is being formed by the two companies to accelerate the adoption of technologies forged from the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, of which , EMC and VMware are developing pre-integrated compute, networking, storage and virtualization systems. These so-called “” are intended to allow channel partners to easily sell and integrate simplified to customers.

Acadia’s role is to wrap the VBlocks in the training and consulting services needed to initially build and operate the VBlock infrastructure, then transfer it to the partner.

The Acadia board is made up of Howard Elias, president and chief operating officer, EMC Information Infrastructure and Cloud Services; Gary Moore, Cisco's senior vice president of Advanced Services; Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s executive vice president of Worldwide Operations; and Mitch Breen, EMC senior vice president, Global Channel Strategy and Sales.

Sources say Elias is chairing the board but he would not confirm that. He has help from Moor, though, in leading Acadia for the time being.

“The two of us have really sponsored the work to get Acadia formed and beginning to stand up,” Elias said.