In a significant scale up of its investment strategy Extreme Networks is to plough 95% of its R&D budget on AI, automation and software development.
"From telemedicine in healthcare to electronic shelf labelling in retail to digital learning in schools, Extreme aims to transform the network from a binary utility into a powerful, intelligent engine that automatically and intelligently connects people to technology, freeing IT in every industry to reimagine their business, and create meaningful outcomes that improve the human experience like never before," said Ed Meyercord, President and CEO, Extreme Networks.
"For digitisation to be fully realised, organisations must have an agile, adaptive, and secure network, a software-driven approach, and human intelligence underpinning the entire business.
"That’s why Extreme is investing 95% of its research and development dollars into software and AI this year to expand the automation capabilities across our Smart OmniEdge, Automated Campus, and Agile Data Center solutions."
Rohit Mehra, Vice President of Network Infrastructure, IDC, added: “The network has traditionally been seen as an IT support function, providing connectivity to users, devices and IT infrastructure — seen by many as 'plumbing'.
"That notion is both antiquated and false, given the intricacies of what modern cloud and IoT applications require in an enterprise context.
"Today’s vision of the network is that of a secure, application services and connectivity platform that can help optimise the user and application experience across healthcare, education, hospitality, manufacturing and other domains.
"Extreme’s focus on automation is relevant and timely as organisations look to network transformation as a foundation to build on for their digital transformation journey.”