Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems had a good run together, but the relationship is headed toward a rocky future, as both giants move forward with plans to steal away business from each other’s core markets.

The showdown between the two Silicon Valley titans and long-time partners may not evolve into all-out warfare immediately.  But recent developments are clearly realigning what was once a cozy relationship and are setting the pair up for an epic collision.

The world’s largest PC-maker announced a slate of news around the HP ProCurve business that includes a new class of switches for data centers, new data center management software and a new program called HP ProCurve ONE, which optimizes corporate applications for HP’s networking infrastructure.

The news helps counter recent reported moves by Cisco this month to expand into data centers by entering the server market, one of HP’s core businesses.  Cisco is working on a server product that will incorporate switching, application processing and virtualization software in one piece of hardware, according to several reports.

The two are converging on the data center, trying to create an end-to-end offering for the large facilities that house computer and telecommunications systems.  Cisco has been strong on the networking side, connecting the data centers, while HP has been a major seller of the servers that populate the facilities.  Now, both are trying to be the primary vendor for customers as they build their centers.

Are end to end solutions really best for the datacenter, and can one vendor be great in everything?  How do customers feel about going to a networking manufacturer for their servers and vice-versa?

 

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Tags: Cisco Systems, HP ProCurve, Silicon Valley

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