HP ProCurve Stacks Deck With New Switches

Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve Networking by HP division this week plans to expand its lineup of stackable switches with three new series of Layer 2 Fast and Gigabit Ethernet products.

The new ProCurve Switch 2810 Series, available in 24- and 48-port versions, provides fully managed 10/100/1000 connectivity in a new form factor meant to accommodate smaller wiring closets.

The switch is targeted at customers with simpler requirements that don't need the Layer 3 features available in the vendor's 2800 series.

"This is hitting someone running basic applications that doesn't need to ability to route or do Power over Ethernet," said Darla Sommerville, vice president and general manager of ProCurve Americas. The 2810-24G is priced at $2,199, while the 2810-48G is priced at $3,949.

HP is also taking its first step into the "smart" or web-managed switch arena with the launch of the Switch 1800 Series. The switches have no console port or command line interface, but can be managed via a Web interface. Targeted at SMB customers and branches of large enterprises, the line is available in 8- and 24-port versions. The former features a small form factor that excludes a fan, making it quiet enough to sit on a desktop. It is priced at $209. The latter offers two optional Gigabit fiber uplinks and is priced at $519.Dave Braucht, consulting engineer with Spokane, Wash.-based solution provider Network Design & Management, said the 8-port version will be a perfect fit for scenarios where a switch is needed for a small number of servers of appliances off the DMZ port of a firewall.

"In the past we had to use a bigger switch or create a VLAN off of a bigger chassis switch, which I don't like to do for security reasons," Braucht said.

For customers that require a quite switch with higher port density, HP is also launching the Switch 2510-24, an offering that has no fan and provides a low-cost migration path to the managed switch environment. It is priced at $419.

All of the switches are scheduled to ship in September and include a lifetime warranty.