Back In The Channel Again

By Jay McCall, Networking and Managed Services Editor, Business Solutions magazine.

Hello, channel — I'm back. Some of our long-time readers may remember seeing me years ago when I was a channel editor here at Business Solutions magazine. But, I moved into one of our end-user-focused publications in 2008. Back then, we were starting to see some of the more progressive VARs implementing complementary technologies, VoIP was just starting to be taken seriously in the enterprise, smartphones were beginning to gain momentum as business tools, and the cloud was not yet a household name. It's a very exciting time to be back in the channel again and to see how things have evolved over the past three years.

I'm also encouraged to see that Business Solutions is even more focused now on complementary technologies, which is a topic we're going to continue covering. Take for instance Mike Monocello's feature story in our November issue: "Own The Network, Own The IP Video Business," a story that emphasizes how an integrator that understands networking can expand its business to offer new solutions and services that depend on the network. This isn't just a message for networking VARs, but traditional POS VARs should take note of this kind of opportunity, too.