HP: Gearing Up To Take on Cisco?

June 21, 2004 - Cisco is not the only player the network strengthened its routing expertise late. Earlier this month, the company spent 28 million US dollars master core routing technology from Riverstone Networks, Inc. is a manufacturer Routing , for carrier networks.

HP has a pre-existing OEM agreement with the casting transmission network routing solution advantage. However, the acquisition of Riverstone xgs core routing technology This signals the direction away from the edge and core - HP brings more intense competition Cisco and Foundry.

According to the Joel conover a principal analyst for enterprise infrastructure Analysis of the existing companies, the acquisition of Riverstones Routing Technology is a real steal HP. "Simply put, HP can design a 10 Gigabit fabric of this technology costs, and the acquisition also gives benefits Pu stimulus in the market, the momentum of governance, which is building its adaptability edge marketing strategy, "he said.

For the record, HPs acquisition of only 28 million US dollars, including hardware design and software operating system the right technology, the Riverstone xgs technology. Rui will maintain ownership of its operating system software, the two companies will develop xgs a technological leap of their respective product lines.

HP, it said, the Riverstone technology forms the basis of its ProCurve edge of the fabric core switching solutions. HPs new part of the solution its Adaptive EDGE Architecture, which conover, which emphasizes passive core, in which all network intelligence moved away from the core (paradox) toward the edge. This is a serious challenge to the status quo, in the enterprise switch market, he pointed out that: "On the contrary, in a cost-effective, high-performance, high availability, scalability, fabrics, with HPs intelligence at the edge means less intelligent core flies in the face of traditional LAN design and the current posture much larger competitors. " HP stressed that the Riverstone technology is not intended as a substitute its OEM agreement with the foundry, but is not convinced conover. ", And no one , Hewlett-Packard and Riverstone know exactly what kind of technical content, it is safe to speculate, Riverstones next-generation core exchange xgs solutions are designed to be at least as functional as the core of enterprise competitiveness switches, "he says. . "HP is how to use the technology from Hewlett-Packard, but It is safe to assume that HP can eliminate their dependence on the foundry, if chose to do so. " Conover said HPs adaptive edge fabric technology will certainly affect many in the same market, its advantages over traditional products enjoy success. This could mean that HP plans to abandon the firm position of the long-time relative to Cisco, which two partners, and competition, Comment on "br> networking giant. "HP needs to take decisive action to position itself on the networks main competitors such as Cisco," he said, taking note of HPs "partner / competitor" relationship with Cisco " was inhibited to HP ProCurve growth as a direct competitor to Cisco Systems companies. " Riverstone shakes his acquisition of this arrangement, he concludes. "The acquisition of core network technology, HP has finally recognized ProCurve business and HPs overall strategy for the network market, Painting clearly in the sand as it stands related to Cisco. " - Stephen swoyer