IceWarp Joins Rackspace Partner Program to Build Out Cloud Services

Messaging solutions company IceWarp has joined the Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) partner program with the intention of expanding its cloud services and programs.

Every cloud platform provider has its wins, and here's another one that Rackspace can put up on its mantle. According to IceWarp, it selected Rackspace over competing providers because it felt Rackspace could meet the demands of its diverse and demanding customer base.

IceWarp's focus on providing email solutions to its customers. Formerly named Merak Mail Server, IceWarp promotes itself as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange. With more than 20,000 organizations and 50 million users making use of its email solutions, IceWarp provides a variety of productivity and communications tools, including email, mobile synchronization, SMS, chat, and voice and video capabilities.

Although IceWarp hasn't gone into details about its plans for Rackspace, the company hinted in its announcement that it will be using Rackspace Hosting's platform to build out its portfolio of cloud services — presumably still mostly related to email and other communications.

"IceWarp has established a reputation for innovation in the messaging solutions market," said Christopher Rajiah, vice president of worldwide channel sales at Rackspace, in a prepared statement. "We’re excited about developing a relationship with IceWarp that will help drive greater value for customers and we look forward to ongoing collaboration."

One of the ways IceWarp competes with Exchange is on cost. The company bills itself as a low-cost alternate to Exchange that still retains the enterprise-class features businesses have become accustomed to in using Exchange.

Even more interesting than its email services is a multilingual business chat tool called LiveWebAssist, which helps customers increase the monetization of its web traffic by interacting live with website visitors through any device.

We'll have to wait to see how IceWarp makes use of its new Rackspace partner program status and rolls out more cloud-based services.