Extreme Networks Ranks Within the Highest Third of Scores in 2 of 3 Use Cases in Gartner’s 2019 Critical Capabilities for Data Center Networking

Lisa Yeaton Manager, Social Media Published 22 Feb 2021

“The percentage of automated data center networking operational activities will double from 30% today to 60% in 2023.” – Gartner, 2019 Critical Capabilities for Data Center Networking

Gartner has examined the capabilities of data center networking vendors to address common enterprise use cases and published their findings in the 2019 Critical Capabilities for Data Center Networking Report. We believe this informative Gartner report aids IT decision-makers in choosing a data center networking vendor with the best set of capabilities for their organization’s needs.

Among their overall recommendations, Gartner says to “Reprioritize data center networking investments by focusing primarily on manageability, automation, and broader orchestration capabilities, rather than on hardware and speeds/features.” and “Operate data center networking switches as a single construct or fabric with embedded automation versus on a manual box-by-box basis.”

Furthermore, Gartner recommends “Build a rightsized physical infrastructure, when hardware is required, by using a leaf/spine design with fixed-form-factor switches and 25/100G capable interfaces. Several vendors lead with expensive chassis-based designs or that are constrained to 10/40 Gbps.” Extreme Networks offers a variety of data center switches that fit this profile. Plus, automation runs as an application on the unique insight architecture.

Download Gartner’s 2019 Critical Capabilities for Data Center Networking report now to see how Extreme Networks is positioned in the market.

This report provides both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 12 data center networking vendors across these five critical capabilities:

  • Switch Hardware and NOS
  • Management and Agility
  • Multivendor Integration
  • Expertise in Small Environments
  • Expertise in Large Environments.

Furthermore, Gartner states that “although most vendors are good enough in most scenarios, their respective capabilities vary extensively across the differing use cases. Don’t assume that one vendor’s products are the best fit for all scenarios.”

Extreme Networks ranks within the highest third of scores across the Mid-Market Refresh/Build Out and Agility Boost Use Cases.

Our large base of global customers is already reaping the benefits of our agile data center solutions. We believe ranking in this report in the midmarket refresh and agility boost use cases confirms our ability to meet the unique challenges and needs our customers face every day.

Abby Strong Vice President of Product Marketing, Extreme Networks

Extreme believes it rated well in these use cases thanks to its well-regarded portfolio of switches, strong end-to-end management, and fabric automation capabilities, and expertise, working with smaller midmarket customers as well as enterprise customers.

We are equally proud of being recognized by end-users as an April 2019 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Data Center Networking.  Based on real feedback from 194 customers, Extreme has a 4.7 out of 5 average rating for that market, as of 14 August 2019. To us, this means that our end-users are taking note too!

We believe the data center is the heart of your enterprise network and the engine that powers new applications and business capabilities. But it can be complex and challenging to adapt and scale, requiring management of a wide range of skill sets and vendors. That’s why our agile data center solutions deliver the automation, visibility, and flexibility needed to make digital transformation a reality.

In our view, it’s fantastic to see that Gartner is now recommending to our customers that data center networking switches should operate as a single construct or fabric with embedded automation. This is exactly how we offer Extreme Fabric Automation today to our customers.

Sanjay Khanna Vice President of Data Center Product Management, Extreme Networks

Extreme data center solutions give end-users the ability to automate at their own pace. Extreme Fabric Automation is a truly unique solution that helps simplify Data Center Fabric operations.

We’ve also teamed up with Fujitsu and VMware to offer a factory-integrated,  turnkey solution that delivers enterprise-ready services for computing, storage, networking and security in combination with unique lifecycle management capabilities. With this solution, customers can rapidly deploy a large-scale hyperconverged software-defined data center infrastructure to run highly scalable general-purpose server virtualization environments, virtual desktop infrastructures, or Infrastructure-as-a-Service deployments.

Ultimately, everything comes down to customers. So, we encourage you to check out some of our data center customer success stories, like Telehouse America, to see for yourself!

You can read Gartner’s 2019 Critical Capabilities for Data Center Networking report to see Extreme Network’s ratings.

Disclaimers:

Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

*Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Data Center Networking, 15 July 2019, Andrew Lerner, Joe Skorupa, Jonathan Forest

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