In an effort to expand the vertical market reach of its HP ProCurve business, Hewlett-Packard this week announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire wireless infrastructure provider Colubris Networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to its official announcement, HP plans to integrate the Colubris product line into the HP ProCurve Networking portfolio, which the company hopes will provide it better penetration into a range of vertical markets, including manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, and hospitality.
Colubris products, which facilitate wireless local area networks (WLANs), address a variety of enterprise communications needs, including robot and plant equipment connectivity, as well as wireless access, management, and security applications. The Colubris Intelligent Mobility platform includes multi-service access points and a wireless client bridge that converts legacy, non-wireless infrastructure devices into wireless-ready mobile equipment. Colubris’ portfolio also includes 802.11n-ready multi-service controllers that centrally manage the operation of a wireless network, as well as a network management system and visitor management software that allows authorized employees to create secured guest accounts on a wireless network.
“Colubris’ overlay architecture [will provide ProCurve customers] additional choices for unifying their wired and wireless communications,” said Marius Haas, senior vice president and general manager of HP ProCurve, in an e-mail exchange today with Manufacturing Executive. “The strength of this acquisition extends HP ProCurve's products to not only address the integrated wired/wireless market, but now also [to] offer a solution to address opportunities in the wireless overlay market.”
HP expects to complete the acquisition prior to the Oct. 31, 2008, close of its fiscal year.
The deal marks the latest development within the consolidating landscape of WLAN equipment providers. Two recent examples are enterprise network vendor Aruba Networks’ January acquisition of multi-vendor WLAN management company AirWave Wireless Inc., followed by Belden’s purchase of WLAN equipment and network management software provider Trapeze Networks last month.
According to a recent report by ABI Research that evaluated 802.11n technology vendors, Colubris’ strength lies in its basic cost-to-feature value proposition, whereas competing vendors were found to deliver more flexible architectures or more solid expertise in various vertical markets.
Indeed, in a 2006 interview, Chris Koeneman, Colubris co-president and vice president of worldwide sales and service, pointed to the attractiveness of its prices: "We have some customers that line up a little corner of the manufacturing plant for $5,000 to $7,000," he said at the time.
The WiFi 802.11n specification around which Colubris has built some of its products furthers earlier versions of the IEEE 802.11 communication standard and is expected to cover transmission speeds up to 300 Mbps and add multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) performance features. The standard is expected to be finalized in 2009.
802.11n is particularly important for manufacturers, said ABI analyst Stan Schatt, because it allows greater range and addresses frequency interference issues among the most commonly used plant equipment.
“From a manufacturing perspective, Colubris has done a good job of establishing a reseller channel to reach out to manufacturers,” Schatt told Manufacturing Executive today. To date, “HP hasn’t specifically gone after manufacturing from a WiFi perspective,” he said, as ProCurve has focused primarily on wireline equipment.