Managed Service Provider Week in Review

This week’s cloud and managed services announcements were centered on expansion and global reach. Acquisitions were announced, partnerships were forged and some of the biggest tech players on the planet made their moves to garner their share of the managed services space.

IBM was all over the map this week, first announcing a partnership with 21Viantet Group to bring private cloud infrastructure and services to China. The deal brings the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise+ private cloud solution to China, with 21Vianet hosting the offering at their data centers in Beijing. IBM also bolstered its cloud computing strategy by announcing an agreement to acquire Aspera, Inc., a file transfer specialist. The agreement will build IBM’s big data strategy and add to its growing cloud solutions portfolio.

Speaking of China, Amazon Web Services (AWS) also made a major announcement that it will partner with several local and regional government bodies in the country in an effort to develop and promote cloud infrastructure and services. The IaaS giant is working with the Cloud Valley technology campus to set up front and back-end cloud and managed services for customers throughout China.

In another IaaS announcement, CenturyLink has joined the Dell Cloud Partner Program. The partnership will enable Dell to give its customers more robust public cloud offerings through access to CenturyLink’s IaaS and PaaS solutions and global network of data centers.

And in an additional managed services acquisition, MSP InterCloud Systems will acquire Integration Partners-NY Corporation. The deal will help support InterCloud’s managed services and cloud offerings as well as help expand its enterprise cloud platform.