Online backup vendor Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB) is making moves to push further into the channel with a formal partner program for resellers of its home and small-business backup offerings.

The company best known for its consumer-focused online backup literally backed into the channel through resellers selling its home offering, which costs $59 per month and includes unlimited backup for one computer, to small-business customers.

“The value proposition with Carbonite is it’s automated and simple, and for a small business that doesn’t have an IT staff, that means a lot,” said Peter Lamson, senior vice president, Small Business and Channels at Carbonite.

The Carbonite Reseller Program expands the palette of offerings available to channel partners — Carbonite’s lineup now includes

Partners are able to sell these offerings at a discount of 15 percent to 25 percent off the list price based on the dollar value over the past year, said David Hauser, director at Carbonite. The discount equates to the partner earning about $20 per home account and about $120 per business account.

The program also includes an online management dashboard that shows the status of all a reseller’s customer accounts, when each subscription is expired or up for renewal, and how much storage space customers are using. Partners also are able to upgrade account types and add more storage for customers using the dashboard, as well as renew accounts.

Plus, partners receive a weekly e-mail from Carbonite listing the accounts that need attention.

Support also is an important element of the program, Hauser said, with partners receiving dedicated Tier 2 support and customers able to contact Carbonite directly to solve any issues if they can’t get reach their reseller. “We want to make sure everyone involved with Carbonite has the best experience possible,” he said.

Online backup services such as Carbonite’s are an easy way for resellers to enter the cloud services fray, providing customers a simple way to keep their data secure at a reasonable price. And considering the fact that many small-business owners are also the IT department, anything that solves a critical business issue cheaply and effectively is almost certainly a winner.