Extreme Aims Lifetime Warranty At HP, Cisco

Extreme Networks has joined an ever-growing list of networking vendors that offer limited lifetime warranties on their gear, a move Extreme says will help it and its partners compete better.

The limited lifetime warranty, coupled with express advanced hardware replacement, comes at a time when warranties can help close the deal with customers on tight budgets, said Huy Nguyen, Extreme's director of marketing.

The new warranty covers selected Extreme switches, including the Summit fixed edge switches such as the X150, 250e, 350 and 450e, and the Reach NXT port extender, Nguyen said. The new limited lifetime warranty covers express advanced hardware replacement with one business day shipping as opposed to the 10 business days guaranteed under Extreme's previous warranty program. It also adds a limited lifetime software warranty, which was previously 90 days, and technical support, which wasn't offered under the previous warranty program.

"Customers are much more cautious in spending," Nguyen said, adding that the limited lifetime warranty gives partners a new value proposition story. "It takes the maintenance and OpEx discussion off the table. It also helps bring partners into more opportunities."

Extreme's warranty comes as rival Hewlett-Packard's HP ProCurve networking division continues to boost market share with the lifetime warranty on its switches. In response to ProCurve's traction, Cisco Systems also recently added a limited lifetime warranty to some of its switch models. D-Link and Netgear also offer lifetime warranties.

"Bottom line is, HP has been out there with their warranty program," Nguyen said, adding that Extreme sees warranties as a differentiator, but at the same time not as a means to sell cheap connectivity. "You have vendors that try to sell cheap connectivity. To us, cheap connectivity doesn't solve every problem."

The goal of Extreme's new warranty program is to minimize maintenance costs and arm partners with additional selling power. Nguyen said the limited lifetime warranty covers gear shipped on or after June 29 and will add no cost to Extreme gear.

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