Joining forces against rivals, tech giants Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft announced on January 13 that they intend spending $250 million over a three-year period to jointly deliver cloud computing products and services to businesses.

Noting that the two companies are planning to combine some research and development efforts for delivering prepackaged servers, storage, software, and networking gear, HP CEO Mark V. Hurd told media on a conference call: “These are two great companies that are lined up to make great things happen.”

The HP-Microsoft deal, which will fortify HP’s position vis-à-vis its main rival IBM, is a clear indication of the deeper integration that tech companies were looking to achieve with products which have thus far been primarily sold as separate components by different suppliers.

The three-year partnership deal between HP and Microsoft will, among other things, entail a collaborative effort for selling HP server hardware with networking equipment, along with storage and common business applications, like Exchange email and SQL database software, from Microsoft.

The wide range of initiatives that would be a part and parcel of the HP-Microsoft partnership agreement – which will strengthen the technical and sales relationship of the two companies - will be essentially aimed at reducing some of the tedious tasks of businesses – including setting up and operation of data centers, as well as the backrooms where corporate software and computer equipment are housed.