An Open Letter to Brocade Data Center Networking Customers and Partners
Published: October 11, 2017
Dear Brocade Data Center Networking Customers and Partners,
On October 3rd, Extreme Networks announced it entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) to acquire Brocade’s Data Center Networking business directly from Brocade. We are excited about this announcement for many reasons, but most importantly, we’re excited at the prospect of working with you – Brocade’s data center partners and customers.
Many companies claim to be customer and partner-centric, but at Extreme, we live and breathe that mantra daily, which is demonstrated through our dedication to delivering high-quality, software-driven, secure IP networking solutions that help our customers solve complicated problems. Underpinning everything we do is our award winning customer service program, ExtremeWorks, and the Extreme Partner Network partner program. Customer satisfaction truly is our top priority, and we are looking forward to welcoming you into a community that prides itself on leading in customer and partner satisfaction.
We are on target to welcome you as Extreme customers and partners by the end of the month. With this transaction, Extreme will acquire VDX, MLX, SLX, CES, CER, Brocade Workflow Composer, Automation Suites and certain other data center related products. We understand the impact that disruption may have on your business, which is why we are already working diligently with the teams at Brocade to ensure a smooth transition. Once our acquisition of the Brocade Data Center Networking business is complete, we will add these products to our portfolio and will contact all customers and partners to reassure all of you that we stand behind your current support services, product warranties, and already stated technology directions.
Specifically as this acquisition relates to partners who sell Brocade Data Center Networking solutions, our strategy is to continue to support the benefits of the current Brocade Partner Program for a period of time. Additionally we will launch a reseller helpline to ensure partners get answers to their acquisition related questions quickly and efficiently. At our global partner conference this month, we will announce the elements of our unified partner program and single partner portal.
Combined with the strengths of Extreme’s existing portfolio including the Zebra WLAN and Avaya Networking businesses, and our announced proposed acquisitions of the Brocade Data Center Networking business, we plan to offer you unsurpassed technology and service from what will be the industry’s only enterprise-focused networking vendor to deliver solutions from the data center to the wireless edge. My colleagues and I look forward to working with you closely in the near future.
Sincerely,
Norman J. Rice, III
Chief Marketing, Development & Product Operations Officer
Extreme Networks
