More Big Shiny Cloud Computing Deals

HP and Microsoft will be spending around $250 million in the next three years to deliver cloud computing services together. The companies are “lined up to make great things happen” as HP CEO Mark V. Hurd said.

The partnership, announced on Jan. 13th, will of course include bundled services already offered by both companies but plans are under way to conduct research and develop other product lines as well. Hurd noted that up to 11,000 service representatives will share the responsibility “for testing, loading, and providing services for products sold under the partnership, which will also have its own dedicated sales force.”

IBM followed suit on Jan. 14th with a blockbuster cloud deal of its own. About 150,000 employees from consumer electronics firm, Panasonic will adopt IBM’s LotusLive.com services for Web conferencing, file sharing, instant messaging and project management. Panasonic will be migrating employees from Microsoft Exchange or other collaboration software to LotusLive for email, calendaring and contact management.

IBM is quick to remind us that the global cloud computing market is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 28 percent from $47 billion in 2008 to $126 billion by 2012. That kind of market opportunity virtually ensures companies will stay in line to make great things happen.