CompTIA Breakaway: Seven Rumors Heard In the Halls

The VAR Guy has allegedly arrived at CompTIA Breakaway, a conference that is expected to attract roughly 1,000 channel executives representing VARs, distributors, vendors and educators. There will be plenty of official news at Breakaway (Aug. 1-4, Washington, D.C.). But what’s the chatter behind the scenes? Here are seven tidbits of info The VAR Guy has already overheard here at the conference.

7. Here Comes the Cloud: Yes, traditional resellers remain a big focus area for this conference. But numerous cloud-centric companies are on hand — folks like Intronis (cloud backup), Intermedia (hosted Exchange) and even Box.net (content management in the cloud) are arriving now at the event.

6. Apple in the SMB Market: Is OnForce involved? Sure sounds like it. The VAR Guy is poking around…

5. Strange Vibes: The VAR Guy heard a rumor here at the conference that Novell has killed its Vibe cloud offering, though an on-premise Vibe release (appropriately called Vibe OnPrem) remains a core focus. The VAR Guy poked around and confirmed the rumor here.

4. Big Numbers: Awareness Technologies, a cloud security specialist, apparently grew its partner program by 70 percent over the last six months, and increased bookings by more than 235 percent in the last quarter. The VAR Guy is poking around to get some more insights.

3. Strange But True: Cisco Systems is hosting a party tonight. Ironically, attendees have the chance to win a Flip video camera as well as an Apple iPad. Um… anybody else see the irony here? Flip is a dead product, iPad is hot… and Cisco isn’t giving out its own Cius tablet? Hmmm…

2. Familiar Names, New Updates?: Several executives who recently left major managed services and SaaS companies are attending Breakaway. The VAR Guy wonders: Will they arrive with new business cards? Hmmm… Updates to follow on Tuesday and Wednesday.

1. Food for Thought: The exhibit hall opens in a few hours. Time for The VAR Guy to shower, shave and prep for more chatter. He’ll be back with plenty more to say in a few hours.