Comcast is getting into the cloud service reselling business, giving small businesses one more place to shop – the Comcast Upware Marketplace.
The company’s new Upware app store, launched last week, is targeting small to medium-sized businesses by offering cloud storage, security, and collaboration products from Box, YouSendIt, and Microsoft.
The photo below shows a search page within the Upware store. Results include the name of the product and company along with a brief description and price. Users can choose to narrow their searches by category, price, industry, and whether discounts or free trials are available.
Stores like this one are nothing new in the industry, reports Giga Om. However, the new reselling portal does represent an additional revenue stream for the Internet service provider and one more choice for small businesses seeking cloud services like storage and security.
The company is marketing cloud services offered through its store as specially selected for business customers. It is positioning Upware as a simpler way of buying and managing cloud services through a single portal.
If your business already buys Internet services from Comcast, you might find it easier to shop for cloud services there. In any case, business owners will need to compare prices with other cloud providers including direct pricing with companies whose services Comcast resells. Also, small businesses already buying cloud storage, security, and collaboration tools from some other provider will need to evaluate the new Comcast Upware Marketplace services to determine how they compare for quality.
Comcast’s Upware marketplace contains software products organized into three categories, or “aisles” as they’re called on the site: data backup, data security, and Web and document collaboration.
Other companies teaming up to provide services, according to Comcast, include Carbonite, Norton, and DigitalSafe.
Upware will also offer Comcast tools like website hosting and Business VoiceEdge phone service.
Only nine third-party applications are available through the Upware store so far, but Comcast has promised it will add more to the portal in the future.
Ti Roberts
This is neat. Seems like a lot of companies are jumping on the cloud to capitalize on the popularity. Can’t say I blame them.
Ti
Interesting that Comcast is jumping on the “Hosted Exchange” bandwagon. Its a popular service, and many of my firm’s clients here in Philadelphia are moving towards this service and away from onsite exchange boxes. Its a low margin product, but a good business decision to capture and retain as much revenue per customer as they can.
Thomas Jakobson
Thats a great service and I find it interesting that Comcast is offering it. A lot of businesses are utilizing remote backup these days. Thanks for sharing.