VMware, HP Cozy Up at VMworld

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Watch out, Cisco. HP and VMware are getting cozier. The two have struck a partnership to deliver a new virtualization solution, reference architectures and IT services to help customers get to the cloud more quickly.  HP and VMware announced the deal at VMworld in San Francisco today.

The deal calls for VMware to combine its VMware vCloud Director virtualized systems management solution with the HP BladeSystem Matrix and HP CloudMaps.
HP and VMware say that through the integration of Matrix and VMware vCloud Director, customers can easily scale virtualized resource pools to quickly adjust to changing business demands. The integration will be available as a technology preview by the end of the year.

And that will be a year later than Cisco, VMware and EMC brought the Vblock simplified cloud solution to channel partners to sell through to end customers.

Cisco and HP are in the midst of a brutal war to muscle each other out of the data center, taking the fight down to the channel partner level. Both vendors want to provide a one-stop-shop for data center technology, with HP adding networking technology to its lineup and acquiring Cisco rival 3Com, and Cisco creating its own servers to compete with HP’s offerings, plus recently announcing plans for a client machine, the Cisco Cius Tablet.

VMware and HP are also developing reference architectures that deliver integrated, validated solutions for SMB, enterprise and cloud environments and client virtualization. Reference designs are pretty much what Cisco, EMC and VMware delivered with the Vblock offering released last year to the channel and end customers. 

HP says its new HP Insight Control extension for VMware vCenter Server enables clients to optimize IT environments and reduce complexity through better management, controlling such things as power optimization and providing comprehensive monitoring that combines the physical and virtual view allowing support from a single pane of glass.

Will Cisco now answer with more new management features?