Can HP's alliance with Alcatel-Lucent pose real threat to Cisco ?

HP has entered into a 10-year alliance with Alcatel-Lucent. HP has been trying to delve into the networking business for quite sometime through its networking division, ProCurve. Undoubtebly, Cisco's advancements into the datacenter have strained its partnership with HP. The Alcatel-Lucent alliance will add to what HP can do in networking.

Neither HP nor Alcatel-Lucent have released too much details of the deal but they will jointly market their products in a move to help businesses move their telecommunications networks into more converged infrastructures. HP and Alcatel-Lucent will offer services around the joint offerings, and Alcatel-Lucent's products in such areas as IP telephony, unified communications, mobility, security and contact centers will be integrated with HP's technology offerings. Those integrated products will be offered via resellers or as services. As part of the partnership, HP will transform and manage a large part of Alcatel-Lucent's IT infrastructure.
Though this partnership seem to have a lot of potential in the long run, might not pose a real threat to Cisco, as of now HP is just testing waters into this market with Alcatel-Lucent and consolidating its presence in the telcom market. Cisco would not face a head on competetion from HP but it needs to seriously on work on its partnership/alliance dynamics.