Data center operations teams are feeling the pressure to keep pace with business demands for services at cloud speed, but monolithic technology stacks, limited visibility and manual processes are holding them back. To help customers overcome these challenges, Extreme Networks, Inc. today announced the path to the new, agile data center - one that allows organizations to automate at their own pace with cross-domain IT automation, management, visibility and analytics tools that work in any vendor environment. 

New hardware and software in Extreme's Agile Data Center solution provides organizations with the tools they need to embrace automation, wherever they are on their journey. Secure, plug-and-play technology combines the best of acquired data center networking and automation tools with Extreme's powerful management, analytics and security capabilities to reduce the risk and mitigate the complexity - and manual labor - involved in deploying and managing multi-vendor environments and transitioning legacy architectures.

Benefits include:

• Cross-domain IT automation: Extreme Workflow Composer, powered by Extreme's StackStorm platform, enables customized cross-domain, multi-vendor IT automation, enabling full integration of compute, storage, security and network resources.
• Automation at your pace: Extreme Embedded Fabric Automation enables plug-and-play data center fabric creation within seconds for a fabric of any size - with no need for additional software or servers. Customers can automate at their own pace with customizable workflows using popular tools such as Ansible, as well as the ability to move to full IT automation with Extreme Workflow Composer.
• Single pane of glass management: The Extreme Management Center platform delivers end-to-end, multi-vendor management and monitoring capabilities across the entire network - from the wired/ wireless edge and campus to the data center-reducing administration time and speeding issue resolution.
• Insights where and when you need them: The ExtremeAnalytics dashboard provides end-to-end application visibility and telemetry across the campus, data center, between VMs on hosts and to the cloud, enabling administrators to support the business with real-time information to make informed decisions. A virtual sensor captures traffic information on and between VMware virtual instances, without slowing down the network. The guest VM capability of Extreme's SLX family of switches and routers gives network administrators distributed analyzer capabilities for on-box analysis.
• Network adaptability and agility: Extreme's open and vendor agnostic architecture eliminates lock-in and forms the basis for a network that easily and quickly adapts to ever-changing business needs fueled by digital transformation. Seamless VMware vCenter integration accelerates application deployment through zero-touch VM discovery, VM mobility and VM server migration.
• Hardware for any use case: Extreme's SLX switching and routing platforms provide the foundation for the modern data center. New SLX 9030 leaf switches, designed for enhanced Top of Rack switching, and the SLX 9640 router for scalable, high performance border routing and data center interconnect (DCI), strengthen an already robust and comprehensive portfolio.
  

Executive Perspectives

Jon Dyson, Vice President of Network Infrastructure, Piksel

"We've been using Extreme's carrier-class SLX data center solutions for border routing, for providing cloud connectivity to various public cloud providers for our customers, and to enable interconnectivity between our own data centers. We've found that Extreme's innovative network automation capabilities and SLX products address the increasing agility and analytics needs of digital organizations."

Mike Leber, Owner, Hurricane Electric

"We've been using Extreme Networks' SLX products in our global internet backbone to provide IP transit and layer 2 transport services to over 185 major exchange points and 7,200 networks in 40 countries around the world. The new SLX 9640 provides us with a highly scalable routing platform, in a small form factor, that will allow us to continue our expansion into new markets, while dramatically reducing our space and power requirements."

Brad Casemore, Vice President of Research for Datacenter Networks, IDC

"Data center networks typically comprise both legacy and new infrastructure, often from multiple vendors, and that poses a complexity challenge for network operators seeking to leverage visibility to manage proactively. Without pervasive visibility into what's happening on the network, as well as the ability to automate and orchestrate network operations, network administrations are locked into a reactive posture. Extreme's Agile Data Center portfolio is designed to make it possible for network operators at enterprise and cloud-service providers to be proactive in areas such as business-level SLAs, transforming the network - and those who manage it - into a facilitator of business outcomes rather than a cost center."

Nabil Bukhari, Senior Vice President of Products, Extreme Networks

"For Extreme, interoperability means more than just a myriad of APIs. It means delivering real, multi-vendor capabilities that meet the needs of the modern enterprise - the types our competitors don't like to talk about. With our new Agile Data Center Solution, we are walking the talk. Extreme's Management Center allows for full visibility and management of multi-vendor networks, and Extreme's Workflow Composer enables cross-domain, multi-vendor IT automation. Further, our adaptable data enter fabric gives customers the ability to build once and re-use it many times. All of this gives organizations the ability to digitally transform their data centers to quickly adapt and respond to new service demands quickly for greater business advantage."