After you have learned to explain the concept of a "real" network to small business prospects and clients, you can look into the vendors out there providing small business server suites (both client/server and Web-based).  The following is a listing of various technology vendors and websites for product or reseller/partner information.

Apple Server Solutions
• Reseller/Partner Information:
http://consultants.apple.com/

IBM Small Business Suite for Linux –
• Reseller/Partner Information:
http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/consultants

Microsoft Small Business Server –
• Product Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/sbserver/
• Reseller/Partner Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/partner/

Novell Small Business Suite –
• Product Information:
http://www.novell.com/products/smallbiz/
• Reseller/Partner Information:
http://www.novell.com/partners/channel/

Oracle Small Business Suite, powered by NetLedger –
• Reseller/Partner Information:
http://www.netledger.com/portal/partners.jsp

Red Hat Linux
• Training/Certification Information:
http://www.redhat.com/training/

Sun Cobalt Qube 3 Appliance –
• Product Information:
http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/qube3/
• Reseller/Partner Information:
http://www.sun.com/partners/

Trustix Small Office Server
• Reseller/Partner Information:
http://www.trustix.com/index.php?kat=Partners&p=77|

The Bottom Line about Technology Vendors

VARBusiness Magazine has two great online resources to help you research technology vendor partner programs.  You can access the VARBusiness Annual Report Card at http://www.varbusiness.com/sections/main/2002arc.asp. In addition, the VARBusiness Partner Program Guide, listing over 340 partner programs, resides at http://www.varbusiness.com/sections/main/2002ppg.asp .

In this article, you’ve learned about technology vendors. To learn more about technology vendors click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business