There’s no question that Cisco is the big dog when it comes to network solutions. But like a regal and older Great Dane, Cisco tends to be content with the large dish of customers in front of them, deciding to conserve their energy instead of spending it on research and development, causing them to be reactive instead of proactive to changing environments and customer needs.
And, while Cisco might still be the lead dog, there’s a scrappy contender who continues to nip at Cisco’s heels and whose bite is becoming just as big as its bark. And that is Extreme Networks.
From #13 to #3 in just two years
From 2015 to 2017, Extreme Networks moved from #13 to the #3 networking company in the world. Big dogs Cisco and HP are being forced to realize that Mark Twain was right when he said, “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight – but the size of the fight in the dog.”
And there’s no question Extreme is a fighter.
In October 2017, Extreme announced that for the third consecutive year, it is positioned furthest to the right by Gartner, Inc. in the “Visionaries” quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure. In addition, of the 21 vendors listed in Gartner’s Peer Insights, Extreme is one of the highest rated vendors in Data Center Hardware Networking with an Overall Rating of 4.8 out of 5 based on 65 reviews. This highlights the strength of Extreme’s service delivery differentiation with 100% insourced technical support.
Extreme’s strengths as recognized by Gartner:
- Multi-vendor, centralized management
- Available analytics engine software
- Deployment, flexibility, and scale
And, while accolades from Gartner are quite nice, there are many more compelling reasons to consider Extreme Networks for your next refresh, expansion or install.
Six Reasons Why Extreme is Better Than Cisco
1. Flow-Based Wireless
Extreme has the industry’s first and only flow-based wireless AP technology.
Why does this matter?
Because it provides real-time visibility and granular control of 1,000s of applications without sacrificing throughput performance. Over 70% of perceived wireless network problems are application or client-related – not the fault of the wireless. Extreme allows you to easily track and measure application response versus the network response.
2. Application Provisioning
Extreme has the most granular application control and provisioning.
Why does this matter?
The growing influx of IoT and exploding applications required granular flexibility with deep provisioning controls to deliver a secure network without sacrificing quality user experience. Extreme’s centralized policy management provides the most secure and robust application provisioning in the market independent of VLAN, ACLs, or SSIDs, for wired and wireless. Policies are configured centrally and enforced globally at the point of ingress. In contrast, the Cisco AVC on the wireless controller is limited to just 2 actions – Drop or Mark and application statistics are displayed for only the top 10 applications in the GUI. Plus, long-term history reports require an external Netflow collector.
3. Flexible Architecture
Extreme has the industry’s most flexible deployment architecture on a single OS code base.
Why does this matter?
Based on location, user, and device-type – the wireless network dynamically provisions the traffic to bridge locally at the AP, to achieve max performance, or tunnel traffic to the wireless controller for max security – or some combination of the two based on application type. This allows you use the same hardware and software for on-premise or cloud deployment options, providing the ultimate flexibility for maximized growth and investment without the expensive rip-and-replace to transition from cloud to on-premise (or vice versa).
In contrast, Cisco does not support flexible deployment options and Meraki WLAN access points cannot be migrated to on-premise WLAN deployments. This severely limits deployment flexibility as WLAN and business requirements change.
4. Density & Scalability
As the Official Wi-Fi Provider of the National Football League, Extreme has proven scalability in the most demanding wireless environments. With over 480 users/devices serviced per access point, Extreme installs over 1,000 APs per stadium to maximize the experience of 70,000 users.
Why does this matter?
Delivering an outstanding guest experience allows stadiums to increase revenue and ROI throughout their operations.
5. Unified Management
Extreme’s single pane of glass management system provides visibility and control.
Why does this matter?
A tightly integrated and centralized management simplifies management and significantly reduces complexity for over-burdened IT staffs. This greatly improves problem diagnosis, while maximizing user experience.
6. Customer Support
Extreme is rated #1 by analysts and has a 100% insourced support team.
Why does this matter?
With an 8.5-year average support staff tenure, 94% of calls received by GTAC are resolved by the person who answers the phone. This results in a very fast problem resolution to ensure the best possible experience for customers. Extreme ranked an 8.9 Net Promoter Score while Cisco only ranked 5.5.
If you’re thinking about making the switch from Cisco, contact Chi at 440-498-2310 or complete the information below to learn why Extreme Networks is the lead networking dog.
