The cloud distributor’s partnership with DataMAPt provides unique cloud-based monitoring services to the IT channel.

The new offering aims to help MSPs improve efficiency and profitability of Microsoft Cloud Service delivery.

Channel pros who invest in building high-performing cloud practices will be first in line to benefit from the new resources, which are designed to make Microsoft’s top partners more visible to sales prospects.

The new offering is available as an optional feature of AppRiver’s Skype for Business service.

Added incentives support new customer acquisition, solution selling, and wireless specialization.

Announced on day two of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, along with a host of additional product news, the new offerings will enable resellers to sell both Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and Surface hardware on an as-a-service basis for the first time.

The offering represents the latest step in a new effort by the BDR vendor to position its product portfolio as a unified, end-to-end solution rather than a collection of piece parts.

The distributor has added a revamped control panel, among other features, to its cloud e-commerce platform and made Acronis’s new Office 365 email backup solution available on its cloud marketplace.

Timed to coincide with the 2016 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, the dual product launches enable channel pros to backup SMB data both from and to the Microsoft cloud.

In an opening day keynote presentation, Microsoft’s CEO highlighted snap-together business applications, artificial intelligence, and “mixed reality” solutions as core elements of Microsoft’s long-term strategy.