A new cloud service provider has entered the market and has set SMBs into its sights.

Bitcloud is a division of Buchen Holdings which, through various acquisitions, has 15 years experience in the Internet space.

The company is moving into the SMB sector and is able to service organisations with up to 500 seats. It is offering infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

The idea came about during the upgrade of internal infrastructure with cloud services for Buchen Holdings’ hosting business including Webcity and Host1.

Products on offer include Microsoft Exchange servers as well as computing and storage on demand.

BitCloud has also formed a partnership with Dell for its cloud architecture platform which covers blade servers.

AAPT is supplying communication links to BitCloud’s datacentre.

“We’re not playing the enterprise, we are going after your people doing retail and so on from five to 150 to 500 seats,” BitCloud CSO, Darren Covington, said.

BitCloud is adopting a direct and channel model for sales. It currently has no channel partners but is actively looking for independent software vendors (ISVs) to pair with as part of phase one of its channel program.

It is roughly looking for five to seven ISVs.

BitCloud may delve into the existing 1600 strong partner base of its hosting sister companies but will predominantly hunt for partners externally.

Phase two of its channel strategy is expected to kick in early next year which will include recruiting system integrators.

“We will be choosing partners based on specific values, either by industry or verticals, application stack or integration process-based values,” Covington said.

BitCloud is unperturbed by possible channel conflict as a result of a direct and indirect sales model.

“In the SMB marketspace there are more customers than an organisation of our size with the right balance of channel partners can cover,” Covington said. “Yes, we will have channel conflict but we will deal with it quickly and fairly.”

BitCloud has put an emphasis on cloud security and has put into place a number of steps to ensure the security of customer information assets, according to BitCloud CEO, Bennet Oprysa.

“We know how security works even more specifically at the smaller end of the market where customers themselves don’t have security components and are essentially relying on us for everything,” he said.

Last September, UK-based cloud service provider, ThinkGrid, took its first steps into the Australian SMB market, offering services similar to that of BitCloud.

It was selling through its local partner, Skybox.

Cloud platform services vendor, ThinkGrid, is keen to add more resellers to its line up to help cope with customer demand.

Newly launched cloud-based distributor, Infraserve, has partnered with IT services platform provider, ThinkGrid.

UK-based cloud service provider, ThinkGrid, has taken its first steps into the Australian SMB market.