Google Cloud Platform – the currently-favored name for the division that includes Google BigQuery, Google App Engine, Google Cloud Storage, and the just-launched Google Compute Engine – is expanding its ecosystem with a new partner program that’s bringing service providers, systems integrators, and technology vendors into the search giant’s cloud fold as it tries to build its ecosystem.

For the channel, Google is providing “tools, training and resources” to get integrators and resellers up to speed with the portfolio and offer consulting and implementation services. In practical terms, that means providing these so-called Service Partners with tools for service provider partners to develop the almost obligatory social, mobile and enterprise apps that customers are coming to expect, powered by the Google Cloud Platform on the backend.

For example, the official Google Enterprise Blog entry indicates that Google Cloud Platform partner Agosto rolled a smartphone app running on Google App Engine designed to help the Minneapolis Loppet Foundation register “thousands” of participants for a skiing event.

On the Technology Partners side, this is where Google Cloud Platform is getting cozy with technology vendors, including: Opscode and Puppet Labs (automation for Google Compute Engine IaaS), Pervasive (analytics on top of Google BigQuery data), and big data vendors MapR and Talend. By officially extending support for these third-party solutions, Google is aiming to make Google Cloud Platform the foundation for a whole new developer ecosystem.

The endgame here is fairly obvious. Last week, Google boasted it had reached the milestone of 6,000 resellers offering the search giant’s portfolio of cloud services to customers. The more of those 6,000 that are trained to go beyond the Google Apps productivity and into Google Cloud Platform cloud stack, the faster it’ll grow.

And by guaranteeing compatibility with several of the most popular infrastructure management tools, as well as a plethora of other top specialty offerings, the Google Cloud Platform suddenly looks considerably more robust.

Regardless, Amazon Web Services still has the early mover advantage here, with developers taking it up in droves. And Microsoft Windows Azure has all the muscle of Redmond behind it, even as Google maneuvers in to leverage its purported price advantage. Google definitely has its work cut out for it even as it tries to build a healthy ecosystem around Google Cloud Platform.