Extreme Networks rolls out the welcome mat to Aerohive partners

Extreme Networks is rolling out the welcome mat to Aerohive partners after the firm announced its acquisition of the cloud management specialist.

The $272m deal was revealed yesterday but already partners are being briefed on the potential benefits with a unified channel programme something Aerohive's channel can look forward to. In a partner Q&A Extreme went through some of the key issues that would have an impact on both resellers and distributors.

"Aerohive partners will be offered the opportunity to become a part of a unified partner program under Extreme’s award-winning Extreme Partner Program," the firm stated "Aerohive partners will be offered access to a program designed to enable and reward channel partners through new solution-selling, new customer acquisition and wireless specialization rebates, in addition to greater MDF, deal registration programs and training."

Extreme added that Aerohive partners need not worry about losing sales opportunities because the oppositie should happen when they gained access to a much wider product portfolio.

"This acquisition opens up new sales opportunities across the board to partners who will be offered access to Extreme’s full portfolio of end-to-end, wired and wireless software-driven networking solutions upon deal close. Like Aerohive, Extreme will continue to support a deal registration process to incent new and existing business opportunities," the Q&A added.

There could be some changes coming on the distribution front after the deal closes but there would not be any movement until 2020.

"We will maintain both Extreme and Aerohive distribution relationships through the end of the calendar year when we will rationalize them," the firm stated.

"Extreme is evaluating the distribution landscape to ensure we have the distribution coverage and value added capabilities needed to fully support our partner network. We will maintain both Extreme and Aerohive distribution relationships through the end of the calendar year, or deal close, whichever is later, when we will rationalize them," it added.

Extreme Networks is no stranger to using acquisition as a way to extend its reach and in the past has picked up Zebra's WLAN business and Avaya's networking operation.

Commenting on this latest deal, Extreme CEO Ed Meyercord, said that it gave it more muscle in the cloud, AI and machine learning, spaces and added expertise around the cloud services platform business and subscription service model.

“Extreme continues to invest in software and AI to expand the automation capabilities across our portfolio of edge-to-cloud networking solutions. The ability to improve user experiences, lower operating expenses, and deliver cloud-managed networks is key to our strategy," he said.