Microsoft and HP tie $250m knot

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 13 Jan 2010 at 17:04

Microsoft and HP have announced a $250 million joint effort to help customers move towards cloud computing.

The companies have announced a series of initiatives that they claim are designed to help "simplify technology environments for businesses of all sizes".

The initiatives include a quid-pro-quo on cloud computing, which sees HP offering services on Microsoft's Azure platform, and Microsoft use HP hardware for its Azure infrastructure.

The deal also sees Microsoft become a "preferred provider of virtualisation solutions for HP", which the pair claims will make it simpler for customers to deploy virtualisation in their businesses. The companies will offer so-called "smart bundles" of hardware and software, which will include HP's server, storage and networking products, combined with Windows Server Hyper-V and HP Insight software.

The companies will additionally "deliver a set of pre-packaged and pre-configured data management and email solutions (‘machines’) that will deliver data warehousing, business intelligence, online transaction processing and messaging solutions," according to Microsoft.

From Microsoft's point of view, the deal will help ward off the threat of Linux-based solutions in businesses, while HP can count a near-guaranteed revenue stream from Microsoft-centric customers.

"This agreement, which spans hardware, software and services, will enable business customers to optimise performance with push-button simplicity at the lowest-possible total cost of ownership,” claims Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

“Our extended partnership will transform the way large enterprises deliver services to their customers, and help smaller organisations adopt IT to grow their businesses."

It's not clear how the deal will affect Microsoft's other hardware partners, most notably Dell, which has worked closely with Microsoft on the development of Azure.