Ingram continues cloud push with university initiative

Fresh from its first European Cloud Summit, distribution giant keeps the momentum going in the UK with four-date tour

Distribution giant Ingram Micro is keen to get its partners up to cloud speed with the launch of its Cloud University strategy.

Last month, the Milton Keynes-based firm rolled out its Cloud Marketplace in three new territories including the UK, using its first ever European Cloud Summit event in Barcelona as a platform.

"We will be doing a lot more enablement programmes in the channel,” said Apay Obang-Oyway, general manager Northern Europe at Ingram Micro Cloud, "and one of these is the Cloud University."

He explained that the distributor would kick off the university next month with events in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Milton Keynes.

"It is about getting deeper and giving great insight into the cloud as a strategy for our partners," he said. The day-long events will also cover Office 365 in greater depth, particularly as Ingram is one of a handful of CSPs for Microsoft.

Other vendor partners such as SkyKick, RingCentral, Intel Security and Acronis will also be on hand at the events.

"For partners with questions such as how do I embrace [cloud] and transform my organistion from a traditional model to a hybrid model, or indeed for born-in-the-cloud partners, the university will have something that caters for them and all my team will be on hand to answer questions and provide support."

He added that the events will be free to attend, and resellers will be encouraged to enrol in the distributor’s Cloud Marktplace at the end of the day.

"It is all about connecting partners with the people who can help them through their cloud journey," Obang-Oyway added.