Latest Enhancements to Award-Winning ProCurve Networking by HP Switch Family Underscore Quest for Industry Leadership
PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 23, 2000 -- Hewlett-Packard Company, a leader in networking technologies, today revealed a roadmap for future enhancements to its flagship ProCurve Networking by HP family of Layer 2+ switches
(HP ProCurve Switch 8000m, 4000m, 2424m and 1600m), reiterating its leadership position in networking innovation, functionality and price/performance. HP is making these enhancements available at no cost.
The new features represent the latest in HP ProCurve's aggressive networking technology advancements and underscore the quest for industry leadership by one of the networking market's fastest-growing competitors.
When launched in 1998, the ProCurve Networking by HP family of Layer 2+ switches defied conventional wisdom by making gigabit-supported 10/100 technology for the desktop affordable for mainstream customers and by delivering a forward-looking solution based upon HP's innovative programmable network processor. This price/performance and innovation placed ProCurve Networking by HP products in a class with Nortel, 3COM and Cisco, and helped propel the ProCurve Networking by HP family past Cabletron in the LAN switching market.
"The enhancements announced today ensure the ongoing value of our customers' investments and extend the application of these products in large enterprise and small commercial networks," said Jan Bell, worldwide marketing manager, ProCurve Networking by HP "These enhancements pave the way for another round of innovative solutions that will, as in 1998, add further value to our existing products and accelerate HP's success in delivering industry-leading networking solutions."
A Roadmap to Increasing Value
Several phases of new functionality are planned for the ProCurve Networking by HP family of switches. Future features will extend the products' application upward into the enterprise with advanced security and policy-based management, and downward into smaller enterprises with ease-of-use innovations.
The first phase, scheduled for this summer, will deliver the following:
- end-to-end policy-based management with plug-ins for the
HP OpenView PolicyXpert;
- enhancements to HP TopTools that provide configuration policies and a firmware-revision management tool that will automatically detect new firmware available from the HP Web site and, when desired, schedule firmware upgrades for ProCurve switches throughout an enterprise; and
- new firmware that allows creation of a virtual stack with a single IP address, easy configuration of VLANs, and policy management of link speed for Cat-3 wiring environments.
Later phases will add advanced security features for networks of all sizes, including TACACS+ and SNMP Version 3, and policy-based access control based on the emerging IEEE 802.1X standard.
U.S Pricing and Availability
The ProCurve Networking by HP enhancements announced today are expected to be available this summer at no cost at ProCurve Networking by HP Site. HP TopTools facilitates and automates the upgrade process for existing customers.
About ProCurve Networking by HP
ProCurve Networking by HP is a leading supplier of networking products, including Ethernet hubs and switches, routing switches and network-management applications, that allow customers to build proactive networks.
Information on ProCurve Networking by HP, visit the ProCurve Networking by HP Site.
About HP
Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on capitalizing on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic services.
HP plans to spin off Agilent Technologies and distribute its shares to HP shareowners by mid-calendar year 2000. Agilent consists of HP's test and measurement, semiconductor products, chemical analysis and healthcare solutions businesses, and has leading positions in multiple market segments.
HP has 85,400 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program, visit the HP Site.
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