Stories about: HP ProCurve

HP Monday said it has no plans to kill off any existing HP or 3Com networking products, but did not rule out such a move in the future.

Cisco, HP and others are waging an epic battle to gain control of the data center, but at the same time they are joining forces to push through new Ethernet standards that could greatly ease management of those increasingly virtualized IT nerve centers.

It started with a cup of coffee between 3Com COO Ron Sege and HP ProCurve chief Marius Haas a year ago.It ended with this week's $US2.7 billion blockbuster acquisition of 3Com by HP. In between were regular dialogue and updates, a demonstration at Interop last May, a technology bake-off in HP labs, and then an offer.

HP's news that it would lay down $US2.7 billion to acquire network switch maker 3Com not only causes industry watchers to look ahead at what could come of such a deal, but also reminds many of the IT vendor's long history of billion-dollar acquisitions.

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy 3Com for about US$2.7 billion, pushing forward the giant IT vendor's strategy for combining computing, storage, services and networking under one roof.

Fujitsu has unveiled a 10Gbps Ethernet switch designed to handle important applications in an energy-efficient way.

Hewlett-Packard Co. Friday announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Ibrix Inc., a privately-held maker of clustered file system software used for creating large, highly available network attached storage architectures.

The recent Interop Las Vegas had its bright spots: cloud computing generated genuine buzz; HP flexed its growing muscles; and dozens of innovative products were rolled out. However, there was no escaping the fact that the dour economy and significant market consolidation have taken their toll on the network industry and its biggest general trade show.