Announcing Extreme Platform ONE: Simplifying Secure Connectivity and Automation
Published: December 16, 2024
Complexity is the biggest hurdle to progress!
At Extreme Networks, reducing complexity has been at the core of everything we do. Extreme has challenged the status quo at every step in our journey— from leading the charge in cloud networking to simplifying licensing with universal hardware. And we are not done yet.
With connectivity at the core of every function and every activity in any business, an exceeding number of teams are either a stakeholder in networking, think security and application teams, or are dependent on the telemetry and intelligence from the network, think marketing and finance teams.
In recent years trends like hybrid work and massively distributed enterprises have had a profound impact on how we think of networks and how we use them. Today, networks are exponentially more far reaching and complex than ever before. They comprise many elements, most of them with their own management applications, operational and data models) and teams must contend with all these disparate system in their everyday work.
According to ZK Research, 80% of IT decision makers believe the network alone is more complex than it was two years ago. Moreover, Harvard Business Review recently published research finding that an average of 5 working weeks per year is wasted on swiveling between apps.
This constant context shifting results in productivity losses, increases the chance of errors, which then leads to greater risk. Automating across multiple disconnected applications adds even more cost, complexity, and risk for customers. On top of that, the fractured licensing system makes it expensive and difficult to even understand where to start.
It is in this context that Extreme is taking the next big step in its continued mission to reduce or eliminate complexity.
We are very proud to have announced Extreme Platform ONE....The next big step for our industry!
Extreme Platform ONE is the first enterprise connectivity platform that integrates networking and security with AI into one powerful and radically simplified experience.
With Extreme Platform ONE your networking, security and business teams now have access to one unified, composable workspace, that delivers the information needed to get your work done, to the right personas, in real-time.
Behind the scenes, AI is core to the platform, bringing together all the services needed to automate networking and security. And everything can be run at the speed or scale of your liking—whether that’s on a public cloud, or via the residency of a local cloud.
But I want to directly talk to our users.
We started out with two main goals in mind.
Goal #1 was to take you from "It can't be done" to "It's done!" for all those things that you have wanted from your current IT management tool chain. Goal #2 was to accomplish this even faster and reduce the time and effort "from days and week to moments."
From now onwards, many new features and capabilities will be introduced as part of Extreme Platform ONE, but here are some of the highlights that will positively impact your work lives every single day.
Unified experiences
A workspace built from the ground up; an experience which is composable, which is real-time, and its purpose is to serve the right information for you for the jobs that you need to do. This is core to Extreme Platform ONE.
Visualization - seeing everything in one place
A comprehensive view of your entire enterprise network in one place–data centers, campuses, wired, wireless, SD-WAN, routing, security products; everything you’ve deployed, even third-party devices. Typically, you would be logging in to multiple apps but with Extreme Platform ONE, it’s in one place, in real-time, for every persona. No more multiple dashboards, no more swivel chair management.
Monitoring, workflows, and automation – at the speed of AI
Visualization is the starting point for multiple workflows, automation, and monitoring with a full view of your entire infrastructure across different locations, countries and cities of presence, buildings, floors, connections and all individual assets. This multi-layered visualization, coupled with network-wide AI, mean time to remediation (MTTR) for surface issues is drastically reduced to minutes and seconds! A better, more efficient network user’s experience.
NetOps teams can simplify tasks such as assessments and audits, device and configuration inventory, topology and performance analysis, architecture design, expansion and migration, and user experience optimization, among others.
Alerts and troubleshooting– in minutes, not hours
Troubleshooting incidents decisively can take days to gather data or diagnose.
With Extreme Platform ONE’s composable workspace, NetOps and SecOps teams can use Extreme AI Expert to intelligently understand context across your network, combined with device connectivity analytics to instantly get a detailed view of the incident and its remediation process.
New security policy? No problem!
One of the biggest hurdles that our customers tell us today, is confusion around where to get started with security policies. Policies can be difficult to create, view and update, and are error prone.
SecOps can use Extreme Platform ONE’s integrated automation to build and regularly update comprehensive network security policies—removing the guesswork and significantly reducing risk of potential cyberattacks and network outages. All while streamlining tasks such as compliance management, risk assessment, policy implementation, and root cause analysis.
On-demand dashboard and report generation
Whether you are a network, security, procurement, or business team, reporting and real-time analytics are made easy with Extreme Platform ONE. As the number of subscriptions increases, more resources are needed to to keep track of it all. Procurement teams can see all your licensing information including contracts, costs, expirations, usage, ownership, all in real-time across multiple management applications. Not just that, the AI will generate on demand customized reports that can be automatically built for the right persona.
The complexity has been exacerbated with the advent of AI, as we go from the world of "There is an app for that" to "There is a chatbot for that".
Deep Automation: Powered by built-in AI
In our CIO Insights Report, we learned that 84% of IT leaders have embarked on some AI project but 32% have not yet seen significant ROI nor efficiency improvements post-implementation.
Given those results, we know that AI is dependent of the trust placed into it. And we know that this can vary from enterprise to enterprise.
So while AI is deeply embedded at the core of Extreme Platform ONE, customers can take advantage of AI no matter where they are in that trust journey. Whether you're a skeptic, an advocate, or somewhere in between, Extreme Platform ONE provides value for everyone.
While AI is embedded throughout Extreme Platform ONE, Extreme AI Expert™ is the underlying engine that you can use in three flexible modes:
- Conversational – this not only answers questions in natural language but also helps with planning, configuring and fixing issues. It can also be used to generate reports and set up advanced services
- Interactive – allows for engagement with operational data and insights from customized always-on dashboards
- Autonomous AI Agents – these perform complex tasks with or without human intervention
Wherever humans are involved, they can focus on doing what humans do best: provide guidance, oversight, and management. All the while building trust and confidence in the efficacy and performance of our AI.
Don’t DIY your AI!
According to Forrester, 75% of firms that build aspirational agentic AI architectures on their own will fail.
We get it, AI can be hard. In Extreme Platform ONE, behind the scenes, we work tirelessly to do all the hard work for you so that you can focus on your day-to-day tasks. All this is made possible by the AI Core which focuses on three major things
- Data Management – The more data AI has, the more useful it is. Conversely that might also mean more risk. So, who manages and governs the data?
- Model Management – determining which model to use for which query; and
- Security Guardrails – determining who should have access to what capabilities of the AI, not just based on our policies but that of your enterprise as well.
Extreme Platform ONE’s network architecture collects, manages, orchestrate and governs all three aspects for you. In Extreme Platform ONE, Extreme AI Expert™ delivers deep automation and flexibility together with its AI Core to deliver efficiency in learning, planning, delivery, management, analysis and governance.
Radically simplified licensing - effortless at purchase and renewal
According to our CIO Insights Report, 88% of CIOs want an integrated platform to manage networking, security, and AI.
A standard bill of materials for an IT project may involve dozens of SKUs across several pages: network management, AI, support, inventory management, security, analytics, third-party capabilities, and much more. It’s a full-time job!
We’ve simplified buying cloud management for networking a few years ago and we are doing it again networking security and AI together. But we also know that sometimes, simplicity can take away your flexibility. Our goal is to get the best balance between simplicity and flexibility.
It's not just about having the best technology. It's not just about having the best experience.
We make it radically simple to buy, own, operate, and renew. A simplified, all-in-one subscriptions include network management, inventory management, AI, and support services, with optional add-ons for security functionality. Stakeholders and procurement teams, rejoice!
Extreme Platform ONE Extreme offers a choice of two licensing tiers with comprehensive standard and advanced feature sets enabling the best value for the lowest cost.
A platform for today's challenges and tomorrow's opportunities
Platformization is the ultimate in seamless, high-value experiences with escalating value for users and buyers. Extreme Platform ONE is a radically simplified experience forged at the convergence of networking and security, all amplified by the power of AI! A cutting-edge technology designed for human-centric experiences that transform potential into reality—helping you embrace efficiency at every level!
Learn more about Extreme Platform ONE, the one for all here.