SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Extreme Networks, Inc. today announced that the University of California Merced, the first American research university built from the ground up in the 21st century and the tenth campus in the prestigious University of California system, is securing its campus network with Extreme Networks(R) innovative security solutions that can integrate seamlessly with the network infrastructure.

UC Merced has pursued a planned technology vision that embraces an intelligent network backed by open standards, reliability and best-of-breed security to ensure the consistent delivery of applications. As a starting point, the network today supports a powerful identity management system serving as a student web portal, in order to provide access to all information and applications that current members of the university community need to use on a day-to-day basis.

UC Merced required robust security to complement its LAN infrastructure and had to achieve the right balance of performance, responsiveness and ease-of-use. By selecting Extreme Networks Sentriant(TM) threat mitigation appliance, UC Merced can monitor and respond to incoming and outgoing traffic threats and breeches in security policy.

"To effectively catch both common Internet traffic attack and Zero Day Threats, the network needs to be constantly monitored and offer the most appropriate, 'just-in-time' response, with either manual or automated functionality," said Dean Lawson, network engineer for University of California Merced. "By integrating Sentriant security with our core BlackDiamond switches, we now have the protection and rapid, automated response required for all types of attacks that threaten the integrity and performance of our systems."

UC Merced implements the Sentriant appliance in integrated mode, meaning it interoperates closely with the BlackDiamond(R) 10K switch to offer increased containment and remediation options. This includes integration with the network infrastructure to quickly thwart both common and zero-day network threats. Most importantly, the Sentriant appliance offers problem-specific remediation and containment in both manual and automatic mode. This allows the IT staff to maximize efficiency for end-user fixes while still being included in the most onerous of threats and breeches.

"Extreme Networks is driving intelligence and integrated security into networks, which is key for higher education environments that are distributed and serve a wide array of users," said Suresh Gopalakrishnan, vice president and general manager for the Emerging Technologies Products Group at Extreme Networks. "UC Merced signifies how university campuses are taking a holistic approach to ensuring the security and availability of their networks."

Extreme Networks Sentriant threat mitigation appliance can detect and contain threats going to and coming from devices attached to the network. Sentriant can sit on all common network switches, acting in a "virtually in-line" mode, allowing it to watch mirrored traffic. This means that Sentriant is not a bottleneck or a single point of failure on the network. Furthermore, it is a "plug-and-play" solution, which is easy to evaluate, install, and deploy across heterogeneous data and voice networks.

The Sentriant threat mitigation appliance also allows IT administrators to slow down, or "snare," threatening or infected devices on the network. This allows staff to analyze, monitor, and characterize threatening endpoints before taking them completely off of the network.

Extreme Networks, Inc.

Extreme Networks designs, builds, and installs Ethernet infrastructure solutions that solve the toughest business communications challenges. Our commitment to open networking sets us apart from the alternatives by delivering meaningful insight and unprecedented control to applications and services. We believe openness is the best foundation for growth, freedom, flexibility, and choice. We focus on enterprises and service providers who demand high performance, converged networks that support voice, video and data, over a wired and wireless infrastructure.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including without limitation statements as to features and performance of the Sentriant appliance 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/).

Extreme Networks BlackDiamond and Sentriant are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

CONTACT: Greg Cross, Extreme Networks Public Relations, +1-408-579-3483,
or gcross@extremenetworks.com

Web site: http://www.extremenetworks.com/