Stories by: Jeff Jedras

Promising an end to the siloed approach the virtualisation vendor has taken to its channel ecosystem, VMware introduced its new worldwide channel conference this week at its VMworld user conference, and promised the company will get easier for partners to work with.

There's been a change in the channel leadership at enterprise software vendor SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) with the departure this week of Pat Hume, the worldwide channel chief who has led SAP's ongoing transformation from a direct-first company to one that is embracing the indirect go to market, particularly in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) space.

The guest keynote speakers at technology conferences can be hit or miss, but Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) Canada (NYSE: HIT) certainly scored a hit by bringing in Michael Calce, aka Mafiaboy, to speak at its recent Information Forum event in Toronto.

It was nearly an hour into the opening keynotes at the Americas Partner Summit on Monday until a Hewlett Packard executive finally used the C-word: Cisco. But the one-time networking partner was certainty front of mind though as HP re-affirmed its commitment to become the leader in every business segment it competes in including networking.

After a fiscal 2009 that Sun Microsystems executives admit was very challenging for the vendor and its channel partners, the vendor is optimistic about what's in store for 2010.

Technology vendors have often been on the cutting-edge of technology innovation, but the same can't always be said of their design. Manufacturers have more often been concerned about what's inside the box, devoting less time and resources to the look and feel of the box itself.

Customer-relationship management vendor Maximizer says most of its mobile CRM users favour the BlackBerry platform, and the ever-changing dynamics of mobility require more frequent platform refreshes, leading to the recently released Maximizer 10.5 Freedom for BlackBerry.

Long known for its close relationship with another German company, BI vendor SAP, businesses process modeling (BPM) vendor IDS Scheer further widened the breadth of its ARIS process modeling suite Wednesday through an announcement with Microsoft.

Hoping to further bridge the gap between the business world and the world of IT, business process management (BPM) vendor IDS Scheer used its Processworld Europe conference Tuesday to announce a further integration of its ARIS modeling suite with BMC Software's IT service management tools.

IBM's new focus and push around the enterprise data center with come with a new Business Partner program that's still being developed and will be launched later in the year, but Big Blue says partners shouldn't wait to develop the required skill sets within their organizations.