Extreme Networks' Aggressive AI Push Fuels Rapid Growth
Extreme Networks is gaining ground against industry giants Cisco and HPE thanks to its aggressive AI strategy. The company's Platform ONE, an AI-powered platform that unifies network management, security, and automation, has seen rapid adoption since its release last summer.
According to CEO Ed Meyercord, customer adoption of the platform is accelerating at a pace exceeding the cloud transition. 'When we go back and 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,' Meyercord said.
Extreme's AI-first strategy takes it further than competitors' chatbot-style offerings, providing automation, network context, and proactive assistance. The company recently revealed Agent ONE Coworker, an agentic AI assistant that proactively identifies issues and recommends actions.
The offering has widened the gap with larger competitors whose AI capabilities remain largely chatbot-based. Customers are taking notice, and Extreme is gaining share as a result. '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,' Meyercord said.