Hyperconverged infrastructure software firm Virtuozzo International GmbH announced the general availability of Virtuozzo Hybrid Cloud today, enabling managed service providers to offer cloud computing services at higher margins.

Virtuozzo is the creator of a portable, flexible and elastic hyperconverged infrastructure software that merges system containers, a hypervisor and software-defined storage resources into a single, efficient platform. Its software is typically deployed atop virtual environments, and is widely used by hosting providers, independent software vendors and MSPs to provide high-density and high-performance cloud virtualization services at lower costs.

Essentially, what Virtuozzo does is provide the backbone cloud infrastructure for other companies looking to offer cloud-based services. Virtuozzo Hybrid Cloud provides all of the core cloud services MSPs require within a single, easy-to-use web interface, enabling them to sell virtualization, infrastructure-as-a-service, S3-compatible storage-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, Kubernetes-as-a-service and backup-as-a-service offerings in a simpler way. It’s a new cloud offering designed for channel partners, the company explains, hosted by Virtuozzo in locations across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

With the launch of Hybrid Cloud, the company reckons MSPs and other customers can now sell compute cloud services at a 20% margin, making it substantially more profitable than the 3% to 7% margins they get from selling on large public cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. At the same time, it reckons its platform enables MSPs to reduce customer costs by up to 25%.

Hybrid Cloud also features OpenStack virtualization, auto-scaling and clustering of application containers, a self-service portal for MSPs and their customers, if required, together with flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing and instant activation.

Virtuozzo Vice President of Cloud Joe Morgan said the company is offering MSPs an alternative to the “crazy public cloud prices” and complexity involved in trying to build your own cloud service on platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. He said Hybrid Cloud was designed based on his own experiences as an MSP.

“When I was an MSP, I went through these exact same challenges – nobody could give me a ready-to-sell solution for the cloud services my customers needed,” he explained. “I had to build everything myself, or lock my customers into one of the big hyperscale public cloud ecosystems. Virtuozzo Hybrid Cloud was built to overcome all of those problems. One cloud, designed for MSPs; all of the core cloud services an MSP’s customer needs; one easy-to-use interface; and pricing that actually makes sense for today’s economy.”

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that businesses do not have to restrict themselves to using one of the “big three” cloud computing platforms, but can instead consume cloud services from alternative providers like Virtuozzo. “It’s good to see Virtuozzo’s innovative offering arriving from Europe, where cloud consumption is at an earlier stage than it is in North America, where companies have different, local governance concerns,” he said.

Virtuozzo said its channel distribution partner Climb Channel Solutions Inc. is spearheading the rollout of Hybrid Cloud in North America. Gary Morris, chief technologist of the U.K. Climb Channel, said the offering gives MSPs and their customers greater choice and eliminates the risks of vendor lock-in. “All of this at a price point that is palatable to both the customer and provider,” he said.

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