The newest release of Ingram Micro’s Odin Automation Essentials – a preconfigured cloud services delivery platform – will include tools for Microsoft Azure, as well as new functionality for self-hosting, the company said today.

Odin Automation Essentials (OA Essentials) is a prepackaged version of the Odin Service Automation Platform.

Current versions of the downloadable OA Essentials come bundled with popular Microsoft cloud services, like Office 365, Dynamics 365, Enterprise Mobility Suite and Windows 10 Enterprise.

Both versions of the platform enable IT services providers to seamlessly select, add and manage services from the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, with automated provisioning and billing.

“Historically, service providers spent days or weeks trying to purchase, resell and deliver cloud services while agents had to establish various contractual relationships, design provisioning and management processes, and integrate third-party billing, payment and support systems,” said a statement from Ingram Micro. “Odin Automation Essentials eliminates all these time-consuming tasks so providers can install and deploy a comprehensive and scalable automation platform with a powerful online, integrated storefront in just a few hours.”

Ingram Micro purchased the Odin technology from Parallel Holdings Ltd. in 2015.

Roughly half of the world’s top 50 telecommunications services providers are using Odin, and the company said last year it intended to intensify efforts to drive adoption by a broader segment of IT solution providers and resellers.

OA Essentials is designed to give Microsoft partners a streamlined, cost-effective tool for delivering popular cloud services.

“Service providers face ongoing product and service commoditization in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” Nimesh Davé, Ingram Micro’s executive vice president of global cloud, said in a statement. “The upcoming release of Odin Automation Essentials makes it much easier for service providers to sell, deliver and administer differentiating, higher-margin cloud and hosted services within a single platform, utilizing one interface.”

In addition to facilitating delivery of Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings, the new OA Essentials will allow users to sell WordPress hosting plans, web and email shared hosting, and virtual private server hosting.

The hosting enhancements will also be included in the new release of Odin Service Automation Platform.

Updates of both versions of the platform are expected in “early Q2 2017,” Ingram Micro said.

“Instead of having to juggle multiple providers and products to build our own platform, we can simplify everything by using Odin Automation Essentials as the foundation for our hosting and cloud business,” Jürgen Weber, CEO at WEBERcloud ( Germany), said in the statement. “This will enable us to expand and add products and services as our clients demand them, deepen customer relationships and take advantage of higher margins with a wider portfolio of services.”

Send tips and news to [email protected].