Rival tech firms can only keep up their partnerships so long. With their business interests in servers and networking on a collision course, HP and Cisco are putting an end to their formal partnership.
Cisco has announced that it will terminate HP’s status as a certified partner in April, though the two firms expect that they will continue to work together, if on a more limited basis. Datamation has the details.
Cisco is ending its relationship with HP as a Cisco Certified Channel Partner in a move that will open the floodgates for full scale competition between the two firms.
It’s hardly surprising after a year in which both Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) announced multiple competitive offerings that encroach on each other’s traditional space.
“We are taking this action to be transparent to both partners and customers — we will compete with HP for future business,” Keith Goodwin, senior vice president of Cisco’s Worldwide Partner Organization, said in a video message explaining the transition.
The partnership will formally end on April 30.
Goodwin noted that over the last few years, Cisco’s relationship with HP has changed, as the companies have moved from being partners to having conflicting visions. The Cisco Certified Channel Partner designation is significant, in that it provides partners with access to product roadmaps and other proprietary information.