Intermedia is arguably the largest provider of hosted Microsoft services in the market, having pioneered the art of cloud-based Exchange delivered direct to end users and through two-tier channels. It’s of little wonder, then, why Microsoft would select Intermedia as one of 10 hosting companies to participate in the Hosted Exchange 2013 beta.

The beta program participation is reflection of where Intermedia sees value: aggregating cloud products and providing white-label cloud services to other solution providers.

On the surface, the addition of Hosted Exchange 2013 is almost banal, as Intermedia would offer such a service when the new version of the popular email server and software becomes available next year. The beta program’s intent is to get Intermedia and its legion of 5,000 solution providers familiar with the platforms new user interface, Outlook Web app and data protection capabilities.

“Our customers and partners demand the most up to date cloud services, and we remain committed to providing them with cutting-edge technology,” says Michael Gold, president, Intermedia. “Our hosted Exchange 2013 beta not only continues our tradition of providing the newest, leading technologies, but also opens the opportunity for the public to test this exciting product, explore its new interaction and provide feedback.”

Staying current is a core value of Intermedia, which is following a strategy founded on the belief that the average solution provider cannot build and support cloud services on its own. To maintain a robust set of cloud offerings and reasonable cost structure, Intermedia believes the channel needs an intermediary to provide the application development, infrastructure and support services. As Gold told Channelnomics in a recent conversation, “Our goal is to be the one-stop shop of IT services.”

Gold is correct in his perspective. Solution providers across the channel are struggling to adopt and capitalize on the cloud computing trend. In the beginning, the challenge was understanding and adapting to the cloud business model, as well as covering the expense of building a cloud delivery infrastructure. If a solution provider could do those two things, the theory goes, it would become a perpetual profit generator.

As most solution providers know, it was never that easy. And, as it turns out, the challenge isn’t so much getting over the first hurdle in development. It’s about keeping the engine running over time.

Clouds require nurturing, continual support and continual expansion. Few solution providers have the ability to maintain the ongoing support, maintenance and addition of new applications and capabilities. The expense of research, staffing and licensing are simply too great, even when hosting providers are used to offset the infrastructure part of the equation.

Intermedia’s formula is to provide cloud services – some Microsoft, some third-party, some homegrown – to solution providers as either a resellable product or a white label service (branded under the subscriber company’s brand). Through the two-tier service model, solution providers are able to represent themselves to the world as a cloud company without having to build, maintain and support the underlying applications and infrastructure.

White labeling isn’t an original or uncommon idea. Many cloud and services companies allow reseller partners to rebrand their offerings. The difference in Intermedia’s perspective is dealing with multiple service providers with varying capabilities and little integration is a tremendous management and administrative headache and ongoing expense. Solution providers are better off dealing with one provider that can provide multiple service offerings through a single portal, Intermedia believes.

Half of Intermedia’s growing business flows through white label and reseller channel partners, and the percentage is growing. Gold and his team tells Channelnomics that Intermedia is investing heavily in the development of new products and capabilities that will expand its value to reseller partners. Exchange 2013 through Intermedia was inevitable; but this company is looking beyond Exchange to accrete value for itself and partners.  In short, it’s a winning strategy.