Ingram Micro has added Microsoft Azure to its local Cloud Marketplaces in Australia and New Zealand, providing resellers with the opportunity to build a new Azure practice.

The addition means Ingram Micro partners can offer Azure in a flexible, consumption-based, pay-as-you-go pricing model, via the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) programme.

Gary Bigwood, Ingram Micro New Zealand managing director, says by automating the delivery of Azure and making available the necessary resources and tools for transformation, Ingram Micro reseller partners have ‘the capability to quickly build a successful Azure practice and deliver greater value to their customers'.

Lee Welch, Ingram Micro Australia cloud and software services general manager says the offering provides reseller partners with the capability to accelerate their Azure CSP business.

The distributor's Cloud Marketplace, which launched in Australia and New Zealand last year, fully automates the service delivery, customer management and invoicing of Azure services in a move Ingram Micro says allows reseller to ‘quickly bring the Azure suite to a wider client base by accelerating time-to-market and eliminating operational complexities'.

“Resellers can also easily differentiate their offerings by bundling their own services with Azure and other Microsoft cloud solutions, including Office 365, for greater up-sell and cross-sell potential.

The Azure hybrid cloud platform features a combination of infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service solutions to enable developers to quickly build, deploy, manage and scale applications to meet their organisation's specific needs, without the need to invest in underlying infrastructure.