Extreme Networks’ $73 million acquisition of InfoVista’s Ipanema business is all about SD-WAN on the surface, but that's not the end game. Ipanema is part of a much bigger puzzle for Extreme as it folds secure access service edge (SASE) into its Infinite Enterprise strategy, according to Nabil Bukhari, chief product officer at Extreme.

The acquisition, in many ways, allows Extreme to leapfrog its largest competitors Aruba, Juniper Mist, and Cisco Meraki in the SASE race, he claimed.

“It’s not just an SD-WAN, its a cloud-delivered SD-WAN,” Bukhari said, explaining that the first generation of SD-WAN was really about reducing costs, and replacing MPLS with broadband and dedicated internet access. “Now we are in the phase where SD-WAN is not about reducing cost, it’s about business continuity.”

SD-WAN isn’t exactly a new concept for Extreme, which acquired Aerohive in 2019.

“Aerohive supposedly brought depth in cloud managed services and SD-WAN to Extreme,” Will Townsend, senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, wrote in response to questions. “My take is that Aerohive didn't have the depth and breadth in SD-WAN that was needed, or that it couldn't support the security integration that SASE promises to deliver.”

That isn’t far from the truth because many of the SD-WAN and routing technologies acquired from Aerohive, Avaya, and Brocade were all part of the first generation of SD-WAN, according to Bukhari.

“We really needed a cloud-first, cloud-driven kind of thing,” he said. “We wanted to acquire something that helps us deliver that distributed security as well.”

While it’s possible to do SD-WAN over the internet using IPsec tunnels you’re saying “goodbye performance, and latency, and experience. So, that’s where having a very high speed backbone was critical," Bukhari explained.

That's where Ipanema’s SD-WAN comes into play. InfoVista last month announced a sweeping update to the platform and a broader distribution of its SD-WAN alongside Check Point’s security suite in Equinix data centers around the globe.

“The fact that InfoVista had gone through the work of modernizing Ipanema, I think that was what was really attractive,” Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, said adding that InfoVista created a version of what Cato and Aryaka provide. "Equinix gives them a bunch of points of presence (PoPs) around the world to be able to push out network and security services. So Check Point provides security and Equinix provides the cloud backend.”

A geographically distributed routing and security stack are key components of a SASE architecture. “All these pieces together — they’re all awesome — but the key thing that plugs them all together is still the cloud,” Bukhari said.

Extreme plans to integrate these capabilities into its ExtremeCloud IQ management platform over the next six to nine months, beginning with Ipanema’s SD-WAN functionality.

Long term, Extreme aims to expand its security and WAN ecosystem to include additional security, colocation, and cloud providers.

“Check Point is a big name. We really like it, but we will absolutely grow that alliance, that ecosystem play,” Bukhari said, explaining that Ipanema's ability to plug any security service into its cloud makes it an attractive option.

Kerravala expects Extreme to continue partnering with security vendors for its SASE offering, at least initially, but said he won't be surprised if the company picks up a handful of smaller security vendors in the future.

“We’re not a security company,” Bukhari said. “When it comes to core security functionality, we believe our customers have their preferred vendors.”

However, Bukhari didn’t rule out the possibility of acquiring or developing a zero-trust network access (ZTNA) platform to support customer demand.

Kerravala described the Ipanema acquisition as a “steal” for Extreme.

“Ipanema has always had great technology but was stuck inside a company that had no idea how to sell to enterprises,” he said. “This acquisition fills a big void in its Infinite Enterprise vision as it didn’t have the product to deliver network and security services everywhere and now it does.”

He added that $73 million is a “great value” considering that SASE and SD-WAN are two of the fastest growing networking segments.

Extreme also, through the acquisition, gains an opportunity to grow its presence in the European market, according to 650 Group founding analyst Chris DePuy.

“Extreme gains exposure with two major operators in Europe, BT and Orange, and most Ipanema SD-WAN revenues are in Europe,” he wrote.