Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and NEC unveiled a collaboration that integrate their technologies and lead the companies to develop and bring to market open networking solutions for enterprise customers that are enabled for software-defined networking (SDN).

The two companies have had a strategic relationship for nearly two decades related to HP-UX, HP’s Unix-based operating system, and enterprise servers, and the vendors are extending that ongoing relationship to the SDN area. According to HP and NEC, the two are working with industry standards organizations on a standards-based SDN solution.

Their plan? To build ecosystems of application vendors providing business and network applications based on products using an open SDN standard for implementation. The vendors noted they expect this to provide more dynamic control of the network.

As part of the joint effort, HP and NEC are trying to ensure interoperability between HP SDN-Ready OpenFlow switches and the NEC SDN controller. NEC has also started to port the NEC Virtual Tenant Network (VTN) application over to interoperate with the HP SDN controller. NEC will also include the VTN application in the HP SDN App Store.

“By aligning our expertise and ensuring interoperability, HP and NEC will continue to lead the market through continual technical advancements and flexible networking infrastructure that empowers customers to protect and grow their current and future investments,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president and general manager of HP Networking, in a prepared statement.

When the products start to hit the market, this could provide HP’s channel partners with a variety of opportunities as SDN continues to take hold in the market. It could be some time before HP’s and NEC’s integration and joint product development plans come to fruition, but it seems likely HP’s strategy will be to take the products to market through its global network of partners.