HP Initiates Aggressive Cisco Trade-In Promotion for Networking Gear

Hewlett-Packard Co. is dangling an extra 20 percent discount in front of channel partners that successfully swap out certain Cisco System Inc. networking gear in favor of HP A-Series and E-Series switches, in a new trade-in promotion the vendor is calling “Catalyst for Change.”

The program grants the discount, based on list price, upfront rather than as a back end rebate as typically applied. HP officials said it was the first promotion for its A-Series and E-Series networking gear structured financially in this manner.

Eligible Cisco products include the Catalyst 2960/S Series, 3560/E Series/X Series, 3750/E Series/X Series, 4500 E Series, 4900 Series or 6500 Series, Nexus 5000 Series or 7000 Series switches. Channel partners placing orders under the program must include the swapped out Cisco switches.

The promotion has as its backdrop HP’s on-going campaign for open, interoperable networking architectures.

“Under the single vendor stronghold of the past, enterprise networks have gotten too complex, difficult to manage and expensive,” said John Kissane, vice president, Americas Sales, HP Networking.

“HP Networking gives organizations a choice that delivers unprecedented flexibility, performance and agility, which ultimately enables our clients to be more competitive,” he said.

The promotion is aimed at what HP estimates as $9 billion worth of Cisco’s networking equipment reaching end of life or service in 2011.

“Not only is a huge volume of Cisco gear reaching end of life, we saw a lot of customers put off scheduled network upgrades when the economy slowed down, so there’s pent up demand there, too,” said Marc Sarazin, AdvizeX executive vice president, sales and marketing.

AdvizeX, based in Independence, OH, has been an HP channel partner since 1979. The company maintains HP Master Level Best-in-Class status and ranks among HP’s top five system integrators in North America. AdvizeX also is a Cisco Premier Certified Partner.