L-R: Martin Schroeter (Kyndryl) and Adam Selipsky (AWS)
IBM spin-off and mega managed services provider (MSP) Kyndryl has signed a global cloud partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Kyndryl -- formerly IBM’s Managed Infrastructure Services unit – will see the company establish an AWS Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE), combining the two companies' respective skills in cloud infrastructure and services.
According to an announcement, the partnership will "offer state-of-the-art customer solutions and services for supporting mission-critical infrastructure, next-generation technologies and modernising applications and workflows across industries".
As part of the agreement, Kyndryl will gain Premier Global Alliance Partner status with AWS, with the latter acting as Kyndryl’s cloud provider to help it build its own internal cloud infrastructure.
Now, as a Premier Global Alliance Partner and MSP-certified member of the AWS Partner Network (APN), Kyndryl said it has invested heavily in developing AWS competencies and has built an experienced team of AWS-certified services professionals through the Kyndryl Academy for AWS.
The IBM spin-off and AWS together said they intend to invest in educating 10,000 Kyndryl staff by the end of 2022, upskilling them in a wide range of AWS skills.
“Our ability to freely explore and unleash the combined benefits of AWS cloud services with Kyndryl’s deep industry-specific managed services and expertise will provide an unprecedented level of knowledge and innovation,” said Martin Schroeter, chairman and CEO of Kyndryl. “Together, we will invest in enhancing Kyndryl’s expertise in AWS to help companies modernise, innovate, and compete.”
Meanwhile, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky said the duo are "committed to educating, empowering and enabling thousands of AWS certified practitioners and developing joint solutions".
"By combining forces with Kyndryl, we are helping customers of all sizes to modernise faster than ever before, grow their businesses and transform what’s possible,” he said.
One of the partnership's first moves will be to establish an accelerator for VMware Cloud on AWS, which aims to help customers develop expertise and custom solutions.
"Given Kyndryl’s high concentration of customers running VMware on premises, this provides an expedited path to VMware Cloud on AWS and helps organisations to run their mission-critical workloads in the cloud," the two said in a statement.
Kyndryl officially became an independent company at the end of last year after separating from Big Blue. As of November, Kyndryl has 90,000 employees, US$19 billion in annual revenue and operations in over 60 countries.
After its separation, Kyndryl made its first key strategic cloud partnership with Microsoft, with the latter becoming its Premier Global Alliance Partner.
Around the same time, Kyndryl and VMware expanded their existing relationship and promised to help customers with their application modernisation and multi-cloud plans.
Under the agreement the companies said they will focus on developing a range of services aimed at multi-cloud infrastructure and management, digital workspace, managed applications and other areas.
In December last year, Kyndryl formed a global strategic partnership with Google Cloud to support the companies' joint customers in the cloud.
Locally, Kyndryl is being led in Australia and New Zealand by Big Blue’s former A/NZ managing director Kerry Purcell.
Purcell is an IBM stalwart, joining IBM a decade ago as general manager for IBM global business services in Japan. He subsequently became IBM’s A/NZ managing director in 2015.
In ASEAN, meanwhile, Susan Follis was named as Kyndryl's managing director and go-to-market growth unit executive for Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa countries.
