Cisco has dropped HP from its reseller program, in a clear acknowledgement that the two companies are increasingly becoming competitors.
The company has announced that it will not renew HP's contract to be a Cisco Certified Channel Partner once it expires on April 30.
Explaining the move, Cisco senior vice president Keith Goodwin said it was designed to “be transparent to both partners and customers—we will compete with HP for future business.”
Goodwin said the relationship between the former partners had “evolved from a partner to companies with different and conflicting visions of how to deliver value to customer.”
Yet HP was still reaping the benefits of its partnership with the vendor, including access to proprietary information and partner profitability initiatives.
“Given the evolution of our relationship it simply no longer makes sense to provide these benefits to HP,” he said.
Cisco will honour existing customer service contracts with HP for their duration, and hopes to reach a new agreement that ensures that existing customers do not have their services disrupted, he added.
The companies are increasingly encroaching on each others' business, with Cisco moving into the data centre business and HP buying up 3Com to bolster its standing in the market.