Microsoft is planning to share the keys to the cloud services marketplace with its partners. In this context, via a partnership with HP, the Redmond company revealed that it would offer the tools and solutions necessary for Value-Added Resellers to tap the growth opportunities offered by its Software plus Services business model. The duo indicated that they would extend private-label hosting opportunities to VARs, enabling them to essentially sell Microsoft solutions hosted by managed service providers. The new offerings are aimed at small and mid-size business, and the software giant is ready to let VARs take their customers beyond traditional on-premise solutions, to software-as-a-service IT delivery models.

“This initiative recognizes the strength of HP’s and Microsoft’s strong partner ecosystem and expands it to give our VARs a scalable and profitable path to delivering partner-hosted software plus services,” John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software Plus Services Industry in the Communications Sector at Microsoft, explained.

The collaboration between Microsoft and HP involves not only private-label solutions, but also HP configurations with BladeSystem, HP ProLiant, and HP StorageWorks at their heart. The Redmond company is increasingly moving into the Cloud, and the new initiative with HP is designed to complement its efforts so far, with a focus on enabling VARs to deliver hosted Web services.

At the same time, hosting businesses will be able to take advantage of delivery offerings involving what Microsoft referred to as Windows-based workloads. Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Windows SharePoint Services can be delivered with support from the software giant's virtualization platform and management tools.

“For VARs that want to be successful in the cloud and software as a service (SaaS) marketplace, HP and Microsoft are the first major technology vendors to deliver the program, products, training, and sales tools necessary for them,” Janet Pretti, vice president of marketing in the Solution Partners Organization at HP, added. “By allowing VARs to evolve their business model and benefit from a recurring revenue stream, we are opening up new opportunities in a challenging economic climate.”