Editor's Notebook

  1. CompTIA Unveils Business Accreditation Offerings 4/21/2009
    MJ Shoer, president and virtual CTO for Jenaly Technology Group, is among the first wave of VARs to earn the newly unveiled CompTIA Security Trustmark accreditation, a vendor-neutral, business-level accreditation for solutions providers. He has always felt strongly that VARs needed a way to differentiate themselves...
  2. GFI Issues Free Security Guide For SMB 3/25/2009
    VARs and MSPs working closely with SMB clients may be interested in a new report issued by GFI Software that addresses the impact of security threats and breaches on small businesses. To download a copy of the FREE white paper, please visit www.gfi.com/whitepapers/security_threats_SMBs.pdf (Registration not...
  3. Stay On The Cutting Edge of Security Topics 3/25/2009
    It isn't often you find a blog that's mere title makes you smile - but GFI's www.allspammedup.com is an exception. For those of you working in the security space, there is much to be learned from blogs and reports generated by some of the industry leaders, such as GFI, AppRiver, Websense and McAfee (there are both...
  4. Balance Of Legitimate Web Usage And Personal Surfing 3/20/2009
    Last month I had an interesting call about Web surfing with Steve Yin, VP of global sales and marketing for St. Bernard Software. He shared some advice for VARs and managed services providers (MSPs) working with companies struggling to balance monitoring personal Internet surfing from workstations with...
  5. Don't Miss This Opportunity 3/20/2009
    It's no secret that times are tough. With the economy in rough shape and sales slow, now is the time for you to leverage every resource you have at your disposal. One often-overlooked resource many VARs have access to is product training from vendor partners. Indeed, oftentimes this training is free and can even ...
  6. Can You Ignore The Economy? 3/9/2009
    Hey, here's a fact: out of all the VAR's I've interviewed in 2009, only one expects to have a down year. So, why all the doom and gloom and negativity? I think the mass media is partly to blame. That's what prompted to me to write the article "Ignore the Economy" that appeared in our March issue. When we ...
  7. Are We Winning The Cybercrime Battle? 2/25/2009
    Security vendors tell me that while the mainstream economy may be slowing down, the underground cybercrime economy is booming. Check out vendor insight about growing your security business as cyber threats continue to morph.
  8. Quick Tip #3: Connect Branch Offices With Hosted VoIP 2/19/2009
    As POSitive Technology.com opens 32 new branch offices across the United States in the next three years, having good communication throughout the company will be imperative. According to Brett Bennett, CEO of POSitive, the VAR recently has implemented technology to virtually connect all aspects and branch locations of ...
  9. Quick Tip #2: Hold Your Vendor Partners Accountable 2/12/2009
    One aspect of our recent Best (and Worst) Channel Vendors survey that truly suprised me was the number and quality of the responses we received. We collected nearly 18,000 votes and amazing anecdotes! It's obvious that our audience cares about the channel and its relationships with its vendor partners. Makes sense...
  10. The Threat From Within 2/11/2009
    Security vendors and VARs often talk about unintentional security breaches by employees. Those staff members who simply don't think about the risk involved with attaching a confidential document to an email or opening the business network up to a threat with the simple click of a mouse on a website link. But how...