VCE, a startup that offers a cloud-in-a-box offering based on components from backers EMC, VMware and Cisco, has become an SAP technology partner. This means that Vblock is now certified to run the business software maker’s applications in customer deployments, and that the two companies have a stronger relationship in several ways. That extends mainly to more flexibility when it comes to any joint initiatives, as well as collaboration on customer support and sales.

There are several advantages to running SAP applications on Vblock.  Based on some figures pulled during VCE and independent testing, customers can achieve 32 percent lower implementation costs,  25 percent less “continuously optimized project costs” and 19 percent less spent on hardware and software. This is all in addition to a 50 percent performance boost the company promises.

“This global technology partnership provides a framework for a variety of collaborative efforts designed to bring together the cloud and virtualization technologies enabled by VCE converged infrastructure with SAP software and applications to help customers be more efficient and lower costs. Teaming with VCE demonstrates the value and innovation provided to customers through SAP’s customer-focused partner ecosystem.”

Last month Vblock received tighter VMware integration with the release of the latest version of EMC’s Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager/Provisioning software. It connects to the vCloud Director and vCenter Server in order to deliver a serious boost to Vblock provisioning, as well as overall visibility.

The EMC-backed VCE initiative has reportedly seen a lot of demand for its pre-configured and pre-packed cloud solutions, despite speculations suggesting otherwise. SAP seems to be inclined to believe the former, which is why this partnership is a milestone for both companies.

This is SAP’s latest venture into the cloud since its Q3 earnings call late last month, which clarified its intentions to push this front, as well as other emerging trends, such as big data.