Buyers to gain from HP-Cisco rift

Cisco's decision not to renew HP's contract could prove an advantage for IT buyers

Cisco will honour Cisco customer service contracts with HP for their duration

Long-time technology partners Cisco and HP are poised to go their separate ways after the enterprise networking giant announced last week via one of its channel video blogs that it would not be renewing HP’s systems integrator contract.

Senior vice president of Cisco’s Worldwide Partner Organisation, Keith Goodwin, said that when HP’s contract expires on 30 April, it will not be renewed. “HP will no longer be a Cisco Certified Channel or Global Service Alliance partner,” Goodwin said, adding that the move means Cisco will compete with HP for future business.

Quocirca director and analyst Bob Tarzey said that HP had not been happy since Cisco marched onto its turf last year with its Unified Computing System (UCS) server technology – HP is best known for its own server technology.

“So let’s face it, it’s not such a surprising announcement. HP’s ProCurve technology, together with its acquisition of 3Com, broadens its technology portfolio [in the enterprise networking market],” added Tarzey.

But HP customers running Cisco hardware and software should not be overly concerned: Good­win said that Cisco will “honour Cisco customer service contracts with HP for their duration".

Tarzey said IT buyers would benefit from head-to-head competition between Cisco and HP. “On the whole, a lot of IT purchasing is done through third parties, and they’ll be driving the deals, and passing savings on to their customers,” he said.

In a joint research note, Ovum senior analyst Adam Jura and principal analyst Jens Butler explained that innovative product hardware is still an important part of Cisco’s strategy.

Tarzey likened Cisco’s move to Oracle’s recent acquisition of enterprise and software vendor Sun: “We’re going back to the old days, where vendors delivered end-to-end systems and would offer their customers everything they need.”