LENOVO ON A BUYING SPREE A NEW MICROSOFT CEO CITRIX SHARPENS FOCUS New IBM & Motorola deals announced What the channel has on Satya Nadalla New tactical & strategic channel plans Six cloud questions to ask PAGE 12 TOP 25 2013NEWSMAKERS Meet the 2013 CDN Newsmakers of the year PAGE 14 CONTENTS CANADA'S CHANNEL VOICE FOR IT SINCE 1985 EDITORIAL: The reason for Thorsten Heins and WATCH Edward Snowden – 10 NEWS: AND LEARN The Canadian channel speaks out on FEBRUARY 2014 | VOLUME 30, ISSUE 1 new Microsoft CEO – 6 FEATURE REPORT: Six questions you should ask before jumping into the cloud – 12 CIOtoCIO PRODUCT REVIEWS: THE BRAINSTORMERS SERIES The BlackBerry Z30 survives the Ice Storm, find out how– 27 This episode walks through the issues, the benefits and the development of a content CLOSE UP: One-on-one with former Apple product strategy. guru Guy Kawasaki – 28 CHANNEL QUADRANT Dell Canada is back again atop the channel commitment quadrant for new financing program for Canadian channel partners. Also making it in this section is Citrix who released several new tactical channel program for solution providers. But the big news was the new leadership at Microsoft. Satya Nadella is the new CEO and while the company struggles with its new strategy you can't count out Microsoft as a market challenger. New Lenovo server and smartphone moves were bold enough to place it into the Market Leaders area. COLLABORATIVE CONTENT CHANNEL COMMITMENT MARKET LEADERS Businesses today are drowning in content – largely Citrix unstructured content. Yet we are starved for useful Page 4 Lenovo Page 3 information to guide our decisions and business Dell Page 15 activities. DRIVE BUSINESS Companies are turning to IT to reduce the complexity to BlackBerry Microsoft Page 14 Page 6 and increase the manageability of information – to ABILITY serve the right information to the right people at the right time. Doing this requires an effective content SCALING BACK MARKET CHALLENGERS strategy. 1 to the Give them a cloud cloud! of their own! Provide your clients with the hardware from the ground up to succeed in the cloud 4TB My Cloud Personal Instant Cloud Storage deployment, WDBCTL0040HWTCA instant security, instant satisfac- tion. Printed on Earth – scanned to the cloud! Cloud Endpoint Software License – 1 Year ZCEPG3CSAACA ImageCenter ADS2500W Sheetfed Scanner ADS2500WCA Boost their cloud-based communication skills. HP 4120 IP Phone SNOMHP4120 Make the right connections with CloudCommand. 300Mbps Wireless Access Point 800.340.1008 WAP223NCPCA www.dandh.ca/cdn to the NEWS Give them a cloud ANALYSIS & INSIGHT cloud! of their own! Lenovo’s $5.2 billion server and smartphone buying spree Provide your clients with the hardware from the PC business.” Alexander. “For them, if they can ground up to succeed in by JEFF JEDRAS & HOWARD SOLOMON @jeffjedrasitw; @HowardITWC IBM will still be a hardware play- survive in the cut-throat world of the cloud 4TB My Cloud Personal er; it will retain its System z main- endpoint devices, servers probably Instant Cloud Storage IT WAS A BUSY January for Lenovo, frames, Power Systems, Storage represent an uptick in terms of the deployment, WDBCTL0040HWTCA instant security, with two major acquisitions that Systems, Power-based Flex servers, margin they’re able to generate.” instant satisfac- seek to remake the Chinese PC and PureApplication and PureData Lenovo also struck a deal with tion. Printed on Earth vendor as a more well-rounded appliances. And IBM Google to buy its – scanned to the enterprise and consumer solutions said it will still develop Motorola Mobility cloud! vendor. its Windows and Linux handset divison for Cloud Endpoint Software In one week, Lenovo announced software portfolio $2.9 billion. Google License – 1 Year a $2.3 billion deal to acquire IBM’s for the x86 platform. purchased the division ZCEPG3CSAACA ImageCenter ADS2500W x86 server business, and a $2.9 About 7,500 IBM em- in 2011 for $12.5 billion. Sheetfed Scanner billion deal to buy the Morotola ployees are expected “Buying Motorola ADS2500WCA handset business from Google. to be offered employ- Mobility is a much The deal with IBM will see Leno- ment by Lenovo. quicker way for vo pick up System x, BladeCenter James Alexander, Lenovo to access the Boost their and Flex System blade servers and senior vice-president premium smartphone cloud-based switches, x86-based Flex integrated with the Info-Tech market with a lead- communication systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex Research Group, ing Google Android skills. servers and associated software, said Lenovo is a good (not forked Android) blade networking and maintenance partner for IBM. IBM offering – than try- operations for $2 billion in cash already has a stake in ing to do it with their and $300,000 in Lenovo stock. the Chinese vendor, existing design teams “This acquisition demonstrates which will increase and brand reach,” said our willingness to invest in busi- through this deal, and Lenovo Forrester Research analyst Frank nesses that can help fuel profitable will be better able to take the x86 Gillett. “Using Motorola, just as HP 4120 IP Phone growth and extend our PC Plus business into the lucrative Chinese Lenovo used the IBM ThinkPad SNOMHP4120 Make the right strategy,” said Yang Yuanqing, market. Lenovo will also be able brand, to gain quick credibility and connections with chairman and CEO of Lenovo, in a to squeeze more margin out of a access to desirable markets, and CloudCommand. statement. “With the right strategy, highly commoditized space. built critical mass makes a lot of great execution, continued innova- “Lenovo, because of how and sense.” tion and a clear commitment to where they operate with a much Google retains ownership of the x86 industry, we are confident lower cost per employee, will be most of the valuable Motorola that we can grow this business suc- able to operate it much more ef- patents, giving Lenovo a licence to 300Mbps Wireless cessfully for the long-term, just as ficiently from a distribution and use them. Lenovo also gets about Access Point 800.340.1008 we have done with our worldwide manufacturing perspective,” said 2,000 patent assets. WAP223NCPCA www.dandh.ca/cdn computerdealernews.com February 2014 3 NEWS Analysis & Insight Citrix wants partners to move from a tactical to a strategic focus by JEFF JEDRAS Both groups heard Citrix talk Partners also got training in @jeffjedrasitw about what the vendor is calling sales enablement, customer con- the customer journey, and how the versation and the value of demos, PARTNERS OF CITRIX Systems company would like them to talk participated in hands-on labs with left the vendor’s annual Summit to customers about Citrix solutions the technical team, and completed partner conference in Orlando in not in a tactical, product-focused some 304 technical certifications January with new promos, insight sense, but in a strategic way, identi- during the conference. into the vendor’s roadmap, new fying opportunities at each stage of North American partners are certifications and a sur- the customer lifecycle, also going home with two new prise concert by rocker from desktop virtualiza- promos. The first, called Advisor Jon Bon Jovi. tion to cloud services to Rewards Plus, sees partners certi- To ensure partners mobility. fied in XemMobile get a five per won’t be livin’ on a “We want partners cent upfront discount when they prayer in 2014, this year to solve pain points, purchase the product, in addition Citrix combined its address broad busi- to the standard backend rebate. Summit partner confer- ness needs and drive For platinum partners, it could add ence with its annual in- business value through up to 17 points of margin. ternal sales team kickoff initiatives such as BYO The second program is around meeting. Tom Flink, Citrix and workplace transfor- net new customers. Any partner About 2,000 partners mation, as well as build- that brings in a customer across and 2,000 members of the Citrix ing a flexible infrastructure based any product line that has not had sales team attended the event, and on public and private cloud,” said any business with Citrix in two Citrix global channel chief Tom Flink. years gets a 50 per cent bonus on Flink said it was very beneficial Mobility will be another focus for Advisor Rewards, which could for partners and for Citrix to have Citrix in 2014, building on the mo- reach 18 points of backend margin everyone start the year together, bile workstyles messaging that was for Platinum partners. and on the same page. launched in 2013. Citrix sees its The ecosystem was also in the “Partners heard from the sales core strengths in desktop virtual- spotlight. Keynotes by Microsoft leadership team about our objec- ization, application virtualization, and Cisco highlighted efforts tives for the year, we were able to networking, cloud orchestration as around joint product development share material we weren’t able to necessary components of the infra- and how joint partners are being share publicly, and bring them into structure necessary to enable cloud enabled to bring solutions to mar- conversations about things we’re services and a mobile workforce. ket. Dell was on hand to discuss its doing, and are thinking about do- “Citrix is focused on mobile Citrix-based channel bundles, and ing,” said Flink. workstyles and the cloud services Google demonstrated how Citrix “It also sends a very strong that power then. It’s all about solutions such as Receiver can add message to our own people that people,” said Flink. “A mobile value to Chromebooks by deliver- our partners are a very important workstyle is about people and the ing a Windows-based laptop to the extension of the team.” work they do.” low-cost laptops.