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Technology providers Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard recently announced a new collaboration for cloud computing on managed hosting. The partnership is another move towards consolidating business computing, as the companies are set to spend as much as $250 million for delivering integrated systems, software and services for the cloud over the next three years.
The companies are touted to launch a range of products based on the Azure service by Microsoft and using HP systems that have been pre-loaded with Microsoft products including the Hyper-V virtualization and the SQL database software.
This announcement highlights an ongoing trend of selling highly integrated networks and business computers. For instance, Cisco Systems added servers to its current product line composed of routers and switchers back in March. HP also tried to acquire 3Com in November in order to improve its communications offerings.
The news of the merger came out just a few days before the European Commission is set to approve the merger between Sun Microsystems and Oracle. The said companies are expected to come out with similarly integrated systems. The deal was announced on April 20 of last year but was placed on hold pending EC approval as Sun also owned an open source MySQL database.
Just like other companies that are riding the trend, Microsoft and HP are looking to offer an easier way of installing and managing data centers to its end users. The partnership plans to establish a dedicated sales force to handle cloud computing products distributed by the two companies. These include Microsoft software that have been tested and pre-loaded on HP servers.
The two technology giants share a long history of collaborating over emerging sectors. At the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated an HP slate computer.

Filed at 9:51 pm under Tech Specs, The WWW
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