Extreme Network, betting big on Indian market

The company believes that the Indian market certainly has a technology adoption curve and that's why it is offering next-generation datacenter products to enable the migration to virtualized datacenters and new infrastructure solutions

Extreme Networks, the converged Ethernet network infrastructure provider, is planning to invest and inject more energy into the Indian market space. The company believes that the Indian market certainly has a technology adoption curve and that's why it is offering next-generation datacenter products to enable the migration to virtualized datacenters and new infrastructure solutions.

Paul Hooper, Chief Marketing Officer, Extreme Networks said, “Indian market brings a great opportunity for us. If we take a look at the economies across the globe, India is certainly at a very powerful position. Here, you have the education, culture, language, and above all, the ability to take country to the next level.”

The company believes that there is significant scope of growth for the datacenter market here in India. The expansion of Internet services and the rapid growth of IT use in emerging economies continue to drive significant increases in datacenter capacity. In addition, clean technologies such as smart grids, advanced transportation networks, smart buildings, and the dematerialization of goods and services are some of the growth drivers of the datacenter market in India.

Taking cue from what's happening around, the company is focusing on cloud computing space as well. Apparently, it is targeting some of the early adopters of cloud in India, like for example, educational institutions, universities, government sectors, and hospitals amongst other segments.

“The benefits of a virtualized infrastructure and cloud-based applications and systems can be realized by the scaling of datacenters, and both hosting companies and enterprises are making efforts in this direction. While cloud is an overly used marketing term, it is starting to become something visible and tangible,” added Hooper.

The company is riding on its four pillar strategy for datacenters as a solution for migrating from physical to virtual storage. The four pillars are-physical network infrastructure, efficient virtualization lifecycle management, scalable virtualized environments, and automated and customized datacenter networks. This solution allows users to migrate from a traditional or physical infrastructure to a virtualized one without forcing a certain technology, or operating methodology on the user.

Hooper further pointed out that datacenter networks are slowly becoming low in efficiency in dealing with server virtualization. Due to the ability of virtual machines to dynamically move from server to server, provisioning the network for VM security and application performance has proven to be a networking challenge. When it comes to troubleshooting and managing VMs in the network, network administrators have limited tools to manage the same. To deal with this problem, Extreme Networks makes the network efficient by bringing network level insight and visibility to the virtual machine lifecycle.

“The product offering by Extreme Networks rides on its strategy for next-generation datacenter to solve the problems. Products like Direct Attach helps in moving, switching back into the network, 40 Gigabit helps in providing upgrades to existing chassis and stackable products, 10 gigabit smoothens the migration process by delivering remarkable layer two and layer three scale to handle the rapid propaga­tion of virtual machines,” said Hooper.

In this endeavor, Extreme Networks is riding high on its channel partners as well. It has a 4-tier channel partner program, which includes Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond partners. The categorization of channel partners are based on the skill sets and revenues generated. As and when a partner increases the manpower skill sets and revenues, he is promoted to the next tier accordingly. Meanwhile, the company has 25 to 30 Silver partners, three Gold partners, and two Platinum and Diamond partners in India.

“We are a partner company and 90 percent of our revenues come through channel partners. We are very serious about our partners, as we keep doing channel initiatives like training programs, joint campaigns, and lead generation process with partners, locking the deals with them, and addressing the major pain points of the partners. We conduct robust and detailed partner programs here in India,” asserted Hooper.

Committed to support its channel partners in the best possible way, Extreme Networks offer a channel partner program that is built on value, innovation, and commitment. This program lets partners decide the level of participation that is most appropriate for their business and provides the highest return based on their value proposition.

It provides training to them at every step, from pre-sales to field support. The company believes that training increases the competitive advantage through the latest sales strategies, advances in networking technologies, and solutions.

Hooper further highlighted, “You cannot expect your channel partners to have technical know-how of each and every platform. As a vendor, we have to hold the hands of the partners and make them understand about our products and solutions. We help the channel partners by giving them technology 'gyaan' and training them about our products. If channel partner does 70 percent of lifting, the rest 30 percent is done by us. We give the right solution and the right support to our partners.”

Nivedan Prakash
(nivedanp@cybermedia.co.in)