back to article HP-Cisco split allows competitors to pick up pieces

Fighting is ongoing in the aftermath of Cisco stripping HP of its favoured partner status. We even heard, inaccurately as it happened, that HP has discontinued the Cisco switch for the C series blade chassis. Support of Cisco gear in HP accounts is an opportunity as far as Comtek is concerned. It provides IT repair services …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Nate Amsden

    not hard to beat

    I think someone would be hard pressed to find a chassis switch that's more expensive than the 6500, and at least somewhat hard pressed to find a modern chassis switch that performs worse.

    I don't really see anything in the article that seems to tie a new force10 offer with the recent HP/cisco split. As you may recall HP partnered up with Brocade/Foundry pretty quickly to OEM their stuff after the UCS was launched. I remember HP used to OEM the Foundry MG8(and perhaps other products) several years ago.

    This article at first seemed to imply a partnership with HP and force10, but in the end there's no indication of that, and sounds like they aren't even talking, otherwise force10 wouldn't be advertising to go out and replace Procurve gear as well.

    It would be interesting to see if any other 3rd parties come up with switching gear for HP blade systems, though with HP pushing virtualconnect(I don't know how open HP might be to other vendors adding VC support to their gear) it may be difficult to make much progress in the future.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    6500 is not really end of life

    It's not a particularly well kept secret that there's a new Supervisor coming for the 6500 yet, and a whole load of new blades to go with it. Agree it's expensive though, even Cisco are pushing Nexus 5K and 7K as cheaper depending on port count, leaving the 6500 as a 'services switch' off to the side with it's load balancing / firewall / VPN modules etc.

    1. solid gold suleyman

      every year

      we hear rumors a) that Cisco will kill the Cat6k series and b) new cards are just around the corner. The rumors seem to cancel out, and the Cat6k soldiers on. The chassis has had a long run, and purchased used, is still a good fit l for certain applications (like end of row switch for data center. I can't see them doing a new 1 gig card unless it offered EEE, and for 10 gig I imagine they would try to sell me a Nexus...

      -SGS

  3. Ponk

    HP and Cisco

    Yes, its hotting up out there. We've just had HP discount Cisco UCS out of a 64 Blade deal. Originally we were going to use Cisco blade switches. Now we cant get guaranteed supply of the Cisco c series switches. We are changing to alternatives. Plus HP is now taking it to the edge Cisco infrastructure, offering us free Procurve 6600s, cross training and Flex-10 upgrades.

    Its certainly game on from what we've seen of HP lately. We're deferring our Nexus 5K upgrades to see what the next move will be.

  4. Chris Mellor 1

    Switches on temporary hold, not discontinued.

    Sent to me by HP... Chris.

    Hello,

    As Product Manager for both of these switches at HP, I can tell you with certainty that neither the 3120G or 3120X have been discontinued. Both remain part of our portfolio of Ethernet switches along with the Cisco Catalyst 3020 Blade Switch.

    Both of the products you mention in the article are on temporary order hold due to some well documented part shortages on Catalyst products. Cisco and HP are working together to resolve the shortage and clear the order backlog as quickly as possible.

    Once product is available the order blocks will be lifted and c-Class BladeSystem customers who rely on these switches can be assured that they will again be available.

    The hold was put in place well before the most recent announcement by Cisco to not renew our partner status and the two actions are completely separate.

    Steve Barry

    Product Manager Ethernet Blade Switches

    Hewlett Packard

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like