Dive Brief:

• IBM is prioritizing its hybrid cloud and AI solutions in a revamped partnership management program, the company announced Wednesday.
• The Partner Plus program replaces PartnerWorld as a means for independent software vendors, systems integrators and other business partners to access IBM technologies, technical support and training.
• “We are giving our partners access to the same education and programs and hands-on training that IBMers get free of charge,” said Kate Woolley, general manager of IBM Ecosystem, during an online briefing in December.

Dive Insight:

IBM, competing with behemoths in the pure cloud market, has major aspirations in hybrid cloud solutions. Partner Plus aims to solidify the company’s position in the massive hybrid multicloud and AI markets, according to Woolley.

The new program gives partners access to a consolidated portal for tracking expertise, revenue and incentives, the company said.

Partners progress through three tiers, earning proficiency badges and unlocking benefits along the way. The program also has a special tier for strategic partners, such as AWS, Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, Samsung and Salesforce, according to Woolley.

The shift to cloud accounted for an estimated $1.3 trillion in enterprise spend worldwide last year, according to Gartner. It is expected to reach $1.8 trillion in 2025. Global enterprise spending on custom and off-the-shelf AI software is expected to hit $64 billion by 2025, according to a September report by Forrester.

“We have hybrid cloud and AI as the foundation of everything we are doing, and we are investing in areas such as data, automation, security and modernization,” Woolley said.

IBM’s pivot to hybrid cloud gained momentum in 2018, with the company’s acquisition of Red Hat and its OpenShift containerization capabilities.

“They are using OpenShift as a fulcrum to expand their footprint, both within their own cloud and other people's cloud — to stay relevant and top-of-mind, but also to make sure that they are following their customers’ needs,” Brent Ellis, senior analyst at Forrester, told CIO Dive in December.

The move to Partner Plus from PartnerWorld will unfold over a six-month transition period, Woolley said, during which existing partners will be placed into the new program’s gold, silver and platinum tiers based on their current status. 

Partners will need to demonstrate $100,000 in revenue to achieve gold and $1 million for the platinum tier, the company said.