Microsoft and HP sign four-year cloud cooperation pact

Three flavors of cloud by end of year

Microsoft and HP have signed a deal to offer joint cloud hardware and software configurations for sale over the next four years.

Under the terms of the deal the slightly dynamic duo will offer three types of setup to resellers and direct sales: Private, hybrid and public. The first tranche of packages will go on sale in the US, UK, Australia and Canada by the end of the month, and globally shortly afterwards.

The private cloud setup will see combinations of HP’s Enterprise Cloud Services to run Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and Lync Server 2010 in a walled garden, while the hybrid package has HP reselling Office 365 from its data centers. HP will also support Office 365 of Microsoft’s public cloud systems.

“Microsoft is committed to putting the unique and ever-evolving needs of customers at the core of cloud innovation," said Mark Hill, vice president of Microsoft’s enterprise partner group, in a statement. “This alliance with HP not only broadens Microsoft’s geographic reach, it gives customers maximum flexibility to choose a cloud computing solution that meets their organization’s specialized messaging and collaboration needs.”

This is the second deal announced this week for HP in the cloud arena. On Monday the company announced a deal with Box to offer free or discounted cloud storage and synchronization accounts with Box on three business PCs.

“Large organizations, particularly those in regulated industries like financial services and public sector, have demanding functionality and service level requirements,” said Brandt Faatz, vice president, of workplace services for HP Enterprise Services. “HP and Microsoft help meet these needs with a flexible range of global, cost-efficient, cloud-based productivity solutions running on the latest technology.” ®