By: Debbie Hughes, Vice President, IBM Global Technology Services Channels and Midmarket.

On July 8, 2013, IBM announced the completion of its acquisition of SoftLayer Technologies Inc., a privately held cloud computing infrastructure company based in Dallas, Texas, and the rest is history. In just one year, SoftLayer has grown into a galvanizing force behind IBM's transformation into a cloud computing leader.

We all know that cloud computing provides a transformative change to most any business. With SoftLayer it has become easier and faster for organizations to adopt game-changing cloud services. In fact, SoftLayer enabled IBM to deliver an industry first: marrying the security, privacy, and reliability of private clouds with the economy and speed of a public cloud.

We've seen great momentum in the past year with Managed Service Providers, ISVs, and Cloud Solution Providers who are delivering cloud-based solutions. There are now more than 1,000 Business Partners who are working with SoftLayer with hundreds joining since last July. I invite you to watch the video "Winning with SoftLayer: Business Partner Perspectives" to hear more about what Business Partners are saying about SoftLayer.

Business Partners are an important route to market for SoftLayer, and in the past year, we've made a point of enhancing our Business Partner program. A few of the highlights include:

• Simplified Business Partner program structure
• Richer margins for Business Partners to make more money reselling
• Expanded training options with classroom education available worldwide, plus on-demand webcasts - we expect to train 4,000 people this year
• Enhanced demand generation benefits including co-marketing for qualified Business Partners, and ready-to-executive campaign assets.

SoftLayer is also giving IBM Business Partners the ability to expand into new markets and the flexibility to keep data local when required. Earlier this year, a $1.2B investment to open 15 new data centers worldwide was announced. Hong Kong and London are first on the list and many more will open this year. To further expand and promote the IBM Cloud ecosystem, a new IBM Cloud Marketplace was introduced where SoftLayer and cloud-based solutions and services are available.

In June 2014, IBM was upgraded to "Visionaries" status in Gartner's 2014 Magic Quadrant analysis for "Cloud Infrastructure as a Service." This is a major move forward and adds another proof point to the IBM/SoftLayer momentum, strengths and capabilities. According to the Gartner Magic Quadrant - "Visionaries have an ambitious vision of the future, and are making significant investments in the development of unique technologies." In addition to Gartner's report, a recent IDC report named IBM #1 in IaaS.

As we celebrate the first year, there's no better time than now for you to start building your future with the SoftLayer global cloud infrastructure, if you have not done so already. SoftLayer IaaS delivers the control and flexibility you need to power the most demanding cloud applications. Chat with SoftLayer - or get started today with a free cloud server for 30 days.

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