John Morrison
Senior VP International Markets - Extreme Networks

PROMISING 2020

Today’s workplace is becoming more complex, mobile and dynamic. With the rise in remote workers, increased deployment of IoT devices, adoption of cloud services and mobile applications, and greater use of AI and robotics, the traditional boundaries and functions of the enterprise network are being completely redrawn.

Extreme Networks is the industry’s premier cloud-driven, end-to-end enterprise networking vendor. It gives its customers complete network management, visibility, control, and insights across their entire wired and wireless networking environment from the edge to the data centre through its ExtremeCloudTM IQ cloud-based network management solution.  

Extreme’s strategy for the next two years is to continue building on its cloud innovation, developing deeper machine learning, AI and analytics-driven capabilities to increase the level of automation as well as supporting the decision-making process for its customers. It will continue to develop its multi-layered approach to network security, and extend Extreme Fabric Connect features deeper into its product portfolio.

SET AS A DIFFERENTIATOR

Extreme has the industry’s best networking technologies, as recognised by analysts including Gartner who has positioned Extreme  for the past two years as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure.  While it has a strong partner base and great reference customers in India, Extreme understands that improving its brand recognition will increase its consideration rate in major networking opportunities. To do this, it has simplified its channel partner program to streamline onboarding and engagement, and improve rebates for all certified partners. This year, Extreme will launch its MSP program to jointly develop and market network-as-a-service offerings based on the Extreme platform, a pay-as-you-go service that is proving very popular with Indian customers. 

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AGENDA

There has already been a massive acceleration in digital transformation initiatives in 2020. A recent report found that COVID-19 accelerated companies’ digital communications strategy by an average of six years while 97% of enterprise decision makers believe the pandemic has sped up their company’s digital transformation. Remote working, and therefore remote networking, will become the ‘new normal’ post-pandemic. Remote networking has become a necessity, and cloud-management can provide configuration scalability and global visibility for branch office deployments and teleworkers. Extreme’s focus is to make life easier for network administrators to configure, provision, and monitor equipment for their remote workers from the cloud. 

CYBER SECURITY A PRIORITY

In addition to an ever-increasing remote workforce, the deployment of IoT devices is creating one of the biggest security challenges for businesses today. If not configured, managed, monitored and maintained appropriately, IoT devices connected to a corporate network represent one of the biggest attack surfaces and opportunities for breach from a cyber criminal’s perspective. Rather than being a passive observer, the network itself must actively participate in the security ecosystem. This is exemplified by fabric-based network micro-segmentation which is designed to contain breaches, prevent lateral movement and the spread of damaging viruses, malware, and ransomware. Zero trust measures, including micro-segmentation, as well as automated monitoring and alerting will help prevent IoT devices, as well as the compromised devices of remote workers, from being the weak point in the security armour. 

DIGITAL INDIA MAKING STRIDES

Core to the government’s Digital India initiative is connectivity and the development of new capabilities and innovation based on digital infrastructure, including a commitment to create 100 smart cities by 2023. Extreme’s networking technologies are already supporting four smart city projects across India, and there are many more opportunities for its solutions to be deployed as the Indian Government completes its mission over the next three years. 

Extreme also commits 95% of its R&D budget into software automation and AI, to truly make the network an enabler for innovation, not just a utility connectivity service. It has four state-of-the-art R&D labs in India contributing to its global innovation initiatives. Extreme is also investing in local skills development by partnering with 10 leading Indian engineering education institutes on the Extreme Academy program, which provides a cloud networking curriculum to help educate and inspire the next generation of technologists.

Extreme’s commitment is to serve and empower customers, but it also sees a responsibility to challenge itself and the industry to advance what ‘networking’ means. The goal is to use its solutions to turn organisations into ‘intelligence engines’. The businesses of the future are being built in India today, and Extreme Networks would love them to be its customers.