Spiceworks introduced the Spiceworks Cloud Program. By integrating directly with Spiceworks’ free IT management application, the new program gives cloud vendors a way to reach more than 2.2 million IT professionals who use Spiceworks to do their jobs.

The program will also make it easier for IT professionals to discover, monitor, manage and provision their favorite cloud services from a single interface.

Initially, the Spiceworks Cloud Program will focus on four of the most common cloud services used within the small-to-midsize business (SMB) market – hosted email, online backup, cloud servers and file sharing. The program will expand to all cloud categories over the remainder of 2012 and 2013.

To date, Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps, and Rackspace Cloud and Email offerings have been integrated with Spiceworks, and the new program will make it a seamless process for other cloud vendors looking to deliver their services to SMBs worldwide.

The Spiceworks Cloud Program helps cloud vendors and developers quickly integrate into Spiceworks through a standardized set of APIs. Participating vendors also receive a Spiceworks Product Page and a listing in Spiceworks’ Product Selector. IT pros can begin managing integrated cloud services by updating to Spiceworks 6.2 later this year.

Together, the Spiceworks Cloud Program and Spiceworks 6.2 will allow IT pros to:

- Detect cloud services – Spiceworks’ cloud detection and discovery capabilities were introduced this year in Spiceworks 6 to help IT pros detect popular cloud services. This allows IT pros to see the cloud services being used on their network and who is using them, providing them with an extra layer of control.

- Monitor cloud services – Through the Spiceworks Cloud Program, IT pros can view and oversee cloud service usage across their organization, such as available storage capacity or when the last successful backup was completed. IT pros can also set proactive alerts and generate reports that are delivered through the application or via email.

- Manage cloud services – The program allows IT pros to fine-tune their cloud services in a centralized way by helping them manage common tasks such as adding users to hosted email distribution lists or setting up their backup processes. This helps limit the number of consoles needed to do their jobs while giving them a deeper view into the resources their organization needs.

- Provision cloud services – The Spiceworks Cloud Program helps IT pros provision cloud services directly from the Spiceworks application. This simplifies how IT professionals make infrastructure and account changes, such as adding new servers, storage capacity or user accounts.

“The Spiceworks Cloud Program offers a path for technology vendors to reach more than 2.2 million IT pros, many of whom are expanding their use of cloud solutions,” said Scott Abel, co-founder and CEO of Spiceworks. “The program also helps IT pros by giving them a simple way to manage cloud applications from the interface they use each day to do their jobs.”