HP boosts ProCurve alliance as Cisco fight looms

Security software providers Fortinet, Sourcefire and Vantronix have had their respective flagship products certified for use on HP blades, as have RFID provider AeroScout and VoIP technology vendor Aastra.  IP telephony vendor Avaya has also had three of its new solutions Certified by HP ProCurve labs in the US for inclusion under the programme.

ProCurve One now lists 21 vendors including Microsoft and that number is likely to grow as Darryl Brick, country manager, HP ProCurve Networking, UK & Ireland explains: “ProCurve is positioning itself as a clear choice for customers against the dominance of Cisco.”  Brick believes that even though cost is currently a major procurement factor, customers are still scared of vendor “lock in” and believes that “…HP is an open vendor. We adhere to open standards with nothing proprietary.”

Although Brick concedes that the ProCurve ONE community is missing partners from areas such a network and SAN management –areas where HP is keen to promote its own OpenView platform as the top layer management tool across a best of breed environment. Brick contends that the completeness of the current programme will help simplify solution delivery for partners and help to provide more confidence for customers.

HP, ranked second in the UK enterprise networking sector behind Cisco, has grown its portfolio substantially over the last decade primarily through acquisitions such as Colubris Networks, Opsware and LeftHand Networks. The recently proposed acquisition of 3Com, Brick believes will “fill in a few gaps” within its portfolio and allow it to offer a true “end to end” solution to challenge the likes of Cisco.

HP will be expanding ProCurve ONE with a new set of channel certification planned for early next year, although Brick states this will be a simple overlay model aimed at meeting the needs of different partners across key areas including wireless, telephony, virtualisation amongst others.

Commenting on the expansion of ProCurve ONE, Andrew Broadhead, head of marketing for HP Gold Partner Richardson Eyres UK Ltd adds: “Any programme that simplifies the message for the end user we broadly support and we will make use of the new marketing material on offer.”
 
Although he felt it was a bit early to comment on how it will affect the sales approach, he added, “at the end of the day, what the channel doesn’t want is an ill-conceived marketing campaign and the current ProCurve programme is good as it allows us to quickly add value around a set of certified solutions.”