Ingram offers partner cloud incentives, hardware as a service

Ingram Micro has stepped up its efforts to support partners moving to the cloud, announcing marketing support and other incentives as well as a program to deliver so-called hardware as a service.

The announcements were made at the company's annual Cloud Summit, held this week in the US.

The new "Seeding the Cloud" offering provides a structure through which partners can secure marketing dollars through either the distributor or participating vendors.

"The amount of money is decided on a case-by-case basis, based on the marketing plan that the partner would like to pursue," said Renee Bergeron, Ingram Micro's vice president of managed services and cloud computing. "But we do have a structure and a set of templates in place that weighs how those resources will be used."

CRN is yet to receive details as to how these programs will apply to partners in Australia.

Targeted marketing projects include webinars and channel events such as lunch-and-learns. However a variety of other projects are also on the table.

"There is no lock-in requirement through which participating partners are forced to run deals through Ingram Micro," added Bergeron. "But we do a lot to help our partners move their cloud strategies forward, plus we are working with the offerings of 170 vendors, so clearly we have a good case to be their one-stop shop for cloud-based services."

After funds are delivered, the distributor's team follows up with the partners to ensure that funding recipients execute the project, as planned.

"We're very enthusiastic about the program, and we've been getting a lot of highly positive feedback from the partners," added Jason Bystrak, director of cloud and managed services for Ingram Micro. "We've been piloting it for the last three to five months, and we can already see that it's going to be very successful."

Hardware as a service

As part of an effort to extend its distribution role toward self-identification as a master cloud aggregator, Ingram Micro has added new cloud telecom services to its set of 170 solutions being offered through its cloud marketplace.

To further help partners make the transition toward cloud services and managed services, Ingram Micro has also kicked off a new hardware-as-a-service (HaaS) program, through which channel partners can resell packages of hardware, software and cloud-based services for a monthly fee without the need for a large upfront investment. The initial rollout of this program includes bundles of Microsoft Office with laptops from Lenovo and HP, but additional options are expected to be rolled out before the end of the year.

"Business leaders may not understand how the cloud works, but they do understand what it means for their companies," said Renee Bergeron, vice president of managed services and cloud computing for Ingram Micro North America. "We're seeing an increasing level of involvement for channel partners over the last few years. In 2010, partners were involved in only 2 percent of cloud service transactions, and that number is now up to 20 percent. We expect it to grow even higher as time goes on."

Ingram Micro is yet to confirm how and when these programs will be brought to Australia.