“We had server, storage, printer and desktop consolidation and now we have network consolidation,” Tracy Lynne Dedore, global practice lead for enterprise networking with HP consulting and integration, said in an interview. “As IT consolidation becomes more strategic, the network has become more critical. It’s no longer a separate thing, but an integral part of the data center.”

HP’s Network Consolidation Solution, is a new component of the company’s IT Consolidation Solution. It’s a grouping of services HP can offer in conjunction with its networking partners to design, deploy and support network consolidation for customers, according to Dedore. Services include implementation and migration planning strategies, data-center WANs (wide area networks), LANs and interconne- ctivity, networking security and voice/data convergence.

The network consolidation services include HP’s patent-pending Adaptive Network Architecture (ANA). ANA is a methodology HP developed for its own internal requirements to model networks based on business requirements, according to Dedore. An ANA network consists of networking compartments, a virtual backbone linking those compartments and a centralized policy management tool, according to information on HP’s Web site.

HP will initially be targeting its top 700 customer accounts as likely takers for the Networking Consolidation Solution, Dedore said. “We’re really seeing a lot of demand for network consolidation in the financial services industry, some in manufacturing, and a small amount in health care and government,” she added.