10 IT Vendor Partnerships That Might Surprise You

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Vendor partnerships

For all the vitriol exchanged between senior executives of these two companies, the fact remains that billions of dollars worth of Oracle software runs on HP servers sold every day through the channel.

SAP has developed a HANA in-memory computing platform that threatens to make IBM DB2 obsolete. And, yet, IBM not only now offers HANA on x86 and Power servers; it’s also one of the largest resellers of SAP applications.

Cisco has almost as much NetApp storage attached to Cisco Unified Computing Systems (UCS) as it does storage from EMC, even though Cisco has a joint venture with EMC.

Microsoft partnered with Salesforce, even though Microsoft has a fairly extensive CRM portfolio of its own. The partnership includes initiatives that will link Windows, Office and Azure-backed cloud services to Salesforce’s popular CRM platform.

Microsoft has never been a big fan of desktop virtualization on servers as an alternative to running Windows locally. But, sometimes, IT organizations insist, and when they do, Microsoft often turns to Citrix and rarely to market leader VMware.

File this under hedging a bet. Docker has gained a lot momentum for containers that create a much lighter-weight alternative to virtual machines. Now VMware finds itself partnering with Docker to manage containers. The best way to deliver containers is through a virtual machine, VMware executives maintain.

Red Hat is a huge proponent of using open-source OpenStack software as an alternative to proprietary cloud management software. Now, VMware supports both proprietary and OpenStack software.

Apple is clearly the hottest thing going when it comes to mobile computing in the enterprise. But Sprint in the enterprise is leading with Google Apps.

File this under circling the wagons. Providers of competing next-generation firewalls, the two security vendors founded an industry consortium, the Cyber Treat Alliance. Other would-be rivals have joined the alliance.

Oracle bought Bitzer to gain access to enterprise mobility management (EMM) software, and then turned around to embrace AirWatch, a unit of VMware that provides EMM as a service. In the hot mobile market, relationships are fluid.