HP Moves Quickly to Integrate Colubris

Summer was a dramatic period in the network equipment market. While most folks were sitting at the beach getting a tan, vendors were up late at night trying to find a suitable merger or acquisition targets. The fruits of one such pairing have started to be seen.HP was active in this space, purchasing wireless suppliers Colubris Networks and now unveiling the first steps in its integration process. Since HP did not have any wireless products, it was relatively easy for the vendor to repackage the Colubris devices under the HP ProCurve moniker. The industry giant also brought the Colubris products under HPs lifetime warranty program. The vendor claims that the Colubris employees have joined HP, and the two are working to indoctrinate Colubris resellers in HPs methodology.

A bit trickier was integrating the different products and extending the wireless line. HP has enhanced its ProCurve Manager, which is available at no charge to customers, so it automatically discovers Colubris devices. Automated configuration managed functions are still on the docket. In addition, HP announced its first Colubris/HP product: the HP ProCurve MSM410 single-radio 802.11n access point. The company claims that is $649 price tag is significantly less ($200-$300) than competitive devices.

HP has a solid success in the networking market during the past few years and been able to hoist itself into the number two position. With the market constricting, it made a much needed move into the wireless space. The company wants to parlay its acquisition to gain more market share in both the wired and wireless markets. While the long range prognosis for those plans is unclear, HP appears to have made progress in bringing some needed cohesion to its new wireless products.

Has anyone used Colubris equipment? What was the attraction? How do you view HPs acquisition of the company: positive, mixed, or negative?