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Avnet Technology Solutions Expands Its Cloud Service Portfolio in the U.S. and Canada with SoftLayer
[April 22, 2014]

Avnet Technology Solutions Expands Its Cloud Service Portfolio in the U.S. and Canada with SoftLayer


Avnet Technology Solutions, the global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), today announced that it expanded its nearly 30-year distribution relationship with IBM to include cloud services from SoftLayer, an IBM Company. SoftLayer joined IBM as a cloud infrastructure provider through an acquisition in July 2013, and it has since formed the foundation of IBM’s wide-ranging cloud portfolio. With a distribution agreement initially for the U.S. and Canada, Avnet will now be able to help business partners accelerate the development of their cloud portfolios with a scalable, secure base for the delivery of cloud services, spanning IBM's middleware and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.



“Avnet and IBM share a common passion for investing in market opportunities, such as the cloud, that will help business partners and their customers evolve to better meet the needs of an ever-changing world,” said Fred Cuen, senior vice president, general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, IBM Solutions group. “Avnet is uniquely positioned to help business partners create, identify and capture SoftLayer opportunities based on our development of channel-friendly cloud offerings, and deep expertise in IBM software and technologies. Avnet’s team of more than 350 IBM-dedicated specialists in the U.S. and Canada, coupled with our extensive services team, is poised and ready to work side by side with our business partners to help them take their share of the tremendous cloud market opportunity.” “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 realize this vision,” said Lance Crosby, chief executive officer, SoftLayer. “Avnet has a proven track record in developing integrated, packaged cloud offerings that are designed around the specific needs of 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.” SoftLayer will enhance Avnet’s portfolio and delivery of high-performance services. The combination of SoftLayer’s distributed local data centers and global network allows partners to place their customers’ data where and when it is required, as well as enable them to consolidate or aggregate data as needed. SoftLayer’s network architecture further allows partners to optimize global performance for their customers by using a private network and not subjecting them to public networks and the Internet.

“Cloud services are an elemental force driving the growth and innovation the technology industry is experiencing as part of the third platform,” said 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 capitalize 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.” Business partners will benefit from Avnet CloudReadyTM, the company’s approach to helping the channel community move their customers’ businesses to the cloud, as well as the extensive experience and knowledge base of the Avnet Cloud Solutions and Avnet Services teams. Avnet has proven technical expertise to assess and deliver optimal public, private or hybrid cloud solutions that best suit business partners’ and their customers' needs.


“We look forward to taking SoftLayer to market through our strong alliance with Avnet and IBM,” said Kathy Jirak, owner of QueBit, an Avnet channel partner. “Avnet has a proven record of bringing solutions built on software, services and hardware to the business partner channel that solve our customers’ needs. With the addition of SoftLayer to Avnet’s portfolio, we will be able to provide an end-to-end cloud implementation. Avnet’s enablement, marketing, sales and services support will accelerate our success in the cloud market.” Business partners interested in learning more about how Avnet can help them profitably capitalize on cloud market opportunities with IBM can visit the Avnet Cloud Solutions website – www.avnetcloudready.com – or contact their Avnet IBM account development manager.

For more information about Avnet’s cloud solutions, visit www.avnetcloudready.com.

Learn more about Avnet’s cloud solutions through the Avnet Cloud Solutions Blog.

Watch Avnet’s videos on the cloud: http://www.youtube.com/user/AvnetCloudSolutions/featured.

Follow Avnet Technology Solutions, North America, on Twitter: @AvnetIBM, @AvnetAdvantage and @AvnetTSChannels.

Click to tweet: Avnet grows IBM and #cloud business by adding IBM's SoftLayer cloud services in the U.S. and Canada http://avnet.me/22395.

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