HP and Microsoft team up on web services

Hewlett Packard (HP) and Microsoft have inked a $50m deal to jointly provide web services infrastructure.

But the new unit will not be fully operational for two years.

HP is to invest $50m in setting up a .Net unit within its services division. The unit will be dedicated to designing, building and running enterprise infrastructure, combining HP's hardware with Microsoft's .Net platform.

The unit will be staffed by 1,300 of HP's European consultants. But training will slow the progress, as the company currently has only 800 consultants with the accreditation to offer .Net services.

Putting an additional 500 consulting staff through the training programme could take up to two years, said Elwyn Hopkin, European .Net manager at HP.

But Paul Thomalla, head of sales at Microsoft's UK .Net division, said the timing was right for such a move. "Now is exactly the right time to get skilled up," he said.

Businesses were readying themselves to use eXtensible Markup Language web services to improve their business agility, though some sectors were more prepared than others, said Hopkin.

Initially, HP will concentrate on winning business in the finance, healthcare and government sectors.