HP core LAN switch signals rise of ProCurve
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard isn't yet a household name in enterprise LANs but is poised to extend its gains against leader CiscoÂ with a new core switch and coordination with HP's consulting arm. The company's ProCurve networking division has made steady progress in SMBs over the past several years and last year started targeting Fortune 100 enterprises. That move has already paid off, according to market research company Dell'Oro Group, which said ProCurve beat Nortel Networks to become the second-biggest enterprise Ethernet switch vendor in the second quarter with 5.5 percent of worldwide revenue. Cisco led with 71.3 percent. On Monday, the company unveiled the ProCurve Switch 8212zl, which completes its lineup of products from the core to the edge of the LAN, according to Wenceslao Lada, vice president and general manager of ProCurve. The 8212zl is based on HP's ProVision network chip technology. It also introduced the Wireless Edge Services zl Module, a hardware module for the new switch and the 5400zl Series Intelligent Edge switches. That blade could be the first of many such products with a range of added capabilities, such as VoIP, Lada said. ProCurve has gained converts partly through competitive pricing and partly by appealing to enterprises that want relatively basic features in their LANs, analysts said. While Cisco pitches expanded network tools, such as NACÂ and deep packet inspection functions, most enterprises don't really want those things, said Burton Group analyst David Passmore. But another advantage the division has is its name, which can make ProCurve's gear an easier sell to top executives who hold the purse strings, he added. Other Cisco rivals, such as Foundry Networks, aren't exactly startups but don't give the same assurance of longevity, he said. "There are an awful lot of customers who are looking for an alternative to Cisco and yet want to buy from a big name," Passmore said. ProCurve is run as an independent business within HP. But recently the company has started using its corporate tie more actively, turning to the HP Services consulting business for referrals to customers that want network help, ProCurve's Lada said. Lada pointed to two other factors he said give ProCurve an edge: It offers a lifetime warranty on products all the way from the core to the edge, including the new switch. Many common parts among a range of ProCurve products, and the same operating system across the board, also make management easier and less expensive, he said. Cisco has different versions of its IOS (Internetwork Operating System) for different devices. Going up against Cisco's multiprotocol routing expertise, HP partners with Foundry for the technology in the ProCurve 9300 core switch, Lada said. That relationship continues because the 9300 offers more routing capabilities, and HP will keep selling and supporting that product, he said. The company's sales still come about 75 percent from small and medium-sized customers, with 25 percent larger enterprises, according to Lada. "ProCurve was predominantly an SMB play, but they have been expanding upward," said Dell'Oro analyst Alan Weckel. He thinks the company has broken away from the pack of also-rans. Its Ethernet switch revenue in the second quarter was nearly $240 million, up from just about $140 million a year earlier, according to Dell'Oro. Number-three Nortel, still recovering from years of financial restatements and reorganization, came in with about $150 million in this year's second quarter. Cisco, meanwhile, had more than $3.1 million in Ethernet switch revenue in the quarter.
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Flip-flop Computacenter has managed to tighten its belt a couple of notches and turn its infrastructure business into its headline feature - for the right reasons.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard launched a server based onÂ Intel's new Tigerton quad-core Xeon processorÂ Thursday, battling IBM for customers who run data-intensive business applications like enterprise resource planning and virtualization software. HP announced the rack-based ProLiant DL580 G5 and the blade-shaped ProLiant BL680c G5, each using four of Intel's Xeon 7300-series chips. Compared to HP's current ProLiant servers with dual-core versions of the Xeon or AMD's Opteron chips, both new servers are designed to better support virtualization, allowing users to handle their applications with a smaller number of servers than they need today, the company said. The announcement comes less than a week before AMD is expected to launch its own quad-core server chip, called Barcelona. HP, SunÂ and other vendors are expected to use that processor in a range of new platforms for similar markets. In the meantime, Intel is enjoying increased popularity for its Tigerton chip. IBM also chose the Xeon 7300 chip to upgrade its server lineup, combining the processor with its own X4 chipset instead of Intel's Clarksboro chipset. IBM announced the System x3950 M2 server on Wednesday, also touting its virtualization abilities. IBM designed the server for fast-growing businesses so it can easily scale up for larger deployments, such as data centers and ERP or CRM applications from providers like SAP and Oracle, said Jay Bretzmann, manager of product marketing for IBM. Compared to systems based on its X3 chipset, IBM will add memory and an internal USBÂ interface for loading embedded virtualization software. "As cores started multiplying, the need for memory started growing, particularly in the virtualization space. So we offered a low entry price point and head room to grow," Bretzmann said. Together, those improvements will allow users to get greater utilization out of their servers instead of having the computers sit idle while waiting for new jobs, he said. "There are so many applications that really scale. Databases are the flagship; if you write a database that doesn't scale well, you're not going to be in business for long. But virtualization allows you to load multiple OSes and achieve the flexibility and utilization that are key for quad-core technology," he said. IBM intends to keep its X4 chipset in the market through 2009, then offer a fifth-generation version by 2010, he said. IBM plans to launch the System x3950 M2 server at high volume in the fourth quarter. HP is selling the DL580 for $9,219 and the BL680c for $9,669. IBM will announce pricing for the System x3950 M2 when it is shipped, in the fourth quarter.
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F5 Networks will reveal its long-touted next-generation Internet traffic management switch on Tuesday, a device it says will help corporate customers get better performance from their networks.
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At its annual HP World user conference in Chicago this week, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) will announce a number of enhancements to its HP-UX operating system, designed to narrow the gap between the capabilities of the company's Integrity and HP 9000 servers.
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Cisco is set to unveil a data-center networking platform that  could take the place of switches that link servers as well as  Fibre Channel devices.
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InfoWorld - Hewlett-Packard launched a server based on&#160;Intel&#39;s new Tigerton quad-core Xeon processor&#160;Thursday, battling IBM for customers who run data-intensive business applications like enterprise resource planning and virtualization software.
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Baby version of big core switches. Alcatel reckons it's time that 10Gig Ethernet reached the wiring closet, and has extended its Omniswitch 9000 series with a low-end five-slot chassis able to support up to 24 10Gig ports, 96 1Gig ports, or a combination thereof.â¦
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As servers and storage start to merge into unified, virtualized systems, Cisco wants to do the same thing with the networks that connect them.On Monday, the company is set to unveil a datacenter networking platform that eventually could take the place of both the Ethernet switches that link servers as well as the Fibre Channel devices that form storage networks. The Nexus series is designed both to meet exploding demands for bandwidth and energy efficiency within data centers and to simplify the jobs of IT administrators. In the process, it could help give Cisco the central role it seeks in IT infrastructure.Cisco is already a leading player in datacenter networks with its&#160;Catalyst series Ethernet switches&#160;and its MDS storage network platform. Now it hopes to transcend those separate systems using a single, unified switching fabric and the emerging Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) standard. The platform it will use, called Nexus, will be a line of routing switches in chassis, rack-mounted and blade form. The first of these, the Nexus 7000 chassis, will be generally available in the second quarter. Prices will start at $75,000, but a typical configuration will cost about $200,000, according to Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president of Cisco&#39;s Data Center, Switching and Security Technology Group.Mark Drake is looking at the Nexus platform for future-proofing as his company, Health Management Associates, centralizes its data resources. The company runs about 60 hospitals, mostly in the Southeastern U.S. Health Management&#39;s current Catalyst switches are probably enough to handle connectivity needs in its data centers for the next two years, but it&#39;s hard to predict storage and processing requirements beyond that as he looks for the next generation, Drake said.&quot;I&#39;m looking at a little over ten years&#39; capacity,&quot; Drake said. The Nexus line is built to go far beyond the scale of the Catalysts, delivering more than 15Tbps. &quot;The capacity to grow is huge,&quot; he said.Another benefit Drake sees in the Nexus, which he has been told about but hasn&#39;t tested, is ease of management. Health Management is already trying to reduce IT staff costs by consolidating data centers from each hospital to a two main locations. Because the new platform combines storage and data switching along with security in a single switch and management interface, it could further simplify running those datacenters, he said.Initially, Cisco sees the Nexus switches at the core of datacenters that still use separate networks for processing and storage. But as FCoE emerges in storage systems, the Nexus could become the single connectivity platform, Ullal said. Its switching fabric is designed to be lossless, unlike a standard Ethernet system, which tolerates dropped packets, said Tom Edsall, senior vice president and CTO of the data center group. The platform also has built-in security features, including wire-speed encryption and authentication capability for each port.At the heart of the platform is a new, virtualized operating system, NX OS. As with server virtualization, NX OS can turn a Nexus switch into multiple logical switches running totally different processes, Ullal said . For example, one logical switch could handle storage and be managed by storage specialists, while the other links servers and is run by a different staff. A third could be a test platform. All would use a single switching fabric and set of redundant power supplies, which provides benefits in performance, economies of scale, and resiliency, she said. This virtualized architecture eventually will trickle down to other Cisco product lines, according to Ullal.Cisco also has automated some aspects of management with the Nexus line, drawing on best practices it learned partly from its customers, Edsall said. The system is designed to monitor and heal itself in many cases.The network&#39;s role in datacenters is growing as computing and storage are combined and shared, according to industry analysts. It&#39;s now the &quot;orchestrator&quot; of the datacenter, Zeus Kerravala of Yankee Group said. Cisco is the only vendor with both the networking and the computing experience to fulfill that role, he believes. But though many managers of datacenters want to see total virtualization of the datacenter, which could boost efficiency, they aren&#39;t yet ready for it.&quot;We&#39;re just entering the very early stages of the virtual datacenter,&quot; Kerravala said. &quot;This is probably at least two years away.&quot;Cisco is best positioned to build the core of datacenters because the network touches everything in it, according to Ullal, Edsall, and other executives.&quot;For Cisco, it&#39;s very critical that this platform be a launching pad to go further up the IT stack,&quot; said IDC&#39;s Cindy Borovick. However, taking control of datacenters won&#39;t be a walk in the park, she cautioned.&quot;Cisco&#39;s in a very strong position, but there are other very large suppliers that recognize how important the datacenter is and are willing to invest the R&amp;D dollars,&quot; Borovick said, citing IBM and Sun Microsystems. To Cisco&#39;s peril, datacenter administrators are more than willing to buy the best of many vendors rather than standardize on one, because they control the &quot;crown jewels&quot; of the enterprise, she said.
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Increasing front-side bus speed from 800 to 1,066 MHz addresses crucial bottleneck in system performance.
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In the three months since IBM and Intel opened design specifications for Big Blue&#39;s BladeCenter, more than 100 vendors have signed up to use the information, meaning that end users will soon have access to network switches, adapter cards and other
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Cisco Systems plans to introduce a network switch that will increase traffic capacity to 15 trillion bits of data a second.
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Despite a decline of two per cent in the second quarter of 2004, the global market for local area network (Lan) switches remains up 23 per cent year over year, the latest market research from IDC has found.
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DECEMBER 06, 2004  - Cisco Systems Inc. last week added two supervisor engines with 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports to its midrange and high-end switch lines, and Alcatel and Hewlett-Packard Co.
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Company calls PowerEdge servers more powerful and simpler to operate.
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Yet another communications-infrastructure player reports promising results.
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HP ProCurve says continued growth means it has to compete with Cisco.