Ingram Micro adds to cloud portfolio

Partners with Axcient.

Ingram Micro has added Axcient, a backup and business continuity developer, to its Ingram Micro Cloud portfolio of services.

Adding Axcient gives VARs a choice that is slightly different than other Ingram Micro Cloud backup offerings because it includes an onsite appliance, said Jason Bystrak, director of sales and services at Ingram Micro.

"With an appliance, it allows for fast backup and restore, but it also backs up into Axcient's cloud. Most other solutions are agent-based. This one is on-prem and cloud," he said.

Earlier last year, Axcient retooled its cloud storage offering by agreeing with HP to provide an HP-only storage, server, and networking infrastructure.

That relationship, with Ingram's biggest vendor partner, helped bring Axcient to the table with the distributor, Bystrak said.

"HP is looking to get involved with our cloud platform as well. It's great fit for SMB. It brings in a higher-end backup solutions with redundant capabilities for that SMB market," he said.

Axcient, which last fall introduced a virtual version of a server and storage infrastructure in a remote location or in the cloud in the event of a disaster, is looking to Ingram to provide incremental business not shift current VARs to purchase through the distributor, Bystrak said.

"We want to find new partners out of gate. As part of the value proposition, we have a single work portal to do purchasing, provisioning, invoicing. If you have five or six different cloud solutions, you may want to look at us," Bystrak said.

VARs must register to sell Axicent. Additional sales and support services including cross-trained technical and pre-sales support are also available to mutual Axcient/Ingram Micro customers. Solution providers also can download supporting solutions datasheets, sales tools and marketing collateral for Axcient from Ingram Micro.

Ingram Micro Cloud now has more than 25 vendors and saw an 85 percent increase in the number of first-time customers using at least one solution in 2011, Bystrak said.

"These were people who never worked with us in cloud or managed services before. We expect that number [of first-time users] to double in 2012. We're shooting for 100 percent growth," he said. "Vendor engagement too. We're adding resources to our vendor acquisition and solutions development team and we expect the vendors to double in 2012 too."

This article originally appeared at crn.com