The two companies see Ingram being able to help their partners develop much more robust AWS practices with the nOps technology, starting with a small number of ones with deep AWS practices, but ultimately expanding more broadly.

Ingram Micro Cloud today announced it has formed a strategic collaboration with AWS-focused cloud management provider nOps. The new relationship will strengthen the tools Ingram provides to their channel partners to improve the management of their AWS infrastructure. In particular, the partnership is designed to help Ingram Micro partners more efficiently execute AWS Well-Architected Reviews. The deal is a global one, and so will be applicable in Canada.

“This is very exciting for us,” said Kevin Kareth, Director, Cloud IaaS at Ingram Micro Cloud. “We have gone to market with a practice development strategy around AWS, and this puts more icing on the state, providing more stickiness and value-add. In 2021, driving Well Architected reviews will be key for us.”

The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a core element of AWS strategy, which helps cloud architects build the most secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure possible for their applications, based on five pillars: operational excellence; security; reliability; performance efficiency; and cost optimization.

“The Well Architected Framework goes back a few years,” said Randy Newell, CMO at nOps. “It started as a white paper, and pulled together best practices. Since that point they have made it a mantra and built a program around it, and recruited around 400 partners who are trained and certified on it. Its aim is to remove high risk issues from customer environments.”

Well Architected customer reviews are an important element within this framework.

“AWS incents customers to do these and provides a $5000 credit,” Newell said. “And we are the only product in the cloud management space designed to run these Well Architected reviews.”

The nOps product also features a high degree of automated discovery.

“We run continuously in your AWS environment and provide near real-time information about changes in any AWS cloud environment,” Newell indicated.  “This appears in a dashboard summary view, so you can see how costs run against, say, last week. You also have the ability to drill down into that information. This ability to go very quickly from a summary view to detailed view for root costs analysis and do this with great agility is a differentiator What’s also unique is that we plan those into context within the Well Architected Framework, to provide cost security and operational excellence. That’s tremendously valuable both to consulting partners and MSPs.”

The consulting partners nOps had before. MSP and VAR partners is what they are looking to add with the Ingram relationship.

“In the past, we have had a strong Go-to-Market in two channels – direct and consulting partners,” Newell said. “What Ingram brings to us is a tremendous breadth and reach. With 45,000 partners now having access to nOps, Ingram can look at nOps as the tip of the arrow for the Go-to-Market and helping partners grow their AWS practice.”

Newell stressed that the way nOps packages smarts is important, both for those Ingram partners who still have a light or no cloud presence, as well as Ingram partners who are state of the art in the AWS environment, who are looking for stickier services.

“Ingram needs a partner like nOps which has a lot of smarts packaged in and which can provide this stickiness,” he said.

Ingram Micro is already a strong AWS partner.

“We have been a little bit behind the scenes, but we are the largest AWS partner in North America, and have been a fairly strong partner for the last four years,” Kareth said.  “We will soon be taking more steps to strengthen this strategic partnership.”

Kareth noted that while Ingram, as the largest broadline distributor, has a lot of ISVs on their line card, including some who compete with nOps, they do attach particular value to the nOps solution.

“We felt we needed to get behind this because it will move the market,” he said. “We have partners who are just learning the Well Architected motion. We have been introducing Well Architected reviews to a certain subset. This is the next level for that, which will introduce more productivity and speed. It’s more for the advanced partners, but it’s a huge value add to the end customer base.”

nOps is initially looking to leverage the Ingram relationship to work with a smaller number of more advanced partners, but they have broad plans beyond that.

“It’s an evolution,” Newell said. “It will start with a set of core partners who get the value proposition of nOps and how you grow your AWS business, and who will make the investment. But this is hugely scalable. That’s why Ingram is so excited. What Ingram brings to the table is partner enablement that is unparalleled, and that will bring it to scale. We will start with choice partners, who are ready for this now, but we will scale this to many partners.”

Newell also said to look for more enablement support from them around MSP partners.

“We have made MSP partners a key part of our Go-to-Market,” he stated. “It drives our engineering. You will be seeing more announcements on this going forward.”