Can you please share some highlights from Extreme Networks over the past year?
John Morrison (JM): For Extreme Networks, we’ve been on a journey for some time. When we merged with Enterasys we recognised the importance of management and analytics, and that networks were becoming a core part of business technology. Since then, we continued expanding our business by acquiring Zebra Wireless and Aerohive. Most recently, we’ve acquired Ipanema – cloud-native, enterprise SD-WAN division of Infovista.
Additionally, with our acquisition of Aerohive, we were able to roll out our cloud-managed networking and universal switching, which is in line with our ethos of making networking, more simple.
Over the last year, we’ve started to see recovery in the marketplace. We had fantastic growth during our fiscal year and we’ve seen growth across all of Europe, Middle East and Africa.
How is Extreme Networks supporting enterprises navigate their networking challenges?
JM: When COVID-19 hit, we saw an increase in digital engagement and the need for contactless collaborations. This has placed significant pressure on enterprise networks. IT departments faced challenges around ensuring how can they engage with their own employees while making sure they have seamless and secure access to data and information.
So, this sudden shift has driven the distribution of the edge to the network of the network. That’s what we want to address with our concept of the ‘Infinite Enterprise’.
However, if you take the COVID-19 pandemic out of the equation, we believe that this is where the network is heading anyway. As networks increasingly become distributed, every employee is becoming a branch of one. They want to be able to have access to the information and data to perform their role and be effective for their customers. This is where we are supporting our customers. We want to help them simplify their networks in the distributed age.
Roy Verboeket (RV): From an Extreme Networks perspective, we have the ability to help our customers to maximise their infrastructure as well as scale to the cloud. In line with this, we launched a regional data centre in the Gulf region six months ago. We also recently launched one in the United Kingdom and Singapore. With the launch of these infrastructures, we can better help partners and customers with their need to scale their deployments faster.
How was the launch of Extreme Networks’ data centre perceived here in the region?
Maan Al-Shakarchi (MAS): Countries and organisations in the Middle East are very keen to embrace digital transformation. Bringing our regional data centre into the region gives us the ability to service those customers in a much faster, more transparent way while keeping their data sovereignty within the borders of the Middle East. Customers have been very keen to embrace this. In the UAE, specifically, we have customers such as the Dubai World Trade Centre, which runs on the Extreme fabric. They’re one of the customers that we’re really proud of, especially with them being responsible for hosting notable events such as GITEX.
Can you elaborate on how you aim to make Extreme Networks’ Infinite Enterprise vision a reality?
JM: The Infinite Enterprise is built on the idea that every employee is a branch of one. It has three main tenets including infinitely distributed connectivity, which enables companies to connect anybody, anywhere to any other person or application with high-quality enterprise-grade connectivity that is always present, always available and is secure and manageable.
The second is scalable cloud, which delivers the ability to orchestrate, observe, troubleshoot and find data and insights in the network. The cloud brings cost-effective scale, growing as the organisation grows. Finally, consumer-centric experience, which means delivering a best-in-class experience to people that consume network services. This can include knowledge workers but also teachers, students, patients, factory workers and others.
How are you enabling your partners here in the region to help customers achieve this Infinite Enterprise?
RV: Our partners play a very important role in delivering on this vision. We are investing in ensuring that they’re trained and constantly updated on our offerings. We are working closely with the systems engineering team of both our partners and customers, making sure that they have the right technical expertise. That is one of the key focuses of my team. We want to make sure that customers can turn the Infinite Enterprise vision into a reality.
MAS: In line with this, we have recently signed a partnership with one of the region’s leading distributors – Westcon Comstor. We’re working with them for the launch of the Extreme Networks certified training centre in the East Africa region.
JM: Furthermore, we have also introduced Extreme Academy, which utilises social networking channels such as LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube as well as thought-leadership blogs and videos to help train people in their digital environment and the Infinite Enterprise.
Extreme Academy is an academic curriculum designed to educate experienced and aspiring IT professionals on networking, security, and cloud fundamentals, as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI). Participants who complete Extreme Academy Live coursework can earn key accreditations and certifications, including an Extreme Networks Associate-level qualification. Today, over 11,000 participants are enrolled in the Extreme Academy.
