3Com takes another shot at enterprise switching, hoping third time is a charm

3Com this week will announced plans to once again attempt to play in the large enterprise/data center switching arena globally after exiting the market -- twice.

3Com's rallying cry will be lower total cost of ownership for IT shops reeling from high vendor premiums during the current economic downturn. The company says the recession presents a ripe opportunity for a "new " entrant to disrupt the switching status quo in the data center.

[ Read a summary of more 10G Ethernet switches being announced this week ]

But 3Com isn't new. Some users may remember bitterly back to 2000, when the company alienated its largest enterprise customers by abruptly killing its CoreBuilder switch and encouraging customers to migrate to Extreme Networks. 3Com then attempted a re-entry into the large enterprise switching arena through a joint venture with China's Huawei in 2003.

That venture was successful in China but barely made a dent in the US.

A few years later, 3Com bought out Huawei's stake in the joint venture and in 2008, after a failed attempt to be acquired by Bain Capital and Huawei, 3Com established its leadership and operational focus on China when it named Robert Mao as CEO, replacing Edgar Masri.

Now 3Com is attempting a third engagement with U.S. and other international data centers and large enterprises after a successful run in China, where it claims market share leadership in enterprise switches and routers. 3Com is choosing now to tap the global market because the economic recession is sowing the seeds of disruptive change and prompting users to consider alternatives to their incumbent vendors, says President and COO Ron Sege.

"We're proven in China with large-scale networks and demanding customers," Sege says. "This is a unique opportunity that 3Com hasn't seen in the past."

3Com's banking on past practices to reestablish itself with large enterprises globally: undercutting the competition on price and total cost of ownership. Even though 3Com did not reveal pricing on its S 12500 data center switch, the company is claiming price/performance advantages over Cisco's Nexus 7000 – twofold in performance and density – and half the power consumption.

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