Last week I attended the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was Ingram’s third year of doing the show, but the first that I have attended. I have had somewhat of a skeptical opinion of the viability of distributors to enter into cloud computing. The event had excellent speakers and content. Ingram announced 56 new products and services that are now integrated into their . The marketplace allows Ingram partners to easily pick and choose various cloud offerings for their client base.

Additionally Ingram announced 13 new vendor relationships and offerings that are extremely noteworthy:

• Amazon Web Services
• Awareness Technologies
• CA AppLogic
• ConnectWise
• dinCloud
• DocVerify
• Intel AppUp Small Business Service
• LabTech Software
• Live VHD
• Quosal
• Salesforce.com
• Veeam Cloud Provider Program
• VMware Horizon Application Manager

It is clear from the Cloud Summit that Ingram is taking cloud computing very seriously. They are the only distributor to take such a comprehensive stance into cloud computing. They have an excellent management team and financial stability that kicks the butt out of most cloud providers, they have integration that many cloud providers only dream of, and they have a well vetted list of partners and solutions to help solution providers.

This event definitely altered my stance on distributors in cloud computing. I will be keeping my eye on it as this segment of the market unfolds.