(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com) and Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) announced on Wednesday they have extended its previous partnership with a joint $250 million investment to develop hardware and software products to use in their customers’ data centers and in cloud computing facilities.
The partnership seeks to integrate technology in a move towards consolidating the products and services of two tech giants.
The companies said they will work together in designing a full “stack” of data center hardware, software management tools and other applications, as well as on Microsoft’s cloud operating platform Windows Azure, in which customers can access data center services via the Internet.
Microsoft will deploy HP hardware in the data centers that operate the Azure platform. Meanwhile, HP will develop products that can bundled and sold with Microsoft’s operating system, database program or other software.
Having teamed up in the past, the companies have talked about forming a larger partnership in the past few years.
Despite this latest partnership, both companies said they will continue to maintain their partnerships with other tech vendors, such as Oracle and Dell, developing hardware and software that works with products from these vendors.
Many top players in the technology industry are working towards offering a one-stop shop of hardware and software products for their customers, which has led to many acquisitions.
Microsoft acquired data center management software firm Opalis Software in December, while HP purchased 3Com in November to expand its portfolio of networking equipment.
