Networks are built using switches, routers, and other devices in a distributed fashion to scale and provide reliability. In this distributed environment, it has become more complex to provide new end—to—end services and applications in a seamless and cost—effective manner. As the business demands more agile and flexible IT services this has become a focal point for innovation and also for differentiation by vendors that have solved that challenge. To address the simultaneous needs for security, virtualization, manageability, mobility and agility in today ́s networks—the concept of SDNs Software Defined Networks—are gaining attention as a viable solution. The provisioning of new services and the reliable application delivery in a dynamic IT infrastructure can be achieved with such an architecture. The value of SDN in the enterprise lies specifically in the ability to provide network virtualization and automation of configuration across the entire network/fabric so new services and endsystems can be deployed rapidly and operational cost can be minimized. Extreme Networks™’ network management solutions aim to participate in these environments, providing the information to create smarter configurations.

An MDM solution typically provides features like, mobile application management (deployment, update, blocking), inventory management (hardware and software), security and policy management (corporate policies, authentication, encryption, connection to known and unknown networks), and service management (telecom services). As enterprises embrace the new world of consumer tablets, smartphones and laptops, a “Bring Your Own Device” policy (BYOD) enables employees and guests to be more mobile and productive while the enterprise is secure and compliant. This trend is rapidly growing in the carpeted enterprise and a recent IDC survey shows that over 40% of employees will utilize their own devices at the workplace in 2012 alone. With the rapid growth of new and powerful smartphones and tablets, largely spurred on by Apple’s iPhone™ and iPad™ devices, and the use of multiple devices by the same user at any given time, the challenges presented to IT have exploded. Now the entire process of automating discovery, profiling, on boarding, securing, managing, and troubleshooting has become one of the single largest issues facing the enterprise today.

Extreme Networks Mobile Identity And Access Management

A sudden influx of new and ever—growing types and numbers of devices, a mix of operating systems, the immediate demand of personal and enterprise apps, and the increase usage of video, voice and data over the air and on the wire will have a dramatic impact on the security, bandwidth, access control and end—user experience for all of your trusted users and guests. The Extreme Networks Mobile Identity and Access Management™ (Mobile IAM) solution delivers a uniquely comprehensive approach for deploying and managing the world of BYOD and the mobile Enterprise—with this SDN integration, the solution can be extended to include an ecosystem of systems to provide granular visibility and enforcement of network policies as it is done for unmanaged devices (and any other device and user on the network) in a BYOD environment as well. The security appliance market has evolved rapidly in the last years developing new solutions that integrate the user identity in the security decisions. The new security appliances usually provide features like  user—based content security rules, application level visibility into the traffic, and advanced filtering engines up to layer 7.

OS LIA–OpenScape Location And Identity Assurance

Automatically detect Siemens™ VoIP phones and assign corresponding connectivity and security profiles. Provides the VoIP administrator with location and network information on all phones which is updated automatically when phones move. Location based configuration assignment for phones. Receive data on phone number, firmware version and type from DLS. Send data for switch IP, switch port, NAC profile, NAC policy to DLS. Automatically assign ES group. DLS can automatically assign phone configuration based on location data received from OS LIA. OneView integration for centralized analysis and reporting. These features may become important for enterprises in specific verticals like government or healthcare that require a more strict management of their security and fine—grained security rules that better adapt to the ever—changing BYOD environment. Sitting at the core of the BYOD environment, Mobile IAM can provide unvaluable information to these appliances and allow the full development of their capabilities by adding user and location information.

The OneFabric Connect Integration Service

It is a professional service delivered through a combination of middleware and integration services that interact with the Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center™ (leveraging the Netsight Management Suite) from Extreme Networks™. It provides APIs to integrate Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center (Netsight, Mobile IAM and NAC) with other IT solutions, management systems and databases (CMDB’s, etc.), MDM solutions, NG Firewalls, Web Filtering solutions etc. It enhances the value of Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center™ with deeper visibility into device data—augmented with asset info, contact info, device details, phone number etc. It provides automation and control: device identification and location tracking, reporting back to other IT systems and automatically assign policies managed by IT systems inside or outside the network management domain.

Features And Benefits

The Integration Service is delivered through a combination of middleware and integration services that interact with the Netsight Management Suite from Extreme Networks™. This offering also contains planning, product specific configuration, integration, and end—to—end testing of network communications. The Extreme Networks Professional Services™ organization provides the following services, due diligence to determine the feasibility of the integration between the external IT solution and the Extreme Networks solution — depending on the functionality offered by the external system, the integration might not be possible and Extreme Networks reserves the right to withdraw from the order. Implementation of software that integrates with the Extreme Networks Netsight™ API as well as with the system API. Configuration of the Extreme Networks NetSight™ components. MDM, Mobile IAM infrastructure integration via Extreme Networks NetSight™. The integration leverages an Extreme Networks Mobile IAM™ implementation or a traditional Extreme Networks NetSight™ NAC deployment and requires the following hardware and software elements to be implemented prior to the arrival of the Extreme Networks™.