation and management reporting. It will now incorporate functionality from former stand-alone Veeam products: Veeam Monitor, Veeam Reporter, and Veeam Business View. “When Veeam ONE v6 is released in Q2 2012, it will be a fully integrated solution with a single download and a single SKU,” said Doug Hazelman, vice-president of product strategy, via email. “The current version of Veeam ONE requires downloading and installing three separate products.” The company says ONE is well suited to IT professionals in small and midsized businesses who work under budget and staff constraints, giving IT pros power over resource allocation, utilization management, and workload balancing. Veeam says that while competing products monitor only a few performance metrics in Hyper-V environments, ONE monitors more than 60, enabling IT to pinpoint the virtual machine on which an alert is occurring and providing integrated monitoring of cluster shared volumes (CSVs). Veeam ONE is available as a stand-alone product or as part of Veeam Essentials and the Veeam Management Suite, which bundle ONE with Veeam Backup & Replication for small businesses and large enterprises, respectively.
Growing call for Hyper-V Ratmir Timashev, Veeam’s president and CEO, said in a press release that customers have expressed interest in Hyper-V support in Veeam Backup & Replication, indicating a growing need for Hyper-V support. “It is important for all customers, regardless of which virtualization platform they’re using, to have the right tools to monitor and manage their environments,” he said.
It’s noteworthy that Veeam would begin to support Hyper-V in ONE, said Michael O’Neil, head of IT Market Dynamics, IT in Canada’s research division. “Veeam has built a highgrowth business by supplying management software for virtual environments. The company (and virtualization generally) has grown up around VMware’s product line. Adding Hyper-V is recognition from Veeam that Hyper-V is a presence in the market, Veeam is combining its former and that current-generation individual products into a single management tools need to be solution, said Doug Hazelman, VP able to address both VMware product strategy. and Hyper-V environments.” This probably doesn’t indicate that VMware is in trouble, he said. “I’m not sure if it means that VMware is losing ground, so much as it means that Hyper-V is building traction. Virtualization continues to represent a high-growth category, with early adopters both expanding server footprint and branching out (to cloud based on server virtualization, and to desktop – and potentially, storage and networks – for additional scope of virtualization deployments). When this kind of diffusion happens, you generally find that different vendors begin to stake out specific areas of strength within the overall category.” Veeam ONE v6 is in beta, and it’s expected to be available in the second quarter of 2012. North American pricing is US$450 per socket. Veeam Essentials is sold in two-socket bundles for $1,300 for the Enterprise Edition and $700 for the Standard Edition. “The Enterprise edition includes advanced functionality for backup and replication,” Hazelman explained. “Specifically, Enterprise edition includes one-click file restore, automated recovery verification and Universal Application Item Recovery (U-AIR).” Customers who purchase Veeam Essentials for Hyper-V now will receive the same number of licences for ONE at no extra cost when v6 is generally available, the company says. Pricing for the Veeam Management Suite, geared towards larger businesses, is $1,370 per socket for Enterprise, $1,100 per socket for Standard.
april 2012 | 9 | channel insider canada
Supplier POV Channel Perspective
Exploring Tech Data’s strategy in Canada
Company-wide and Canadian leadership come together to talk trends, tactics and what to expect from distribution.
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by Christopher Rogers ecently, Tech Data CEO Robert Dutkowsky visited the distributor’s Canadian campus and Channel Insider Canada was given the opportunity to meet with him and Tech Data president Rick Reid in the company’s ATSC (Advanced Technology Solutions Centre). Dutkowsky spoke about what his time in Canada was like, explaining that he got to meet with customers and employees, discussing what’s important to them. He said it’s always interesting to talk to the employee base on a strategic level and have them talk back about what really goes on in the shadow of the customer. In meetings with Tech Data’s top customers he said the conversation was around understanding where Tech Data is doing well and where the customer would like to see the distributor do better. Dutkowsky said other talking points revolved around the technology customers were using to drive business. “It was a real partnership conversation, and you don’t get that unless you’re delivering value to the customer; they don’t [typically] share that kind of detail,” Dutkowsky said. Elaborating on Tech Data’s strategy, Dutkowsky said the focus is on a number of areas, the first being execution. With daily technology sales of approximately $100 million but average order sizes below $1,000, Tech Data needs to operate at an extremely high magnitude and velocity. “Flawless execution is fundamental to our success,” Dutkowsky said, adding that many customers he had spoken with on this visit had completely shut down their logistics capabilities. They now rely solely on Tech Data’s logistics. “We continue to invest heavily in the tools and techniques that allow us to improve our execution,” Dutkowsky said.
Diversification Another area of focus is diversification. This has been an aggressive area of investment for Tech Data, explained Dutkowsky, both organically and through acquisitions. There are four subareas to this diversification strategy: data centre, mobility, software, and consumer electronics. “Today, in many countries around the world we’re the biggest value-added distributor in that country – bigger than [other distributors] in terms of our ability to sell data centre class products, servers, storage, networking, virtualization software, middleware, operating systems, and I know we continue to invest heavily in that practice.” In an always-on, always-connected world, mobile products have become a fundamental piece of the IT ecosystem. In Europe, Tech Data is one of the largest mobile phone distributors in the market. While software could be seen as the piece that ties all of Tech Data’s offerings together, Dutkowsky explained that in the distribution world, software is a very difficult, complex, and costly process. “As a company we’ve invested heavily in april 2012 | 10 |
the tools and technologies to make the distribution of software work better,” he said, citing StreamOne as an example. It has provisioning and billing capabilities for channel partners and could be a fundamental part of any service deployment, especially for cloud-based solutions. The last area of focus is consumer electronics, “because, today the consumer is setting the agenda on technology, not the professional,” Dutkowsky added. Currently, Tech Data is Tech Data CEO Robert Dutkowsky one of the largest distributors of big-screen TVs in the world and adjunct to that is the digital signage market, which the company is also heavily active in.
Division of business If you look at Tech Data’s revenues today, the business is half in the specialty areas outlined above (mobility, software, data centre and consumer electronics), and half in desktop. Tech Data Canada does not play in all those specialty areas, for example consumer electronics, but Canada is still an important strategic area for the distributor. “We look at Canada as one of the leading execution engines we have in the company, and therefore, we ask [Tech Data president Rick Reid] to take the lead on some functions and some areas,” Dutkowsky said. In other areas, Canada will follow, such as in the StreamOne deployment. Turning to trends, Dutkowsky said Tech Data’s focus areas are in line with overall industry direction, focusing on data centre and mobility. He also said big data will be an important trend. “Consequently we’re deepening our relationship with vendors that we know are driving into that space, companies like EMC, HP, IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft, and we’ll continue to focus on that.” Dutkowsky was questioned on how he saw the future for Tech Data. Would the company begin to prioritize the focus areas, or continue to invest heavily in its traditional desktop and infrastructure business? Dutkowsky said that he felt that if there were to be a tremendous change in its customers’ needs over the next few years, those needs would come from the focus areas (mobility, software, data centre and consumer electronics). By giving these areas precedence now, it will position Tech Data for the long term. However, he said he felt that the desktop PC business will remain a healthy foundation for the distributor. channel insider canada
Do your sales reps spend more time looking for special pricing approvals than talking to customers? Is your purchasing team struggling to keep up with requests to validate pricing and discounts?
Is your sales team aware of all your customers’ upcoming maintenance, support and warranty renewals? Are your client entitlements lapsing, leaving your customers exposed and your accounts vulnerable to your competitors?
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Supplier POV
Checking-in: updating Check Point Security’s Canadian business New initiatives for 2012 include a focus on “3D reports” and adding new staff in Canada to support the growth of Canadian partners. by Christopher Rogers
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fter a record-setting fiscal year 2010 in which Check Point had revenues of over US$1 billion for the first time, Check Point’s business grew approximately 11% in FY 2011, said Paul Comesotti, Canada regional director for the company. In Canada specifically, Check Point partners also enjoyed a good year in 2011. Comesotti said that seven of the top-10 partners grew by more than 10% in FY2011. “It shows, that as [Check Point] transitioned some of its technologies to new appliances, its major partners were able to make that transition quickly, and it had a positive impact on their business.”
Major initiatives in 2012 For Check Point partners in 2012, a new program is in place where partners can deliver “3D reports” for a customer’s environment. Check Point uses 3D to describe its strategy around policy, people and enforcement. “One question we get a lot from a customer is, ‘What do I need?’” explained Kellman Meghu, head of security engineering in Canada and central U.S. at Check Point. Using the reports, Check Point or its partners can target a conversation to what is relevant to a customer in the client’s environment. On the customer-experience side, the technology used to collect information for the report can be implemented in a number of ways including using a virtual machine. Meghu said that on larger infrastructure installations, a specific appliance needs to be patched into the network. The report can even be helpful for existing Check Point customers as a scoping tool. “There’s obviously a lot of valuable information for the customer, but if they are willing to share it with us there is a lot of valuable information for the [Check Point] engineers,” Meghu said. Check Point can then give the customers more information about what is happening in their IT environments. “With this information up front, we can have a much more valuable conversation with the customer,” Meghu said. The reports can start to generate information within an hour. Check Point also doesn’t need to see the data; the idea is to get the tool out and then have customers share what they need. “At the end of the day, a customer only cares about how [its infrastructure] works, and this allows us to get to that conversation as opposed to the high-level.”
Valuable insight Once the process has started, Meghu said Check Point can usually start to see what’s going on within an hour. As mentioned, when april 2012 | 12 |
Recently promoted, Kellman Meghu is now Check Point’s head of security engineering for central U.S. and Canadian operations. the customer is particularly sensitive about sharing information with technology providers, Check Point doesn’t need to see the data. The partner or customer can run the tool without Check Point’s involvement, and then share only specific questions with Check Point. “Even that makes the conversation much for valuable and much more relevant to what they’re doing,” Meghu said. Comesotti said the reports are something Check Point would like to offer through partners. This would come with monetary incentives for partners based on the number of reports they do with customers. The incentives are approximately $1,000 for every 10 reports a partner generates. To provide partners in Canada with additional support, Comesotti expects to grow his team upwards of 30% this year. Much of that staff will be in Toronto and Ottawa he said. He added that as partners continue to grow, Check Point needs to grow as well to support them. channel insider canada
Research feature
The increasingly-gradual recovery Where is Canadian TECH spending headed in 2012? With input from more than 1,000 Canadian TECHNOLOGY and business managers, WE define the next steps in a slow path forward. by Michael O’Neil
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enerally, I wouldn’t begin a forecast by advising anyone to look back at a painful episode in our shared history – but it appears that many businesspeople are still affected by the shadow of the Great Recession, so I suppose there’s no harm in naming the elephant in the room. In my ‘real world’ travels, I see undeniable signs of economic health and recovery. After several years, people are being hired for genuine, important jobs; marketers are looking to expand their reach, rather than conserving funds to retain current staff; IT decision makers are starting to look beyond replacement of wornout equipment to deployment of new systems. And yet… That lingering hesitation has cast a shadow over business culture, darkening our forecast for 2012. In its Update of Economic and Fiscal Projections (November 2011), Statistics Canada presents an average of private sector forecasts for 2011 and 2012 economic growth; in the six month period from March to September, the averages dropped from 2.9% to 2.2% for 2011, and 2.8% to 2.1% for 2012. The fact that StatsCan’s own data indicates higher actual growth for 2011 is at least somewhat symptomatic of the issue: the residual pain of the 2009 downturn colours business management’s perception of current opportunities. It’s as though the long tail of the recession is wrapped around the levers of economic growth, pulling back on the brake each time momentum starts to build. In 2012, as in previous years, IT Market Dynamics – Canada’s most widely-read IT research firm, and a sister company to IT in Canada – conducted a substantial quantitative
Figure 1
2012 Budget outlook by e-size
Figure 2
Annual and cumulative growth in Canadian IT spending
Continued on page 14... april 2012 | 13 | channel insider canada
research feature Continued from page 13... survey to gauge Canadian IT budget trends for the current year. From late 2011 until early March 2012, ITMD surveyed 1,009 IT and business leaders, representing organizations from all industries and across all e-size categories. Included in this number were 338 respondents who also provided input to our 2011 forecast (and nearly 200 who participated in the 2010 forecast survey as well). As is seen in Figure 1, this community is far more bullish than bearish in its outlook, with a weighted average of nearly 40% looking for an increase in 2012 spending, as compared with just 7% who expect a decline in 2012 IT budgets.
Figure 3
NET NEw iT SPENDiNG By REGioN, 2012
1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0
BC and Territories
Alberta
Prairies Opera6ons
Ontario
Quebec
Atlan6c
Acquisi6ons
the “but” This year though, no good news can be delivered without adding a ‘but’. In this case, our reservation is attributable to the pace of expenditure growth anticipated by Canadian management. When the complete survey data is fed into ITMD’s forecasting models, we find that the top-level optimism does not translate into extraordinary growth rates. In fact, our forecast Canadian IT growth rate of 3.49% is lower even than the 3.78% we saw at the end of the 2009 recession. That said, as Figure 2 illustrates, a reasonable case can be made that 3.49% in the current environment represents a continuation of the ‘relatively good news’ story that Canadian IT has experienced since the end of the recession. Unlike 2010, when we as an industry were scrambling to recover ground lost over the previous one to two years and when most IT managers were wondering how to fund even the replacement of end-of-life units, in 2012, the increase builds on two previous years of growth, which will move the entire industry to a cumulative 12% above the trough of 2009. Additionally, there is evidence that IT managers – perhaps unlike their line-of-business colleagues – are putting some longer-term plans into action. This year, for example, we see that operations is again the leading target for IT investment. Two years ago, a focus on operational expenditures most likely
reflected a desire to retain staff in the face of uncertain budgets. In 2011, the growth rate for products surpassed the growth rate for operational categories like staff and services, as organizations scrambled to replace aging equipment. In 2012, the trend has reversed again, with the pendulum swinging back to an emphasis on operational expenditures. Is this just a reflection of the overall trepidation in the economy, with IT retrenching to protect jobs? It’s possible – but so too is the notion that IT managers are gearing up to roll out complex systems, ranging from cloud to VDI to “SoLoMoN” (Social, Location-based, Mobile, and Networked systems), which respond to new IT-enabled opportunities and promise new IT-enabled capabilities and competitive advantage.
woven into the fabric The truth is that IT has become so large as a category and so entrenched across all sectors of the economy, that modest gains have a major impact on opportunities for both the organizations that rely on technology to deliver new capabilities, and for the providers focused on these customers. Even at 3.49%, the gross 2012 increase in Canadian IT spending is expected to amount to more than $3.25 billion. As Figure 3 shows, IT is an important source of stimulus and innovation across Canada: 2012 will see april 2012 | 14 |
channel insider canada
a $1.25 billion increase in spending in Ontario, more than $1.1 billion in the western provinces, another $665 million in Quebec, and nearly $250 million in new spending in Atlantic Canada. Planners in both the public and private sector should be aware of what this investment – and the new processes and business options that it creates – will mean to these regional economies. At a more fundamental level, IT has become a substantial line item for nearly all organizations. Figure 4 combines our forecast findings with data from Statistics Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada to illustrate the proportion of sectoral GDP allocated to IT. Only in wholesale/ retail and government is the proportion of revenue allocated to IT below 6% – and uncertainties in the government data make it possible that only retail, where hundreds of thousands of small shops rely on rudimentary automation, is lagging behind an economy-wide trend towards better productivity through increased use of technology.
over or under? forecast scenarios By their nature, forecasts reflect a series of assumptions regarding future behaviour – of the economy, of buyers, of suppliers, and even of the environment, which can disrupt supply chains and purchasing activity. Given Continued on page 18...
Rec the in C
T G P V C
VAR num the
Reg for “ each
The rese othe clud who Mos
IT in Canada’s Reseller Reference File (RREF) is our directory of lead ing Canadian resellers
Receive current, actionable intelligence on the 900 most important and innovative VARs in Canada Type/size Geography Products carried Vendors carried Company description VAR records include company name and address, URL, phone number, and contact executives. Almost all records also contain the names of key contacts within the organization. Regular updates and expansion: Each entry checked annually for “in business” status, and 150 new entries added to the file each quarter The RREF has been built from a variety of sources – lists of top resellers, of Microsoft partners, of advanced partners of 20+ other vendors, of firms selling targeted solutions, and by including firms covered in our research activities, including those who have won BusinessPeople’s Choice© awards. Most recent additions: 100+ leading ERP solution partners.
The RREF is sold as an Access database application The interface allows customers to search on any of the fields in the database: products carried vendors carried, location of headquarters or branch offices, or the scope of the reseller’s operations (national/ international, super-regional, regional, local). Customers can also search by VAR name Available today, to help increase the productivity of your channel sales force! For more information on the RREF
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IN THE MIDDLE From left to right: Rick Reid, president, Tech Data Canada Richard Singh, infrastructure consultant, Ideaca Dan Forbes, VP, Westcon Canada David Toms, VP and GM, Metafore IT Solutions, Central and Western regions Carlos Paz-Soldan, CTO, Tenet Richard Lichtenstein, VP sales, advisory services, RunE2E Paul Gragtmans, principal, ET Group Lesley Andrews, senior manager, business development, CompuCom Canada
Charting the channel’s travel for 2012 and beyond
Canadian channel players weigh in on what to look for as the year continues, highlighting the interconnection between major technology trends.
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by Christopher Rogers n the surface, many of the technology themes for 2012 are similar to the ones explored in 2011. Subjects such as cloud, mobility and security are just as important today as they were last year, yet, in almost every case, it can be argued that these trends appear for different reasons. It’s a similar story with the responses we gathered from channel leaders for this month’s In the Middle. What emerges from our In the Middle conversation is that while many trends can be viewed as separate entities, in real life they are actually well connected. More than ever before, it’s clear that end users and IT alike expect a seamless experience and hence interoperability between solutions for security, collaboration, communications, cloud and mobile, inside or outside the data centre. Q: Were there any products or trends that you think were exceptionally successful in 2011? Dan Forbes, Westcon: SIP continues to gain significant momentum. In Canada, it is already starting become a regular topic of conversation. Additionally, video continues to move downstream from enterprise boardrooms to mid and small enterprise. Last year also saw the tremendous growth in data loss prevention and data management. We expect this trend to grow in 2012. The biggest disappointment is the server market. With a tough year, the market really fell short of expectations. David Toms, Metafore: Customers did invest where the return on investment was clear. If you were prepared to do the work, the business came through. Overall, the customers were looking for more consultative investment and partnership last year…where in previous years they simply made vendor decisions unilaterally and usually internally. Lesley Andrews, CompuCom: We had an excellent year across all of our solution sets; that includes data centre, networking and personal systems. We believe our clients are looking for innovative april 2012 | 16 |
ways to reduce cost while increasing client performance and maintaining security and we have been able to provide end-to-end solutions that fulfill these requirements. Richard Lichtenstein, RunE2E: In the enterprise software and infrastructure space, two areas continued to grow – virtualization and cloud. Two of the biggest winners were Amazon and VMware – ground to cloud. With the new versions of VMware software mission critical applications (i.e. SAP and Oracle) IT managers can now feel secure that their large IT environments will run the way they did on other platforms. Amazon (AWS) changed the paradigm in hosting by drastically reducing pricing as it gained certifications from large software companies like SAP. Q: What products or product categories do you expect to increase in customer importance in 2012? Lesley Andrews: As BYOD is becoming the new standard, we expect our mobile computing practice along with our security practice to continue to grow and thrive. As clients increase their numbers of devices, it also drives increased need for additional storage options. We are also finding that VDI and cloud computing will drive additional data centre upgrades. Rick Reid, Tech Data Canada: Mobility products and tablets are certainly hot topics. We are also seeing tremendous traction in digital signage. While digital signage has been around for years, it is really starting to take off. Richard Lichtenstein: I believe that sales of virtualized bundled appliances like vBlock will grow expediently. The ability to “plug and play” a complete virtualized hardware solution into a large software environment will be a big game changer. This will lower TCO while maintaining power and flexibility. Maintenance costs alone will be a tenth of what they were before. Paul Gragtmans, ET Group: We expect that interest will continue to grow in all three real-time collaboration technologies – web conferencing, video conferencing and IWB conferencing. Audio channel insider canada
IN THE MIDDLE
is considered table stakes. Real-time or interactive collaboration (versus iterative collaboration) is making its way onto the radar of most companies for a number of reasons and the ROI can be significant. Customers are also sorting out how UC fits with collaboration or, UCC as some refer to the two areas intersecting with each other. Dan Forbes: There are several key areas we feel will demonstrate significant growth in 2012. Of increasing importance to customers will be the further emergence of SIP in Canada. You’ll also see the explosion of big data and continued cloud adoption. Richard Singh, Ideaca: I think that we’ll again see a large adoption of System Center, more Opalis implementations to assist automation, and a huge push for SharePoint 2010 upgrades. Q: Which of the trends we’re always hearing about – cloud, mobility, BYOD, privacy/security, big data, social, video/ collaboration, et cetera – do you think will be especially important in 2012, and why? Rick Reid: Those trends will all continue to be relevant topics as they are all key components of the next generation of technology. They are all evolving technologies, and many work in concert with one another so it’s really hard to say that one will dominate over all others. However, when you think about it, the cloud really impacts all of the other trends mentioned in some fashion. Clearly, the cloud will be a major focus. Also, as mobility and the cloud continue to grow, so does the need for network and data security. It’s amazing how integrated the technology has become. Carlos Paz-Soldan, Tenet: The big story will be the convergence of cloud, mobility and social, which will in turn generate big data and the need for better analytics. BYOD will continue to be talked about, but organizations are not giving IT the required funding [to manage this] so BYOD will be a source of frustration – and possibly a security disaster waiting to happen. Richard Lichtenstein: Cloud will continue to trend upward as it becomes more secure and affordable. The days of large hosting capabilities from IBM will diminish as companies like Amazon increase their capabilities. The key for Amazon of course is to prove they can meet the needs of the ever-growing customer base. They can’t afford to have the blackouts that occurred in 2011. David Toms: BYOD is here to stay. Consumerization of corporate IT is a given from here and beyond. We now need to help our customers deal with it. Safely. Wisely. Securely. Cloud adoption will
continue to rise, more so on the private cloud front. Adoption of public cloud will be more gradual for larger enterprise and more rapid for smaller businesses. There is still a lot of educating we have to do with our customers regarding cloud, especially as relates to automation and (again) security. Richard Singh: Cloud and mobility and more so the two combined [will be key in 2012]. It seems that more and more they work together as clients want their info on the go. I’ve seem more clients look for access to their ERP via mobile devices, so I think this will be a huge trend in 2012 (ERP via web and the SharePoint platform). Q: Lastly, any “big picture” predictions for 2012 that you think will have an impact on the industry, the economy, or the environment generally? David Toms: Predictive analytics. Being able to leverage the huge amounts of data being collected and stored, and doing something practical and forward-thinking with it instead of running legacy queries to summarize the past. Dan Forbes: I think we’re going to see some very large-scale acquisitions and mergers in 2012. The ability for companies to “go global” is going to be big. I also think overseas OEMs in Asia are going to make a big play for the North American market. Paul Gragtmans: I think the environmental issues are a sleeping dragon (beyond 2012) and who knows exactly when that dragon is going to wake up. When the dragon wakes up, who will be prepared to deal with it? Things are going to change – substantially. But most of us are like a frog in a pot that is slowly heating up to the boiling point and we don’t notice the gradual changes, nor anticipate the ultimate impact. Lesley Andrews: We feel that the industry will maintain its strength over the next year as IT trends move towards cloud infrastructure. One trend we are seeing is that while traditionally we have worked with different IT teams within our client base, we are now finding that those teams are increasingly working in conjunction with one another as solutions cross over the networking/data centre platforms to become all-encompassing. Rick Reid: I think many of the trends mentioned previously will play a key role in 2012 in how the channel adapts and grows. Some of the small to medium sized resellers that rely solely on product sales for revenue and margin growth will find it increasingly difficult to counter the impact of the cloud, shared services and BYOD purchased through retail.
april 2012 | 17 | channel insider canada
Research feature Continued from page 14...
this uncertainty, it’s natural to ask whether the IT industry is more likely to wind up over or under the forecast growth rate of 3.49% at the end of 2012. We are confident that the forecasted figure represents the most likely scenario. ITMD’s belief is that growth is most likely to land at or around the 3.49% figure, but we can see reasons why it might move higher or lower than that point. In our opinion, though, ‘higher’ is the more likely of the two alternatives. When we evaluate our forecasts, we always pay special attention to findings for small business. These organizations can be opportunistic in their approach to IT: they often lack formal budgeting processes, and may spend on IT when need or opportunity aligns with available funds. A forecast that relies on high growth in the small business segment carries a substantial amount of risk. In the case of the 2012 forecast, however, the growth rate predicted for organizations with 1-99 employees is roughly 20% below the rate predicted for midsized and large organizations. If the economy delivers as these larger enterprises appear to expect, it’s likely that there would be some upside in the small business spending outlook – and given the importance of small business to the Canadian economy, this would move the overall IT spending line north. We believe this will be a gradual process, but there is scope for more rapid advancement, assuming, of course, that we are able to shrug off the lingering chill from the 2009 downturn.
Figure 4
Figure 4
IT expenditures as a % of GDP by industry
2012 spending trends by product type
ITMD’s Canadian Technology Market Demand Forecast – 2012 contains detailed examinations of 2012 Canadian growth rates by expenditure type, product category, enterprise size, region, and industry. It is available to subscribers to ITMD’s All Points Connected research program at no charge. Non-clients can order the report, which is delivered in PowerPoint format, for $2,495 plus HST. Please contact Stephen Symonds at stephen.symonds@itincanada.ca for more information.
april 2012 | 18 |
channel insider canada
channel news Continued from page 7...
anon targets SMB with D1350 copier, fax 7 CL100 Canon Canada has announced the imageCLASS D1350. The device will release beginning this month. Along with the copier Canon also announced a new addition to its FAXPHONE line, the L100 which targets small and medium businesses. It will also be available starting in April. Both products are aimed at mid-volume offices, according to Canon, and offer advancements in speed by incorporating highvolume paper handling capabilities, improving productivity. The imageCLASS D1350 is a laser multifunction copier for SMBs and workgroups that allows them to copy, print, scan and fax. It is fully networkable and features department ID management control, which lets network administrators monitor and control device usage. There is also a 1,050 sheet duplex automatic document feeder that provides two-sided copying, printing, scanning and faxing. The D1350 offers print speeds of up to 35 pages per minute and can deliver a first print time of six seconds or less. The FAXPHONE L100 is a compact laser fax that has fax, copy, and print capabilities. It also has a telephone handset. It also now features a flip-up control panel, and a 19ppm laser printer engine. The L100 also has a 30-sheet automatic document feeder, Super G3 facsimile technology and more than 500 sheets of memory capacity. Further features include fax forwarding, error-correction mode and distinctive ring patter detection. Both the D1350 and L100 use Canon’s single cartridge system that combines the toner, drum and development unit into one cartridge. Canon says the system is easier to store than separate toner and drum consumables and also results in excellent image quality retention. The imageCLASS D1350 meets the Energy Star guidelines and exceeds European Union RoHS directive standards. The imageCLASS D1350 has a minimum advertised price of $699, while the FAXPHONE L100 will be available at a minimum advertised price of $249.
8 Cisco to acquire NDS Cisco’s video push continues as it announced its intent to acquire video software and content security solutions provider NDS Group Ltd. NDS’s services enable pay-TV operators to securely deliver digital content to TV set-top-boxes, digital video recorders, PCs, and mobiles, using a combined software and services platform. Cisco is hoping the acquisition of NDS will accelerate the delivery of the company’s Videoscape platform that “enables service providers and media companies to deliver next-generation entertainment experiences.” In a release, Cisco said the acquisition will broaden its opportunities in the service provider market, expanding its reach into emerging areas such as China and India (countries where NDS has an established customer footprint). The deal is worth approximately $5 billion, Cisco said, and while the deal has been approved by the boards of both companies, the price includes the assumption of debts and retention-based incentives.
Cisco has been pushing its video strategy as one of its five foundational priorities. The company’s Videoscape platform (spanning the cloud, network and end-user clients) is key to Cisco’s video strategy. Much of NDS’s software, services and content protection business is recurring and contracts are on average five years long. When the deal closes NDS’s global operations including 5,000 employees will become part of Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group. This group is headed by Jesper Andersen, SVP, president and GM. The executive chair of NDS, Able Peled, will be named SVP and chief strategist for Cisco’s Video and Collaboration group. Peled will report to Marthin De Beer, SVP, Cisco Video and Collaboration Group.
Microsoft’s latest global ISV Cincom is headquartered in Cincinnati.
9 Cincom chosen as Microsoft global ISV Microsoft has selected business software company Cincom as its latest global ISV partner. Cincom is only the eighth such partner to be chosen by Microsoft and the company only plans to have 20 total. Current global ISVs include Dell, Dominion, Ericsson, Ferranti, Harris Broadcast, Lexis Nexis and Micros Latam. After being chosen, Cincom and Microsoft signed an agreement to deliver ERP (enhanced enterprise resources planning) capabilities to highly complex companies in verticals such as aerospace, defence, and manufacturing. The agreement allows Cincom to benefit from Microsoft’s deep ERP knowledge in many industries while giving Redmond deeper insight into Cincom’s understanding of the specific markets mentioned above. “Dynamic businesses display the agility to anticipate and embrace change while sustaining competitive advantage,” said Doug Kennedy, VP, Microsoft Dynamics partners and support services. “The enhanced offering from Cincom, combines their vertical industry expertise with the powerful Microsoft Dynamics AX application, and is an example of the innovative solutions being delivered by our partners to help transform complex enterprises into dynamic businesses.”
april 2012 | 19 | channel insider canada
tracker networks sPecial biD Pricing in the channel, february 2012
we’re seeing an uPwarD trenD in business activity, anD in the number of venDors using sPecial Pricing as stanDarD Practice.
I
by JaSon Doel n February bid volumes increased again: up 6% overall from January. Hardware vendors were up 5% and the increase for software vendors was a 15%. Even more pronounced was the increase in bid volumes in February as compared to the same month in 2011. Overall volumes were up 19% year-over-year and volumes for software vendors were up by 32%. We believe this reflects two trends: a continuing increase in the level of business activity in the channel, and an increase in the number of vendors making use of special pricing as a standard business practice. As further evidence of this, the number of active vendors in February increased to 60, from 48 a month earlier. It is interesting to note that most of these new companies were software vendors. This is in line with our past observations that software vendors are increasingly following the model of hardware vendors to use bid letters and special promotions to help drive (and measure) sales in the channel. As expected, with increases like these, the six-month trend lines for overall bid volumes and hardware volumes have continued upward. The software trend line is flat to slightly negative, caused by large software bid volumes in the September 2011 quarter-end, which are distorting the trend line. We believe this is also true for the 12-month trend lines, which appear negative due to the busy 2011 March quarter-end. It will be very interesting to see volumes in March 2012 as we enter into the first quarter-end of the year. We expect a busy month for bids since it coincides with the federal government’s year-end.
vENDoR BiD volUmE By moNTH
Six month rolling trendline
vENDoR BiD volUmE By moNTH
Twelve month rolling trendline
volUmE oF SPECiAl PRiCiNG AGREEmENTS iN THE CANADiAN CHANNEl
april 2012 | 20 |
channel insider canada
FOCUS ON CLOUD Canadian Cloud shifts gears, teams with RackForce Once a cloud infrastructure operator itself, Canadian Cloud Computing opts for partner status instead. by Stefan Dubowski
C
anadian Cloud Computing and RackForce Networks are coming together to grow their fortunes in the cloud market. For RackForce, it’s an opportunity to establish a presence in southwestern Ontario. For Canadian Cloud, it’s the beginning of an entirely new business model. Kelowna, B.C.-based cloud infrastructure provider RackForce is entering a reseller partner agreement with Kitchener, Ont.-based Canadian Cloud that sees the reseller delivering cloud solutions on RackForce’s platform. Focused on small to mid-sized businesses, Canadian Cloud provides enterprise cloud solutions to companies that lack specialized in-house cloud expertise, the company said by press release. Canadian Cloud also targets organizations that have legal, regulatory or strategic concerns about data location in Canada. RackForce is a provider of IaaS cloud and hosting services. Its nationwide cloud infrastructure forms the foundation for enterprise cloud computing, co-location and network services delivered to a worldwide customer base. The agreement gives RackForce more of a foothold in KitchenerWaterloo, a part of Ontario that has spawned many high-tech startups, and is home to Canada’s most prominent technology company, Research In Motion. “This partnership will expand RackForce’s presence in the innovation-driven southwestern Ontario market,” said Brian Fry, RackForce co-founder and chief marketing officer.
New way for Canadian Cloud For Canadian Cloud, it’s an all-new modus operandi. Established two years ago, the firm started off building its own cloud infrastructure, co-locating servers in Primus’s London, Ont. data centre with an eye towards creating a cloud platform for customers looking to ensure that their information is stored domestically. In the beginning, the decision to develop a cloud platform from scratch was a matter of necessity, explained Wally Kowal, Canadian Cloud’s founder and president, in an interview from his Kitchener office. “There just weren’t any Canadian clouds available.” That made it impossible to sell services specifically to companies concerned about domestic data management. “We had to go out and build our own cloud.” The company planned to connect with value-added resellers (VARs) to bring its homegrown cloud offering to end-user organizations. Over time, however, Canadian Cloud found it difficult to support the cloud infrastructure. It proved expensive; it required around-the-clock monitoring to ensure uptimes; it ate into revenue that would otherwise go towards fueling the business. “We have a great market,” Kowal said. “Our sales are doing well. We have customers lined up. But we were going broke being successful.” Meanwhile, Canadian Cloud discovered that other Canadianbased cloud infrastructure companies had ramped up, such as RackForce, a company that touts domestic data management
and cloud reliability alongside eco-friendliness, making much of its use of environmentally-responsible electricity sources such as hydro to power its data centre.
Partnering with RackForce So rather than run its own equipment, Canadian Cloud decided to partner with RackForce. It’s a Wally Kowal, founder, prudent move, Kowal said, Canadian Cloud Computing explaining that the deal enables his firm to focus on helping businesses make their way to – and get the most out of – cloud computing. “A company might say, ‘I’m going to go out and get a cloud.’ It doesn’t work that way. There’s a lot of work involved in figuring out what you need – do you go private, public, or hybrid? What do we put on the cloud? How do we get the data there? We offer the high-level consulting, the architecture, the deployment and the migration. We are partnered with RackForce, which provides the underlying infrastructure that our customers deploy onto.” That spells an end to Canadian Cloud’s previous business model. The company has shut down its London equipment, and it’s no longer seeking VARs to position it as a cloud infrastructure provider. Now the company is more of an advisory firm providing cloud deployment and management expertise. But that doesn’t mean Canadian Cloud won’t look at that model again in the future. “We’re always open to the opportunity,” Kowal said. “If we see that we do have the business and we have the need – and we can find the money to do it – we’d be interested in doing it on our own platform.” In the near term Canadian Cloud is talking up RackForce’s infrastructure in conjunction with its own cloud expertise. That includes discussing the importance of RackForce’s green leanings – but Kowal figures that isn’t the primary draw for most customers. “It’s a tremendous advantage and it’s something we highlight. But among IT users right now it’s not a driving factor.” Other things matter more, he said: flexibility, reliability, and for Canadian Cloud’s customers, the fact that data stays on Canadian servers. Partnerships are the key to cloud services, said RackForce’s Brian Fry. “The end customer requires one or more cloud service providers, solution providers, software providers, telecom providers to get the full benefit of the cloud. Each of the providers has their area of expertise and as long as they work within standards and have compatible systems the end customer will have many great options to move their IT into the cloud.”
april 2012 | 21 | channel insider canada
Focus on Security
BYOD is outpacing security postures
Organizations are calling on partners and consultants to develop policies and provide monitoring services.
A
by Dave Chappelle
Global Study of Mobile Risks indicates the adoption rate of bring your own device (BYOD) is faster than the security put in place. Sponsored by Websense and conducted by The Ponemon Institute, the study surveyed 4,640 IT and security practitioners in 12 countries across North America, Asia, and Europe, including 421 Canadian IT and IT security practitioners. Websense defines mobile devices as laptops, tablets, smartphones, and USB devices. Noting the average worker has a tablet, a smartphone, and a laptop, companies have no choice but to allow employees to use them. Mobile devices increase productivity while increasing risks to data. When you add mobile devices carrying sensitive data to cloud-based apps, and access to social media sites, it gives another vector and increases organizations’ risk. “To help security pros plan for the mobile workforce, we commissioned the survey,” said Websense Canadian country manager Fiaaz Walji. “We all run the risks; how do we figure this out? That’s where we meet with partners and try to educate them. The challenge is to separate band-aid solutions from truly holistic solutions that won’t be obsolete three weeks from now.” In Canada: • 63% of breaches occurred as a result of mobile devices, versus 28% that happened on desktops. • By 2014 1.1 billion smartphones will be in use. “We’ve seen the Android platform become the preferred platforms of attack, because it’s open source, it has more malware – 252 versions at last count,” Walji said. “Apple iOS is a little bit safer, partially because of the vetting process Apple does on its end. Regardless of platform, companies have to secure these devices. Restricting them is not an option. ” • 71% said it’s essential to the business... while 72% also said it’s risky for the business. • 62% of organizations experienced an increase in malware infections in 2011 as a result of unsecured mobile devices. • 58% of Canadians said they had a data loss or serious exploit resulting from employee use of unsecured mobile devices. • 34% said it was private or confidential information, either intentional or unintentional. • 28% said it was theft, removal, or loss of information. That points to no awareness, no policy, or no technology. • 67% said they didn’t have a policy that addresses mobile use. Out of that group, 33% don’t know if they have an acceptable use policy for mobile.
april 2012 | 22 |
When asked ‘Why don’t you have a policy?’ respondents cited ‘Lack of governance or oversight’... ‘other security issues are higher priorities’... and ‘lack of resources to monitor policy compliance’. “Which is interesting Companies need to differentiate because they know mobile between point solutions and holistic use is exploding and they security, says Fiaaz Walji, Websense. know it’s risky,” Walji said. “When you look at the partner world, that’s where we need to help. Partners and consultants can help create and maintain policies, and provide monitoring services.” Walji believes policy must be a live document – as technology changes, so does the policy. “Part of this is education; you have to understand the risk. Then create a policy, then educate your users – ‘don’t download free software, don’t turn off security settings’, and then leverage technology.” Executives often say, “I just want it to work. I want to click on it and do what I want to do.” To mitigate the risks, you have to educate them of the consequences. Q: How does an IT pro pick a point solution for security? A: That’s where partners play a part. First, security is not one size fits all. There are key elements to technology that must be examined. You want content-aware data security – Who’s using it? Where’s it going? Second, because social media sites change instantaneously, it has to be real-time page analysis, which means real-time web and app security. Third, it needs to prevent malicious apps from being downloaded. What is that app I’m downloading doing? Is it asking to send info back to a command and control centre? Fourth, you need to consider mobile device management (MDM) security, like remote lock and remote wipe. “Because customers are trying to keep costs down, we sometimes see them trying to make sense of four different reports from point solutions from these four areas – versus one holistic solution of integrated technology,” Walji said. “This is where partners come in. A partner can help you determine what you need based on your goals and what you have in your environment. You want user satisfaction up... you want productivity to remain high... you want your exposure of sensitive data minimized... and to accomplish all this with all the resources you have, keeping TCO low.” channel insider canada
Crystallizing Value
in Canadian Channel Businesses May 29, 2012 8:30 a.m – 5:00 p.m King Edward Hotel Toronto, ON
As we emerge from the recession into a period of sustained, gradual growth, Channel Insider is hearing that VAR owners across Canada have one overriding objective: they are looking for ways to increase the value of their businesses. Our response? We have teamed with financing experts Veracap Corporate Finance to offer an executive-level workshop on Crystallizing Value in Canadian Channel Businesses. This one day session will cover the essential issues in building asset value: • the fundamentals of valuation, and market options for improving your position • Value creation strategies, ranging from acquisition to organic growth • Preparing for sale or succession, including managing the sales process through strategic buyers or MBOs
AbOuT THE PRESENTERS
Howard E. JoHnson Managing DirectOr, VeracaP
dErEk van dEr Plaat Managing DirectOr, VeracaP
MicHaEl o’nEil it Market DYnaMicS/it in canaDa
Howard is the author of the acquisition Value cycle™, editor of corporate Finance for canadian executives, and author of Selling Your Private company, Building Value in Your company, and numerous other books and articles.
Derek’s background includes M&a work with a major canadian bank, co-founding canadian e-music pioneer Puretracks, and numerous financings and acquisitions in the digital sector.
Michael is canada’s most senior it industry consultant, and the person responsible for it in canada’s print and online content, and it Market Dynamic’s innovative canadian it research.
Space is limited to 25 attendees. The workshop fee is $799, $499 for individuals with 30% or more ownership in their own VAR business. To register, please contact Stephen Symonds at stephen.symonds@itincanada.ca
PROGRAM UPDATES NetApp targets big data, D-Link ups channel access
Two vendors provide direction on partner plans, industry trends for the channel by Christopher Rogers and Stefan Dubowski
T
wo areas getting buzz in the channel lately are converged infrastructure and big data. While these trends are getting attention from nearly ever vendor possible, at the heart of the solutions is storage. It’s no surprise then that when storage and data management solution manufacturer NetApp released its third quarter earnings for FY2012, the company reported revenues of $4.531 billion for the first nine months of FY2012, a 23% year-over-year increase. The company has grown to become a $6 billion organization. Jeff Goldstein, GM Canada at NetApp, attributes some of the growth to increased share of IT budgets for storage: “I think storage and data management are becoming an ever growing part of the IT budget and hence is kind of moving up on the list of things CIOs worry about, in terms of, how do they manage this ever-growing amount of data, use it as a strategic asset and do it while not growing their IT budget?” NetApp’s partner ecosystem in Canada is approximately 80 partners strong, with the top 20 of those partners driving upwards of 80% of revenues. The company’s Canadian business is approximately 75% channel driven, but Goldstein said the past quarter was closer to 89%. Clearly, the company is quite dependent on the Canadian IT channel for success. Goldstein explained exactly what that meant from a NetApp perspective: “Channel successful is helping ensure that [partners] make good margins, protect them from a deal registration perspective and investing in learning the technologies so they can…solve real customer problems.” This channel success strategy is essential to driving new partner opportunities in two key emerging areas: converged infrastructure and big data. Although not new trends by any definition, the two areas present good opportunities to specialized NetApp partners. Goldstein said that partners specialized in these areas can bring new skills to end-user customers.
From silos to converged infrastructure With virtualization, the days of enterprise building out application-specific infrastructure are beginning to dissipate. While the move to virtualized infrastructure starts at the server level, as Goldstein said, “you can’t take that paradigm very far until you start to consolidate and virtualize the actual storage behind the virtualized pools of servers.” The push from a lot of organizations into cloud environments is driving much of the need – the ability to provision servers quickly, get to market faster. The evolution from silos, to virtualized environments, and the push to private and even public cloud presents an opportunity for the storage-specialized partner. These are the partners selling the infrastructure, helping customers build virtualized environments. Goldstein said that by adding storage to that play, specialists can add a lot of value to customers. NetApp partners are also taking advantage of this push to a converged infrastructure environment through the company’s Flexpod offering (a joint program with VMware and Cisco). april 2012 | 24 |
Customers moving to a new data centre are not going to take silos with them, they will be re-architecting their environments, Goldstein explained.
Storing big data Much how vendors still feel the need to clearly define the term “cloud”, Goldstein said big data needs to be explained and defined as well. NetApp’s take on big data is ABC (analytics, bandwidth, content). It may seem like an oversimplification but the analogy works well. The ability to manage large amounts of data and drive business decisions out of that is analytics. In many cases additional bandwidth will be needed to ingest the massive amounts of data flowing into storage. The content aspect highlights the need to access that data all the time, even older archived data. Goldstein gave the example of an old email account. “It’s about having an infrastructure that allows people to layer on big data on top of a data management infrastructure that can scale and cope with what are huge and ever growing demands of the storage infrastructure.” Bringing these trends together, Goldstein said that many of the value-oriented partners in Canada are thinking about or in the process of building out their own public cloud offerings. Even mid-size organizations can benefit and reduce their server and storage footprint with these products, he added.
The mid market and services NetApp recently unveiled its FAS2000 entry-level series products that it hopes will provide an excellent grounding for mid-market customers in storage. NetApp has over 10,000 customers in the mid-market space, and Goldstein said the new products will enable an even lower entry-level price for customers. But what makes the offering very compelling from a partner standpoint is including the same software as enterprise-level offerings. This allows customers to start small and grow to the larger platforms on the same system. It is also beneficial to partners who only have to learn one operating system. Mid-market customers benefit from the technology NetApp develops for the enterprise, such as deduplication and snapshots. On the services front NetApp’s goal is to not compete with its partners whether pre- or post-sale. The company’s small professional services team is primarily focused on issues of governance and quality assurance Goldstein said. “Our services capabilities are really augmented towards the partners.”
D-Link ups access for Canadian partners Network-technology manufacturer D-Link is changing its Value in Partnership (VIP) program for Canadian resellers. The program gets a new name (VIP+) and additional revenue streams for partners to attack new markets, the company says. The VIP + program, accessible through D-Link’s new partner portal, provides access to a partner-certification program, a dealchannel insider canada
PROGRAM UPDATES registered deal is lost to a competitor. Partners move up to Silver and Gold based on completing certifications. There are no revenue requirements. “Our philosophy is to reward partners who invest in D-Link by taking training and leading with our solutions,” Marino said, explaining why the company doesn’t set revenue targets for partners. “We feel this strategy benefits our partners because as they become more trained in positioning D-Link solutions they also open the door to more revenue.” In the revamped rewards program, resellers can earn points through sales and by completing new e-learning modules on topics such as new products and specific D-Link campaigns. Rewards can be used to congratulate individual staff members or the reseller company as a whole; points can be used for a selection of merchandise or they can be converted into cash via D-Link’s reloadable Visa debit card. The new rewards system simplifies the claim process – an issue that D-Link partners expressed to the company, Marino said. “With the old program we required partners to claim online, then submit end-user invoices by fax or email, slowing down the process and opening up the doors for issues such as lost claims… With Value in Partnership+… partners just enter what they sold online and we do the back-end verification – no more invoices to scan or mail.” The e-learning modules also pave the way for partners to develop new revenue streams, he said. “Our comprehensive certification program provides online, downloadable sales and technical training courses to partners on specific technologies that can help them enter new markets – for example, IP surveillance. Once this training is taken our partners are better equipped to understand and address their customers’ technical and business requirements in these specialty areas.”
Jeff Goldstein, GM Canada at NetApp registration program that helps address margin protection when another vendor is competing for the customer, a new rewards program, and a new campaign centre with integrated lead management. “We also added more dashboard features to improve visibility for our partners, including My Certifications, My Rewards, My Campaigns and Leads, just to name a few,” said Pete Marino, director of marketing for D-Link in Canada. VIP+ has three tiers: Registered, Silver, and Gold. All VIP+ partners can access D-Link marketing and sales resources like the campaignon-demand tool, case studies, and white papers. All VIP+ partners also get access to the deal registration program, pricing assistance, priority technical support, and a certification program. Gold and Silver partners get quarterly rebates and access to D-Link’s Bounty Program, which pays partners even when a D-Link partners get access to training and incentives in the VIP+ program. april 2012 | 25 |
channel insider canada
ON LOCATION
CA Technologies takes cloud game on the road for partners Forget World of Warcraft. CA Technologies has a game designed to help resellers view the need for the cloud from the client’s perspective.
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by Stefan Dubowski ome say cloud computing is a game-changer for the IT industry. But CA Technologies seems to be turning that on its head: the software company developed a game to change partners’ approaches to the cloud. During a day-long session held at the Brookstreet Hotel in Ottawa, a group of IT professionals – VARs aligned with CA Technologies – engaged in a cloud-focused game, the CA Technologies Cloud Choice Simulator. In the game, participants raced the clock to address technology requests from a fictional customer (in this case, a stock exchange with locations on four continents and a persistent appetite for IT services such as new trading platforms and online employee-training systems). It was all part of CA Technologies’ North American partner road show, which saw the software company’s partners participating in the cloud game in individual events across the continent. Ottawa was the only Canadian stop. “Some of our large partners are here,” such as Bell, Accenture and Innovapost, said Roch Cousineau, VP, sales, CA Technologies. The game is designed to help partners understand the benefits of cloud computing, so they can better advise customers about cloud implementation. It’s divided into four stages, with each stage crafted so that participants come away with more knowledge about the cloud, and more knowledge to inform the next stage.
Three groups Participants are divided into three groups: one group is in charge of project portfolio management, another oversees development, another handles operations. They watch a large screen projected on the front wall of the room, where service requests from the stock-exchange client pop up. Each team uses a stash of $500,000 to purchase, develop and deploy technologies to meet the customer’s requests. “As they make decisions, the game shows the investment level, the return on investment, and whether they’re making a profit or incurring a loss,” said George Watt, VP strategy, cloud, CA Technologies. “It’s a way of addressing the need for agility and flexibility using cloud computing.” The Cloud Choice Simulator game effectively points to certain technologies as potential cloud enablers. For example, early on, many participants begin by acquiring new servers to support the client’s requests. But in later stages, teams have access to capacity-planning systems that allow them to tap into unused server power elsewhere in the data centre. In the beginning, teams spend an awful lot of time and money developing services. But later on, they make service catalogues, so they can access april 2012 | 26 |
services already created to reduce the time and financial resources required to meet the customer’s needs. Watt said server over-provisioning is a common issue for customers, so the game mirrors the real world. “You get to see the impact of the decisions you make. They uncover all sorts of interesting things in ways that, in The cloud simulator mirrors real life, my experience, happen says George Watt, VP strategy, in real life.” cloud, CA Technologies. Cousineau said it’s all in aid of understanding the benefits of the cloud. “The game shows the investment level, the return on investment, and whether they’re making a profit or incurring a loss. It’s a way of addressing the need for agility and flexibility using cloud computing.”
Not a lecture The game’s human facilitator guides the teams through each stage and asks the participants questions to get them thinking about what happened, and what to do next. But it isn’t a lecture. “The neat thing is the insights come from the participants,” Watt said. “You don’t have an instructor saying, ‘You need this; you need this.’ Depending on how they play the game, these things will evolve in a very natural way.” While aimed at partners, the game is really meant to drill down into end-user organizations. “The customers that these partners will deal with will have different levels of maturity, in terms of their adoption of cloud services,” Watt said. “This will help them align their experience with what their customers are going through, help identify where the customers are, and the challenges they’re facing. They get the chance to discuss, ‘What do you do about it?’” Certain customers may get to play the game as well, he said. “Given the reaction we’re getting from our partners, we may very well adapt this a little bit and ask a select number of clients to join us for a session. What’s likely to happen is that IT specialists who attend such a game will realize they need certain technologies to manage the tools required to meet demands.” channel insider canada
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TEST BED
HP Folio 13
The new Ultrabook from HP should start infiltrating boardrooms everywhere. by Christopher Rogers Device: HP Folio 13
devices that are every bit as thin, light and powerful as the MacBook Air.
Price: $999.00
Hardware
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
As a business-first device, the Folio is well equipped. It is built around Intel’s Core i5 2467M CPU rated at 1.60GHz. It doesn’t seem like a lot of power but the CPU shot back speedy results for most of our dayto-day tasks. The Folio, like many other devices in its class, relies on Intel’s integrated HD 3000 GPU. For a business device this isn’t a problem and we only started to really miss discrete graphics when we put the Folio through some more complicated photo filters and renders. While it does not replace discrete video, users looking for graphic-intensive work should consider something outside the Ultrabook space. Another aspect of the Ultrabook segment has been a mandated SSD (solidstate-drive). In the case of the Folio, the device comes with a 120GB SSD. This could cause problems for those who make heavy use of the unit’s on-board storage but thankfully the SSD makes powering up the Folio from a sleep or off state a very quick affair. In our tests the device started from off in usually 20 seconds or less. If the device is simply in a resting or sleep state, the time to recovery is almost instantaneous, usually around two seconds. The space-to-speed trade off is well worth the relatively tiny storage capacity. Turning on the device, users will encounter one of the Folio’s only hiccups. The physical power button is small, narrow and difficult to push. As the device is so silent, and there is a slight delay for the power light to illuminate, we sometimes pressed the button twice and turned the unit back off, or didn’t press it hard enough and the device wouldn’t turn on at all. As the Folio starts quickly from its sleep state, users will rarely be using the power button but it’s definitely something that could be improved.
CPU: Intel Core i5-2467M (1.60GHz) RAM: 4GB DDR3 Display: 13.3” LED (1366-768) Storage: 128GB SSD
C
onsumer devices haven’t always translated well to the enterprise or business space. Perceivably, the consumer devices suffer from a lack of upgrade options and serviceability. Furthermore, devices that run iOS and Android can be tricky to implement properly. Why bring up mobile operating systems in a laptop review? It’s because the HP Folio 13 Ultrabook is geared expressly at the ultra-mobile worker. These devices are meant to be carted around just like devices running iOS and Android. When Intel devised the Ultrabook category it created the framework for PC manufacturers to start competing with Apple and its MacBook Air with devices similar in size, weight, performance and battery life. HP’s first foray into this space was a pair of devices, one consumeroriented and one business-oriented. The HP Envy Spectre is the consumer Ultrabook, while the HP Folio 13 is the company’s business-first offering. The Folio offers similar hardware as the Spectre but at a much more affordable sub-$1,000 price. After a few weeks with the Folio 13, we’re excited to say that HP is definitely on the right track with this product. It lives up to the Ultrabook hype in many different day-to-day tasks and the battery life is truly commendable. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect; it exhibits the quirks you’d expect of a 1.0 device, but it is a solid statement that HP is able to create
april 2012 | 28 |
channel insider canada
The HP Folio 13 has an executive look and feel.
At only 18mm thick and 3.3lbs it’s very portable. Unplugging the Folio and taking it mobile is when it starts to really show how far mobile devices have come. We experienced around six hours of consistent battery life with the Folio depending on brightness and other settings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and backlighting on the keyboard. The device will last the majority of the workday without issue, but it would be a stretch for it to last a full day with consistent use. Connectivity options bring an interesting point to light: Since this is a business-first device, why is it limited to Wi-Fi only? We understand that users can choose to plug in a mobile Internet stick but why not give users the ability to connect from anywhere right out of the box, with a built-in radio for LTE, HSPA and other mobile networks? For these devices to truly deliver on the businessfirst promise, we think this is an area manufacturers will have to look at for future updates. Inputs are minimal but thoughtful and well implemented, with one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, a mini-HDMI out, an Ethernet port, multi-card reader, and a standard
so a natural fit here. The device is also not burdened with HP-branded software, which is a nice touch. The only programs users will find are a shortcut to the documentation and the HP connection manager. The assistant doesn’t seem to get in the way much either, allowing users to simply use the Windows 7 networking centre if they choose. There are copies of Evernote, Skype and a webcam manager installed as well. HP has included a quick utility that optimizes the cooling of the device so that users can optimize battery life while mobile. As the Folio 13 is an Ultrabook it lacks an optical drive and although most users won’t find that a problem there will still be some that require it. Thankfully, with a USB 3.0 input and many good, inexpensive external optical drives it’s not much of a problem for those that need it. The island-style keyboard is comfortable. headphone jack on the right side. The power connector is plugged into the Folio’s left side and unfortunately when plugged in, the cable juts out almost an inch and a half before it can be bent. While not a deal breaker it certainly detracts from the overall feel of the hardware. For those that web conference, there is an integrated webcam in the display. The keyboard is well laid out and feels excellent when typing. The keys are well spaced and have a good texture. While the backlight only has two settings (bright and off), it is a nice feature nonetheless. The track pad is single glass with two button areas for left and right click. It supports multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom and scrolling, though scrolling seems to be the only one that produces the desired effect. For the most part the track pad is responsive and well implemented. For those who like to turn the pad off while typing, simply doubletap the pad and you’re in the clear.
Design While not as flashy as its consumeroriented sibling the HP Envy Spectre, the Folio 13 is sleek in its own right. It has a pewter-coloured metal exterior and a matte black base and keyboard. The
combination of the two colours is quite well done and produces an “executive” feel. We suspect the Folio would have no problem fitting in at a Starbucks or a boardroom. There are a few slight design quirks such as a strange double bevel on the display. The headphone jack is also placed too far up the side of the device and headphone cords tend to drag over the keyboard. Meanwhile, there are also some neat touches such as the LED lights on buttons like the Wi-Fi, power and HDD indicator that glow a cool white, which is a very nice effect that matches the colour of the backlighting on the keyboard. Surprisingly, the design holds a Dolby Advanced Audio speaker system and it works well. The sound is loud and full and it is not as conspicuously designed as HP’s Beats devices. Again, it maintains that executive feel. The display is a sharp and brightly lit 13.3 inch 1366x768 LED. The brightness can be adjusted using the standard function keys. The display is very thin but feels sturdy thanks to the metal casing.
Software The Folio 13 uses 64-bit Windows 7 professional. It’s the favourite choice for most enterprise and business users, and april 2012 | 29 | channel insider canada
Conclusion With the Folio 13, HP was looking to create the only business-first Ultrabook and the company seems to have succeeded. There are few flaws to this wonderfully crafted device, and it simply feels like the designers truly cared about how everything was put together. And the sum is greater than the parts here. It’s not simply components in a case. As said, it isn’t perfect. At 3.3 lbs, it’s heavy for an Ultrabook. But it’s still extremely portable. Its solid looks are not faddish; the classic design will look good for as long as it lasts. For users who don’t need discrete graphics, it would be difficult to go wrong with a Folio. PROS: Excellent design and feel Good battery life Amazing audio for an Ultrabook Instant-on and sub-20 second startup Ultra portable CONS: Backlit keyboard poorly implemented Intel HD 3000 graphics 120GB SSD might be too small for some
Distractions
Distractions, April 2012:
Featuring news you can’t use – but should know. This edition: Microsoft picks on its past.
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by Channel Insider Staff icrosoft is taking a selfeffacing approach to marketing Internet Explorer 9, the current iteration of its web browsing software. Via a website dubbed “The Browser You Loved to Hate” (http://browseryoulovedtohate.com) the company notes, “Some people are trying the new Internet Explorer and actually liking it. Not that they would say that
out loud.” With the rise of Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox, Microsoft acknowledges that many users have moved away from Internet Explorer, and the company expressly suggests that people should go ahead and continue using competing products. But at the same time Microsoft advises users to try Internet Explorer 9 to reach websites that you use regularly; you can pin sites to
the taskbar for quick access. The Lovedto-Hate website features links to reviews claiming that the latest IE is faster than other browsers and more feature rich. Microsoft undercuts older versions of IE; as a character in a promotional video puts it, “The only thing Internet Explorer is good for…is downloading other browsers.”
We nearly lost how much data? Here’s a different way of illustrating the growth of computer usage over the last 25 years: Kroll Ontrack, a provider of data recovery and information management services, notes that since it opened its lab in 1987, the company has recovered more than 103 petabytes of data. In its first year, the firm recovered 1.2GB – equivalent to one-five hundredth of the capacity of the average hard drive in use today. In 2011, Kroll recovered 35PB. In ’87, the number of computers impacted by data loss was 33,000. In 2011, it was 1.4 million.
iPad wristwatch The tech accessory designers at StudioProper in Melbourne, Australia say they have developed the world’s first iPad wristwatch – the Wallee Hand Strap. The strap can be used to transform the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen into “an arguably portable, undoubtedly attention-grabbing wristwatch,” the company said in a cheeky press statement. “The latest Hand Strap is extremely versatile and can be used in a number of ways,” said Alon Tami, Studio Proper’s founder. “Using it to turn your iPad into a wristwatch is just one of them.” In fact, StudioProper developed the Hand Strap as a way for users to maintain an easy grip on the tablet. april 2012 | 30 |
channel insider canada
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*Performance comparison using geometric mean of SPECintratebase2006, SPECfp*_rate_base2066, STREAM*_MP Triad, and Linpack* benchmark results. Baseline geometric mean score of 166.75 on prior generation 2S Intel® Xeon® Processor X5690 platform based on best published SPECrate* scores to www.spec.org and best Intel internal measurements on STREAM*_MP Triad and Linpack as of 5 December 2011. New geometric mean score of 306.74 based on Intel internal measured estimates using an Intel® Rose City platform with two Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2690, Turbo and EIST Enabled, with Hyper-Threading, 128 GB RAM, Red Hat* Enterprise Linux Server 6.1 beta for x86_6, Intel® Compiler 12.1, THP disabled for SPECfp_rate_base2006 and enabled for SPECint*_rate_base2006. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Dell cannot be responsible for errors in typography and photography. © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
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