While the partnership provides very specific benefits to both companies, it also will assist their channel partners, many of whom have already been integrating the two sets of technologies in the field to leverage their benefits.
The Extreme-Cradlepoint integration
Today, networking vendors Cradlepoint and Extreme Networks have announced a new partnership designed to leverage the highly complementary aspects of their technology portfolios. Extreme will benefit from the 5G/LTE routers and adapters from Cradlepoint, which brings them into that market, while Extreme’s fabric networking solutions will make it easier for Cradlepoint to expand into larger venues within areas like retail. The partnership also will make it easier for channel partners of both companies, who have already been bringing the technologies together in the field.
“This is our first major partnership with Extreme,” said Robin Manke-Cassidy, Director of Solution Marketing at Cradlepoint. “For Cradlepoint, it’s about extending our reach into retail. For Extreme, they need networks that can get up and move, which is why cellular is the key. I don’t believe that Extreme even has a cellular solution, at a time when telcos have put in aggressive data plans. Because Extreme doesn’t have that, this is very complementary to what they are doing and can expand what areas they can get into. It will also allow them to extend their strong presence in the public sector into cellular fabric. In public sector, they have tons of different locations and a plethora of smaller ones. Our partnering with Extreme will drive enterprise organizations into the future with 5G.”
“The portfolios are very complementary,” said Joanne Lennon, Senior Alliance Marketing Manager at Cradlepoint. “Extreme is enterprise fabric technology, which is very complementary to our leadership in Wireless WAN. The one thing they are getting for the first time is the wireless extension over the Cradlepoint WAN. Cradlepoint is a world leader in wireless WAN.”
Lennon also emphasized that channel partners, who played a role in bringing this partnership about, will also benefit materially from it.
“We have found that many channel partners from both our companies have been selling both for a while,” she stated. “So while the partnership is formalizing now, it reflects what we have been seeing in the field, where partners are bringing together Extreme’s wireless fabric technology over our wireless WAN.”
The partnership meets the needs of a trend in the industry in which enterprises are looking to use both 5G and cellular for Wireless WAN to provide a better customer experience.
“We are in the middle of a new transformation of enterprise networking,” Manke-Cassidy said. “Networks need to change to address these transformations business is having.”
“We expect we will see a lot more business go wireless at the WAN connection, similar to what we saw at the LAN 10 years ago,” Lennon added.
Lennon said that the joint solution will be more of a horizontal play.
“We have a lot of synergies in the public sector, and we have a lot of customers of both companies, she noted. “Initially, the focus will be public sector, then health care and education, then retail as well.”
“At Cradlepoint, we are heavy in public safety in areas like police and EMS,” Manke-Cassidy said. “Teaming with Extreme helps us level to the buildings themselves. For hospitals, it makes it easy to transfer from location to location
The relationship and the joint solution will be managed through Cradlepoint’s Technology Alliance Program. It provides for diverse path high-availability with both failover and Day-1 connectivity, and the ability to simply extend the Extreme fabric to remote locations over the Wireless WAN for improved automation and security.
“There will be some partners who have been selling both, and this will be a growth area for them,” Lennon stated. “Cradlepoint partners in the cellular space will likely move into this, and Extreme partners who have not sold Cradlepoint before may be interested. There is a lot of excitement from the channel partner community, and partners have led the charge on some of these around best of breed solutions.”
Extreme is a sponsor of Cradlepoint’s North American channel partner event.
