Has the time come for integrated network and security platforms?

“The message I got from the survey was that customers are operating in a world where there’s a massive proliferation of products, or applications, and that’s really translating into complexity. Complexity is equal to risk, and that complexity is happening in multiple places,” said Extreme Networks CTO Nabil Bukhari.

Complexity is an interesting topic because it changes, Bukhari said. The first Ford cars were basically just an engine with brakes, but they were complicated to start and drive. “Now, if you look at a car, they are like data centers on wheels. But driving and owning them is exponentially easier,” Bukhari said.

“Technology is progressively becoming more and more complex,” but platformization makes the process of buying it, running it, and experiencing it significantly easier, Bukhari said. “On one side, it’s much, much more complex technology, but it is bundled and built in such a way that, as a user, as a customer, it makes your life simpler.”

Extreme’s mantra is to make secure networking easy to achieve. “And platforms – at least the way we think about platforms – will massively help in that movement. They will become progressively simpler to buy, to operate, to manage, and there will not be this massive requirement to retrain people or get new skill sets,” Bukhari said. 

Bukhari also believes platform-based systems will be what ultimately make AI-based technologies shine.

“The true unlocking of AI will happen when AI and platforms come together, and that is what will deliver the sustainable, escalating value,” Bukhari said. “The job of the vendor is not to AI wash everything, but simply apply AI to either accelerate experiences, replace experiences, or create new experiences.”