Microsoft is continuing to expand. At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Microsoft announced new ways that its all-important partners can sell not just the company's software but also its hardware as it seeks to grow its Surface business.

At Surface's initial release, it was sold strictly as a consumer offering, available only from consumer retail outlets. As the product has grown more successful and better defined, Microsoft has expanded its sales channels to include a wider range of retailers, business suppliers, and earlier this year, the "Surface Membership Plan" rent-to-own offering. Today, the company added "Surface as a Service," a new leasing scheme that allows Surface hardware to be bought alongside Office 365 and Windows 10 subscriptions. The company says that customers of this scheme will have access to the latest hardware and faster device refresh cycles.

The expanded availability and better products have already seen the Surface business grow; Microsoft says that it has gone from generating $1 billion a year in revenue to $1 billion a quarter.

The company is also continuing to expand its partnerships with enterprise vendors. Last year it paired with Dell, allowing the Texas PC manufacturer to sell Surface systems to customers that requested them. Today it announced pairings with IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton to increase this reach. IBM will use Surface to create custom data analytics packages for the financial services and consumer goods sectors—a deal that sounds very similar to Apple's IBM partnership. Booz Allen will offer Surface as part of its systems developed for government and healthcare.

Cloud Partners will also now be able to offer businesses a $7-per-month Windows 10 Enterprise E3 subscription. With these changes, Microsoft's partners can offer hardware, operating system, productivity software, and online services all together.