Ingram Micro Takes Cloud Business Global

Ingram Micro (IM) is pushing its cloud wares to a wider global channel, with the news of its plans to transform itself into a worldwide cloud services provider.

Nimesh Dave, Ingram Micro’s executive vice president of Global Cloud Computing, will lead the company’s bid for worldwide cloud dominance with the new expansion of its program. According to the distributor, Dave will be essential in coordinating the company’s cloud services business in approximately 170 countries and driving continued expansion for Ingram’s global operations.

“Ingram Micro’s proven expertise, experience and ability to execute as a master cloud services aggregator has accelerated our success and positioned us as one of the Top 100 cloud providers,” said Dave in a prepared statement. “Ingram Micro’s recent acquisition of SoftCom and adoption of a best-in-class automation platform also serve as significant growth catalysts that will further enable us to scale our cloud services success globally.”

Ingram Micro will leverage its successful Cloud Marketplace as a global platform for enhancing the marketplace’s capabilities and introducing a new series of cloud management services, according to the press release. The Cloud Marketplace currently features more than 200 available solutions and 70 vendors, which is expected to grow as the company reaches new markets. The company plans to introduce many of the new features April 8 during the fifth annual Ingram Micro Cloud Summit in Florida.

The company also has appointed Softcom founder and president Turker Sokullu as the new vice president of Cloud Platform and Product Design, following Softcom’s acquisition last September. Sokullu and fellow VP of Cloud Computing Renee Bergeron will work directly with Dave as Ingram Micro ramps up its global cloud distribution in the coming months.

“The global opportunity around cloud services continues to grow rapidly as businesses and consumers move to anywhere, anytime secure computing,” Dave said. “As a global organization, Ingram Micro Cloud is strategically aligned with the future of technology, as well as to channel partners and IT professionals that want to simplify, scale and successfully sell cloud services.”

Ingram Micro is certainly poised to take a big bite out of the global cloud market. The folks over at Ingram certainly seem to have the chops for branching out into a bigger part of the channel, as evidenced recently when VMware named the company as its Distributor of the Year. But however successful Ingram Micro has been in North America, playing on a global scale is a whole different ball game—the company will have to stay on its toes as it transitions to unfamiliar territory filled with bigger competitors than ever before.