As general manager of Ingram Micro Canada, Mark Snider was active on a number of fronts in 2010 as the distributor continued to round-out its line card in key emerging technologies such as virtualization and cloud computing, put a new push behind its marketing effort and go deeper with key partners such as Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO).
Ingram is telling partners that cloud computing, networking, security, and virtualization will be the big market opportunities in the SMB.
The distributor is going big on cloud computing. Looking to bridge the gap between solution providers and emerging cloud computing vendors, Ingram used its first ever Cloud Summit in June to forge partnerships with Amazon Web Services, RackSpace Hosting and Salesforce.com.
These three deals will make up Ingram’s new Cloud Conduit program, which encompasses cloud-specific enablement resources and services such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service, educational tools, business development templates, sales training and webinars.
Ingram’s new partner enablement cloud platform will include a specially designed partner-only Web site as well as programs such as Ingram Micro Cloud Services Network and online Cloud Marketplace. All this is meant to spur on cloud adoption in the channel.
New vendors came on board in 2010, such as Veeam Software, a virtualization management and data protection vendor. Ingram also went deeper with several existing vendors. It became an Avaya Connect value-added distributor, and doubled-down on its Cisco relationship by opening a US$2 million Cisco experience centre at its Solution Centre in Buffalo, N.Y., just over the Canadian border.
