HP ProCurve Sets Sights On Cisco Core With New Switch

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Hewlett-Packard is set to take on Cisco Systems with plans Monday to roll out its first network core switch that comes with a lifetime warranty.

The ProCurve Switch 8212zl is the first core switch built entirely on technology developed in-house by HP, including its ProVision ASICs, which is why the vendor is now for the first time comfortable extending its lifetime warranty to the core, said Wensceslao Lada, vice president and general manager for the Americas at HP ProCurve, Palo Alto, Calif.

"This covers one of the demands that customers had on our portfolio," Lada said, noting that ProCurve's lifetime warranty now extends all the way from the network edge to the core.

For many customers, ProCurve's lifetime warranty is a strong driver to buy HP products instead of gear from market-leader Cisco Systems, said Chris Barnes, president of Resilient Intelligent Networks, a solution provider in Bartonville, Tex.

"The lifetime warranty takes away a lot of the complexity. A lot of customers get budget once, and it's a nightmare to go back for maintenance," Barnes said.

The new switch also gives HP the strong enterprise core offering it has been lacking, Barnes said.

"They've finally got the enterprise features that a lot of customers need in the core. They've got redundant management, redundant fans, redundant switch fabric, which are pretty much critical when you get into the enterprise-class core," Barnes said.

NEXT: HP ProCurve Targets The Market Leader

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