Ingram Micro has launched its cloud brokerage service in Singapore, giving cloud service providers (CSPs) here an additional source of cloud services that they can resell to businesses.
Besides touting Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud-based productivity software for a start, Ingram Micro’s Cloud Marketplace also offers support services that CSPs can use to help their customers in data migration and technical troubleshooting.
The company’s Micro Service Desk, for example, is a fee-based service which CSPs can offer to customers who require round-the-clock technical support for IT-related issues via phone, chat and e-mail.
Like most cloud brokerage services, Cloud Marketplace supports consolidated billing across cloud service subscriptions, and lets CSPs manage their customers’ cloud subscription lifecycles.
Besides Singapore, Cloud Marketplace is also available in 13 other countries including Australia, New Zealand, United States and Britain.
While Ingram Micro’s entry in the local cloud brokerage service market spells good news for CSPs, it needs to deliver a broader set of cloud services from its portfolio, which currently includes Trend Micro’s security service and VMware’s vCloud Air public cloud platform, among others.
According to Gartner, the global cloud service brokerage market will almost double in size over four years to reach US$160 billion by 2018, as more CSPs and businesses turn to cloud brokers to manage, govern and integrate a plethora of cloud services.
