Microsoft and HP Ink $250 Million Deal, Emphasize Cloud Computing

Microsoft and HP announced a three-year, $250 million deal "to advance cloud computing with [the] industry’s most integrated technology stack". The agreement covers investments in hardware, software and services and will see the two companies "collaborate on an engineering road map for data management machines; converged, pre-packaged application solutions; comprehensive virtualization offerings; and integrated management tools".

According to a joint release, the companies want to deliver new solutions that will:

Be built on a next-generation infrastructure-to-application model.

Advance cloud computing by speeding application deployment.

Eliminate complexities of IT management and automate existing manual processes to lower overall costs.

On first blush the news may seem a bit circumspect. Notwithstanding the time and commitment it takes to pull such an agreement together, it does beg the question of what will really come to fruition. At the same time, it could be argued that there is not much more to this deal than a basic business exchange and joint selling. For example, "HP and Microsoft will collaborate on the Windows Azure platform, with HP and Microsoft offering services, and Microsoft continuing to invest in HP hardware for Windows Azure infrastructure". Sounds like HP just extended its hardware supplier contract.

However, when two heavyweights get together like this, its worth paying attention to, especially because they have a huge installed base and due to the shifting sands of technology and computing. It could be a clever move to cover the board with the advent of cloud computing that's now under way. Perhaps, its even a block to Oracle's pending acquisition of Sun. Goodness knows it looks awfully similar. How it works out - for all parties concerned - is what will be interesting to find out. Stay tuned.

The complete Microsoft-HP joint release can be found here.