During the first quarter of 2004, HP Procurve had about 3.1 percent of the total $3.367 billion Ethernet switch market. Cisco had about 69.1 percent of that market, according to Synergy Research. Though HP may be coming from a smaller base than Cisco, the company has aggressively grown its revenue over the past year. In four of the last five quarters, HP has seen double-digit growth. Meanwhile, Cisco's growth has fluctuated. "We make no bones about the fact that we want to be the alternative to Cisco," said Brice Clark, worldwide director of strategic planning for ProCurve Networking by HP. "And I think we are doing a good job. In the past three years we have been one of the fastest-growing networking companies. We doubled our port shipments between 2002 and 2003.".

HP primarily competes with Cisco on price, Clark said slΛm case for apple iphone xs max - sea glass HP can undercut Cisco's pricing by at least 30 percent to 50 percent on most product offerings, Because of its focus on price, HP has been very successful in penetrating certain niche markets, such as education and government, But it has been less successful breaking into Fortune 500 companies, said Joel Conover, an analyst with Current Analysis, "HP is a big company and a formidable competitor for Cisco," he said, "But the biggest problem for HP is that they sell entirely through the channel, They don't have direct contact with the customer, which is critical in dealing with large enterprises."..

HP has also tried to downplay the conflict of interest. "The market doesn't need another Cisco," said John McHugh, vice president and worldwide general manager of the ProCurve business unit. "We offer a different value proposition for customers. If you've got a simple network and you're looking for a cost effective solution, HP's a good choice. But if you've got a complex need for an end-to-end solution, then HP wouldn't be the right vendor. That's Cisco's forte.". Still, HP's recent steps signal that competition between the two companies will likely increase in the coming months.

For example, HP is using the Riverstone technology to develop more in-house Ethernet switch expertise, Traditionally, the company has made work-group and wiring-closet switches, At the high end of the market, it has resold switches from Foundry Networks, Clark said the Foundry relationship will continue, and the new switches based on Riverstone's technology slΛm case for apple iphone xs max - sea glass will augment these products, In addition to broadening its portfolio with new products, HP has also enhanced older ones, For example, it has introduced higher density Gigabit-Ethernet and power-over-Ethernet modules for its 5300 series switches, It has also added new software to its 700wl wireless gateway product to improve usability, and it's improved aerials for the its 420 and 520 wireless access points..

"Cisco has carried the lion's share of the routing and switching market for several years," Kerravala said. "They have to be careful about protecting their dominance in these markets.". Rivalry between long-term partners heats up as Hewlett-Packard seeks more gains in low-end switching market. News.contextWhat's new:HP's ProCurve networking group has quietly sold switching gear for years, but now it's beginning to make some noise with new products and features aimed squarely at Cisco. Bottom line:Though HP won't threaten Cisco's dominance in the enterprise switching market anytime soon, heightened rivalries between the two companies could fray their long-standing alliance at a time when Cisco is aggressively courting new partners to fuel growth.