Ingram's cloud giveaway

Distributor offering free Microsoft Bands and other incentives through series of cloud promotions running until the end of the year

Ingram Micro is offering promotions on Microsoft cloud platform system (CPS) products until the end of the year, in an attempt to get partners to join its cloud marketplace.

The distributor's cloud arm - Ingram Micro Cloud - is offering three promotions in partnership with Microsoft, to run from August until the end of December 2016.

The first promotion is for partners buying Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite for the first time through Ingram Micro's cloud marketplace. These partners will get one month free on their order.

The second promotion is for all partners - new and existing - which sell more than 1,000 Microsoft CSP seats through the cloud marketplace. Partners who achieve this will receive a free Microsoft Band.

The final offer is for any partner who commits to a self-branded cloud store on their website and has it live by the end of the year. Those partners will be entered into a prize draw to win a marketing campaign worth £5,000.

Apay Obang-Oyway, director for cloud Northern Europe at Ingram Micro Cloud, said that Microsoft's increased focus on cloud services this year has led the way for Ingram to push its cloud marketplace to its partners.

"At Microsoft's world partner conference, the focus was very much on CSP and accelerating that. As we returned and spoke to partners, we realised there are still lots of partners who are either in their infancy [regarding cloud solutions] or haven't even started that journey yet," he said.

"We felt this would be a good time to give them the right incentives and motivation to start making that journey with us. If you look at the wider market, we are also seeing a huge growth in the demand for cloud services generally, and we know this only continues to explode."

Obang-Oyway (pictured) said the cloud marketplace currently has over 15,000 partners, but that he hopes the promotions will convince more existing partners to sign up, as well as attracting new partners to the platform.

"We know that there are a lot of resellers that are just embarking on their cloud journey or haven't yet embarked on that journey, and they absolutely need to do that," he explained. "That is why we see a lot of growth and potential in those partners and we see a lot of opportunity there for us and our vendor partners."