HP Ups Fight Against Cisco

Hewlett Packard Co is going on the offensive against one-time sales partner Cisco Systems Inc by offering discounts to customers who trade in Cisco products. HP said it will offer customers 20 percent off list prices for its A-Series and E-Series switches if they trade in Cisco switches from eligible product lines including the Catalyst and Nexus series. Cisco turned from HP resale partner to competitor last year by starting to sell datacentre servers. HP, in turn, challenged Cisco by buying network equipment maker 3Com for around $3 billion. The companies now compete in a wide range of equipment including switches and computer servers. Cisco, HP and other large technology vendors like International Business Machines Corp have been expanding into new services and product areas in a bid to become one-stop shops for client technology needs.