HP to sell line of Linux-based open-source networking switches manufactured by Taiwan's Accton Technology
Quentin Hardy / New York Times :
Context & Ripple Effects
This switch deal slots into a busy stretch of HP networking restructuring: weeks later it was in talks to buy Aruba for Wi-Fi (Aruba Networks acquisition talks), and by May it had agreed to hand 51% of its China data-networking unit to Tsinghua Holdings (sale of the Chinese networking stake) while acquiring the SDN startup ConteXtream for virtualization (ConteXtream SDN acquisition).
The pattern: HP exits low-margin proprietary box-selling in China while re-entering networking through open, software-defined lines. Sourcing the hardware from Accton — a Taiwanese original design manufacturer — rather than building it in-house makes that pivot concrete, and it set up HP's own OpenSwitch operating system launch months later.
First-order effects
- Enterprise buyers gain an HP-branded alternative to fully proprietary switch stacks, with Accton as the contract manufacturer behind the hardware.
- Accton lands a marquee Western OEM customer for its white-box switch line, validating its model of making gear others brand.
Second-order effects
- Incumbent switch vendors face price pressure as HP's Linux-based line undercuts the bundled hardware-software pricing they depend on, forcing responses on software value rather than box cost.
- The move pulls HP deeper into networking software — the ConteXtream deal and the later OpenSwitch developer community are the follow-through — shifting its margins from hardware toward control layers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, enterprise networking disaggregates the way hyperscaler data centers already have: merchant-manufactured hardware from Asian ODMs like Accton, with differentiation migrating to open network operating systems and orchestration software.
- Big vendors become arbiters of openness rather than defenders of closed stacks — a structural role reversal that reshapes where switching-industry profit pools sit over time.
The trend: Data-center networking is disaggregating from vertically integrated vendors toward ODM-built Linux switches topped with open software, with large vendors like HP leading the mainstream adoption.