The main problem with HP switches and their 'free software upgrades' is that there are regularly bugs and regressions in the software and their solution is to have you 'oh just update the software'... this is not always practical in a production environment. And other weirdnesses. I like their gear for office networks, etc but I, personally, would keep it out of the DC and resist it in general as much as possible. A lot better than stringing a bunch of Linksys together but really not on par with "real" Cisco or Juniper. Close enough though that if you engineer around the effect of the constant software upgrades, etc, they can be a good play. Most networks I have worked on would rather get rid of their HPs and try to do so whenever they can take the outage / afford the new gear / etc. When I was a consultant in a more rural area, I pushed HP switches because businesses needed to operate on the cheap, would NOT buy Cisco due to price, etc... but I do find HP better than most of the other brands in that price range in regard to configurability, feature set, and reliability.
-Carl
