ProCurve enjoys WLAN boost

On the up: ProCurve grew unit shipments by about 70 per cent in Q4 2008

Having acquired wireless LAN (WLAN) specialist Colubris Networks last year, HP ProCurve has celebrated its elevation to EMEA's number two enterprise WLAN vendor.

The Enterprise WLAN Report Q408 from research house the Dell'Oro Group claims the increased adoption of 802.11n technology will drive the market to a worth of almost $4bn (£2.7bn) by 2013. This represents more than tenfold growth, which Dell'Oro predicts will be fuelled by demand from traditional office environments, in addition to the historical core markets of education and healthcare.

In 2008's fourth quarter, most vendors experienced a modest rise in WLAN unit shipments, driving the enterprise market as a whole to year-on-year growth of 0.2 per cent. ProCurve closed its acquisition of Colubris on the quarter's opening day, helping it to record growth of 65.9 per cent on the same period last year.

This growth saw ProCurve become EMEA's number two vendor in terms of shipment volume. Lars Koelendorf, ProCurve's EMEA category manager for wireless networking, claimed his firm was keen to further strengthen its position.

“The successful and rapid integration (of the Colubris portfolio) underscores our dedication to leading the way in next-generation unified wired and wireless networks that customers demand," he said. “We are very happy to have gained this key position in EMEA and will continue to leverage our knowledge, expertise and product portfolio to our existing and new customers.”