At the end of an interview we did this week with HP's Marius Haas on the $2.7 billion deal to buy 3Com, we asked, 'What would you say to competitors like Cisco?'
"We're here to build a networking powerhouse and we're determined to make the investments to make that happen," was Haas's reply.
And how. Haas wasn't kidding when he laid down the gauntlet at last spring's Interop, declaring HP as the clear and credible alternative to Cisco. Problem was, HP didn't have much of a networking product portfolio to match Cisco in key markets, like data center and enterprise core.
But that began to change that very week in Las Vegas. Haas took a look at what 3Com COO Ron Sege suggested he see in the 3Com booth: the H3C switches entrenched in the Chinese market and in three of the world's top five banks.
Haas had HP test them and it liked what it saw. Enough to deploy them throughout its own global network and data centers. And to buy the company for $2.7 billion.
Pundits say HP isn't done. Next might be a WAN optimization/application acceleration company like F5 or Riverbed; a conferencing company like Polycom; or a VoIP player like Avaya.
Whichever it is, HP seems ready to match the high stakes acquisition game -- $6 billion in two weeks recently for Starent and (possibly) Tandberg -- Cisco is renowned for to gain leadership and lock-in in key markets. Haas says you can take that to the bank.
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HP 3Com
For my money, now HP needs to invest in their on-line technical documentation, which has been lackluster till now. While with Cisco, it may be hard to find, it is there!
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