HP Not All About 3Com: OEMs Voltaire 10G Ethernet Switch
On the heels of its $2.7 billion bid to acquire 3Com and its data center switching portfolio , HP this week entered into an OEM arrangement to resell Voltaire's 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch, 40 Gbps QDR InfiniBand director switch and management software.
HP will make these products available under its Unified Cluster Portfolio. Voltaire, traditionally a supplier of Infiniband switches for the data center, recently entered the Ethernet switch market with the introduction of the Vantage 8500 10Gbps Layer 2 core system.
HP will inherit 3Com's own high-density 10Gbps Ethernet core data center switch when the acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2010. HP ProCurve chief Marius Haas would not speculate on what might happen to the OEM arrangement with Voltaire's Vantage 8500 at that time.
"I'm not going to comment, but there's little to no overlap with those [OEM deals]," Haas said. "I'm not in a position right now to talk about our product road map."
IBM also OEMs Voltaire's Vantage 8500 as both IBM and HP look to alternative suppliers to Cisco for Ethernet data center switches after Cisco entered the blade server market, long a mainstay for the system vendors.
The Vantage 8500, as well as Voltaire's Grid Director 4700 and Unified Fabric Manager software, are available now from HP.
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