The last time MSPmentor heard from ePals, Inc., the company had signed a deal to provide Microsoft Live@edu –integrated cloud services — to K-12 schools in New York City. But now ePals has launched a partner program for education-focused systems integrators. Here’s the scoop.

First some background: earlier this year, ePals issued a press release saying that they’d be bolstering their own LearningSpace and SchoolMail cloud collaboration and messaging products with the Microsoft Live@edu suite. That, in turn, led to the public school deal mentioned above.

So why did ePals choose now to launch their partner program? According to the company’s most recent press release, the back-to-school seasons means IT departments are increasing their interest in cloud solutions, and they want to make sure public districts have the partner support they need to integrate, migrate, and otherwise deploy the ePals solution.

Moreover, that same press release indicates that ePals sees an opportunity for partners to sell additional services like archiving and compliance management.

What’s really interesting about this announcement is that while ePals is obviously very close with Microsoft, they have their own products and are very much their own company. So while they’re not competing just yet, this partner program launch is worth watching if only because it means the education cloud services market is heating up.