What if application developers could become managed services providers (MSPs) — managing software through its entire customer lifecycle, whether on premise or in the cloud? Perhaps Hewlett-Packard and Tasktop Technologies can assist with that goal. Indeed, HP and Tasktop are working together on a range of ALM solutions that might interest channel partners.

HP’s ALM solutions are designed to help enterprises accelerate application delivery to the marketplace. But according to Product Marketing Director of HP Enterprise Business Software Kelly Emo, IT departments need a more unified platform that automates and manages applications in the cloud.

The following three new ALM products will help businesses do just that:

1. Application Lifecycle Intelligence (ALI): ALI is not a stand alone solution. It’s a solution within the ALM platform. “It will give seamless visibility of a company’s infrastructure,” Emo said. Tasktop will provide the support for a heterogeneous environment. HP ALI and HP ALM 11 will together give a real-time view of changes made to source code. Service providers and/or businesses will be able to measure how those source code changes impact requirements and tests and defects.

2. Agile Accelerator 5.0: The agile methodology has been widely accepted as the best practice for releasing new software capabilities faster. Emo said the Agile Accelerator 5.0 will expose a “user’s story” in an easy to understand format: “You will see your information as if it’s a sticky note on a board.” Tasktop also has a role in developing the Agile Accelerator 5.0.

According to Tasktop Director and Chief Operating Officer Neelan Choksi: “We are going to bring together the fractured world of tools that developers use. We’re going to make the information visible within the agile accelerator and really bring the developer into the equation. We want to keep the developers happy and let them work the way they want to work.”

3. HP Service Virtualization 1.0: It will integrate with a wide set of HP’s ALM solutions and allow more advanced performance testing. The goal here is to cut business risks and eliminate the need to build a redundant testing environment. “Customers will be able to extrapolate their data and do performance testing against a virtual service,” Emo said.

HP’s development was spurred by a recent IDC report that said 85 percent of net-new applications will be designed to be accessed through the cloud by 2012. HP thinks its ALM strategy will let customers and partners meet that cloud demand.