Cisco versus HP

Cisco and Hewlett-Packard are vying neck and neck for the valuable corporate data center market, but their leaders couldn't be more different. Whereas Cisco's John Chambers is known as a charismatic leader with a style similar to a southern preacher, HP's Mark Hurd is a by-the-numbers guy who excels at running operations. But obviously, both men have had a large amount of success.

Cisco dominates the market for networking and telecom systems. HP has a more diverse hardware portfolio, including computers, printers, servers, consulting, and software. The two companies, though, are starting to compete head to head as HP more fully enters the corporate market.

According to analysts, HP has seen its earnings grow over 22% per quarter on a year-over-year basis. Cisco has only seen 6% growth over a comparable period. HP's stock is also rising faster than Cisco's. Only time will tell which company assets its ultimate dominance.