Tennessee Tech Selects Extreme Networks and Excalibur Integrated Systems to Boost Educational Opportunities on Campus and Within the Community

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) today announced that it has been selected to build a next generation education network for Tennessee Tech University. Working closely with integrator Excalibur Integrated Systems, Extreme Networks will be delivering a high performance, secure and reliable campus network featuring increased performance and support of converged IP video, technology that will extend to benefit surrounding communities.

Tennessee Tech, voted one of the nation's 50 "Best Value" universities by the Princeton Review in 2010, supports more than 10,000 students and staff on its campus and has a goal to provide network resources to surrounding community colleges, rural health facilities and local high schools. With its impressive and diverse curriculum, featuring its schools of engineering, sciences, healthcare and computing, the university is eyeing the future with the establishment of a robust network that readily embraces high resolution video for learning in real-time, and the support of bandwidth-intensive applications across multiple campus facilities, labs and auditoriums.  

A next generation network from Extreme Networks, with special capabilities for resiliency, redundancy and high availability, can facilitate distance learning and related collaborative applications well into the future.

"Tennessee Tech is working with Extreme Networks and Excalibur Integrated Systems to migrate to a digitally connected world of higher education, putting in place an expertly designed network infrastructure and services foundation to support distance learning and flawless connectivity and communications," said Jerry Boyd, Assistant Director of Network Services for Tennessee Tech. "Support from our new network of external programs in the community, including collaboration and IP communications between surrounding educational facilities and rural healthcare facilities, results in many benefits to the community and the local area, making this an investment for the future."  

To achieve its goals, Tennessee Tech applied an extensive RFQ process in 2009, evaluating network vendors on the basis of scalable technology, integrated management and convergence features. Added to that, the vendor had to work closely with integrator Excalibur Integrated Systems, to deliver customized design and support.

Extreme Networks Summit® family of fixed switches, including the Summit X450 Gigabit switch and Summit X650 10 Gigabit switch, the BlackDiamond® 8800 series modular switches and the ExtremeXOS® operating system were selected ahead of competing solutions. Extreme Networks next-generation operating system features cross-platform stacking between Summit X450/ X650 switches and automation technologies that reduce the time and costs associated with managing the network.

Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 8800 series switches connect the core network and the university will implement Extreme Networks resiliency protocol EAPS throughout its ring design, providing sub50 millisecond recovery of IP services should a connection be cut or damaged.

"The high performance infrastructure being put in place for Tennessee Tech is truly innovative, combining the latest in convergence, networking and the Internet to push education and interactive learning towards tomorrow," said Paul Hooper, chief marketing officer for Extreme Networks. "By keeping management simple and establishing high speed network connections that are intelligent and capable of supporting mixed media, highlighted by high resolution video, students, staff and the surrounding community benefit from a superior and immersive learning environment."

Excalibur Integrated Systems

Excalibur Integrated Systems, based in Tennessee, services suppliers from multiple industries to design and implement total solutions. Excalibur provides expertise in executing complete integrated network and data collection solutions for our customers including: Wireless Networking: RF site surveys, installation, troubleshooting, security assessments; Data Networking including enterprise switching, security, firewall, NAC, IPS, and VPN Solutions. Telephony including Unified Communications, VoIP, integrated Messaging and Contact Centers. Mobile application development and software solutions that help deliver real-time information from beyond your four walls into your mission-critical databases and complete integration and implementation of products and services.

Extreme Networks, Inc.

Extreme Networks provides converged Ethernet network infrastructure that support data, voice and video for enterprises and service providers. The company's network solutions feature high performance, high availability and scalable switching solutions that enable organizations to address real-world communications challenges and opportunities. Operating in more than 50 countries, Extreme Networks provides wired and wireless secure LANs, data center infrastructure and Service Provider Ethernet transport solutions that are complemented by global, 24x7 service and support. For more information, visit: http://www.extremenetworks.com

Extreme Networks, Summit, BlackDiamond and ExtremeXOS are registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other names are the property of their respective owners.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including without limitation statements as to features and benefits of ExtremeXOS, BlackDiamond and Summit products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, including network design and actual results of use of the product in different environments. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information in this release. Other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are contained in the Company's 10-Qs and 10-Ks which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. http://www.sec.gov

SOURCE Extreme Networks, Inc.