Westcon Group Gets Cloudy with Verecloud Buy

Westcon Group has gone full-throttle into the cloud services space, acquiring cloud services provider Verecloud, the distributor announced. Verecloud will form the foundation of
Westcon's Cloud Solutions Practice, which will be led by former Verecloud CEO John McCawley.

The new Cloud Solutions Practice aims to help resellers and solution providers profit from new value-added services and add professional services and technical expertise to their cloud practices, according to the distributor.

“Westcon Group and Verecloud have been working together during the past 18 months and co-developed a truly differentiated cloud go-to-market capability for the channel,” said Dolph Westerbos, chief executive officer of Westcon Group, in a statement. “Channel innovation is core to our business, and ownership of our digital distribution platform allows us to bring differentiated, exclusive solutions to the channel without relying on third-party software development."

The new Westcon Group cloud and services distribution platform will include a cloud and service offering catalogue with bundled and standalone offers, as well as solution bundling, multi-tier cloud syndication and white labelled and reseller-branded web stores. Westcon also plans to offer customers automated services delivery lifecycle services and channel enablement services to help resellers manage their businesses.

Finally, Westcon Group will work to develop a series of operational support services and billing support services for its VAR partners. Offers will include billing as a service, up- and cross-selling opportunities, marketing and campaign management services and return on investment analysis, among others.

“Cloud solutions have become particularly intricate,” said McCawley. “That’s why our mission is to provide a single source for technology resellers and their customers to discover, buy, monitor and manage their cloud services ecosystem.”