HP Pitches New ProCurve Products

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Hewlett-Packard Monday expanded its product offerings from its ProCurve Networking division.

Designed to compete with products from networking gear makers Cisco Systems and 3Com as well as targeting wired and wireless networking managers, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer and printer maker unveiled its Secure Access 700wl Series, Enterprise Access Point 520wl and Universal VoIP Infrastructure and Power Over Ethernet lines to better address voice, video and data applications.

The company also introduced a Switch 5300xl series blade based on the proposed IEEE 802.3af standard for supplying Power over Ethernet (PoE) cabling. HP says it expects to deliver the 5300xl series standards-based PoE blade and external power system with up to 15 watts per port in second half of the year.

HP ProCurve Networking also plans to introduce 802.3af-compliant stackable switches with integrated power with 7.5 watts per port and fully loaded external power supplies and power management this fall.

“Enterprises are looking for more effective ways to communicate with both wired and wireless networks,” John McHugh, vice president and general manager, HP ProCurve Networking Business said in a statement. “By making it easy for enterprises to extend their network and ultimately their brand to guests, the HP ProCurve Virtual Lobby provides appropriate access based on guests’ unique needs while ensuring the experience is more productive and powerful.”

HP says its ProCurve Secure Access 700wl platform lets network managers control wireless access by user, by location and by time of day. The series is compatible with any VPN client. HP says the equipment should be available this summer.

The Switch 5300xl series upgrade includes support for Web-based user authentication enabling the network to detect a Web browser’s launch, compare the user/client information to an authorized user list and allow approved guest users to log onto the network. Supporting both wired and wireless functionality without the need for special client software, the Switch 5300xl series upgrade also supports authentication of a broader range of client devices for RADIUS authentication.

On the VoIP front, HP says its Universal VoIP Infrastructure and Power Over Ethernet now supports multi-vendor interoperability testing

The company’s new Enterprise Access Point 520wl enhancement comes with both 802.11a and 802.11b support. HP ProCurve intends to support the 802.11g standard when the IEEE standards body ratifies it.

HP’s ProCurve products are based on its Networking Adaptive EDGE Architecture, which is also the basis of the Intel Itanium 2 processor, which HP helped develop in the 90s.