A note issued by RBC Capital Markets analyst Thomas Curlin recently said that sources indicate HP is discontinuing the sale of its McData-sourced switching products.

Computer Business Review spoke to another source in the financial industry, who did not want to be named and has been quoted on the same topic in another trade paper. He said HP has told its sales force and its resellers to concentrate on the sale of SAN switches and directors OEM’ed from Cisco Systems Inc and Brocade Communications Systems Inc.

90% of what they’ve always sold has been Brocade or Cisco gear anyway, and it’s such a headache to qualify and support multiple vendors’ gear, the source said.

Computer Business Review asked HP and McData for comment. McData said that it had been unable to reach any of its executives, during a week that included the US Independence Day holiday, and so has seen many workers take vacation.

HP said that it has been renegotiating its OEM arrangement with McData, but also could not reach executives for comment. It provided only one statement, which does not throw any light on the issue:

HP doesn’t comment on the status of partner relationships, past, existing or future; however, what I can tell you is that we are currently selling McData switches and continue to work with them on future product development plans that include their switch technology, said the statement from Kyle Fitze, HP’s SAN marketing director.

Although HP’s website still offers re-badged versions of McData’s SAN switches and routers, the site makes no reference to McData’s flagship director hardware. It does list re-badged version of Brocade and Cisco’s directors, as well as their switches.

HP has not been a major seller of McData’s gear, and is no where near as important to McData as EMC Corp or IBM Corp, who are McData’s biggest customers. But the loss of HP’s director or switch business would be a blow to McData’s prestige. It would also be a signal that SAN switching gear is beginning to commoditize, and that as far as OEMs are concerned, one vendor’s boxes are as good as another.