Hewlett Packard announces intent to acquire LeftHand Networks

Ok, you’ve all heard the news and are wondering 'what's next?' So far the response from our customers and partners has been over overwhelmingly positive. I believe one of the key reasons is because everyone sees the synergies between the two companies and the possibilities of where we can take LeftHand’s SAN/iQ. Our CEO Bill Chambers sent letters out to customers and partners this week, which do a great job of summarizing our commitment to them. Some highlights from the letters:

“During this transition, we want you to know that we are committed to maintaining the breadth of our portfolio, and equally committed to protecting your investment by supporting existing LeftHand platforms. As you know, each LeftHand SAN is based on SAN/iQ® software which enables compatibility among all LeftHand Networks platforms, eliminating storage silos and rip-and-replace scenarios.

In recent years, as iSCSI has transitioned to mainstream technology, LeftHand Networks has worked closely with HP, constantly looking at new and creative ways to bring joint solutions to market while delivering unparalleled customer value. We promise you that won’t change in the future. The combination of HP and LeftHand Networks will enhance our ability to deliver more value in the form of:

• Feature-rich midrange iSCSI storage offerings for HP customers

• End-to-end (server to storage) virtualization solutions

• A broad set of certifications and solutions to provide more choice and optimization, now including these   HP products:

- HP Proliant servers

- HP BladeSystem infrastructure

- HP ProCurve Networking

- HP Insight Control management software

We are excited about the opportunity to leverage the synergies between our companies. We believe this will position us to deliver unmatched, world-class, end-to-end virtualization solutions for our customers.

We look forward to continuing to provide you with the best possible value and consistent support for our products.”

Bill also emphasized that our channel partners will see a commitment to them like never before. Stay tuned for many exciting announcements in the near future.

Comments

[Kishore Kumar Pillai]

Friends,

I consider this as one of the best acquisition HP had done in the recent years in storage. Apart from the value-add it brings to HP from Entry level to Mid -Range Storage Networks, It is a good answer from HP when it comes from competitors ,Dell -EqualLogic and IBMs XIV (in terms of architecture and not pricing).

~kishore pillai

[Tom Hall]

Sure its good for HP there storage line needed (and still needs) a serious refresh, it might even be good for Lefthand. However, speaking as longterm customer of HP, I'm yet to be convinced that its anything other than harmful to Lefthand's customers.

[John Spiers]

Hi Tom, thanks for the comment. I'm not sure the nature of your concern, but so far the response from LeftHand customers has been very positive. LeftHand's outstanding support team is still intact and growing. Our customers are also very excited about the technical synergies between the two companies. I'm personally excited that HP is going to help us add the additional resources we need to help accelerate the development of some new, very exciting features.

Have a great holiday and thanks again for your comment!