IBM has announced two separate cloud deals with cloud infrastructure and virtualization company VMware and customer relationship management platform provider SugarCRM.

VMware will move its Horizon Air service to IBM Cloud, while SugarCRM will make its products available through IBM Cloud.

IBM logo on a building in London
IBM office in London – Thinkstock / claudiodivizia

VMware’s wares

The deal with VMware comes after the two firms formed a strategic partnership earlier this year. It enables Horizon Air customers to use virtual desktop services and applications within the IBM Cloud.

“Our partnership with IBM continues to grow and evolve as we look to enable access to corporate applications and data anywhere, anytime, anyplace,” said Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president, VMware.

“Customers are asking for more choice at a faster pace of innovation, but still looking to protect existing IT investments, which is why supporting them with the IBM Cloud makes sense. This offering gives organizations an easy and cost-effective way to access their desktop applications from the cloud.”

Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president for IBM Cloud, added: “IBM has collaborated with VMware for over a decade and this expanded partnership represents a continuation of that relationship helping enterprises more quickly and easily embrace the cloud.

“Every company will need to transition to the cloud to remain competitive. The partnership to support Horizon Air on IBM Cloud, provides a fantastic example of how IBM and VMware are helping customers dramatically simplify this move.”

In a video released to mark the news, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the deal “will help customers and partners transform the way they deliver Windows applications and virtual desktops in the cloud, allowing employees to embrace the business mobility revolution - anywhere, anyplace, anytime.”

SugarCRM’s sweet deal

Announced at SugarCon 2016, IBM’s partnership with the CRM vendor means that organizations can now deploy the Sugar customer relationship management platform either on-premises or hosted with IBM. In the latter scenario, organizations can deploy software across bare metal cloud servers, dedicated off-premises clouds or private cloud environments behind a firewall.

“IT strategy should not be held hostage by vendors who offer a proprietary, multi-tenant cloud configuration as the only option. Instead, choice should be the rule of the day for cloud deployments, so organizations can implement systems in a way that fits their business and IT needs,” said Clint Oram, co-founder and CMO of SugarCRM.

“SugarCRM customers who are looking for greater control over their data, more deployment options and a reliable infrastructure should consider IBM Cloud as their platform of choice.”

“The most valued type of data that organizations have in the enterprise is their customer data,” added Bill Karpovich, general manager for IBM Cloud. ”Having the right deployment options that meet security concerns, regulatory requirements, and risk mitigation are top of mind for any business choosing a cloud infrastructure.

“With IBM Cloud, SugarCRM’s clients and partners will now have the ability to deploy the Sugar platform across any hybrid cloud environment, making it easier than ever to gain privacy and control over their most important asset – customer data.”