I love a catchy title! No. Seriously. I really do.

But certain things in business are worth reading, even if you know they’re not very exciting, and you just spread a fresh coat of paint and were hoping to sit back and watch it dry. Channel partner contracts are especially likely to be so excitement-challenged, but don’t let that unfortunate tidbit lull you into a false sense of security. After all, whether we’re talking about battlefields or legal contracts, landmines are never intended to be all that noticeable.

Read More »

Tags: advice, best, business, channel, contracts, practices, small

You can’t pick up an IT trade publication these days without seeing an article about cloud computing. This is also becoming rapidly true among general business magazines and even the industry-specific ones. Yes, indeed. Cloud is all the rage. And when there’s this much buzz around something, it’s almost always difficult to separate the hype from the reality.

It’s also become one of those vague Information Technology terms in which the definition can be almost anything at all, depending on who’s talking and what they’re trying to sell. The following definition comes from Wikipedia, and I think it’s as good as any of the ones floating around out there.

Read More »

Tags: best, channel, cloud, partner, practices

Just like individual people do, channel partner organizations come in a variety of different sizes. These range from small mom-n-pop shops to large integrators, with a full complement of variations in between. And if we paint the world with a very broad brush, we might be tempted to make certain assumptions about size and scale as we move towards selecting the right partnership for our company. There might even be some level of truth to those assumptions, but just as often, they can boomerang on us. Take these for example. You’ll notice that the advantages run in both directions, sometimes at the same time.

Read More »

Tags: advice, best, business, partner, practices, selection, vars

Small businesses in the U.S. spend more than $60 billion annually on energy, according to Energy Star, a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. Although there are many steps you can take to reduce your company’s power consumption, have you considered building energy efficiency into your network?

Whether you’re just starting to build your small business network or expanding it to accommodate your growing company, a “green” switch can help save money on your utility bill as well as contribute to a cleaner environment. Here are some features to consider when shopping for an energy-efficient switch:

Read More »

Tags: best, energy efficiency, Green, networking, practices, small business, switches, technology