BOCA RATON – Cloud has gone mainstream, rapidly being adopted by businesses, consumers, and governments alike, but deployment and management – especially at scale – continues to be a challenge for solution providers.
Ingram Micro is hoping to alleviate some of these issues with the launch of its new independent software division, CloudBlue, at its Cloud Summit in Boca Raton, Fla., on Apr. 30-May 2, 2018. It will focus exclusively on selling Ingram’s ecommerce cloud platform and services of the same name, CloudBlue, directly to service providers, including MSPs, telecommunications companies, large value-added resellers, and other distributors.
CloudBlue helps providers automate, aggregate, and sell their own cloud and digital services as well as those from third parties. It also enables ISVs to take their offerings to market almost instantly across the entire multi-service provider ecosystem with the company’s cloud commerce and anything-as-a-service (XaaS) platform. It is result of more than $500 million in investment from Ingram Micro and boasts 1,250 dedicated cloud employees.
Part of the announcement includes the fact that Ingram is joining forces with Microsoft, meaning CloudBlue will operate on Microsoft Azure. Additionally, Microsoft will co-sell the CloudBlue commerce platform to new service providers joining Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.
Schuster and Dufty.
“This announcement is a strategic partnership with Microsoft, which will enable us in helping a wide range of businesses build, scale, and monetize cloud and digital services,” Richard Dufty, senior vice president of CloudBlue, tells CDN. “CloudBlue is instrumental to the ongoing success of our customers and partners. By providing these resources and capabilities to our customers, we are removing the barriers to entry and growing pains organizations have historically faced when launching, scaling, and managing cloud businesses and services.”
Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president of commercial partners at Microsoft, adds to this by pointing out how long the two have worked together.
“Ingram Micro and Microsoft have been doing business together for decades and this new division launches us into a whole new era. By using Azure as its foundation, CloudBlue will give our mutual partners the advantage of a globally trusted network, an easily scalable product, and hybrid cloud capabilities,” she explains. “Partnerships create better things and we’re excited for this out-of-the-box solution that allows for faster onboarding, acceleration, and scaling.”
CloudBlue powers not only the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, but also the cloud operations for 200 of the world’s largest service providers, including Sprint, Centurylink, Cogeco, Telefonica, O2, and Cobweb.
Its proprietary API technology, APS, helps customers connect to CloudBlue’s vast network of vendor products and services and allows them to offer these solutions in conjunction with their own quickly and easily. The platform serves as a single entry point to an ecosystem of more than 200 pre-integrated solutions from companies like Microsoft, Dropbox, DocuSign, IBM, Cisco, and Symantec.
According to an Ingram press release, CloudBlue combines the “near decade of investment and expertise with the intellectual property and software assets from six different Ingram Micro acquisitions including, Odin Automation Platform and Ensim Automation Suite”, and currently manages more than 27 million enterprise cloud subscriptions worth more than $1 billion USD globally. It is expected to experience “a record year of innovation and growth” as well.
Canadian Ingram Micro partner Third Octet believes this is a great tool they can take advantage of.
“I think that it is full steam ahead with Cloud Blue,” Third Octet CEO Norrie Davidson tell CDN. “It is a great rebranding of a fantastic cloud portal tool. We will definitely use it and leverage to build our cloud practice.”
Other partners agree.
“Cobweb believes cloud services and solutions can truly liberate organizations and help them achieve their business goals by removing IT restrictions and scaling with businesses as they grow,” Michael Frisby, managing director at Cobweb, says in a May 2 press release. “CloudBlue provides a platform that enables Cobweb to efficiently deliver services to 1,000’s of customers along with a thriving network of solutions and providers to ensure a positive, fruitful partnership for all involved.”
