Intermedia, which positions itself as the industry’s largest provider of hosted Microsoft Exchange and other business communications solutions, has announced the extension of its private label reseller program to the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) market. Leading the list of reasons why VARs in the area might want to sign up: Intermedia lets channel partners — VARs, MSPs, cloud integrators — own the customer relationship.

Intermedia provides the hosted infrastructure and the service, according to the press release. The channel partner gets to set pricing, managing billing, and handle front-line support, all under their own brand. Intermedia provides a partner portal, service control panel and sales tools, according to the press release.

The benefit of this approach, according to that same press release, is that local partners have a much better handle on the needs and wants of international customers than the New York-based Intermedia ever could. It’s a move reflective of the faith Intermedia has in its partner base following the news that channel sales rose 50% in 2010 year-over-year.

And as an added bonus to this news, Intermedia partners the world over now have access to an e-mail encryption solution that’s policy-based, meaning the customer can apply general security rules to all users or enhance protections on certain employees or groups. Encrypted Email from Intermedia can even be used to help organizations comply with complicated regulatory standards like HIPAA.

No doubt, Intermedia has a channel following. But competition looms on multiple fronts. Rivals like Apptix appear to be gaining momentum. And Microsoft is preparing to launch Office 365, the successor to Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Of course, Intermedia isn’t standing still. The company is aggressively pushing into hosted unified communications as a springboard beyond hosted Exchange.

Follow Talkin’ Cloud via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for Talkin’ Cloud’s Weekly Newsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Read our editorial disclosures here.