In last Monday’s live broadcast following the completion of the 3Com acquisition, HP’s Executive Vice President and General Manager, Dave Donatelli, and Marius Haas, Senior Vice President and General Manager, outlined HP’s  plans to transform the networking industry.  Hammering home the advantage that the 3Com product suite, engineering team, and strong presence in China and Brazil will bring to HP, Dave and Marius reiterated HP’s commitment to address  customers’ pleas  for a networking partner committed to providing a real alternative to Cisco and  end-to-end solutions based on standards.  HP went further in its pledge by committing to deliver solutions than empower customers to become innovative and by providing solutions that offer competitive price points and help customers achieve a converged network.

The newly combined product lineup provides switches, wireless and security solutions for enterprises with large, complex deployments (A Series); midsize client seeking affordable, easy-to-use technology (E Series); small and midsize businesses  wanting improved ease of use, quick payback, and open standards (V Series); and clients needing increased network security (S Series).  While the newly named “A Series”  will extend HP’s reach into the data center with ProCurve’s Blade  and 6600 switch and  H3C’s modular switches and routers and offer a growth path for the future, HP Networking’s biggest threat to Cisco may come as a result of  HP’s high level executive contacts within its server accounts and very strong networking resources, which number approximately 5,000 worldwide.  HP has been integrating networks for its large Enterprise server customers for years and is well versed in customer needs.   Its global support organization is one of its keys to  success.  In addition, many  HP resellers also offer broad infrastructure consulting services and multivendor networking solutions to address mid-size and smaller accounts’ needs.   When combining these services with a strong product portfolio, HP Networking’s solutions offer enterprises a solution they should not hesitate to consider.

Moreover, in addition to HP’s product and services offering,  3Com’s strength in both the Chinese market and  Brazil will also complement HP Networking’s strength in EMEA (11.7%  2009 overall port share) and in NAM (5.7% 2009 overall port share).   With a stronghold in these emerging markets, HP Networking is positioned to expand  and increase its market share further. 

With the momentum and enthusiasm the 3Com acquisition has generated with potential data center customers, HP Networking must act quickly to engage several  interested organizations in proof of concept projects.  These projects should  provide testimonials that HP can deliver both the products and integration services to  provide customers the choice and lower TCO that they seek.  Moreover, these projects should extend beyond government and education accounts and serve as reference accounts for large corporations in a variety of vertical markets.  Finally, since many corporations are well underway in their planning to upgrade their networking infrastructure, time is of the essence.