Where the past and the future converge

With its official, round 100th anniversary next year and origins dating back even as far as 1895, ŠKODA AUTO boasts one of the oldest unbroken histories among car manufacturers still operating today. Whether today or a century ago, the company based in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic has always been known for its pursuit of excellence and innovation – applied both to its cars and the methods of production.

Today, the company manufactures close to 1,000,000 cars a year, resulting in an impressive production rate of one car per minute. One of the key enablers of ŠKODA’s technology-driven growth in recent years is the new network infrastructure built around Extreme Fabric Connect, the industry’s most widely deployed and only end-to-end, automated, and secure network fabric solution. One of our biggest and most high-profile customers in the Northern and Eastern Europe was kind enough to share their success story with our partners and customers from across the region.

Extreme team, led by Peter Majerčák, Radek Černý, Kristina Osipova, and Dagmar Krausova, brought more than 45 existing customers and prospects on a journey that transcended time and space. The event began with a little presentation on the current portfolio, product announcements, and a roadmap for the future expansions and new solution features.

Then, we dove right into the customer success story of our hosts. For that purpose alone, we invited Petr Kolda from Simac Technik ČR, a seasoned project services manager with years of experience in building some of the largest LAN and Wi-Fi networks in the Czech Republic, who participated directly in the strategic modernization of ŠKODA AUTO’s network infrastructure. Petr went over the challenges the company faced during its digital transformation period and the strains it took on their legacy solution.

In an interactive discussion panel with a room full of IT experts and professionals, we explored how Simply Clever, ŠKODA’s legendary tagline, perfectly describes the way Extreme Fabric Connect simplifies the way any enterprise network can be built, managed, and secured against cyber-threats, creating indispensable resiliency and efficiencies for modern manufacturing companies.

After the official part of the day, followed by lunch and a networking session, we brought everyone on a little trip down the memory lane. The visit at the ŠKODA Museum in Mladá Boleslav allowed us to circle back in time to 1895 and explore the rich history of one of the longest-established automotive brands in the world!