Desktone, the start-up with the desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) vision, has signed up Hewlett-Packard to deliver virtual desktops as a service.

Desktone is already supposed to have Verizon, IBM, Softbank and Deutsche Telekon interested – and Merrill Lynch is a pilot site – but HP and its utility-style Flexible Computing Services are the first members of Desktone’s just unveiled partner program, which is targeted at service providers that are already in the hosting or outsourcing business.

It’s promising partners that sign up this year will have direct input into Desktone’s Virtual-D platform product direction as it evolves.

They are supposed to be able to develop end-to-end monthly subscription offerings based on Virtual-D that leverage their unique value-add.

Virtual-D claims to be the only solution to integrate all the desktop virtualization layers in a single automated self-service platform designed along two tiers – the enterprise and the service provider – that let the enterprise maintain ownership and control over its desktops while outsourcing the physical data center infrastructure powering those virtual desktops.