For the 7th consecutive season, Extreme Networks is the Official Wi-Fi Network Solutions Provider of the National Football League. 12 NFL stadiums utilize ExtremeMobility to deliver robust Wi-Fi connectivity to tens of thousands of fans every game day, and 25 NFL stadiums utilize ExtremeAnalytics, to better understand the mobile preferences and behaviors of connected fans. 

Network performance and reliability on NFL game day is mission-critical – it simply must work.

But game day is different from industry to industry, business to business.  Regardless what the ‘IT playbook’ looks like on game day, one factor is certain: even in the most complex and challenging environments, the network is a critical business asset and must support the unique goals of the organization and the expectations of its customers.  That means: 

For customers of Extreme Networks, Game Day is Everyday

Extreme customers face any number of network-related trials when delivering strong outcomes on game day.  Take for example our Elements of Success Customer E-Book, where we highlight stories from 21 customers who tackled their unique game day challenges with Extreme.  And while every business and its environment is different, it’s clear Extreme’s core networking competencies provide the right formula for success, which is comprised of:

•          Intelligent, Adaptive, Secure Infrastructure
•          Stellar Services and Support
•          Right Size to Do Business With
•          Open Ecosystem and Multi-Cloud, Multi-Vendor Enablement
•          Cross-Domain and Multi-Purpose Automation
•          Edge to Cloud Software-Driven Architecture
•          Actionable Insights and Analytics

So how do these competencies deliver a winning formula for customers’ game days? Let’s look at a few examples to find out.

Intelligent, Adaptive, and Secure Infrastructure

The Bowen Center is a leading provider of mental health care in northern Indiana, servicing 21 counties with nearly 1,300 staff.  For the Bowen Center, game day means connecting critical medical devices, supporting their electronic medical record (EMR) systems, and pursing forward-thinking use cases like offering telemedicine.

Burdened with a slow and rigid network, Bowen partnered with Extreme to deliver a high-performing and secure solution to handle all their IT game day needs.  As a result, Bowen’s EMR system is fully supported and the staff are better enabled to complete their day to day responsibilities, driving a 20+ point increase in IT satisfaction scores.   

Service and Support

Beaufort County School District includes 21 elementary schools, two pre K-8 schools, seven middle schools, and nine high schools.  Outside of creating a nurturing, engaging, safe learning environment, Beaufort County’s game day requires a robust wired and wireless network to support their 1:1 student device initiative, providing network access to 22,000 wireless devices.   

This number of connected devices across multiple distributed locations requires substantial network bandwidth and capacity on game day, but it also requires comprehensive support.  One of the key drivers behind Beaufort’s decision to partner with Extreme was the GTAC support team, a one-stop support center for any and all issues – simplifying troubleshooting and acting as a great time-saver for the IT team.

Open Ecosystem and Multi-Cloud, Multi-Vendor Enablement

The Seattle Seahawks is a professional NFL team who plays their home games at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA.  Understanding unfettered access to their personal mobile devices is now part of a complete game day experience for fans, the Seahawks deployed a purpose-built network solution to provide reliable and secure Wi-Fi for in-stadium users.  However, the network also needed to support an ecosystem of connected functions and assets.

In addition to delivering Wi-Fi to tens of thousands of fans in-stadium (an average of 35,000 unique users connected every game day), the Seahawks are now able to support critical business functions like security cameras, concessions, and mobile point of sales, as well as enabling fan experience functions like the support of the Seahawks’ team app, mobile ticketing, and location-based engagements.     

Software-Driven Architecture for Cloud, Edge, and Datacenter

Telehouse America is an IT service provider that delivers secure data center facilities, cloud solutions, and connectivity for mission-critical IT business environments.  Telehouse’s game day is everyday, since each day the business must deliver a peak traffic of 600 gigabits per second to over 1,200 high-profile, demanding customers like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Netflix. 

Extreme’s Agile Data Center and high-performance SLX switching solutions met Telehouse’s game day challenge of providing a stable, low-latency network with high port density to their customers’ environments, maintaining uptime and ensuring their customers (and customer’s customers) are satisfied.    

Actionable Insights and Analytics

Seaway Mall is a shopping center near Niagara Falls, NY that includes an array of retail stores, restaurants, and its own movie theatre.  However, Seaway Mall needed to better understand the visitor trends of their customers, and how customers engaged in the environment once inside the walls of the mall.

To overcome this challenge, Seaway Mall deployed Extreme wireless access points and a cloud-based locationing solution, ExtremeLocation; the combined solution allowed customers to access fast, free W-Fi as well as providing Seaway’s IT team the tools to monitor visitor engagement trends historically or in real-time.  As a result, they could determine the number of repeat vs. new customers, what events drove additional customer traffic in the mall, and how customers traversed throughout the environment once inside.

Want to learn more about the unique challenges our customers face?

Read the rest of the 21 customer stories by downloading Extreme’s Elements of Success e-book, and learn more about what ‘game day’ means for their IT environment.