Comcast is now making available a suite of third-party cloud-based products and services that its business customers can purchase directly through an online portal.

With its new Upware marketplace, Comcast is essentially creating a unified site for customers who are shopping for data backup, data security and collaboration.

Customers can self-provision and manage through the Upware portal, for example adding or removing employees from the system as needed.

The vendors in the data backup category are Carbonite, DigitalSafe and Mozy, and the data security vendors are Norton and Websense.

In the collaboration category, Comcast is offering access to Box (online storage), Microsoft (Web collaboration), Soonr (online file sharing) and YouSendIt (document collaboration).

Comcast is providing a fourth category, called Comcast Business Class, where it is making available several cloud-based tools, including Microsoft Exchange, Norton security, its own HD voice services and Web hosting.

Comcast expects to gradually add more applications in a wider set of categories.

Kevin O’Toole, senior vice president and general manager of new business solutions at Comcast Business Services, said: “Upware simplifies what can be a complex world of choices when evaluating cloud-based services. With the choice of these top vendors, business owners can quickly choose what tools they need to run their businesses and keep their focus on their number one priority – serving their customers.”