Brief: HP's Acquisition Of Aruba Networks Reignites Its War With Cisco

In 2009, Mark Hurd, a former CEO of HP, responded to Cisco CEO John Chambers' release of Cisco's UCS line with the acquisition of 3Com. While many expected an all-out war, the few early battles quickly petered out. Under Meg Whitman, HP has reignited the war with Cisco with its $2.7 billion dollar acquisition of Aruba Networks. HP's future depends on a successful networking portfolio, as the network is a key element in any enterprise's business technology agenda. But this isn't without risk for infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals, who have seen HP try this before with Colubris Networks and then again with 3Com. In this brief, Forrester explains how this deal affects HP and Aruba I&O customers, the changes in original equipment manufacturing (OEM) relationships, and the strategies necessary to mitigate the risk of investing in the wireless solution from either company.