The new products, announced at Interop in Las Vegas, include improved cloud network management, IEEE 802.11ac wireless access points and SDN applications. They will enable applications in retail stores and elsewhere that will facilitate the tracking of customers’ locations.

HP says the new products “expand the industry’s most complete unified wired and wireless portfolio. They are designed to support mobility by providing improved mobile end-user experiences delivered at triple the speed.”

The products bridge wireless and wired networks,” said Raymond Maisano, HP South Pacific’s enterprise group networking manager, with 4G interoperability coming later in the year. “Our customers are telling us that their networks are primarily cost centres that are too complex to manage, while they are at the same time facing increasing end-user demand for a better mobile experience.

“With HP’s cloud-managed and SDN-enabled unified wired and wireless solutions, we are enabling IT organisations to provide an improved mobile user experience, as well as offering simplified management and investment protection.”

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Maisano said the HP Cloud Managed Network address the increasing complexity of legacy network infrastructure. “It lowers total cost of ownership by reducing the need for onsite IT staff and lowering upfront costs by up to 30%, with a pay-per-use cloud service model.”

He said that with more mobile devices being used in the workplace and congesting the network, IT professionals are struggling to provide a high-quality end-user experience. “HP’s new 560 and 517 IEEE 802.11ac wireless access points enable organisations to support the growing number of mobile devices, while improving the user experience with speeds three times faster than 802.11n.”

The HP 560 access points will also be OpenFlow-enabled. “To bridge the gap between wired and wireless control, new controller appliances deliver consistent policy management across wired and wireless networks, eliminating ‘swivel-chair management’.

“With up to 40% higher scalability than competitive solutions, the HP 870 Unified Wired-WLAN Appliance provides reliable application performance for end users, supporting up to 30,000 devices. For midsize to large enterprises, the HP 850 Unified Wired-WLAN Appliance supports up to 10,000 devices.”

HP is also supporting customers’ bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives by partnering with mobile device management (MDM) vendors Citrix and MobileIron to integrate their products with the HP Intelligent Management Center (IMC) platform.

“The new HP Location Aware SDN application locates any wireless-enabled device indoors with approximately two metre accuracy—up to five times more accurate than competing alternatives Powered by technology developed at HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, HP Location Aware enables a wide range of new context-aware retail, asset management and security applications.

“This application will be integrated with the HP Virtual Application Networks (VAN) SDN controller and is designed to help businesses transform wireless LAN infrastructure into revenue-generating vehicles,” said Maisano.

HP Communications and Media Solutions has developed a proof of concept application called SmartShopper, designed for retailers and service providers. “SmartShopper enables enterprises to tighten relationships with their customers and monetise the network, delivering real-time, location-based offers to customers’ smartphones.

“Using HP’s location- and context-aware Telco Big Data and Analytics technology, organisations can increase sales by personalising the shopping experience and drive revenue through targeted promotion of relevant products.”