2/23/2006 -- Hewlett Packard Co.'s (HP) ProCurve switching line has been an enterprise contender for quite some time now. Not any more.

With the announcement last week of a slew of new products, including Layer 3/4 LAN switches that feature wire speed performance and Gigabit Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, ProCurve looks to be living up to its promise -- by complicating things for heavyweight Cisco in the enterprise switching space.

ProCurve announced the new ProCurve 5400 chassis and ProCurve 3500 stackable family of switches. In addition, HP's networking arm unveiled the value-priced modular 4200 Series and fixed configuration ProCurve 6200 Series, along with a one-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet port module for the 8100fl Series.

Analysts say ProCurve's product dump amounts to a veritable boondoggle for prospective customers. "ProCurve has come forth with enterprise-class features such as full Layer 3 routing, 10 Gigabit Ethernet support, PoE and its virus throttling and Identity Driven Management features. This, coupled with ProCurve's aggressive price and industry-leading warranty, will make these solutions popular with customers," says Steven Schuchart, a senior analyst for enterprise infrastructure with Current Analysis.

The new 5400 Series (a replacement for ProCurve's older 5300xl Series) and 3500 Series (a new addition to the ProCurve line) switches, for example, could be just the Rx for budget-minded customers, Schuchart suggests. "With the 5400 Series, ProCurve is offering the wiring closet and small core markets a versatile, expandable modular switch, but it offers slightly less density per rack unit than current fixed configuration switches," he argues. "The 3500 Series offers a ‘pileable' configuration without any form of dedicated stacking ports, but has the ability be managed as a single unit with other 3500 Series products."

In most respects, the new products match up well against competitive offerings from Cisco and 3Com, Schuchart says. "Both the 5400 and 3500 offer full PoE as well as 10 Gigabit Ethernet support, giving both products good investment protection. The new Switch 4200 Series is a unique beast, with the smaller model coming with fixed ports built-in yet still having several slots for modular line cards. This product is designed for customers that need less functionality than what is offered on the 5400 Series at a better price," he observes. "The new ProCurve products [featured in] this announcement represent the finish of an almost complete product refresh for ProCurve by Hewlett-Packard, making it a much more vital competitor in the market place."

All isn't sweetness and light for ProCurve's switching aspirations, of course. The new 5400 Series, for example, might even have a show-stopping Achilles heel. "The 5400 Series offers PoE and Gigabit Ethernet connections, [and is meant to be used] in a VoIP implementation. This is problematic...since the fabric and management of this switch are not removable, let alone hot-swappable. Many customers who want VoIP will find this an unacceptable weakness in their VoIP installation," Schuchart notes.

What's more, he says, the port density of the new ProCurve 5400 (on a per-rack unit basis) is less than that of the ProCurve 3500 or competing fixed configuration solutions with 48 ports. On top of this, the ProCurve 3500 isn't a true stackable switch, Schuchart observes. "HP has mitigated the worst problems of manageability, but competitors will still characterize the product as a pileable switch that lacks consolidated management. In addition, most customers in higher-end installations will stack the 3500 with the optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, adding to the cost of the solution," Schuchart indicates.

Cisco, for its part, will almost certainly try to exploit these perceived shortcomings in its own marketing efforts, he concludes. "Cisco should stress its expertise in VoIP versus ProCurve's loose partnership and characterize ProCurve as a bit player in the switching business whose primary success is in extremely cost-sensitive environments such as institutions and small government departments." -Stephen Swoyer