AppRiver, a Software-as-a-Service provider offering award-winning hosted exchange e-mail and Web security solutions to businesses of all sizes, has entered into a strategic relationship with Microsoft (News - Alert) corp. It will now offer its customers additional services by offering the next generation cloud productivity service from Microsoft in the form of Office 365.

The addition of Office 365 to its suite of hosted exchange services will allow AppRiver to better serve the needs of its business clients, according to company CEO Michael Murdoch.

In a press release, Murdoch noted that AppRiver understood the needs of businesses and was pleased to offer the bundled Office 365 offerings along with the company's feature rich solutions. Customers would now have greater choice, greater overall value and would experience enhanced functionality.

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, AppRiver is among the first resellers to bring the new Microsoft Office 365 Suite to market. It has more than 45,000 corporate customers and six million mailboxes worldwide.

Marco Limena, VP, Business Services, Operator Channels at Microsoft commented on AppRiver's track record and depth of experience in providing cloud-based services, which suggested that AppRiver was well positioned to offer Office 365 at launch.

Office 365 doesn't require the installation of any hardware or software and allows AppRiver customers to access e-mail ,documents and much more from almost anywhere. The bundled solutions offer business class features that guarantee almost 100 percent uptime, disaster recovery and security.

With instant messaging, e-mail, comprehensive conferencing solutions, desktop productivity applications, and a pay-as-you-go pricing option, Office 365 brings together the best in the market. Included in the bundled offering is AppRiver's award winning Phenomenal Care Program, which offers live 'round the clock' customer support to all subscribers.

Lisa Carter, president of SpartanTec commented on this free outstanding support offered by AppRiver and said, "That is especially important for the small and medium-sized businesses for which IT is not a core competency."

In other news, AppRiver successfully implemented AppAssure’s Replay 4 backup and recovery software, while having reduced backup and restore time from days to just minutes. AppAssure Software is a developer of award-winning backup and disaster recovery software products for mission-critical Windows application servers.