Technology Partners

Microsoft's ambitions are anything but small. The world's #1 software company provides a variety of products and services, including its Windows operating systems and Office software suite. The company has expanded into markets such as video game consoles, servers and storage software, and digital music players. Microsoft has reached settlements to end a slew of antitrust investigations and lawsuits, including agreeing to uniformly license its operating systems and allowing manufacturers to include competing software with Windows.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) enables people to make powerful connections-whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible-providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time.Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since the company's inception, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies. Today, with more than 63,050 employees worldwide, this tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products and solutions in the company's core development areas of routing and switching, as well as in advanced technologies.

When it comes to network computing, it's hard to find an area where the Sun doesn't shine. Sun Microsystems is a leading maker of UNIX-based servers used to power corporate computer networks and Web sites. It also makes workstation computers and a widening range of disk- and tape-based storage systems. Unlike most hardware vendors, Sun makes computers that use its own chips (SPARC) and operating system (Solaris). Its software portfolio includes application server, office productivity, and network management applications. Sun also developed Java, a programming language for creating software that can run unchanged on multiple operating systems.

According to Oracle, consolidation in the business software industry is the wisest move. The enterprise software giant provides a range of tools for managing business data, supporting business operations, and facilitating collaboration and application development. Oracle also offers business applications for data warehousing, customer relationship management, and supply chain management. In recent years the company has aggressively used acquisitions to expand its product lines, including the purchases of PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Hyperion Solutions. In early 2008 the company agreed to acquire BEA Systems for about $8.5 billion.

The name Dell may be synonymous with "direct," but the computer giant has a more diverse approach to the market these days. The world's #1 direct-sale computer vendor provides a broad range of computer products for the consumer and enterprise markets. In addition to a full line of desktop and notebook PCs, Dell offers network servers, workstations, storage systems, printers, projectors, and Ethernet switches. The company also markets third-party software and peripherals. Dell's growing services unit provides systems integration, support, and training. The company announced plans to begin selling through retail stores in 2007.

While Hewlett-Packard may be known for product innovation, the company's corporate development is a tale of reinvention. HP provides enterprise and consumer customers a full range of high-tech equipment, including personal computers, servers, storage devices, printers, and networking equipment. Its software portfolio includes operating systems, print management tools, and OpenView, a suite that encompasses application, business, network infrastructure, and product lifecycle management. HP also boasts an IT service organization that is among the world's largest.

Compaq Computer manufactures and markets personal computers and server products. The company is headquartered in Dubendorf, Switzerland. Compaq Computer operates as a subsidiary of Compaq Computer Corp.

cPanel is a leading Web Hosting Control Panel Software provider supplying hosting automation tools to numerous data centers and customers all around the world. cPanel offers web hosting software that automates the intricate workings of web hosting servers. cPanel products are used on tens of thousands of servers worldwide to equip server administrators with the tools they need to provide top notch hosting to their customers. Formed in 1997, cPanel has been setting the standard for web hosting automation ever since.

Parallels (formerly SWsoft) is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating system, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company offers a wide range of virtualization and automation solutions to help individuals and organizations of all sizes realize the benefits of optimized computing.

VERITAS Software, one of the 10 largest software companies in the world, is a leading provider of software to enable utility computing. In a utility computing model, IT resources are aligned with business needs and business applications are delivered with optimal performance and availability on top of shared computing infrastructure, minimizing hardware and labor costs. With 2003 revenues of $1.75 billion, VERITAS delivers products and services for data protection, storage and server management, high availability and application performance management that are used by 99 percent of the Fortune 500.

3PAR InServ Storage Servers utilize the 3PAR InSpire Architecture to deliver a simple yet powerful, dynamically tiered storage array for open systems. Central to the design is a high-bandwidth, low-latency backplane that unifies cost-effective, modular, and upgradeable components into a highly available and autonomically load-balanced cluster. The revolutionary, zero-detection capable 3PAR Gen3 ASIC uses Thin Built In technology to maximize capacity utilization while maintaining high performance levels. 3PAR's green storage technologies combine built-in virtualization and industry-leading performance with innovative hardware design to make storage more efficient. It is this overall efficiency that makes 3PAR not just more energy efficient than traditional storage, but more efficient, period. Sure it's good to recycle, and it's even better to reuse.