Microsoft-HP Cloud Partnership Opens New Avenues for Enterprise (NewsFactor)

The cloud. Communications. Collaboration. It's all merging together in the 21st century business world, and it's driving new partnerships between technology behemoths competing against smaller upstarts in a space that analysts predict will grow exponentially in the years ahead.

In the latest cloud partnership, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft are getting cozier. Microsoft announced a four-year initiative with HP Enterprise Services to deliver Microsoft's communications and collaboration applications over private, public and hybrid cloud services last week, and the details continue to unfold.

Both companies see the opportunity to collaborate in the cloud. According to Gartner, worldwide revenue from cloud services will total about $89 billion this year, up from $74 billion last year. And Gartner predicts cloud computing will generate nearly $129 billion by 2013. Microsoft and HP are finding ways to work together to serve what they see as unmet needs from which both companies can profit.

Minimizing Risks

"CIOs, CFOs and CCOs are looking for ways to minimize the risks involved with moving their messaging, collaboration and workplace services to the cloud," said Mark Hill, vice president of the Enterprise Partner Group at Microsoft.

"They want choice and flexibility to deploy public or private solutions -- or a hybrid, regardless of geography. Large organizations, particularly those in regulated industries like financial services and public sector, have demanding requirements for functionality and service levels."

Under the agreement, HP and Microsoft will work to solve the IT challenges Hill outlined. That means offering private and public cloud solutions designed to help them rapidly scale new users, shift IT resources from maintenance to innovation, and change IT from a capital to operating expense.

Flexible Fruit

"With these new services, HP and Microsoft offer a flexible range of cost-efficient, cloud-based productivity solutions running on the latest technology to meet client needs across the globe," Hill said.

"The alliance will benefit enterprises and governments by providing efficiencies and flexibility with public and private cloud solutions, delivering Microsoft's messaging and collaboration applications via HP's global private and public cloud footprint."

In the private cloud, HP Enterprise Cloud Services will deliver Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 productivity applications as a service from HP data centers around the world. Microsoft will deliver Microsoft Office 365 through the public cloud. And HP will resell Microsoft Office 365 with HP Enterprise Cloud Services for hybrid clouds.

Reallocating IT Pros

Hill outlined what he sees as key customer benefits, including maximum flexibility to choose a cloud computing solution that meets an organization's specialized messaging and collaboration needs and rapid scaling of new servers. The solutions also let clients reallocate IT professionals from IT maintenance to innovation and help them shift costs from an upfront capital expense to an ongoing operating expense.

"Enterprises can expect all the benefits of cloud computing, such as cost efficiencies, offloading non-core IT activities -- maintenance to innovation -- and centralized deployment and management," Hill said. "The solutions maintain software currency without you doing the work yourself, while always running the latest software and configurations without upgrade hassles."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enterprise/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111213/bs_nf/81348

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