Microsoft has announced a partnership with HP, in a new move designed to support the company's vision of taking virtualization mainstream. The agreement spans from products to sales and to services, with the two companies committing to collaborating in order to lower costs and increase efficiency for Information Technology (IT) infrastructures.

The targeted consumer group is composed of small, medium-sized, and large companies around the world. The Redmond company has indicated that it is ready to lend a helping hand with the selling and marketing of storage, server and networking consolidation products, as well as desktop virtualization solutions.

“Microsoft and HP are working together to help customers obtain more value from their Microsoft virtualization software, HP services and infrastructure offerings,” revealed Zane Adam, senior director of integrated virtualization, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft.

As an integral part of the agreement, the software giant has indicated that HP Virtual Connect 10Gb Flex-10 module will offer support for its virtualization solutions. This means that HP ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade servers will support technologies including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 and Microsoft System Center.

Come December 2008, HP ProLiant PRO Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager will include Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) features for HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers.

At the same time, HP will enable customers to virtualize their desktops and data centers via a set of services delivered on top of Microsoft's technologies. In the first quarter of 2009, HP plans to make available HP Business Service Automation Beta, automating the configuration management processes for Windows Server 2008. The Beta will work for both physical and virtual environments.

“Customers and partners are responding well to the clear benefits of the joint solutions and initiatives for desktop and data center virtualization and holistic management. This response is evident at customers such as MLS Property Information Network, among many others, and our initiatives will fuel continued value for new customers,” Adam added.