IBM announced a series of initiatives to make it easier and more profitable for resellers of its SoftLayer cloud services to develop, market and sell them.

The company said the new programs will improve margin opportunities with richer earned-volume discounts for partners without requiring a prior commitment.

SoftLayer's senior VP of global sales Tom Blair, said, “Cloud computing is transforming the relationship between Business Partners and their clients, creating unprecedented opportunities to enter new markets and sell new services.

“SoftLayer recognizes that our business partners are evolving to meet the needs of their customers and we are committed to building a world class support program for them to tap into as they transition to this new era of computing.”

Its new SoftLayer Services and Solution Provider program streamlines the SoftLayer hosting reseller and strategic partners program to improve clarity of eligibility requirement and benefits of the program.

A co-marketing initiative will help SoftLayer partners that join the program build their brands, generate demand for their services and grow their marketing skills.

Partners will have access to campaign design and creation tools as well as customizable campaign templates to minimize upfront work and deliver consistent messaging.

IBM said it will also expand technical training courses for both SoftLayer and IBM partners to build skills that meet clients’ plans to use outside resources for delivering cloud solutions.