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Skype Integration Heads Extreme Networks SDN Enhancements
Extreme Networks Inc. this week announced enhancements to its software-defined networking (SDN) portfolio, including integration with Skype for Business.
Extreme's SDN products help enterprises update their networks with new-age networking technologies that can upgrade existing "brownfield" deployments, as opposed to a total "rip and replace" overhaul.
The company's SDN upgrades include integration with Skype for Business to guarantee appropriate network resources are allocated for the communications platform.
Skype for Business (formerly Microsoft Lync) is a communications and collaboration platform with enterprise-grade security, compliance and control, Microsoft says. "It offers features including presence, IM, voice and video calls, and online meetings," the company says on its Web site. "It is built right in to Microsoft Office, so initiating chats, calls and meetings is an integrated experience within Office."
The Extreme SDN solution is based on its new OneController, based on the OpenDaylight framework, announced at the recent Interop conference.
[Click on image for larger view.]The Extreme Networks SDN Solution (source: Extreme Networks).
Company exec Brian Clevesy said in a blog post Tuesday that the OneController, now in limited availability, will in subsequent editions "integrate other Extreme Networks software solutions such as: The IdentiFi wireless controller functionality, NAC, and Purview. This will open our software to the greater development community and allow other SDN compliant third parties to control these as well."
Along with the controller, the company offers the NetSight network management application. Clevesy said it was the first such tool "that can provision consistent network policies across a multivendor network using the Group-Based Policy project in OpenDaylight."
Other enhancements announced by Extreme include a new SDN Applications Store, which provides an online marketplace for paid and free apps for SDN implementations.
Finally, a new SDN Developer Portal provides guidance that developers can use to create, submit and manage their wares on the company's app store.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.