Take Your Automated Campus to the Next Level

Editor's Notes

• #5 Note: Many of these enhancements are coming in XMC 8.2 and VOSS 8.0. The X465 and the migrations from Extreme heritage switches to VSP are targeted for April.
• #6 The upcoming XMC 8.2 represents a significant milestone as it completes the management integration of the Fabric Connect portfolio into XMC! And the fact that we completed this integration in almost exactly 18 months from the date we acquired Avaya is something that we should all be proud of. Let’s look at the capabilities that XMC now offers our customers; making an already simple network environment – even easier with comprehensive management and some workflow automation capabilities. Fabric Monitoring: in 8.2 will be now integrated into the XMC dashboard. Discovers and monitors fabric features in supported devices and offers advanced topology capabilities to fully visualize the Fabric. (included in XMC base license) Fabric Provisioning: Configures Fabric Connect services and hyper-segments on VSP platforms as well as Fabric Attach for the EXOS and ERS platforms. (required advanced licenses) XMC network workflow automation: XMC can automate and schedule tasks with workflows (note that this is not cross domain per Extreme Workflow composer; however XMC can integrate to EWC for this type of workflow). Most of the defined workflows are more applicable to the Data Center portfolio; however, there are a few governance related workflows that are relevant to an Automated Campus deployment. Note: features not supported in fabric provisioning in 8.2 include DVR, VRRP, LAG
• #7 The upcoming XMC 8.2 represents a significant milestone as it completes the management integration of the Fabric Connect portfolio into XMC! And the fact that we completed this integration in almost exactly 18 months from the date we acquired Avaya is something that we should all be proud of. Let’s look at the capabilities that XMC now offers our customers; making an already simple network environment – even easier with comprehensive management and some workflow automation capabilities. Fabric Monitoring: in 8.2 will be now integrated into the XMC dashboard. Discovers and monitors fabric features in supported devices and offers advanced topology capabilities to fully visualize the Fabric. (included in XMC base license) Fabric Provisioning: Configures Fabric Connect services and hyper-segments on VSP platforms as well as Fabric Attach for the EXOS and ERS platforms. (required advanced licenses) XMC network workflow automation: XMC can automate and schedule tasks with workflows (note that this is not cross domain per Extreme Workflow composer; however XMC can integrate to EWC for this type of workflow). Most of the defined workflows are more applicable to the Data Center portfolio; however, there are a few governance related workflows that are relevant to an Automated Campus deployment. Note: features not supported in fabric provisioning in 8.2 include DVR, VRRP, LAG
• #8 The upcoming XMC 8.2 represents a significant milestone as it completes the management integration of the Fabric Connect portfolio into XMC! And the fact that we completed this integration in almost exactly 18 months from the date we acquired Avaya is something that we should all be proud of. Let’s look at the capabilities that XMC now offers our customers; making an already simple network environment – even easier with comprehensive management and some workflow automation capabilities. Fabric Monitoring: in 8.2 will be now integrated into the XMC dashboard. Discovers and monitors fabric features in supported devices and offers advanced topology capabilities to fully visualize the Fabric. (included in XMC base license) Fabric Provisioning: Configures Fabric Connect services and hyper-segments on VSP platforms as well as Fabric Attach for the EXOS and ERS platforms. (required advanced licenses) XMC network workflow automation: XMC can automate and schedule tasks with workflows (note that this is not cross domain per Extreme Workflow composer; however XMC can integrate to EWC for this type of workflow). Most of the defined workflows are more applicable to the Data Center portfolio; however, there are a few governance related workflows that are relevant to an Automated Campus deployment. Note: features not supported in fabric provisioning in 8.2 include DVR, VRRP, LAG
• #9 Public cloud services are being adopted at a rapid pace. And one of the most exciting developments in XMC 8.2 is the extension of both our policy and analytics capabilities for customer workflows into multi-cloud environments. What this functionality allows for is: Extend visibility and policy into multi-cloud environments Seamless translation of policies into cloud firewall rules (ie. AWS Security Groups and Google Firewall Rules) End point & application visibility Customer Benefits Deep application visibility that extends from the edge to the core, to the virtual environment and the cloud. Network and Application analytics of traffic in and out of Public clouds (for north south traffic; note we don’t yet offer application visibility between VMs in the cloud) Provides context by correlating server instance and cloud region with the user name, application name and the application response time. Provide reports on cloud data (VMs, regions, zones, machine types); comprehensive and customizable dashboard. Note: Requires the advanced XMC license with ExtremeControl, ExtremeConnect and ExtremeAnalytics
• #10 The VSP 7400 is not only exciting because it’s the first purple VSP switch! Its exciting because it gives us a high density 100G switch option in a small form factor that can be used as a core/aggregation switch in the campus or as a spine/leaf switch for Data Center deployments. It also provides very high density 25G through channelization which is experiencing a lot of growth within campus network environments. And unlike some competitor’s offerings (i.e., Cisco 9300), it flexibly supports data rates from 10 to 100G, all in a single model 2 model variants. The first model - available at the end of the month – is a 32-port variant that supports up to 32 x 100G or 40G ports or up to 124 x 25G or 10G ports – with channelization. Note - There is a 48-port that follows mid year with 48 x SFP28 (1G/10G/25G) and 8 x QSFP28ports (10G/25G/40G/100G) The other significant feature is the Insight architecture or Guest VM capability. This architecture – first introduced on the SLX family – provides a “container-based” VM environment that includes Guest VMs. Customers can use the Guest VM to host local trouble-shooting tools or an on-board Extreme analytics engine for real-time visibility into the network.
• #11 The X465 is exciting because it gives us the ability to support multi-rate, MACsec and 60 and 90Watt PoE in a single platform. It also supports Extended Edge capabilities (significant with future V300 switches) The X465 Series includes both 24 and 48-port 1Gigabit models, as well as multi-rate models with 1, 2.5 and 5 Gigabit ports for connecting a range of edge access devices. The family also includes 30W, 60W and 90W PoE model options for powering connected devices. Together, this makes the X465 an ideal wired back-end for Wave 2 or WiFi 6 wireless APs or for connecting any next-generation edge device. The X465 also provides modular uplink options at 10G, 25G and 40G for flexible linkage to other switches or devices over a range of media. The X465 Series also provides the following capabilities to address the unique needs of powered edge devices: - Perpetual PoE which enables PoE power to be maintained during a switch re-start , preventing attached IoT devices from being disrupted or rebooted during the switch rese . - Fast PoE which enables power to be supplied to connected edge or IoT devices before switch boot –up completion, speeding the time for powered end-points to start up Finally the other major enhancement is support for IEEE 802.1AE MACsec on its access ports, as well as on its modular uplink ports. It also support Fabric attach to integrate into the Fabric Connect architecture. Note: Insight Architecture (and Guest VM) will be supported on multi-rate X465 models in a future EXOS release.
• #12 Although we’ve been talking about the values of our unified wired and wireless architecture since we initially launched the Automated Campus, it deserves re-emphasis since it is one of the most unique differentiators that we have in the industry - and is one of the reasons why we were able to achieve the leaders quadrant in the Gartner wired and wireless LAN MQ. Our totally unified solution complete with a common data plane and common management, policy and analytics is being extended to our soon to be released WiFi 6 (or 802.11 ax APs). The other critically important feature when talking about wired and wireless multi-site networks is our Distributed Virtual Routing Capabilities (DvR). Although this feature has been available for quite some time, it received renewed attention in the Packet Pushers podcast that was done last year. The customer who had deployed it wouldn’t stop raving about it due to the tremendous value that it provides. In the context of campus based wireless networking, the Distributed Virtual Router feature does a couple of things. It improves wireless performance, it optimizes client roaming and optimizes traffic to eliminate tromboning. It is a nice upsell to Fabric Customers who have wireless clients and / or VMs roaming within multi-site campuses or single or multi-site Data Centers.
• #13 Many of you likely associate border routing the Data Center. However, border routers are also commonplace in many campus environments… think university campuses, hospitals, manufacturing plants, etc. And to be specific what we are talking about is an Internet connected router that is capable of supporting one or more Internet routing tabled. Your customer may not use the term boarder routing.. they may use Internet router, campus router, multi-service router etc. With the SLX and it’s common management now under XMC, we now have a compelling story to go out and displace any aging routers that customers may have in their environment. We are the price/ performance leader versus any of our competitors We offer exceptional performance with ultra Deep buffers for high traffic volume Pay for what you need, when you need it with ports on demand Reduce MTTR with Guest VM and Visibility Applications And with the new border routing promotion (from Jan – June 30th) and a recent Best in Show award from Tokyo Japan, the time has never been better for our customers to look at this innovative solution. 72% discount on SLX hardware, software (advanced license) and optics and cables WITH the option to add any of all of what is below: 72% discout on NMS Advanced 5 node license Three years of support for the price of 2 One week of SLX training with the purchase of 2 routers. Two most common solutions would be the SLX 9640 – recently introduced - or the SLX 9540 for smaller opportunities. (note SLX 9850 also exists where chassis based solution is desirable) SLX 9640 – 24x10Gig and 12x 100Gig ports (multiple Internet tables) SLX 9540 – 48x10Gig and 6X 100Gig ports (single Internet table)
• #14 For Automated Campus customers who are still reliant on IDE, we now offer critical functionality in ExtremeControl to help facilitate the transition from IDE to ExtremeControl. One key piece of this is the new guest and IoT device on-boarding solution that we are introducing as part of XMC 8.2. This functionality enables both secure guest access as well as secure IoT device onboarding that can be done in under 10 seconds without IT involvement. It offers captive portal capabilities for guest user access and offers detailed reports and logs. The functionality is very powerful offering a multitude of onboarding methods (self-service, front-desk, sponsor, social-media, forms) with the ability to specific onboarding restrictions / containment (devices, time, access zones etc). The other piece that ExtremeControl now offers to close the gap between IDE and Control is dynamic mapping of FA services to Fabric based services (ISIDs) IDE went EOS at the end of last year and if you have any accounts that still need to transition you can offer ExtremeControl for FREE from now until June 30th, 2019. You also get 2 years of support for the price of 1. Also, select additional SKU’s including the Guest/ IoT Manager can be added to the order at a 75% off list discount to the partner. 
• #15 NOTE: this enhancement is coming a little later than many of the others. Slotted for XMC 8.3 You asked and we are delivering! We know that many of you have existing S-Series and other heritage switch customers that have been difficult to transition to our Automated Campus architecture. This all changes with the new Fabric Assist feature that provides a secret sauce for seamless service interworking between the old and the new switches. The feature requires a VSP switch, XMC and one of the heritage switches at specified software releases. And it basically provides the “easy button” for automating the conversion of VLANs to Fabric Connect virtualized services – using XMC. How it works: On S/K, etc – there is a command that flags that the uplink port is connected to a VSP (FA-S) capable product.  XMC will get this information then configure the S-series to route necessary VLANs to the uplink port and configure the VSP to map the VLANs to the appropriate ISIDs. Supported on VSP 8600 R6.3 (Mar ‘19) or VSP/VOSS 6.0 or later. XMC release is 8.3 Certified with S-Series, K-Series, 7100-Series (R7.62 or later), A/B/C-Series (R6.71 or later), N-Series (R7.62), and ISW switches.