Avnet has launched a new cloud services offering which the company believes will fill a gap in the current market.

The distributor says the cloud service offers flexible business terms, branded or proprietary labeling, Level II customer support with a 100% channel focus - leveraging expertise gained from last years acquisition of ITX group.

“Our core business is still fundamental solutions distribution,” says Michael Costigan, vice president of marketing and business innovation for Avnet, Asia Pacific.

“That’s 99.9% of our business to date.

"What we’re doing is filling a gap in the market.

"Our business partners have come to us and asked if we have access to cloud our services and solutions and that’s what gotten us to talk about converting ICO from direct sales to distribution.”

While there are no current plans to open a data center in New Zealand, to accompany three in Australia and one in Singapore, Costigan says this may change depending on demand.

“We’re not launching this to take over our distribution portfolio,” he says.

“It’s complementary, and at the moment it’s not a large part of our business, but if we are going to be a solutions distributor, we have to offer this service to New Zealand, because it is very good on the uptake of technology.

"My experience with the Kiwis apart from being good at rugby, is they’re ahead of the curve with technology.”

“As we go further into 2013, we’ll look to extend our footprint in New Zealand and the cloud services will be part of that.

"What we are looking to do is replicate, where we can, those supplier relationships we have in Australia.

"That will be key for us.”