HP, Cisco Systems Form Alliance

Cisco Systems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. said they formed an alliance to support each other’s products and help businesses link up computers on a network. Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, the world’s third-largest computer maker, will standardize its products for use with Cisco equipment and will recommend that its customers choose Cisco for networking products. Cisco will in turn recommend Hewlett-Packard computers to its customers. HP will also integrate Cisco technology into its high-speed Internet servers. In a separate development, HP said it will add Menlo Park-based Informix Corp. software to its computers in what one analyst called a “coup” that puts HP ahead of International Business Machines Corp. in the commercial Internet market. The alliance, which will be unveiled todayc, marries Informix’s new universal Web server software with HP’s line of Domain server computers.