“The data centre is no longer about speeds and feeds – it’s where digital transformation is won or lost. Extreme Fabric Automation is built using a cloud-native architecture to enhance fabric orchestration and management capabilities,” said Abby Strong (pictured), vice president of product marketing, Extreme Networks. “It offers simplicity to data centre teams, removing the need for manual switch-by-switch configurations and allowing IT teams to move at the pace of their businesses: at cloud-speed.”
The new capabilities automatically manages the validation, testing and operation of data centre fabric networks while providing added network reliability and resiliency.
“Enterprises are demanding that their data centre networks become more agile, architecturally and operationally, so that they align better with cloud operating models and the imperative of digital transformation,” added Brad Casemore, research vice president of data centre networks at IDC. “. With Extreme Fabric Automation, Extreme Networks is helping to bring simplicity to complex fabric management, making it possible for customers – on their own, without the assistance of external consultants – to get their data centre networks up and running in minutes rather than days.”
Extreme has also announced the availability of two new high-performance switches embedded with guest VMs - the SLX 9150 leaf switch and the SLX 9250 spine switch. Together, the new data centre software and hardware will give IT teams simplified network automation, simplified integrations and operations, as well as greater control of when and where data centre assets are deployed.
“Our IT team is constantly tasked with ‘doing more with less’, said Darren Elsom, director of Trunk Networks. “With the new Extreme Fabric Automation tool, we were able to set up the network in minutes without having to use additional, expensive server infrastructure. Extreme’s technology is plug-and-play, streamlines laborious networking management and provisioning down from hours to seconds, and offers new flexible deployment options.”
The biggest benefits of the expanded capabilities include, simplified automation and cloud-speed provisioning; flexible deployment options; ecosystem integrations to the likes of OpenStack, VMware vCenter, and Microsoft SCVMM; faster time-to-value; security certifications and TAA compliance; and being built on Broadcom.
“When onboarding a new partner, we have seen how challenging it can be to set up a data centre network,” continued Nick Barron, chief technology officer at Harbor Solutions. “Not only is the process highly complex, it can also be costly to maintain and can require additional resources once implemented. Extreme Fabric Automation addresses these pain points by providing a simple and reliable set-up process. It is as straight-forward as cabling up all switches and entering a few simple commands to establish a network. With our engineers being able to perform these steps so easily themselves, our team is freed up to focus on the actual platforms and services we offer to our partners.”
