Ingram Micro makes a cloud statement

Ingram Micro(NYSE: IM) didn’t pussy-foot around at its annual Cloud Summit by launching 56 new products and services for its Ingram Micro Cloud Marketing portfolio. The Ingram Cloud Marketplace now has more than 100 solutions from 40 different vendors for channel partners in Canada and the U.S.

It’s a bold move by Ingram and tells the marketplace they’re serious about being a cloud provider to the channel. It also signals to partners that a distributor can be that cloud broker for mid-tier solution providers who either don’t have the capital to build out their own cloud practice or service a smaller marketplace. Just yesterday, NetApp announced it would be a cloud broker to the channel but only if NetApp products were part of the sale. That won’t be the case under Ingram’s Cloud Marketplace offerings.

Some of the new offerings include Amazon Simple Storage Service from Amazon Web Services, Insider Threat Protection on demand from Awareness Technologies, CA AppLogic from CA Technologies, the ConnectWise cloud-based management system for solution providers, dinCloud for hosted virtual desktops, DocVerify for electronic signature exchange, Intel’s AppUp Small Business Service, LabTech Software’s remote monitoring and management platform, Love VHD, which is a service desk support tool, and Quosal for producing quotes and proposals.

Ingram also partnered with Salesforce.com’s social enterprise cloud platform Force.com along with Veeam for its virtual data protection and VMware for its Horizon Application Manager product.

Renee Bergeron, vice-president of managed services and cloud computing for Ingram Micro North America, said Ingram Micro has concentrated on aggregating a breadth and depth of solutions to meet the needs of its reseller partners regardless of their chosen role in the cloud – cloud broker or cloud services provider.


Is BYOD (bring your own device) really happening? Well, yes and no if you ask distributor D&H. The Harrisburg, Penn.-based company just posted 30 per cent growth in its last fiscal year but how much of that growth was attributed to the BYOD trend company leaders Dan Schwab and Greg Tobin aren’t sure.

The 30 per cent growth was across the board and in multiple categories, said Canadian GM Tobin. A lot of the growth that he saw was attached to the desktop and network, including desktop replacements. Tobin added he’s not sure that BYOD is there yet in the small-to-mid-sized business marketplace in Canada.

Tablets, which created the spark that ignited the BYOD trend, have grown significantly at D&H Canada, Tobin added.

Company co-president Schwab indicated the BYOD trend is real. For example, he’s seen an uptick with larger institutions increasing their security spend. He attributes that to the BYOD trend.

“Larger companies are more mature and they don’t allow things to be on their network. We find that small business are more adapt to add their own devices and, like everything else, issues arise with data breaches or viruses. You’ll start to see it evolve more in the SMB market,” Schwab said.

D&H is being proactive with BYOD and has developed several new product and training programs to get themselves and the partner base ready. Its also working with its vendor partners on BYOD.

Tobin said that one of the aspects of this readiness program is to not attempt to restrict the device itself, but instead restrict the app. “BYOD is more of question of the app the user has than restricting the device. You will always have people using their own device at work,” he said.

Schwab said that D&H tries to share best practices with its Canadian subsidiary, but he has seen lately that the Canadian team has been ahead of the curve consistently providing proactive concepts and ideas that he wants to incorporate in the U.S.

For example, the incentive program has new target levels for events that are specific to vendors. Another idea was wearing a unified employee colour at events and hosting small channel partner dinners.

“I am very excited and happy for our Canadian growth and I am grateful to the vendor and solution provider partners that see the value from us over price,” Schwab said.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Paolo Del Nibletto
Paolo Del Nibletto
Former editor of Computer Dealer News, covering Canada's IT channel community.

Related Tech News

Featured Tech Jobs

 

CDN in your inbox

CDN delivers a critical analysis of the competitive landscape detailing both the challenges and opportunities facing solution providers. CDN's email newsletter details the most important news and commentary from the channel.