Coming For the Competition

Networking specialist Extreme Networks is “upleveling” in two ways: It’s going up against competing vendors such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Juniper Networks and longtime rival Cisco Systems and winning in the market, and it’s also nabbing bigger deals with some of the most popular brands in the U.S. with the help of partners.

Both of which Extreme plans on getting much louder about, Extreme President and CEO Ed Meyercord told CRN.

Morrisville, N.C.-based Extreme Networks last week announced its fiscal full-year 2023 earnings in which the company posted revenue of $363 million for the fourth quarter that ended June 30 and $1.3 billion for the full year, which was up 18 percent compared with fiscal 2022. The company shared that it had 30 percent growth in deals valued over $1 million, demonstrating that it is not only taking share from its competitors but it’s also courting larger enterprise customers with the strength of its own brand.

Extreme has spent the year investing in its differentiated cloud networking platform and universal hardware to provide choice and simplicity for customers, a strategy that’s winning and will carry into fiscal 2024. And while the tech industry, including fellow networking companies, have been issuing pink slips, Extreme had record hiring in the last year, Meyercord said.

Meyercord sat down with CRN at the end of its fiscal 2023 year to talk about the company’s growth compared with the competition as well as the new consumption-based managed services platform that’s starting to roll out to select partners. Here are excerpts from the conversation.