Extreme Fabric Connect: less work, more efficiency

With server mobility, IoT, and cloud computing more common, networks need to support more dynamic environments. As an IT professional, you’re probably asked to deliver more connectivity and enable network changes at an increasing pace…

Unfortunately, traditional networks are configured manually, switch by switch. When new devices and applications are moved, added, or changed frequently, it can be very time consuming. On the other hand, most network changes require a maintenance window. Did you know that on average, IT teams have to wait around 30 days before they can make the necessary changes?

So the question is: how to make everything go faster?

Extreme Fabric Connect provides the entire range of L2 and L3 connectivity services, as well as fully optimized IP Routing and IP Multicast services. But more importantly, it implements them in a far simpler way. All Fabric Connect services are based on a single control plane (IS-IS). Users, IoT and applications reside in Virtualized Service Networks, or in short: VSNs. The underlying Fabric infrastructure is decoupled from the VSNs, allowing for increased flexibility in deploying or changing services.

To make things even more interesting, time-to-service is further improved with the Fabric Attach functionality for the non-fabric environments.  The wireless access points are automatically attached to the Fabric and connected to the appropriate network resources – it doesn’t matter if it’s a Fabric Connect Virtual Service Network, or a conventional VLAN!

But the most important thing is this: all services are only ever configured at the Fabric edge.

Let’s admit it: long implementation and configuration can be a real headache. With Extreme Fabric Connect, both your network and your organization become more agile. For example: instead of waiting for a month, a network change can be made the same day. It can mean a lot if the business is growing or operating in a complex, dynamic environment.

But for a technical person, probably the best thing is that Extreme Fabric Connect makes the life of IT teams a lot easier. Edge provisioning only means easier administration, maintenance, troubleshooting etc. Because many manual processes are automated, network administrators can do more and they can do it faster.

How much faster, exactly? An independent market research commissioned by Avaya (today Extreme Networks) confirmed that on average, Extreme Fabric Connect customers can implement new network 11x faster. Configuration and troubleshooting times were further reduced 7x. You can also deploy applications much quicker. For example, Tussa IKT, a big Norwegian service provider, was able to decrease the service deployment time from 30 minutes down to only 2 minutes.

Less work means less resources needed, and less resources means that the IT team can stay in the budget!

Has Extreme Fabric Connect caught your attention? Would you like to explore the solution in more technical detail?

Consider checking out our compact e-book ‘Fabric Connect Key Capabilities’ which provides an overview of the technology as well as breaks down useful features in the area of OA&M, infrastructure, services, routing, Data Center, Campus Edge and branch. Just click the button below! 👇

And in our next ‘Exploring the Fantastic Fabric’ article we will show you how to solve the problem of complex scalability!