Tech Innovators: the Wow Factor

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THE XCHANGE SHOW DAILY IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CMP CHANNEL GROUP, PRODUCED BY THE EDITORS OF CRN AND VARBUSINESS. DAY TWO

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 Hyatt Regency Hotel NEWS AND EVENTS FROM XCHANGE: TECH INNOVATORS Huntington Beach, Calif.

>> Today’s Events General/Demo Sessions 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Tech Innovators: The Wow Factor Grand Ballroom D VARBusiness shines the spotlight on those who’ve pushed the boundaries of technology General Session - VARBusiness By Cristina McEachern/VARBusiness tivity applications. taking a win in the Printing and Imag- 1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Grand Ballroom D VARBusiness honored the latest and IBM was once again a big winner at ing category for its Lexmark X644e greatest in channel products and com- this year’s awards, taking top honors in product. ViewSonic’s NMP-500 Net- XChange XCellence Awards panies at the fourth annual three categories. First work Media Player and ND4200-LS 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Technology Innovator and foremost, IBM Net IP Integrated Display walked Lighthouse Courtyard Awards dinner and presenta- went home with the away with the Display category. For coveted Innovative White-Box Components, Raritan Company of the Year Computer’s KIRA 100 product got award for pushing the top billing. boundaries of technolo- A relative newcomer to the Tech gy and delivering inno- Innovator Awards, 01Communique’s vation to the channel. I’m In Touch Corporate Server was The company demonstrated superior awarded top honors in the Business innovation this year with its deeper Software SMB category. On the Secu- push into managed and professional rity Hardware and Software front, services, as well as its expanding secu- 3Com’s TippingPoint X505 product rity and storage product portfolio. received top honors while Altiris’ Soft- IBM also picked up a win for its ware Virtualization Solution won the Express Managed Services Portfolio in Application Infrastructure category. EDELE F the Services category as well as a win in ENE : G the Storage Hardware and Software cat- HOTOS P egory for its Continuous Data Protec- Speech, Speech: VARBusiness’ Jeannie Cappo (top) kicks things off; Editor Larry tion for Files product. Walsh presents the award to Joe Rueda, accepting Innovative Company of the Year Hewlett-Packard wasn’t far behind, honors for IBM; Novell’s Nat Friedman is named Technologist of the Year. taking home wins in two categories. HP’s ProLiant DL580 G4 Server won tion last night. From business software in the Server Hardware category, and to storage and security, this year’s winners the HP Compaq NC 2400 took the are shining examples of innovation in Client Devices category win. action and stellar providers of the best The Business Software Enterprise technology to suit customer needs. category saw a tie between Business Taking Home Gold: Editors recognize One of the evening’s highlights Objects’ XI Release 2 product and 01Communique’s achievements. was the Technologist of the Year Sage Software’s Sage CRM SalesLogix award, presented to an engineer, prod- product. For Data/Voice Network- The 2006 VARBusiness Tech Inno- uct manager, researcher or inventor ing, D-Link Systems won for its Wi- vator awards were judged by a panel of who has actively advanced the state of Fi Phone (DPH-540 and DPH 541) solution provider executives and VAR- technology. The award was presented product lines. Iomega’s StorCenter Business editors. The judges scored to Nat Friedman of Novell for his Wireless Network Storage 1 TB earned each product based on its usefulness, tireless work overseeing the develop- top honors in the Wireless Network- how new and/or improved it is, where Winning Ways: VARBusiness’ Cristina ment of Suse Linux Enterprise Desk- ing category. it sits on price/performance, revenue McEachern rewards Business Objects. top and its associated office-produc- Lexmark broke onto the scene, potential and the “coolness” factor. 06_xcti_day2_p3, 13, 14 10/23/06 10:58 PM Page 3

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS

Applause For Innovation Lexmark Gives VARs A Leg Up Lawrence M. Walsh New Fleet Manager offering helps partners expand into managed services Editor, VARBusiness and GovernmentVAR By Shelley Solheim/VARBusiness ach year, VARBusiness recognizes the best in ven- Printing vendor Lexmark Interna- dor innovation with the Technology Innovator Awards. tional on Monday rolled out a new E These prestigious honors single out the best of the partner offering designed to help best in product, feature and profitability potential among the VARs expand deeper into managed vendors that solution providers are and should be selling. services—a growing trend among Behind every great innovation is a person leading the resellers looking to offset razor-thin charge—an engineer, programmer, product manager or inven- hardware margins. tor who has the vision to advance the Lexmark tapped its experience state of the art. This year, VARBusiness providing managed services to large extended its awards to include the enterprises to develop a tool geared Technologist of the Year award for a per- at making it easier for partners to News That’s Fit To Print: Sharon Brindley and Paul Rooke from son who not only develops new technology capture ongoing revenue streams Lexmark, CompuCom’s Joseph Axmacher and Lexmark’s Marty but enables the channel with new tools. for supplies and services—while Canning opine during Lexmark’s World Premiere. “Superior” can’t begin to describe the simplifying print management and caliber of the dozens of nominees, which cutting costs for end users, said executives dur- Information is collected by the software in five ran the gamut from security and network to voice and busi- ing Lexmark’s World Premiere here at XChange components: Asset Manager gives partners visi- ness applications to processors and peripherals. The semi- Tech Innovators. bility into devices and page counts; Billing finalists included APC’s John Bean, who developed a new, With the new offering, dubbed Fleet Man- Manager helps partners provide cost-per-page or energy-efficient cooling system; Network Appliance’s Sajai ager, resellers install software at an end user’s site recurring monthly charges or a combination of Krishnan; UGS’ Bill McClure, who built a full-functional PLM that collects information about that user’s hard- both payment plans for end users; Consumables package for the midmarket; Lexmark’s Tom Knight, who ware and supplies. Resellers can then access and Manager tracks supply levels and issues alerts to designed the customizable interface and scripting applications assess that information via a Web-based portal partners when levels are low; Availability Man- for the vendor’s multifunction printers; and Raritan’s Swen provided by Lexmark. continued on page 13 Anderson, who crafted the first “system on a chip,” or BIOS- level remote management system. While it was a hard choice, there can be only one winner HP: Maximizing Opportunities and he was Nat Friedman, chief technology and strategy offi- cer for open source at Novell. His principal accomplishment: By Joseph F. Kovar/CRN Services Americas Business Unit. Under the pro- the development and launch of Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop Hewlett-Packard is adding enhancements to its gram, HP promises to protect the solution 10 and a host of associated business productivity applications. partner programs for its industry-standard servers provider that first registers a potential deal, he said. What Friedman delivered is simply a remarkable operating and mobile PCs aimed at helping solution The program was expanded to blade servers system—a true Linux competitor that’s good enough to compete providers take advantage of new a few months ago after origi- against Windows. Its intuitive GUI, 3-D operating environment, opportunities and technologies. nally focusing on enterprise integrated search capabilities and rich graphics make it a killer That’s the message from two storage and server products, app. Complementing the OS is a bundle of excellent open-source HP executives to solution Rovira said. “We’re trying to productivity applications—word processor, spreadsheet, presen- providers attending HP’s World maximize the opportunities for tation application, the Firefox Web browser, an instant messaging Premiere at XChange Tech [solution providers] and drive app that’s compatible with the most popular services, and more. Innovators. more business for us,” he said. Best of all, the entire package only costs $50 a year per seat, a On the server side, HP is Keith LeFebvre, vice presi- fraction of the cost of Windows and the full Office bundle. planning to expand its Value Big dent and general manager of Will Suse Desktop break Windows’ stranglehold on the oper- Deal special pricing to include HP’s Personal Systems Group ating system market? Likely not. But it does give Novell and its its new four-way ProLiant Americas, said his organization partners another weapon in their fight for share in directory, servers starting on Nov. 1. plans to restructure how it deals identity management and server operating systems. The company is also look- Play Nice: HP’s LeFebvre vows with channel issues by increasing Friedman and the other finalists deserve much applause ing to increase the collabora- to ease direct/indirect conflict. the communication between its for their out-of-the-box thinking, ingenuity and execution. tion between HP’s direct and direct and indirect organizations. They define the human aspect of innovation. indirect sales channels for its mobile PCs. The goal is to make it easier for HP and its EDELE HP wants to expand its Value Big Deal pro- solution providers to compete against direct ven- F ENE

Contact Larry at [email protected]. gram to areas where it makes sense, said Efrain dors, LeFebvre said. “This will let us go out col- : G HOTO

Rovira, vice president of the Industry Standard continued on page 14 P

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS XChanging at XChange: Question of the Day What’s the biggest challenge Views of yesterday’s events at the XChange conference and sessions your company faces, and how do you plan to overcome it?

“We want to be more of a trusted adviser to our SMB clients and to play deeper in the enterprise without the solutions becoming commodities. The enterprise is particularly chal- lenging because they want to get more scale though service packages. They’re looking to save $2 million to $3 million a year in all types of services. So we really have to build our SMB business to offset that.” (Clockwise, from l.) All hands on deck at —Mark Mulawa, director of technical the WebJaguar booth; traveling in style with services, PMV Technologies, Troy, Mich. Sony; Raritan execs look like they’re rarin’ to go; Autotask drives the point home; gleaning “The biggest challenge we face is new knowledge from Samsung’s solution staying on top of all the technology provider session; strike up the band at that’s out there. We have to essen- Cymphonix’s demo room; how can you sum tially redefine our strategy every up the experience at Adtran’s booth? CMP year because there are product sets Technology’s Monty Cornell delivers you have to get rid of and others just the facts, please, at a channel research session; Nate Mills from you have to bring on.” MarketStar has a message for atten- —Amit (Sunny) Sahni, vice president, Evron, dees; getting that ‘Jurassic Park’ feeling Markham, Ontario at Raptor Networks booth. “Getting customers to open up their budgets. They all want something for free. They’re bombarded by Dell selling $600 workstations. We let them learn from their mistakes and Photography by Gene they eventually come back.” Fedele —Brian Johnson, engineer, JComp Technologies, Barraboo, Wis.

Editor ...... Jane O’Brien, CRN Design Director ...... Gene Fedele Production ...... Adeline Cannone Photography ...... Gene Fedele IT Manager ...... Mike Wroobel XChange Contacts: VP/CMP Channel Events . . . . .Nancy Hammervik Senior Events Manager ...... Bill Jones Sales Managers ...... Teresa Varela (East) Chris May (West) Account Directors . . . . .Tom Zimnoski (Southwest) Jennifer Ogle (MidCentral, Southeast) Linda Gilbert (Northeast) Audience Development ...... Sonja Williams CMP Channel Group President . . . .Robert Faletra

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS Solution Providers Speak Out

Koji Mori, GM, Throw Me A Data Preserver Calsoft Page 10 Drowning in a sea of acronyms and backup choices? Here’s a disaster-recovery primer

By Jeffrey Schwartz/VARBusiness One-third are addressing business have to be tracked in a journal so users to its NetBackup suite in coming The anniversaries of 9/11 and Hurri- continuity and disaster preparedness in can hone in on every single I/O activi- months, company execs say. cane Katrina have passed. The hottest conjunction with a third-party technol- ty?” said Manish Goel, general manag- • Pure Software Vs. Appliance: summer in recent memory, the cause of ogy provider, the study showed. Case in er of the data-protection business unit This transcends data protection, but it prolonged East Coast power outages, is point: Fred Nix, CTO of Syscom Tech- at Network Appliance, one of several can be a key decision for any client finally over. In the wake of the turmoil nologies, Marietta, Ga., says business in storage vendors, including EMC, looking to create or change their disas- are jangled nerves and a passel of lost that area “is doubling and tripling quar- Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM and ter-recovery and business-continuity data. Whether it’s the next calamity or ter over quarter.” Sun Microsystems, that have increased strategy. There’s no shortage of choices, someone deleting files, more people are their emphasis on disaster recovery. either. In most cases, it will depend on thinking about data protection than It’s also important to articulate the the customer’s infrastructure and their ever before. difference between near-continu- preference for managing it. CDP and Data is growing ous and continuous. Prod- de-duplication are perfect examples. exponentially, and ucts such as Symantec’s While Symantec is looking to bundle its information avail- Backup Exec 10d de-duplication offering into its data- ability is vital to for Windows protection suite, Avamar and Diligent business. Cus- and Tivoli’s offer that capability as an appliance. tomers may be find- CDP for Files Likewise, EMC’s purchase of Kashya, ing a bevy of new and fall under the near- which offers a CDP appliance, and CA’s more affordable ways to continuous category. purchase of CDP software vendor make sure their data is backed • Location Of Data: How XOsoft clearly show the broad alterna- up and retrievable, but with the should branch-office data be backed up, tives to skinning the same cat. alternatives come choices that can and where? Providers of WAN-acceler- Mark Tuggle, president of USI, a make even the savviest customer’s and ation technology, for example, are solution provider focused on infor- solution provider’s head spin: BCP. • Recovery-Point Objectives: The enjoying huge success by putting appli- mation life-cycle management and CDP. ILM. WAFS. And the dilemma availability of so-called continuous ances in branch offices and replicating storage, says the appliance approach is goes beyond acronyms. There are data protection, or CDP, has brought it in data centers, effectively centraliz- gaining traction, although software backup, replication, mirroring snap- more awareness to both recovery-point ing the storage of data. Companies such accounts for the bulk of his business. shots, vaulting, archiving and de- and recovery-time objectives. as Cisco Systems, Packeteer and “I’m a huge fan of the appliance duplication, not to mention the com- If a disaster were to occur, how Riverbed are key providers of appliances approach when a customer has a weak plexity of supporting multiple quickly does the customer need to that use sophisticated algorithms to infrastructure or the upgrade is going applications and operating systems. retrieve the backed-up data, and how compress, cache and accelerate the to be significant,” Tuggle said. Among More than 40 vendors offer data- up-to-date must it be? While this may transmission of large amounts of data the appliances he supports are NexSan’s protection products through various seem like a no-brainer, there are sig- over sometimes low-bandwidth WAN Assureon and Permabit’s Dynamic channels. Microsoft put a stake in the nificant implications to not attaching links. Executives at Riverbed maintain Information Services, both content- ground about a year ago with its Data costs to how data is protected. that many customers no longer want to addressable services that classify Protection Manager, a tool that legit- “Everything starts with knowing maintain servers at small branch offices. archived data. imized the continuous backup of file- what the customer’s objectives are," Proponents of de-duplication, • Established Players Vs. Alterna- based data. Today, it’s becoming the said Ken Horner, executive vice presi- offered by the likes of Asigra, Avamar tives: There’s a lot to be said for the big norm to back up data to low-cost disks, dent of business strategy at Bakbone and Diligent, argue that WAN accel- boys. EMC, HP, IBM and Symantec sometimes postponing for months, if Software, a supplier of backup and eration is good for certain types of data have huge product portfolios and exten- not years, the archiving to tape. replication-suite software. The question but that some organizations are reluc- sive partner programs. But many solu- Today, backup and disaster recovery every customer must consider is how tant to move data out of the branch tion providers argue that second-tier ranks second only to security infras- long they can live without a certain office. De-duplication uses a similar players such as BakBone, CommVault tructure when it comes to IT spending amount of data. The requirements are method as WAN acceleration—trans- and SyncSort have decent partner pro- priorities over the next 12 months, much different if the customer says a mitting only data that has changed. grams and more integrated offerings according to the first VARBusiness day or so than if they say an hour or less. At least one of the major players that are easier to deploy and support. Market Insight Report. Only 12 per- “The question is just how continu- believes de-duplication has legs. “When I install BakBone or Comm- cent said it’s not a priority at all, while ous the ‘C’ in CDP is. Is it 5- to 10- Symantec, which acquired a leader in Vault, people rarely call me back with 8.6 percent are outsourcing the entire minute intervals where snapshotting is the field of de-duplication—Pure- complaints,” said Brian De Matteo, business-continuity effort. good enough? Or does every transaction Disk—will be adding that technology president of TriAxis Storage Solutions.

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Monday, October 23, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS

‘I was very pleased with the outcome CMP XChange Tech Innovators of my trip to Events Agenda XChange, and I will be adding some Day-to-day calendar of events new lines to my Oct. 22-24, 2006 Hyatt Regency Hotel business portfolio. Huntington Beach, Calif. I also made some new friends.’ Sunday, Oct. 22 2:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m...... Registration 2:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m...... Demo Rooms Open 4:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m...... General Session - Larry Walsh, VARBusiness Innovating for Success 5:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m...... Concurrent Sessions - Jeff O’Heir, CRN Chris Gonsalves, VARBusiness 6:00 p.m. – 6:45 p.m...... Vendor World Premiere - IBM 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m...... Networking Reception - Ingram Micro

Monday, Oct. 23 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m...... Registration 7:30 a.m. – 8:15 a.m...... Breakfast for all attendees 8:30 a.m. – 9:15 a.m...... Vendor World Premiere - Lexmark

Photos: Gene Fedele Photos: 9:30 a.m. – 11:50 a.m...... XChange Appointments 10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m...... Vendor Content Session - MarketStar 2006-07 XChange Events’ mission: To be the premier 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m...... Exhibitor Setup channel events company providing vendors and prequalified 12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m...... Delegate Luncheon solution providers with the unique opportunity to meet face-to- 1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m...... Vendor World Premiere - HP face, establish new business partnerships and gain strategic insight 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m...... XChange Appointments 3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m...... General/Demo Session through content delivered by CRN, VARBusiness and IPED. 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m...... Solution Pavilion Open 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m...... Demo Rooms Open Key Benefits of XChange Events: 7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m...... Tech Innovator Awards - VARBusiness • Partnering with the premier channel industry event. • Growing your business with new and existing partners. Tuesday, Oct. 24 7:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m...... Registration • Access to new technology and partner programs. 7:30 a.m. – 8:15 a.m...... Breakfast for all attendees • Gaining market intelligence through educational seminars. 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m...... General/Demo Session • Networking with key industry peers and editors. 9:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m...... XChange Appointments 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m...... Solution Pavilion Open 1:45 p.m. – 2:30 p.m...... General Session - Larry Walsh, VARBusiness 2006-07 XChange Calendar of Events: 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m...... XChange XCellence Awards XChange Solution Provider XChange ’07 March 7-10, 2007 Aug. 19-22, 2007 Exhibitor Listing: Manchester Hyatt Walt Disney Dolphin Hotel San Diego, Calif. Orlando, Fla. COMPANY BOOTH COMPANY BOOTH Featuring: CRN Channel Featuring: VARBusiness ARC Adtran ...... 16 Lexar ...... 25 Champions Awards Awards Ceremony Anchiva ...... 32 Lexmark ...... 23-24 Aspire / QuoteWerks ...... 33 Metavize ...... 26 Government Integrator XChange Tech Integrator Autotask ...... 5 MGE ...... 27 April 25-27, 2007 Oct. 7-9, 2007 Canadian Consulate ...... 1-2-3-4 Raptor Networks ...... 34 Catbird ...... 6 Raritan ...... 35 Renaissance Mayflower Hotel Doral Resort & Spa Diskeeper ...... 53 Samsung ...... 17 Washington, D.C. Miami, FL. FalconStor ...... 10 SonicWall ...... 36 Featuring: GovernmentVAR Featuring: VARBusiness Tech Fujitsu ...... 8 Sony ...... 11-12 Awards Ceremony Innovaror Awards Ceremony Great Bay Software ...... 7 Synnex ...... 29-30 Hewlett Packard ...... 19-20 WebJaquar ...... 54 Also featured at each XChange event: IBM/Lenovo ...... 13-14-15 Websense ...... 18 Ingran Micro ...... 21-22 Xandros ...... 28 • Media sponsors including CRN, VARBusiness and IPED Level Platform ...... 9 • XChange XCellence Awards

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS

Makeovers That Really Matter Want To Increase Integrator Silicon East takes on an ‘extreme’ challenge and brings Your Revenue? home automation and assistive technology to a local family in need By Heather Clancy/CRN Koji Mori viduals who suffer from this condition eventual- General Manager, Calsoft Systems Even in the land of extreme, some makeovers are ly go blind. Vic and his mother have already lost more extreme than others. their vision completely, while the girls are consid- f course, most of us will reply with an New Jersey integrator Silicon East naturally ered legally blind. The HAL system lets the two emphatic “Yes!” to that question, but I was thrilled when its longtime business partner, other family members, mother Maria and son Zeb, think many will agree that the bigger The Pinnacle Companies, a local construction maintain the ambient lighting at levels suitable for O challenge is not just how to increase firm for which it has handled numerous home Carrie and Guen’s eyes that will minimize damage. revenue, but how to maintain that increase. integration projects, asked it to participate over It can also be used as a sort of signaling system: One of the things I recently realized was that the summer in a special episode of ABC’s That’s because although Zeb hasn’t been afflicted while our company’s revenue growth was planned “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” with anaridia, he has been deaf from birth. in very fine detail, we often overlooked how to The challenge: Outfit a new home for the One of the hardest tasks to accomplish was support that growth once we achieved it. Llanes family of Bergenfield, N.J., not only hooking the home automation system into the Since we are primarily a services-based organi- with intelligent automation systems but the lat- solar panels from BP Solar, Harrison said. Even zation, our growth relies heavily on the fact that est in accessibility and assistive technology for its though there was no previous middleware linking we increase our internal resources to meet our disabled family members. the two, Silicon East found a way aggressive revenue goals. The question is, how do Quickly, the solution provider ‘When you are really to provide data regarding the we manage those increases most efficiently while found itself at the center of its out at the leading ambient environment back to maintaining the level of quality our clients have largest project to date—one that edge of doing this, the system monitoring the pan- come to expect from us? it would be forced to complete els. Three access points from As a company with strong roots in software in less than one-fifth of the time you really are out in SonicWall provide the home development, we implemented several solutions to it would normally schedule. uncharted waters. with a wireless network, as well as handle our daily business operations, but we still “When you are really out at There’s no question an interface back to Silicon East’s have many manual processes that are proving the leading edge of doing this, headquarters in Manalapan, difficult to manage as we grow. you really are out in uncharted that this stuff is just N.J., through which the solution On my last trip to XChange in St. Louis, I came waters. There’s no question that not plug-and-play.’ provider can monitor the status across some business process management this stuff is just not plug-and- —Marc Harrison, Silicon East of all devices in the home. The solutions that caught my eye. Autotask and play,” said Silicon East President whole system is connected to ConnectWise both offer solutions specifically Marc Harrison, who assumed the role of general the outside world with Verizon’s fibre to the tailored to system integrators like us to help run contractor for the project after it was clear the show’s home service, providing 30-Mbps Internet access, our business. Instead of trying to make a manufac- producers needed more guidance. “I recognized which most of the family members surf using turing, distribution or logistics software fit our that if someone didn’t do it, there was no way you Hewlett-Packard notebooks. business model, these solutions offer a tool to run could have pulled this together in the week.” The price tag for all of this technology is our business with proven best practices. These With its natural cedar shakes outside and easily $100,000, and the integration services that tools also integrate with Level Platforms’ Asian aesthetic inside, which includes a water-wall went into putting it all together are easily worth monitoring application so you can have a com- in the entrance hallway that keeps the house prop- another $50,000, according to Harrison. Numer- pletely integrated, end-to-end solution to handle erly humidified, the new Llanes house is an inte- ous high-tech vendors stepped up to help the sales, project management, implementation, moni- rior designer’s dream. It is also a gadgetphile’s fan- Silicon East team with support and donations for toring, help desk, managed services and billing. tasy. The entire three-story structure, including its the makeover, including BP Solar, Home Auto- We as solution providers sometimes are so solar panels, is linked through an automation sys- mated Living, Intel, Microsoft and SonicWall. focused on supporting our clients and busy putting tem from Home Automated Living (HAL) that Recounting the “reveal” stage of the project, out fires for them that we often forget to address can be controlled via voice commands. The system when the family “saw” the house for the first time, our own organization’s internal business needs. can handle basic tasks, such as regulating heat or Harrison wrote in an e-mail: “[Vic] dropped to After realizing that our growing pains were not air conditioning; monitoring security cameras his hands and knees and slowly traced and felt the going to fix themselves, we made it a top priority and appliances; turning lights on and off; and con- individual stones with his fingers, until he under- in our company to evaluate and implement an trolling the automatic blinds. stood what was there. And then he did the same integrated business process management solution The latter two tasks take on special significance with the garage door, and the cedar shakes, and so that we can continue our growth and our goal for the Llanes household. That’s because four of the the outside molding—and basically everything he to not just increase our revenue, but maintain it. six family members, including father Vic and his encountered.” The phrase stenciled on the wall mother Isabel, plus Vic’s daughters Carrie and in Vic’s basement workroom seems particularly Contact Koji at [email protected]. Guenivir, suffer from a degenerative eye disease apt: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, called anaridia. As they are exposed to light, indi- the evidence of things not seen.”

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS

Lexmark Opens Managed On Location Services Doors For VARs New products launched or unveiled at XChange Tech Innovators: continued from page 3 ager monitors the status of peripherals—regard- Networking vendor less of whether or not they Adtran, Huntsville, Ala., are Lexmark devices—and showed off its “office in reports on events; and Opti- a box” IP telephony mization Manager provides appliance for small busi- visibility into overall printing nesses. The company introduced its all-in-one IP fleet usage to help solution PBX, powered Ethernet switch, router, firewall, providers assess and com- VPN and DSC/CSU appliance in March and is now municate ways for users to hoping to recruit about 80 partners to represent it to streamline their printing businesses with up to 50 phones. List price is $5,195 processes. for a unit that can accommodate up to 25 phones. The ability to gain visi- Fleet Street: Lexmark execs (clockwise from top) Paul Rooke, Marty Canning Kim Lerner, channel account manager for bility across printing devices and Sharon Brindley spell out benefits of printing vendor’s new offering. California, said she has signed up about eight part- from different vendors was a ners in her territory and has two more slots to fill. key draw for some VARs. user’s site. Lexmark will also charge solution “Adtran doesn’t want to let the floodgate open to “This is the part that sold me, the ability to providers a monthly software hosting fee, but people without any training,” she said. work across multiple vendor devices,” said that fee will be waived until 2008. Metavize, San Mateo, Calif., displayed its Stephen Leedy, network administrator at Lex- In 2008, participating partners will EdgeGuard Gateway Security Platform, which pro- ington, Ky.-based Electronic Business Machines. be charged on a per-image basis, with a month- vides a full complement of Leedy, who has been beta-testing the new ly cap of $2 for each Lexmark device. Non- security services in one box offering, said that the software does provide more Lexmark devices will have a higher cap. when deployed behind the information for Lexmark devices in some cases Lexmark also enhanced its financing options firewall of a small-business but that overall he was satisfied by the compat- to give partners more flexibility with cost-per- network. John Butler, vice ibility with other devices. page contracts and introduced two new lines president of sales, said cus- Electronic Business Machines has already of laser printers at the show yesterday. tomers buy the box for begun moving into managed services. Among the new printers is the C530, a color $1,495 and the full menu of “As you know, hardware margins are really laser machine that will replace Lexmark’s C520 services for $200 a month. VARs can earn 30 per- tough. This is it, this is where we’re headed,” said model. Starting at around $500, the C530 prints cent margins on the subscriptions, he said. Leedy. 22 ppm in color and 24 ppm in monochrome. FalconStor Software, Melville, N.Y., was getting Lexmark will provide free training for part- Also new is the E Series monochrome lasers, the word out that its continuous data protection and ners that sign up for the new Fleet Manager which include standard duplexing and print at 35 virtual tape library solutions solve backup problems offering. Partners must buy and supply a device, ppm. Partners at the show may purchase limited for companies large and small, said Wendy Petty, such as a PC, to host the software at the end quantities of the new devices at 50 percent of cost. vice president of sales. “Go to your customer and ask them about backup problems, and I’ll guarantee you they’re interested in one of our products,” Petty said. A New Kind Of XChange Demo VARs got a peek at what was being billed as the smallest color laser printer at the booth of Samsung Electronics America’s Information Technology Division, Irvine, Calif. The CLP-300 uses “toner bottles” rather than cartridges to obtain a 15.4 x 13.5-inch footprint, said Richard Hutton, senior channel marketing manager. It can be a cost-effective replace- ment for inkjet printers in education, hospital and other applications Behind The Curtain: Adtran’s Steve Harvey, Toshiba’s Jerry Lumpkin and Sun Microsystems’ Nick where size is an issue, Suh give solution providers a first-hand look at their companies’ cutting-edge technology. Hutton said.

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS

HP: Opportunity Is Knocking XChange XCellence Awards continued from page 3 spec the deal, and not worry about laboratively in a lot of places Dell can’t protection. It’s good to see HP do this Date: Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006 go,” he said. with their new four-way servers.” Time: 2:30 p.m. Despite the lack of details about the The enhancements to the channel Place: Lighthouse Courtyard program, the move is already starting program will help solution providers to get the interest of Stephen Mon- take advantage of new opportunities teros, general manager of GST, a Brea, that will arise from market and tech- Calif.-based solution nology changes, Rovira provider. and LeFebvre said. Monteros said HP The four-way serv- has been making strides ers represent a huge in how its direct and opportunity for solu- indirect sales channel tion providers because organizations interact. of their high perfor- “But it looks like they mance and their ability will be doing more,” to virtualize multiple Winners at XChange ’06 in St. Louis he said. “This is impor- servers into a single Category Nominees Winner tant because we need to chassis, Rovira said. Best Hardware Solution: HP, IBM, Intel, SonicWall HP know what the direct A Big Deal: Four-way server “If you look at the Best Software Solution: Kaspersky Lab, Microsoft, Kaspersky Lab Novell, Phoenix Technologies sales side is doing, and effort is key, HP’s Rovira says. total available market, Best Revenue Generator: HP, Kaspersky Lab, Lexmark, Lexmark to make sure they don’t four-way servers account Ricoh step on our toes.” for about 5 percent of the total units Best Business IBM, Level Platforms, IBM Expanding the Value Big Deal to shipped,” he said. “But their revenue Technology Solution: Microsoft, Websense four-way servers is also important accounts for about 15 percent of the Best Partner Program: IBM, Lexmark, Microsoft, Ricoh Ricoh because of how difficult HP has made total market.” Best XChange Kaspersky Lab, Lexmark, Ricoh it to get special pricing on many of the Blade servers is also a key area for Appointment Presentation: Ouantum, Ricoh products GST sells, Monteros said. solution providers, Rovira said, as that Innovative Technology Intel, Novell, OnForce, Phoenix “Now, several resellers can be part market is expected to grow about 40 Award: Phoenix Technologies Technologies of a deal if you register a deal because percent annually for the next few years. Best World Premiere CA, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel HP wants to leverage the playing Presentation: Intel, Microsoft Overall Best of Show: Intel, IBM, Kaspersky Lab, Intel field,” he said. “You could get CDW JOHN LONGWELL contributed to Lexmark, Ricoh on your price list. Our mission is to this story.

The Buzz Around XChange are real and they are happening right now. future and where we are going.” We certainly feel good about our growth —Nini Pili, project manager, Final Frontiers, Calgary, There’s not much like the fertile grounds, next year.” Alberta the breathtaking views and the sharp salt —David Welcher, president, Computing Dynamics, air of an oceanfront resort to put solution Cedarhurst, N.Y. “I definitely feel strongly about 2007 for providers in an optimistic frame of mind. growth. I work really with mostly small And as CMP’s XChange Tech Innovators Using technology companies, under 100 employees—most 30 conference moved into its first full day innovations to provide to 50 employees. What they are most con- yesterday, the halls here were filled with better services was cerned about is making sure their business resellers and service providers looking to also on the mind data is secure. I think compliance is more capitalize on vendors’ latest wares. of many. “Managed an issue for the bigger guys, but my cus- services is getting a tomers are concerned about being able to “Everybody likes to big name. We’ve been keep what they do secure. think they are going to doing it for a long There’s a great deal of do better next year than time, but we just never called it managed opportunity for solution the year before. Security services. Now we’re trying very hard providers there.” is important, HIPAA to differentiate ourselves from all the —Christopher L. Smith, owner, compliance, federal man- others providing these services. But Kettle Moraine Web & Consulting dates for doctors, those that’s making us feel good about the Services, Dousman, Wis.