HP Responds To Cisco Alliance Cutoff

Hewlett-Packard is taking the high road in response to the Cisco's impending cut off of its reseller relationship. Click ahead to read HP's statement.The statement was forwarded to me by an HP public relations spokeswoman, in response to my query as to whether they had anything to say about Cisco's plan to terminate on its system integrator contract with HP. That will happen on April 30, at which point HP will no longer be a Cisco Certified Channel or Global Service Alliance partner.

Here's what HP e-mailed me:

Let's do a quick, 30,000-foot analysis of this statement. On the one hand, it's clearly high-minded and non-confrontational -- keeping a cool head in a crisis -- which is a good public persona for HP to present. As well, it goes out of its way to emphasize a best-of-breed strategy, which is also a good thing in terms of reassuring customers.

On the other hand, this is a difficult statement to get much hard information out of, since it addresses the questions at hand more from a philosophical perspective, than from the tactical aspect many people are curious about. As in, what's going to happen when an HP customer wants a Cisco switch?

Perhaps HP is kicking the can down the road on this question, until it can firm up its strategy. Certainly, this must bode well internally for HP Procurve, which will be elevated even further as the go-to networking option for HP data-center solutions. (In that regard, see my interview HP ProCurve Chief Technology Officer Paul Congdon. )

The thought that HP is still mulling its response is further underscored by the fact the fact pages spotlighting the Cisco alliance remain cached throughout HP's site. (Screen grab below.)

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Alex Wolfe is editor-in-chief of InformationWeek.com.

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