“At SoftLayer, we strongly believe that finding and implementing the cloud infrastructure solutions that businesses need should be easy, and we’re collaborating with Avnet to help realise this vision,” said Lance Crosby, chief executive officer, SoftLayer. “Avnet has a proven track record in developing cloud solutions for the channel, which will accelerate IBM business partners’ ability to bring our solutions to customers. Also, Avnet’s market education efforts related to the cloud have created a highly-skilled business partner community that understands the nuances of cloud initiatives and implementations and will be able to expertly guide our customers through deployments of our cloud infrastructure solutions.”
The agreement spans IBM's infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions to enhance Avnet’s portfolio and delivery of high performance services. The combination of SoftLayer’s distributed local data centres and global network allows partners to place their customers’ data where and when it is required. SoftLayer’s network architecture further allows partners to optimise global performance for their customers by using a private network. It also enables them to consolidate or aggregate data, as needed.
“We share a common passion with IBM for investing in emerging technologies, such as the cloud, to help business partners tap into key growth markets,” commented Miriam Murphy, senior vice president, enterprise sales and marketing, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA. “Through this partnership, we are uniquely positioned to help business partners create, identify and capture SoftLayer opportunities, helping to deepen expertise in IBM technologies across the EMEA region.”
“Cloud services are driving the growth and innovation the technology industry is experiencing as part of the third platform,” added Darren Bibby, program vice president, Channels and Alliances Research for IDC. “The decision to engage the channel through a distributor, such as Avnet, will help SoftLayer capitalise on third platform-related opportunities and increase its routes to market. Avnet has an intriguing approach to the cloud computing market that aligns with IBM’s strategy and can enable channel partners to quickly deploy cloud services and solutions to end-users.”