HP and Microsoft gang up on IBM

We reported yesterday that Microsoft and HP were gearing up to make a big announcement with regards to enterprise software and they've made good on it: The $300 million, three-year deal will find the two gargantuan companies providing 30 new products and services to their shared customers. Among them:

• Messaging and unified communications (email, instant messaging and video conferencing)
• Real-time collaboration and content management software
• Business intelligence software
• Business process integration software
• Core infrastructure software

"Our customers, when they are looking for these solutions, are eager for what it brings to them, but they also want it at a very attractive cost," said Ann Livermore, Vice President of HP's Technology Solutions Group. This move into integrated hardware and software offerings places Microsoft in direct competition with IBM, which offers many of the same services to businesses. How this will effect Microsoft's relationship with IBM otherwise remains to be seen.

For more on the deal:
- see this Techworld article