Ingram Micro Seismic, Nimsoft to Partner On Managed Services

The Ingram Micro Seismic team on Aug. 31 is expected to announce plans to offer Nimsoft’s software to VARs and managed service providers targeting mid-market and large enterprises. But this isn’t just a “reseller” deal. Here are some early details plus some observations about the evolving Master MSP  and remote monitoring markets.

First, the forthcoming news: Ingram Micro Seismic intends to launch Seismic Enterprise Monitoring powered by Nimsoft. It will be available immediately to  Ingram Micro channel partners in the U.S. and Canada. The platform includes business service management and dashboards, as well as a monitoring services for applications, SLAs, end-user response times, servers, databases and the network, according to Ingram Micro.

Justin Crotty, VP of services at Ingram Micro North America, confirms the Nimsoft relationship and positions it for VARs that sell core infrastructure technologies such as data center solutions, unified communications and security to mid-market and enterprise customers.

Enterprise Play

Generally speaking, privately held Nimsoft competes against HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, CA Unicenter and BMC Software in large accounts. But gradually over the past year or two, Nimsoft has made a stronger name for itself in the managed services market.

If you track Nimsoft CEO Gary Read’s blog, you can get a pretty good read on where the company has been and where Nimsoft is heading. The company doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about PC management. Instead, generally speaking, Nimsoft targets infrastructure (routers, VoIP, etc.) and application-level monitoring and management.

Expanded Choices

Meanwhile, Ingram Micro Seismic offers a range of hosted and turnkey managed services solutions to VARs and MSPs. Last I heard, more than 1,000 MSPs were leveraging at least one Ingram Micro Seismic offering. Translation: Ingram Micro Seismic essentially is a Master MSP — offering a range of services to VARs and MSPs.

As part as that effort, Ingram Micro Seismic already offers remote monitoring capabilities based on Level Platforms‘ software. But I need to be careful here: I don’t want to suggest that Ingram is somehow moving away from Level Platforms and moving toward Nimsoft.

During a quick phone call, Crotty made it clear to me that the Ingram Micro-Level Platforms relationship remains strong. Plus, it’s important to keep some key market segment differences in mind:

• Level Platforms: The company’s fastest-growing business involves SaaS, and Level Platforms has been working hard to ensure it has broad appeal among all VARs and MSPs — especially Microsoft solutions providers that are now exploring SaaS and cloud computing.
• Nimsoft: Generally speaking, I think CEO Gary Read would concede Nimsoft isn’t out to serve the MSP masses. Instead, Nimsoft is going after mid-market and enterprise level channel partners. Plus, Nimsoft is an on-premise solution.

Read is traveling today but I hope to connect with him for more thoughts soon. In the meantime, watch for the official Ingram Micro Seismic-Nimsoft announcement. Sounds like it will arrive Aug. 31.

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