Ingram Micro to Buy Small Cloud Application Provider

Ingram Micro said Monday that it has made another acquisition -- its sixth in six months -- buying Ensim, a firm focused on automating, orchestrating and provisioning business applications in the cloud.

The Irvine, Calif.-based distributor said its purchase of San Jose, Calif.-based Ensim will complement its existing cloud products and solutions.

"We expect to leverage the financial strength, brand recognition and global infrastructure of Ingram Micro to further speed the growth of our business," David Wippich, Ensim's CEO, said in a statement. "Our customers and employees will benefit from this union."

[Related: Ingram Micro Aims To Boost Unified Communications And Collaboration With NetXUSA Acquisition]

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the next 30 days, were not disclosed. Ingram Micro and Ensim did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ensim enables partners to manage and monetize a range of solutions from infrastructure and hosted business applications to cloud and -as-a-Service offerings, according to the company's website. Ensim has more than 5 million seats deployed worldwide and is used by more than 20,000 organizations and government agencies through telecom partners, cloud hosting companies, VARs and MSPs, according to the company.

Ensim has been active over the past year, adding 60 new features such as ticketing, business analytics and reporting, and advanced billing configurator. Ensim also added automation service connections with Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Box, IBM SoftLayer, Skype for Business and Intel Security.

Ensim was founded in 1998 and employs 51 to 200 people, according to the company's LinkedIn page. The company is privately held.

David DeCamillis of Platte River Networks said he's seen more VARs and managed service providers selling cloud applications, with Ingram Micro continually looking to add more cloud applications and vendors to satisfy increased demand. DeCamillis praised Ingram Micro for investing lots of money into cloud and making it one of the distributor's fastest-growing business practices.

"This acquisition fits right in to what I've seen from Ingram Micro," said DeCamillis, vice president of sales and marketing at the Denver-based Ingram Micro partner. "It seems like a no-brainer."

Ensim enables VARs to save money and simplify their users' IT by automating management of the entire end-user life cycle, while MSPs can benefit from Ensim's self-service ordering and management capabilities for enterprise users, according to the company's website.

Cloud hosting companies can leverage Ensim to minimize their capital investment and maximize their go-to-market capabilities through pay-as-you-go licensing and a self-service storefront with automated provisioning. And Ensim’s modular and open design enables telcos to quickly launch service offerings, aggregate third-party services and integrate with existing back-office systems, according to the company.

Ensim is a Gold Microsoft Independent Software Vendor, a Citrix Service Provider Partner, a VMware Technology Alliance Partner, a Google Enterprise Partner, an Intel Software Partner, an HP Service Partner and a Dell partner. The company also works with solution providers giants such as CDW, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro.

Ingram Micro has been extremely active in the mergers and acquisitions market over the past six months, purchasing unified communications provider NetXUSA in March; the Central and Eastern European division of RRC Group in February; the Odin service automation platform in December; Latin American distributor Grupo Acao in October; and commerce and fulfillment services provider Docdata in October.

Ingram Micro also said in February that it would be acquired by Chinese logistics firm Tianjin Tianhai for $6 billion and folded into Hainan, China-based conglomerate HNA Group.