Extreme Networks’ new AI-powered edge network solution to accelerate digital transformation | Tech News

Extreme Networks unveiled a new network solution today, the Smart OmniEdge, which is an artificial intelligence-powered network edge solution.

The Smart OmniEdge is designed to help businesses with digital transformation, according to Mike Leibovitz, senior director of mobility solutions for Extreme Networks.

“If we talk about business transformation, I think what’s really interesting today, when you look at the edge of the network, or the access layer, wired and, more specifically, wireless or WiFi, it remains somewhat a battleground and still an elusive challenge for many organizations,” Leibovitz said.

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The Smart OmniEdge solution is comprised of a secure, unified wired/wireless infrastructure and AI-driven management capabilities, accessible through a single pane of glass. The solution provides common visibility, policy, and authentication services across the entire infrastructure. It’s designed to help businesses accommodate an increase in the number of users and the number of IoT devices on the network. It has the flexibility of on-premise deployment or as-a-service offering.

Extreme Networks introduced several new technologies today:

• ExtremeAI for Smart OmniEdge – A hosted application that augments human intelligence with proactive artificial intelligence to simplify the complex task of RF management. The solution uses machine learning to collect network analytics, device statistics, connection rates, and user and application experience characteristics. This enables the network to continuously learn and adapt to a customer’s clients and applications accessing the Wi-Fi network.
• ExtremeCloud Appliance – Designed for anyone who wants an ExtremeCloud solution combined with an on-premise solution. It has cloud-like licensing and management with integrated services and features required by on-premise deployments. ExtremeCloud Appliance is container ready for operational expansion. It is also available as a virtual machine (VM) for customers that have their own private cloud services.
• Extreme Extended Edge Switching – This collapses multiple network layers into a single logical switch, enhancing the intelligence of edge switches, while flattening the network and eliminating deployment complexity. The result is a simplified operational model that reduces costs.
• Extreme Defender for IoT – A security solution to simplify onboarding and securing wired IoT devices. The Defender for IoT application can be deployed on the ExtremeCloud Appliance in any form factor, and used to help ensure secure access of IoT devices plugged into the wall jack AP or the Extreme Defender Adaptor. The solution provides centralized visibility and management, enabling IT to analyze traffic flows and pinpoint anomalies. The solution works with the Extreme Fabric Connect solution or over third-party networks to protect IoT devices, and is ideal for healthcare environments.

This new solution works with any industry vertical interested in digital transformation, but is particularly applicable to those that work directly with customers, whether in retail, education or health care, Leibovitz said.

“Ultimately, our retail customers are not looking just for the intelligence of who’s in their store, what they’re doing, where they’re going, and for how long, but they absolutely want the opportunity to communicate in real time with that shopper that’s in their environment and potentially, hopefully, be able to monetize a little bit deeper and build a better relationship with that individual,” he said.

“The one thing that is a real advancement in terms of our technology…is extreme AI, which is a product that is bringing artificial intelligence capability for our customers to ultimately be able to operate their Wi-Fi environments automatically, some would say ‘automagically,’ and allow IT as a network team to spend more time working on those strategic projects and helping their organization achieve those outcomes that they set out to do,” he said.

The flagship of the launch is extreme AI, and the Smart OmniEdge launch will optimize and correct network behaviors from a Wi-Fi perspective, “automatically learning from those networks, and then being able to apply that back to very large sophisticated network environments,” Leibovitz said.

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