Neither company is saying a thing yet, but word is Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and EMC (NYSE: EMC) are joining up to sell a new collection of products designed to deliver cloud computing capabilities, Reuters reports. Called vBlock, the cloud solution is intended to help the companies compete more effectively with IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ).

The partnership, which no one is admitting to, involves a joint venture between Cisco and EMC that will sell vBlock. The former will supply the networking equipment and servers, with the latter kicking in the storage gear and virtualization technology through its VMWare (NYSE: VMW) subsidiary. The joint venture will put the systems together, integrate the components for clients, and make the whole pile of cables and silicon work. A formal announcement is expected next week.

GreenBytes, a unique data storage appliance company, has just received an $8 million Series A round of investment financing. Battery Ventures completed the deal, which provides fresh resources for the Rhode Island-based energy-efficient technology company.

Founded in 2007, GreenBytes offers network attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) solutions that reduce energy consumption, providing a cost savings opportunity while also addressing corporate social responsibility considerations.

A battle royal is shaping up in the world of cloud computing between long-standing dominant software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its biggest threat of the past few years, internet runaway Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

BusinessWeek is reporting that Microsoft plans to build 20 new data centers over the next few years to serve corporations large and small which would prefer to store their data in a secure environment and be able to access it over the internet. Google started along the same path several years ago with the same goal.

The data centers are likely to cost as much as a billion dollars each. Companies opting to use this type of service will be delegating the acquisition, maintenance, and security required to store large amounts of data while preserving capital for core business activities.

One novel approach in Microsoft's newest facility is to fill the 700,000 square-foot floor with prepackaged shipping containers instead of acres of racks containing servers. Each of the containers can hold 2,500 servers, and the floor can hold up to 224 containers. That's a potential maximum of 560,000 servers.

Savvis Inc's (NASDAQ: SVVS) business continues to improve, supporting the view that the data center business is a real business. As we have blogged about Savvis and Equinix Inc (NASDAQ: EQIX) in the past, these are two pure-play data center companies that were able to restructure their balance sheets in the post-tech & telecom bubble of the late 1990s. Here are some of the numbers for Savvis:

• Savvis revenue jumped 15%, with adjusted EBITDA jumping 55% to $123 million
• Revenue continued to shift to higher-end product lines, moving up the value chain to managed VPN and hosting services
• EBITDA for the fourth quarter jumped 67%
• Savvis was able to sell a subsidiary for $125 million which can be used to expand its core hosting businesses

The power of Savvis' model is that it can move its customers up the value chain which allows the company to grow revenue and EBITDA for a number of years.

For example, managed hosting generates $4 versus every $1 dollar earned for a commodity hosting business. In addition, for new services that Savvis will be able to sell to customers in 2008 on its upgraded infrastructure, that number goes up to $8 for every dollar of commodity services.

Savvis said by increasing co-location space and moving up the value chain, it can easily drive hosting revenue above $ 1 billion. High-end hosting and managed services is a real growth business. Stay focused on both Savvis and Equinix.