Bladewatch.com

wsj.com

Hewlett-Packard seems to be taking a full-force swing at longtime ally Cisco Systems.

In a press conference Monday at its Palo Alto, Calif. headquarters, H-P introduced new switching devices for data centers and related software, broadening a push by the computer maker into the networking turf that Cisco has long dominated. To bolster its efforts, H-P said that a group of other companies that make networking products will bundle their products with H-P’s ProCurve networking hardware. Among the companies joining H-P are Microsoft, software-maker McAfee, and wireless security company AirTight Networks.

Marius Haas, the head of H-P’s ProCurve unit, didn’t single out Cisco by name in his presentation Tuesday. But in a subsequent interview, he made it clear that Cisco is a target. “Anytime you have a competitor in the market that has 60, 70, 80% market share, you’re going to run into them more times than not,” he says.

His company has had a networking business for about 25 years. But H-P is also a major reseller of Cisco hardware, too. The latest announcements come as the computer maker seems to be de-emphasizing that strategy–and not long after word leaked out that Cisco may be entering the computer business with a device known as a blade server ((http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/12/12/cisco-pushing-further-into-the-data-center/)), encroaching on turf occupied by companies that include H-P, IBM and Dell.

We’ll have to see, as different parts of the infrastructure converge we will see more innovation and cross over in terms of products and services. This brings more opportunities for the end user in terms of product innovation and competition which has to be a good thing; it will be interesting to see what happens in the near future.

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