IBM Expands Public Sector Cloud Partnerships

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IBM is making a big push into government cloud services with five new partners. Arrow, Avnet Government Solutions, Ingram Micro, Tech Data Corporation and ViON will combine and bundle their solutions with IBM Cloud. The company is pushing into the federal market first but the relationships provided by these new partners could mean state and local government services as well.

The Obama Administration’s proposed fiscal 2016 budget estimates that about $7.3 billion will be spent on cloud computing and not simply for cost savings, but also to change how services are delivered. A handful of vendors are already in this space including Amazon, Microsoft, and Verizon. Still, IDC estimates that less than 10 percent of government services are making use of cloud capabilities.

IBM a hybrid cloud solution which is aimed at providing support for new and legacy services. Under terms of their agreements, the five new partners will resell and market IBM Cloud Services with a focus on implementing hybrid solutions.

Each of the relationships is fairly typical for the technology resale market, although, Ingram Micro operates as a master cloud services operator and will allow management of IBM services through a single online portal. Avnet Government Solutions also recently opened a Washington D.C. office to capture the government opportunity and is investing in public sector specific capabilities.