Extreme Networks CEO takes aim at rivals Cisco, Juniper and HPE

Extreme Networks, a networking player that may be smaller from a revenue perspective compared with some of the networking market heavyweights, can’t be counted out.

The company that’s proven to be a mighty rival thanks to its loyal base of channel partners, enterprise and large-venue customers, including many of the major NFL and MLB stadiums, was once again dubbed a Leader in the most recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure report among Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks. Speaking of the competition, with the networking industry in flux as evidenced by Cisco’s $28 billion acquisition of Splunk and the pending deal between HPE and Juniper Networks, Extreme is making hay of what it calls the market “confusion” by doubling down on its winning strategy and not getting distracted, the companies top leaders told CRN ahead of its annual Extreme Connect user conference this week.

Extreme took to the event to highlight some impressive modern connectivity use cases, including one customer that’s bringing connectivity to remote areas such as the Amazon. The company also unveiled Extreme Labs, a new hub for research, development and innovation in networking.

Extreme President and CEO Ed Meyercord and Nabil Bukhari, Extreme’s chief product and technology officer, spoke with CRN about the new value chain that AI presents to networking vendors and channel partners and laid out how AI is shaping Extreme’s strategy this year. The executives also spoke candidly about what the recent networking M&A activity—namely, the Cisco-Splunk acquisition and the pending HPE-Juniper deal—means for Extreme, and how Extreme’s “One Network, One Cloud” approach is helping the specialist stand out. CRN