ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today announced that five new cloud partners have joined its
growing ecosystem serving the U.S. federal government. Together
with IBM, these resellers and distributors will focus on delivering
new hybrid cloud innovations to help spur wider cloud adoption
across federal agencies. Arrow, Avnet Government Solutions, Ingram
Micro, Tech Data Corporation and ViON will combine and bundle their
solutions with IBM Cloud.
Despite all the attention that the federal government has placed
on cloud, IDC estimates that only about six percent of federal
applications run in the cloud. At the same time, the
Administration's proposed fiscal 2016 budget estimates that
about $7.3 billion will be spent on cloud computing and
not simply for cost savings, but also to change how services are
delivered.
"Federal agencies are really beginning to view cloud as
transformational, but first they need a reliable partner to help
them get started," said Anne Altman,
general manager of IBM U.S. Federal and Government Industries.
"With our partners, we have a strong understanding of the IT
investments agencies have made, and how to help them with their
migrations to cloud in a secure and strategic way."
These partners bring specialized expertise to the table:
Arrow helps partners integrate IBM's Cloud Infrastructure
as a Service (IaaS) into their products and services, and assists
in building cloud solutions from the IaaS layer up.
"The federal government's 'Cloud First' policy puts
FedRAMP-approved data centers at the forefront of the hybrid-public
cloud movement," said Steve
Robinson, global vice president and general manager of
Arrow's cloud business. "We have a unique opportunity to deliver
value to public-sector channel partners through our collaboration
with IBM, and by leveraging Arrow's commercial value-add cloud
model in our federally focused immixGroup organization."
Avnet Government Solutions helps business partners
accelerate the development of their cloud portfolios with a
scalable, secure base for the delivery of cloud services across its
entire network around the world. Avnet and IBM Cloud capabilities
will allow federal agencies to place their data where and when it
is required.
"With our recently opened office in the Washington, D.C., area and investments in
public sector capabilities, Avnet Government Solutions is perfectly
positioned to help our partners sell IBM's FedRAMP-certified
SoftLayer federal cloud," said Pete
Rzonca, vice president of Avnet Government Solutions. "For
federal clients, Avnet brings more than 30 years of IBM expertise,
our skilled cloud solutions team, and the recently launched Avnet
Cloud Marketplace."
Ingram Micro markets, sells and supports IBM Cloud on the
Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. Through a single online portal,
channel partners can configure and manage IBM Cloud while driving
cross-sell and revenue-generating opportunities within its partner
community. As a master cloud services provider, Ingram Micro offers
its cloud onboarding capabilities, partner enablement, marketing
support, and end-to-end technical and operational support to its
channel partners focused on building cloud solutions.
"Ingram Micro is pleased to partner with IBM to serve U.S.
federal government agencies in their transition to the cloud," said
Tarik Faouzi, vice president, Global
Cloud Partners and Solutions, Ingram Micro Cloud. "By leveraging
our cloud migration capabilities and value-added services, we
remove the barriers and complexity of the migration process to
ensure a seamless and secure migration that supports business
transformation to the cloud."
Tech Data Corporation is one of the world's largest
distributors of technology products, services and solutions. Its
advanced logistics capabilities and value added services enable
115,000 resellers to efficiently and cost effectively support the
diverse technology needs of end users in more than 100
countries.
ViON offers its on-premise private cloud leveraging
13 years of experience as an IaaS solution provider. With IBM's
FedRAMP-certified SoftLayer, ViON is uniquely positioned to
integrate the security of an on-premise solution with the
scalability of a public cloud to address Federal hybrid cloud
initiatives.
"For nearly two decades, ViON's partnership with IBM has enabled
our Federal customers to achieve their mission success," said
Tom Frana, ViON CEO. "Our customer
service intimacy model coupled with IBM's public cloud offering
will allow us to continue to meet the demands of our customer today
and tomorrow."
Federal agencies are turning to IBM's SoftLayer Federal cloud,
which integrates existing and new services in a hybrid environment,
driving new innovations and helping agencies better decide, manage
and secure where their data and apps reside. SoftLayer meets all
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and
Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requirements
for government workloads.
Under terms of their agreements, the five new partners will
resell and market IBM Cloud Services with a focus on implementing
hybrid solutions where some applications and data remain on premise
but can easily integrate with systems moved to the cloud and new
services launched on the cloud. They also have access to Bluemix,
IBM's Cloud platform; and IBM's Software as a Service
portfolio.
For the federal market, IBM offers a portfolio of FedRAMP
compliant services. In December 2014,
IDC named IBM a leader in U.S. Government private cloud
Infrastructure-as-a-Service.
For more information about IBM Cloud, visit:
http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing.
Contact:
Mitchell Derman
mderman@us.ibm.com
571-216-8712
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SOURCE IBM