Distributor Ingram Micro Inc. will add support for Microsoft Azure as well as new shared and virtual private server hosting options to the next edition of its Odin Automation Essentials solution.
Slated to reach market during the second quarter of the year, the new release of the Irvine, Calif.-based distributor’s enablement platform for tier 1 members of Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider program and other sophisticated online service providers will equip users to bundle an expanded range of online offerings for their customers.
In addition to Microsoft Azure, those offerings include shared WordPress, web, and email hosting services delivered via Plesk Onyx or Plesk 12.5, the website operations platforms from Seattle-based Parallels International GmbH, as well as virtual private containers and machines delivered via platforms like Virtuozzo, also from Parallels.
“Service providers face ongoing product and service commoditization in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” said Nimesh Davé, executive vice president for global cloud at Ingram Micro, in a press statement. “The upcoming release of Odin Automation Essentials makes it much easier for service providers to sell, deliver and administer differentiating, higher-margin cloud and hosted services within a single platform, utilizing one interface.”
Ingram Micro bought the Odin service automation platform from Parallels in December 2015 and introduced Odin Automation Essentials last April. The system allows service providers to supplement existing provisioning and payment systems with Ingram Micro’s cloud solutions and resources. Less advanced resellers without a backend cloud delivery infrastructure of their own can utilize Ingram Micro’s cloud storefronts or referral program, which also debuted last April, instead.
Azure is but the latest Microsoft cloud service available through Odin Automation Essentials, which already hosts Office 365, Dynamics 365, the Enterprise Mobility+ Security suite, and Windows 10 Enterprise. The system also provides automated ordering, invoicing, payment processing, configuration, and provisioning modules that service providers can flexibly combine with in-house resources.
Ingram Micro is likely to share further details about the new Odin Automation Essentials release, or formally release it to market, at its 2017 Cloud Summit, which takes place next month in Phoenix.
