HP and Microsoft will invest $250 million on jointly building out new cloud services platforms over the next three years.
The two IT firms say they will build out a new "infrastructure-to-application" model for data centers and enterprises based on tighter integration of their software.
"This agreement represents the industry’s most comprehensive technology stack integration to date — from infrastructure to application — and is intended to substantially improve the customer experience for developing, deploying and managing IT environments," they said.
HP and Microsoft are promising pre-packaged applications, virtualization solutions and integrated management tools.
Under the partnership, the pair will optimize software such as Microsoft Exchange and SQL server for a "machine environment", while key HP business apps such as Business Insight will be integrated with Microsoft System Center and Hyper V-Server.
“This collaboration will allow HP and Microsoft to offer our customers transformative technology that will reduce costs, generate business growth and accelerate innovation," said HP CEO Mark Hurd.
Separately, VMWare has confirmed its acquisition of Yahoo’s open source Zimbra email and communications platform, which has been for sale since late September.
Financial details of the transaction have not been released, but most market estimates put the purchase at a fraction of the $350 million that Yahoo paid for Zimbra two years ago. The deal represents the first sale under CEO Carol Bartz’s watch.
Zimbra claims to serve over 55 million mailboxes, up 86% over the last year. Under Yahoo’s ownership it has incorporated some of Zimbra’s technology into products such as Yahoo Mail. Under the deal Yahoo will continue to use Zimbra technology in its communications services.
VMware said the acquisition would help reduce complexity and deliver a more efficient approach to IT.