HP will configure the JBoss software on the machines through its Factory Express custom manufacturing operations in Houston, and HP Services will offer installation and technical support. The agreement calls for JBoss to cross-train HP’s tech support team and to provide level three support. HP agrees to sell the JBoss tools and to give JBoss a cut of the action. The exact size of the cut was not divulged.
Many moons ago, HP paid $470m to buy Bluestone Software to get its own middleware suite, and soon after HP ate Compaq, it decided to go agnostic with middleware, and promptly shut down its middleware business to focus on selling products from BEA Systems Inc and JBoss Inc. Now HP’s relationship with JBoss has become tighter.
In June 2004, HP said that it had certified the JBoss 4.0 Java-based Web application server on its Xeon ProLiant and Itanium Integrity servers, and would sell support services on the JBoss server through its HP Services organization. (At the same time, HP inked a similar deal with the open source database maker MySQL.)
