Extreme Networks’ Agentic AI Push Is Fueling Gains Against Cisco, HPE

“When we go back and we look at cloud and the adoption of cloud, what took us three years with cloud is taking us less than a year with Platform ONE,” Extreme Networks’ CEO Ed Meyercord tells CRN.

Extreme Networks’ aggressive AI strategy is helping the small-but-formidable networking specialist challenge the industry’s biggest incumbents, according to CEO Ed Meyercord.

That’s because while the larger networking players are focused primarily on chatbot-style AI offerings built into their management platforms, Extreme’s AI-first strategy takes it a step further with automation, network context and proactive assistance rather than simple AI prompts, Meyercord told CRN.

Extreme Platform ONE, the company’s AI-powered platform that unifies network management, security and automation, became generally available last summer. Already, the company said that customer adoption of the platform is accelerating at a pace that exceeds the cloud transition.

“We’ve seen a lot of success. We released [Extreme Platform ONE] a year ago … and the growth rate has been 3, 5, 10, 20, 30 [percent], so this evolution of growth has happened very quickly. When we go back to cycles and we look at the adoption of cloud, what took us three years with cloud is taking us less than a year with Platform ONE,” Meyercord said.

[Related: Extreme CCO: Channel Simplicity, AI Demand Fuel Market Share Gains Against Cisco, HPE]

That adoption is being further fueled by a new agentic AI assistant that can proactively identify issues and recommend actions that Extreme revealed earlier this month, Agent ONE Coworker. The offering further widens the gap with larger competitors whose AI capabilities remain largely chatbot-based. Customers are taking notice, and Extreme is gaining share as a result, Meyercord said.

“We had 10 percent of our customers on the platform at the end of the year, [and] by the end of this year, we expect to have over 50 percent, which is kind of unprecedented in our industry. As we look to our competitors, our view there is it will take them a lot longer to move customers onto their platform,” Meyercord said.

Unlike competing platforms that treat AI as a prompt-based chatbot, Extreme has integrated its Agent ONE into Platform ONE using context to anticipate needs, assist users and help complete tasks.

“For a company our size, it’s kind of interesting because we are out in front, and we’re the first networking vendor that has a proactive, context-aware, always-on agent that is built into the platform,” Meyercord said.

Why Extreme’s Pure-Play Networking Focus Matters

Extreme’s singular focus on networking gives the company the agility to respond faster and shape product direction more effectively than larger, more diversified competitors, which is helping it stand out in the networking space, according to Andrew Beynon, chief enterprise architect for MSP ARO Technology.

“Extreme is on a fast trajectory to become great, particularly with the likes of Platform ONE and Agent ONE,” he said. “Extreme is more of a pure play network player, so, I think their ability to influence product direction necessarily from maybe more of a less siloed approach [and] when combined with the size, that definitely contributes to their agility.”

ARO Technology specializes in networking transformation and critical infrastructure and has been an Extreme Diamond partner for the last four years. Its clients that are using Extreme range from the very big—large campuses, universities, and hospitals—to the very small, such as independent businesses.

Platform ONE is different because it’s built upon the premise of AI, as opposed to having AI bolted on. The offering also “fundamentally” understands the client’s entire network, and Agent ONE Coworker acts like its namesake, together with the end user, Beynon said.

“Platform ONE amplifies an engineer’s capabilities and magnifies their availability … it’s based upon your context of your environment, of your switches and your users and your access points. Because it’s in the confines of that client and that client instance, it becomes far more meaningful and then far more usable.”

Extreme’s AI strategy, said Beynon, is translating into new services and recurring revenue opportunities for channel partners.

“Extreme is not the biggest network provider, but they’re definitely one of the best to do business with,” Beynon said. “The relationship is excellent, and as is the responsiveness, and as is the products that come with that as a result.”