The rest, as they say, is history.

"A year ago, Ron invited me to have a cup of coffee and was telling me about all the things they had in the works and how excited he was, and how in order for them to be successful they needed to align with a strong partner like HP," Haas said this week in an interview with Network World. "My reaction was good, interesting, let me go back and think about it."

Haas did -- and what he discovered were some glaring gaps in HP's own product line and road map.

"More and more I got to realize that in order for us to do it organically it would take longer than I was comfortable with," he said. "And the market opportunity is now."