Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems, two rivals in the hardware market, reached a partnership agreement on Wednesday.

Under the agreement, HP, the world’s biggest computer maker, will sell and support Sun's Solaris operating system on HP's ProLiant line of server and blade system computers.

Of course, both companies benefit from the partnership. On one hand, HP has another operating system to offer to its clients, on the other hand, Sun will get a wider distribution network for its software.

The HP-Sun partnership comes amid slowing server sales, a period when both companies are searching for alternatives to attract customers. The partnership simplifies sales, service and support for customers who run on Sun's Solaris 10 operating system on HP's x86 hardware.

The two giant companies discussed the partnership Wednesday morning in a joint conference call attended by executives from both companies. The deal means Hewlett-Packard will market, distribute, and support Sun Microsystem's Solaris 10 operating system on HP's ProLiant Server and BladeSystem platforms.

The partnership will create "a single point of purchase, contact and accountability for Solaris on HP ProLiant," the companies said in a news release.

The two companies also announced they plan to collaborate to integrate Solaris 10 and HP Insight software on HP ProLiant servers.

John Fowler, executive vice president of systems for Sun Microsystems, said the deal “dramatically” expands the available market for Solaris on x86 servers. Mr. Fowler also underlined the fact that HP reaches markets Sun doesn’t cover very well and this expands the company’s ability of selling Solaris.

However, some analysts said the deal might be a bit risky for Sun, but executives of both companies insisted the deal makes sense.