Federal government agencies are consistently challenged to enhance their user experience and mission effectiveness while also delivering secure, seamless, always-on access to critical services across both the wired and wireless network at any time and from any place.

As trends like IoT, BYOD, and the influx of big data and analytics continue to gain in popularity, the importance of having a digital transformation strategy in place rises. Federal agencies must look at their network as a strategic asset in order to meet not only today’s needs, but also to prepare for future IT challenges.

The acquisition of Avaya’s networking business and the upcoming close of Brocade’s data center business are significant for Extreme and will have a direct impact on how we can help our federal customers with their networking needs.   We want to take this time to address some of the questions you might have as a result of these acquisitions in the context of the current federal technology landscape.

What trends are impacting the data center today that the federal government should be concerned about?

Right now, digital transformation is one of the biggest trends impacting the federal space. While there are many elements that go into a digital transformation strategy, some priorities for the federal government include:

• Security: With aging technology, limited budgets and enormous government data at stake, cyber security is a top priority for the federal government. With Extreme’s multi-vendor identity and access control solution for wired and wireless users, agencies can ensure that only the right users have access to the right information from the right place at the right time.
• Analytics: Many federal agencies collect large and diverse data sets, making it difficult to organize, manage, and extract insights. Extreme’s analytics technology allows federal customers to capture, aggregate, analyze, correlate, and report on network and application data in a simplified platform for better, more informed decisions.
• Cloud: Federal agencies are seeing increased pressure to migrate their data and applications to the cloud. Many government IT organizations are turning to the cloud because of executive-level mandates, reduced IT budgets and increased demand for agile services. Extreme’s cost-effective, scalable cloud-based network management solution makes cloud migration easy for federal agencies through its zero-touch, automated provisioning of managed network devices.
• IoT and smart government: Whether it’s sensors in roads that help manage traffic or smart meters used by utilities to save energy, the public sector is becoming more and more connected. IoT technology has far-reaching potential for government agencies, but can be hard to manage and less secure than traditional IT. The need for an automated and an easy-to-use network platform is critical. Extreme’s policy-based network management allows for automated, simple, and secure network infrastructure all managed through Extreme’s single-pane-of-glass network management environment.

Why is Extreme now in a better position to serve the federal market?

With the acquisition of Avaya Networking and Brocade’s data center networking technology in the closing stages, Extreme will soon have a complete end-to-end networking solution to support federal customers from the data center to the access layer. Avaya and Brocade bring a portfolio of federally-certified products and federal customers that have been partnering with these companies for decades to modernize their networks.

Extreme’s current ranking as the top vendor in data center networking products by Gartner Peer Insights is a testament to the to the dedication we have to our customers in providing top-notch products and valued support. In addition, we’re able to provide exceptional customer experiences through our strong partner relationships. Through our partner and user conferences, we are always interacting with executives and technology teams to ensure we are continually providing innovative technology and support to assist partners in remaining trusted advisors with their customers.

With the rise of connected devices and other connected trends, networks are being asked to do more. Whether it’s adding in surveillance to network points or enhanced security, networks need to be more efficient to get multiple jobs done from one touchpoint. The combination of Extreme, Avaya, and Brocade products and Extreme’s award-winning support provide federal agencies more network and data center options all under one umbrella.

How will these acquisitions affect legacy Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking federal customers?

Extreme is integrating the Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking product lines into a unified environment so that federal customers may choose from the best-in-class technology. We will continue to sell and support the products from all three companies, and incorporate them into a unified product roadmap ensuring that all contractual commitments are fulfilled. Extreme is committed to continuing the government certification process for Extreme, Avaya and Brocade products to meet the needs of the federal market.

How do these acquisitions affect the product roadmap?

With the Avaya and Brocade acquisitions, Extreme will offer federal customers an expanded portfolio of networking solutions that meet the growing needs for security, visibility, flexibility, and quality of experience. Additions to the product portfolio include Avaya technology that brings automation, simplicity, and security to federal campus networks. Additionally, Brocade data center solutions enable adaptive foundational networks with pervasive visibility and cross-domain, event-driven automation.

Integration of the Avaya and Brocade products into the Extreme portfolio is a priority and work is underway to ensure that this integration is quick and beneficial to federal customers. The combination of Extreme, Brocade, and Avaya allows federal customers a choice in networking solutions from wireless, to the edge and to the data center.

As we near the close of our Brocade data center acquisition, we look forward to expanding our presence in the federal government sector and continuing to deliver solutions that cut costs, simplify network management, and support digital transformation initiatives. We’re combining the best of Avaya’s networking products, Brocade’s data center solutions, and Extreme’s management and services to provide the ultimate end-to-end networking solutions to the public sector.

If you have additional questions, we encourage you to ask them in the comments section and we will do our best to address them in a future post.