Monday Morning Impact – September 8

By Ken Presti, Senior Consultant, Channel Impact

Westcon Group acquires Verecloud

Westcon Group, a Tarrytown, NY-based value-added distributor, announced last week its acquisition of Verecloud, Inc., which will be folded into Westcon’s Cloud Solutions Practice.

Founded in 2006, privately-held Verecloud has developed a carrier-grade, cloud services aggregation and brokerage platform with the ability to process millions of concurrent transactions in real time, including subscription and usage-based services delivered by multiple third-party services providers. The platform will become the foundation of Westcon’s cloud digital distribution solution supporting channel sales of cloud-enabled services.

“Weston Group and Verecloud have been working together during the past 18 months and co-developed a truly differentiated cloud go-to-market capability for the channel,” said Westcon CEO Dolph Westerbos. “Our services distribution solution sets us apart from the industry. Hence we decided to ‘in-source’ that intellectual property through this acquisition.”

Westcon is also developing a variety of channel enablement services, including billing-as-a-Service, up-sell/cross-sell support, marketing and campaign management, legal contract creation services, and contract renewal/subscription management.

Avnet Services Expands Its IBM Educational Portfolio

Avnet Technology Solutions has announced that its services business unit is expanding its IBM-related educational offerings to include training on AIX, Business Analytics, Content Manager, Java and Mobile Development (iOS and Android).

Delivered through self-paced courses and hands-on labs, the AIX courses will provide instruction on management of the AIX operating system, ranging from basic to administrative levels. The IBM Business Analytics courses will enable students to apply data analytics techniques to make better informed business decisions. The Content Manager course focuses on maintenance and management of the Content Manager platform. The Java Enterprise Edition Courses provide instruction on application development on the WebSphere platform. Similarly, the Mobile Development Courses have been expanded to support IBM WebSphere with mobile development for all iPhone, iPad and Android.

These courses will initially be offered in the U.S. and Canada, through Avnet Academy. Students can choose from public instructor-led online courses, or schedule private classes to be delivered onsite.

An authorized IBM Global Training Provider, Avnet offers more than 2,500 IBM Training courses.

Avnet’s Technology Solutions’ Global President Steps Down

Avnet Technology Solutions has announced that its president, Phil Gallagher, has announced his resignation in order to pursue undisclosed career opportunities.

“Over the past five years, the Technology Solutions team has built a solid foundation for the future, adding several strategic suppliers, technologies and services to our portfolio,” said Avnet CEO Rick Hamada. “In addition, they have expanded our geographic footprint in many key markets in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. With this in place, we are well positioned to create the robust solutions our customers need, and we thank Phil for his valuable contributions to the business.”

Gallagher intends to remain on the job until a successor is named, and the management transition is complete, most likely by the end of the calendar year.