CompTIA Breakaway 2009: Open Source Checks In

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At first glance, it’s easy to spot Roger Egan, Red Hat’s VP of North American Channels, on the Breakaway conference agenda. But take a closer look at name tags and you might also spot Robert Stegner, Synnex’s senior VP of  North America. Stegner tells The VAR Guy he’s confirmed to attend the event.

Not by coincidence, Red Hat and Synnex share a key partner priority: The two companies are founding partners in the Open Source Channel Alliance — a partner initiative that aims to train Synnex’s 15,000 resellers to sell, service and support a range of open source applications and platforms.

Is open source for real in the IT channel? Absolutely. Already, The VAR Guy’s Open Source 50 report tracks the most promising open source partner programs.

Still, there’s plenty of room for improvement. Open source industry leaders like GroundWork Open Source, Sugar CRM and Jaspersoft have been shaking up their management and/or financial models.

Another key consideration: Ppen source pundits know “developer communities” well — but they often struggle to master partner communities.

That’s where the Open Source Channel Alliance enters the picture. Still in its infancy, organization members are starting to pop up at established IT channel events. That trend will continue when CompTIA Breakaway kicks off August 3.

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