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HP’s ProCurve Closes Colubris WLAN Acquisition| Oct 10, 2008 | Enterprise Network Systems | Competitive Intelligence Reports
Current Perspective: Positive Event SummaryOctober 1, 2008 – HP’s ProCurve announced it completed its acquisition of privately held Colubris, a maker of high-speed 802.11n WLAN products. ProCurve intends to integrate the WLAN products, which aimed primarily at hospitality, transportation, healthcare, education, manufacturing and service providers, into its existing product line. ProCurve pledged full support for its existing WLAN and the acquired Colubris product lines. Analytical Summary• Current Perspective: Positive on HP ProCurve’s completing its acquisition bid for WLAN vendor Colubris Networks, because it gives HP ProCurve its own line of overlay WLAN products with good security and an architecture well suited for high-speed IEEE 802.11n data rates. With the Colubris product portfolio in hand, HP ProCurve is now a legitimate WLAN competitor. And because the Colubris product line augments HP ProCurve’s existing WLAN module for its Ethernet switches, it also allows HP ProCurve to offer both overlay wireless and integrated wired/wireless LAN options to customers. • Vendor Importance: Very high to HP’s ProCurve, because it allows the number two networking vendor to bring a strong WLAN product line to its customers and broad reseller channel, which has lacked an 802.11n next generation wireless option from ProCurve to offer customers. If executed well, ProCurve now has the potential to take the Colubris products and move both itself and Colubris out of the “other” category in market share for wireless LANs. It also marks the first time HP ProCurve has executed an acquisition, demonstrating a new willingness to acquire when time to market becomes critical. • Market Impact: High on the WLAN market, because the number two overall networking vendor with strong momentum behind it has suddenly become a serious contender in the WLAN market with a next generation 802.11n high-speed product line. The timing is right for adoption of the emerging standard, and ProCurve brings a broad-based reseller channel to complement Colubris’s vertically-focused stable of resellers. ProCurve can now take on market leaders like Cisco with a unified offering that delivers both integrated wired/wireless and overlay WLAN capability. Recommended Competitor Actions• Competitors with good mind share in the WLAN market should emphasize in their sales and marketing efforts the fact that both HP ProCurve and Colubris are relative unknown quantities in the WLAN market with very little market share. • Although HP ProCurve pledge “complete support” for both WLAN product sets, it’s likely to pull back at some point from supporting two separate products based on different architectures. Competitors can cast doubt about the long-term viability of the existing WLAN switch modules in the ProCurve product lineup. • Vendors with centralized architectures such as Cisco and Colubris should continue to tout the perceived advantages of a central WLAN controller, such as greater flexibility and security options. Recommended End User / Customer Actions• Colubris customers worried about the long-term viability of their WLAN provider can now breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that their products will be supported by a vendor with a strong global reach for some time to come. • Would-be 802.11n users who held off on such purchases waiting for a more established vendor to offer products based on the emerging standard can now move off the sidelines more confidently and evaluate the former Colubris products. • Potential WLAN buyers in general who were reluctant to go with a smaller vendor and thus had a limited number of top tier vendors they could turn to now have one more solid alternative to Cisco, Aruba and Motorola. • ProCurve has historically competed on price in the overall Ethernet switching market when going up against Cisco and others. Customers now looking to buy wireless LANs now potentially have greater pricing leverage against top tier providers such as Cisco. CLIENTS ONLY Current PerspectiveCompetitive Positives and ConcernsRecommended Vendor Actions| Client access - Full report in Enterprise Network Systems | More information |
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