SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Extreme Networks (NASDAQ: EXTR), a technology leader in high-performance Ethernet switching, and Fortinet, a leader in high-performance network security, today announced a  joint marketing agreement where they will work together to provide fast, secure, multi-tenant cloud networks for today's large enterprises and cloud service providers. The solutions are being demonstrated at Extreme Networks' Interop tradeshow booth #1851 in Las Vegas, May 8-10.

The main concerns organizations have with shifting their data and networking to private, public or hybrid clouds are security, latency and scalability. But network architects are slowly beginning to see the economic value of pushing more applications to the cloud. When new products become available that are scalable and won't impact network performance, Extreme Networks believes cloud adoption will expand.

"The data center networking equipment market segment that supports private, public and hybrid clouds continues to enjoy strong growth," said Sam Barnett, directing analyst for Data Center & Cloud at Infonetics Research. "We predict that the market for this type of DC Networking Equipment will reach $11.6B in 2015."

Extreme Networks Ethernet switching and Fortinet's FortiGate Unified Threat Management (UTM) security appliances have been recognized by Info-Tech Research, the Lippis Report and BreakingPoint Systems, Inc. as performance innovators in network switching and security.

Extreme Networks switches feature dense 10/40GbE with 20 terabits of capacity and Fortinet's top-of-the-line FortiGate-5140B chassis has been tested by Fortinet at 559Gbps of firewall throughput and up to 132 million concurrent sessions. To put that performance in context, according to Fortinet, the chassis can inspect 10,000 iTunes™ songs every second or 36 million songs per hour, 228,000 Web pages every second or 821 million pages per hour. Together, the two companies' products offer the performance and scalability required to support today's cloud infrastructures.

The two companies recently completed interoperability testing that evaluated switch and security functionality with integrated firewall, VPN, IPS, Web filtering and application control services.

 "As the demand for Cloud infrastructure and services increases, so does the expectation that those solutions will be stable, secure and proven," said Bill Annino, vice president of data technologies at Carousel Industries, a reseller of both Extreme Networks and Fortinet's products. "To meet this challenge, Extreme Networks and Fortinet have come together with their products to offer the combination of performance and security protection that enables us to deliver a complete solution to our customers."

"The toughest part of securing the cloud today is doing so without affecting network performance," said Greg Fitzgerald, vice president of global marketing at Fortinet. "You can buy multiple appliances in an attempt to cover all of today's threat vectors, but at a point, management and costs become unwieldy and you're going to take a hit in performance. Consolidating all security functions into a purpose built, high performance security device that's managed through a simple interface and coupling that with a switch from Extreme Networks, offers today's cloud service providers a very powerful one-two punch."

"The business case for the cloud comes down to cost, scale and security," said David Ginsburg, chief marketing officer for Extreme Networks. "Our work with Fortinet addresses each of these concerns by providing combined scalability, performance and intelligence, allowing enterprises to more confidently choose robust and interoperability tested solutions within budget."  

About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)

Fortinet is a worldwide provider of network security appliances and the market leader in unified threat management (UTM). Our products and subscription services provide broad, integrated and high-performance protection against dynamic security threats while simplifying the IT security infrastructure. Our customers include enterprises, service providers and government entities worldwide, including the majority of the 2011 Fortune Global 100. Fortinet's flagship FortiGate product delivers ASIC-accelerated performance and integrates multiple layers of security designed to help protect against application and network threats. Fortinet's broad product line goes beyond UTM to help secure the extended enterprise - from endpoints, to the perimeter and the core, including databases and applications. Fortinet is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with offices around the world.

Fortinet has not independently verified statements or certifications herein attributed to third parties and Fortinet does not independently endorse such statements. References to "partner" and "partnership" herein do not refer to a legal partnership but instead to a distributor relationship. Nothing in the news release constitutes a warranty, guaranty, or contractually binding commitment.  This news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve uncertainties and assumptions. If the uncertainties materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, any statements related to expected trends in threat activity. These trends are difficult to predict and any stated expectations regarding these trends may not ultimately be correct. Fortinet assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

About Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks is a technology leader in high performance Ethernet switching for cloud, data center and mobile networks.  Based in Santa Clara, CA, Extreme Networks has more than 6,000 customers in more than 50 countries. 

Extreme Networks and the Extreme Networks logo are either trademarks or  registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and/or 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 performance, timing and features of the Extreme Networks 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.

SOURCE Extreme Networks