So, I work with a bunch of visionaries at the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Extreme Networks. We call this group OCTO for short. While my life over the last 20 years has revolved around all things Wi-Fi, I also get to work with a group of brilliant people at OCTO. My OCTO colleagues are constantly evaluating new technologies as well as providing futuristic thought leadership.
Of course, the leader of this visionary group is our Chief Technology Officer, Nabil Bukhari, who always likes to remind us that the time of the Infinite Enterprise has arrived.
In the past, all aspects of society and IT networks have been constructed around centers: cities, schools, and institutions. But the world is changing, and so is networking. Connectivity must happen everywhere and for everyone. And only the cloud makes this possible.
Let’s face it, as we move towards a post-pandemic world, we are living our lives differently. We shop differently, we attend school differently, we receive healthcare differently, and we work differently. Every enterprise business must adapt to this cultural shift in the way people go about their daily lives.
One of the lessons we have learned during the recent pandemic is that companies are changing how they do business. For example, employees might no longer need to report to an office or campus for the entire five-day work week. Instead, they may prefer to work remotely, either part-time or full-time, but with expectations of the same work-life experience. Or even better, an enhanced way of working and living.
What does this mean? Well, we now have a distributed workforce. Therefore, the enterprise no longer just resides in a building; instead, the enterprise must go wherever employees choose to work. We now have an Infinite Enterprise.
The Infinite Enterprise is the guiding North Star for Extreme Network’s journey with our customers. I will briefly outline the three core tenets of the Infinite Enterprise in this blog; however, I encourage you to listen to Nabil’s own words in this video:
Our CTO, Nabil, conceived the concept of the Infinite Enterprise with three core tenets:
Companies need to become consumer-centric. Enterprise companies need to provide technology solutions that customers desire. They want technology that works for them. Technology should revolve around the customer‘s needs as opposed to their lives being defined by hi-tech.
Our entire society is now infinitely distributed. Centralized living is over-rated. This means that the workplace needs to come to the employee. Education institutions are moving towards their students. Shoppers now use services from the comfort of their homes. Healthcare is often available remotely. Employees, students, clientele, and patients want choices that don’t always require a one-hour commute and $20 for parking.
To deliver on the promise of the Infinite Enterprise, Extreme Networks and other companies must deliver at scale. In other words, scaling services, technology, and even people to provide reliable and secure connectivity everywhere and for everyone. And the technology that you need to begin this journey is the cloud.
Extreme Networks is moving toward the Infinite Enterprise, and we hope and expect other companies to innovate in this direction. For example, Facebook is working on an Infinite Office that lets consumers create their ideal workplace through virtual reality (VR).
At the end of the day, our customers know their own business best, and at Extreme Networks, we always need to listen to help our customers best meet their networking needs for today and the future.
Do you have your own Infinite Enterprise story? We would love to hear from you. Contact my colleagues at the Office of the CTO, and let’s have a conversation.
Email: Office of the CTO
