Market-leading enterprise WLAN player Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) has inked a deal with the global services arm of HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), which plans to incorporate Cisco's WiFi products in voice-over-WLAN, security, guest-access, and other applications in enterprise deployments.

Cisco says that the deal will build on its mobility drive using its "pervasive" WiFi technology to build new applications and bring together wired and wireless networks rather than separate WLAN networks. (See Cisco's Unified Services Push, Cisco: 3 Million's a Charm and Cisco's Cohen Moves Up.)

"You really have to unify these networks unless the IT department is going to double in size," says Ben Gibson, Cisco's director of marketing for wireless and mobility.

This convergence, he claims, will be the main impact of the deal for enterprise WLAN users.

HP's services arm will be able to utilize the entire range of Cisco's enterprise WiFi offerings through the deal. Gibson expects that the partnership will help drive revenues for Cisco, but neither firm will reveal the monetary value of the entire deal. Cisco has continued to build out its WiFi offerings since its January 2005 acquisition of Airespace. The firm has recently moved towards supporting a common AP control specification called LWAPP across its products and added WiFi mesh to its portfolio. (See Cisco Buys Airespace.)

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung