**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of August’s important channel-program changes you should know.**

Enterprise software and interconnection provider Console on Thursday announced three partner programs to support its new platform.

The Datacenter Partner Program, Network Service Provider (NSP) Partner Program and Technology Partner Program provide partners with marketing resources to highlight their direct access offering with Console. These are Console’s first partner programs.

“Console is focused on growing its partner ecosystem through 2015 and beyond,” said Al Burgio, CEO of Console and parent company IIX. “Our partner programs are designed to mutually benefit a wide range of partners and customers globally.”

Initial partners include technology partner BTI Systems; data-center partners 910Telecom, Hurricane Electric, Netelligent Hosting Services, RACK59, ScaleMatrix and T5 Data Centers; and NSP partners iTel, Metro Optic, One Source Networks, Online Tech, SummitIG, VeloCloud and Zayo Group.

“We are excited to welcome these new partners to our growing Console ecosystem,” Burgio said. “We look forward to working alongside all Console partners as we foster new innovation, enterprise-to-enterprise collaboration, and drive cloud-enablement at an increased pace.”

The new Console platform was unveiled during this week’s Console Connect Live 2015 event in San Francisco. The platform provides enterprises with a way to bypass the public Internet and directly connect with their cloud providers, SaaS providers and partners.

Console wants to attract new partners and Console Connect Live 2015 provided a forum for prospective partners to learn more, Burgio said.

“With this collaboration, our gateways can take advantage of the Console software and interconnection platform to directly access SaaS and cloud infrastructure providers,” said Steve Woo, vice president of products and co-founder of VeloCloud, a Console partner.

Also this week, Console announced that Microsoft has joined its platform. The collaboration provides enterprises globally with direct access to Azure through the Console platform, bypassing the public Internet and providing “improved security and performance.”

“Historically, security, performance and complexity concerns have always been barriers to enterprise cloud deployment,” Burgio said. “By enabling direct interconnection with Azure, the Console platform expels this notion, allowing our users to securely and directly connect to Azure with a click of a button. Our revolutionary Console platform, combined with Microsoft’s powerful cloud offerings, enable enterprises to realize the tangible business benefits of the cloud faster and easier than ever before.”