Exploring the Fantastic Fabric

Extreme Fabric Connect: an effortless and cost-effective scalability

16 November 2022

The era of digital transformation requires IT networks to power organizational change, rather than hindering it. In the 2nd entry of our mini-series we’re looking at how Extreme Fabric Connect makes your network infrastructure more scalable!

In a traditional network, deploying new hardware requires technical on-site resources. This can put a significant strain on the IT budgets. Let’s say you have 5 switches to connect. You have to configure and connect each. If you add another one, you often must re-configure all 6 switches. And the bigger the network environment, the bigger the problem. Imagine replacing and connecting not 5, but 50 or even 500 new switches!

In other words, legacy networks can become too complex and too costly to scale up with the growing business demands. Many organizations are modernizing their infrastructure with legacy vendor solutions, without seeing much of an improvement over the years. Others are considering different fabric solutions available on the market, but sometimes dismiss them as too complex.

Let’s see why Extreme Fabric Connect makes all the difference here!

Extreme Fabric Connect: an effortless and cost-effective scalability

With Extreme Fabric Connect, when new devices are plugged-in, everything configures AUTOMATICALLY. It is thanks to the Zero-Touch Fabric and the Auto-Sense Ports. Both functionalities detect what is being plugged in and then apply the right configuration dynamically. If there is a seed switch in the network, the Fabric infrastructure can self-form and self-provision, without manual intervention.

Auto-Sense Ports also detect when a Fabric Attach-enabled devices is connected. Fabric Attach function enables non-Fabric Connect enabled access layer switches or access points to communicate seamlessly and securely with the fabric. In addition to the dynamic provisioning, the solution allows automatic detection of IP phones, IoT devices or client PCs.

Moreover, if RADIUS is configured in the network, these devices are detected, authenticated, and dynamically assigned the right port attributes, VLAN attributes, VLAN- or I-SID mappings, as well as the right Access Control List or policy – based on their credentials.

What does it mean for your organization?

If there’s one thing that the recent years have taught us is that networks should be agile and should be flexible. As a technology, Extreme Fabric Connect is nothing but. But how does this translate into actual value for an organization?

Most importantly, the secure and automatic onboarding of new network equipment or end-devices helps you lower the total cost of ownership. To give you an example: studies have shown that Fabric Connect customers were able to reduce their operations costs by up to 66%.

Money is always a key factor, but one other important outcome of using Extreme Fabric Connect is simplified network management. With this solution in place, you know about every device on the network and you’re able to effortlessly deliver the specific service that it should have access to. IT teams can therefore move from dealing with day-to-day tasks to more business-oriented activities.

And let’s not forget about one more important aspect: the user experience. From the user’s perspective – you always have the same service experience, no matter where you are and how you connect to the network.

Does all of it sound too good to be true? Well then, let’s hear it from the City of Breda in the Netherlands who moved to the Extreme Fabric Connect not so long ago!

Extreme's Fabric technology makes deploying both temporary and permanent infrastructure faster and more cost-effective. The solution provides significant improvements in network management. IT administrators perform far less configurations in fewer places, which saves us a lot of work. Essentially, the network does a lot by itself. (…) Changes take less time, so we can focus on other, more strategic tasks.

Roger Lahaye, ICT Architect, The City of Breda

The City of Breda – read the full Customer Story

“Network is more than just connectivity, it’s about what it means for the people and organizations of Breda”

The city of Breda in the Netherlands aims to be a frontrunner in digital government in order to transform the way it interacts with its residents and business. At the center of this vision lies high quality connectivity based on Extreme’s modern wired and wireless networ...

What comes next?

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! 👇

DOWNLOAD THE E-BOOK

And in our next ‘Exploring the Fantastic Fabric’ article we will show you how to unify a complex networking environment by leveraging the Extreme Fabric Connect capabilities!

Extreme Fabric Connect: a single solution to unify complex environment

Only three things in life are certain: birth, death, and change. In the 3rd entry of our mini-series we will show you how Extreme Fabric Connect allows you and your network to be more responsive to the organization’s constantly evolving needs!