HP readies for Cisco's datacenter assault

From InfoWorld: HP ProCurve will unveil this week its first switches built specifically for datacenter applications, as well as a server module for existing switches that enables users to begin integrating and consolidating switching and application processing.

HP, a fixture for decades in datacenter server racks, is broadening the role of its ProCurve networking arm in those compute-intensive environments just as Cisco is about to step into the datacenter server fray. Cisco's 'California' blade servers, which will reportedly integrate switching, application processing, and virtualization in a single platform, are expected late in the second quarter.

The release of California also is expected to strain relations between Cisco and HP (and also IBM), which previously have collaborated on complementary datacenter opportunities for networking and servers.

"This is clearly a demonstration of HP really taking ProCurve in the enterprise and leveraging other HP strengths," says Jon Oltsik, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "HP's certainly in the datacenter business and for the first time ever they're talking about handling all communications, too. HP is looking at where it can succeed in the enterprise networking market and picking its battles strategically."

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