New CEO outlines plans for struggling Extreme

18.10.2006

Can you assess the competitive landscape, including Cisco? We all operate in the shadow of a Cisco. It means you have to differentiate and be nimble. Cisco may be large but they have lots of different product lines that may be incompatible with one another. They may be large, but can they capitalize on that? We've built our company around a single system that's open. We have a very sophisticated XML interface and a set of APIs that make it very easy for a partner like Avaya to closely build in an application environment. That's key when you're a US$400 million company like us, operating against a giant Cisco. The trick is to apply what you are really good at into markets where you can make a difference, and get there before Cisco.