Microsoft TV and communications equipment giant, Alcatel, said earlier this week that they have signed global strategic partnership agreements with HP and IBM, focused on the delivery of server solutions for IPTV/triple-play deployments (note: Microsoft TV and Alcatel signed an IPTV partnership agreement last year; for more on that agreement, see [itvt] Issue 5.88 Part 2; Alcatel also has existing OEM agreements in place with HP and IBM).
The companies say that the deals will see HP and IBM optimizing their server solutions to provide "superior" support for Microsoft TV's flagship IPTV Edition platform within Alcatel's Triple-Play Service Delivery Architecture. Among other things, the deals will see HP validating and recommending the appropriate HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers to optimize the performance and scalability of IPTV Edition applications. In addition to collaborating with HP and IBM on optimized server solutions, Microsoft TV and Alcatel plan to establish joint global go-to-market efforts with the companies that will include sales and marketing activities: Alcatel says that it will include specified bundled server solutions built with HP ProLiant and pre-integrated HP OpenView IT element management software in its end-to-end triple-play offering (it has not said whether it will offer such solutions in partnership with IBM). The companies say that their collaboration will speed time-to-market for IPTV services, while improving system performance and architecture scalability for telcos. "The agreements with IBM and HP are a major endorsement for the joint Alcatel/Microsoft TV IPTV Edition ecosystem," a Microsoft TV spokesperson told [itvt] by email. "By working with two leading server platform providers, Microsoft and Alcatel will ensure that service provider customers and their subscribers will benefit from ongoing HP and IBM innovation."
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