Ingram Micro invests in Microsoft Office 365 cloud using SkyKick

With the release of Office 2013 Microsoft made a more significant push to the cloud — a nod towards the future, but also something that concerns some security minded folks out there. Regardless, many IT departments are adopting the platform. To ease the transformation, many companies and tools are available, and today Ingram Micro announces that it is making an investment in this business, and doing so in conjunction with SkyKick.

SkyKick, if you aren’t familiar, is a third-party service that helps the business world make these sometimes awkward transitions. While it may seem simple, for a large company, these moves can become complicated and third-party help is frequently sought. “Migrating a customer from hosted or on-premise to cloud-based solutions can be a major undertaking for channel partners because it requires a lot of time, expertise and energy,” said Renee Bergeron, Vice President of Managed Services and Cloud Computingat Ingram Micro North America.

SkyKick is, perhaps rightfully so, calling this a major win for its burgeoning business. Ingram Micro is one of the largest wholesale technology distributors, so getting its migration services included with a global leader in IT services is quite the coupe. “This agreement with Ingram Micro and its Cloud Marketplace is a major milestone for SkyKick because it expands our reach to enable us to help thousands of more partners,” says SkyKick co-CEO Evan Richman.

While both SkyKick and Ingram Micro are busy congratulating each other, the other real winner here is obviously Office 365. Microsoft has been busy trying to pry the service through the doors of companies and government agencies. This could prove a big step forward in that migration.