Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) stalled $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks is music to the ear of rival Extreme Networks, which claims to be taking advantage of that deal’s uncertainty to offer a “safe harbor” for increasingly disenfranchised HPE and Juniper customers.

Extreme Networks CEO Ed Meyercord said the vendor is hearing more discontent across the industry in regard to messaging from both HPE and Juniper as it applies to the pending deal and what might come after a potential closing.

“When you combine businesses, you’ve got to make decisions on the portfolio, the roadmap, and technology,” Meyercord said. “You can't carry forward all the technology, so you have to make calls there. You have different cultures that have to come together, and who knows how that works. You've got more specifically channel programs and different programs, so they have to be modified. You can't keep the same programs. And then there's pecking order changes and focuses, and so if that deal happens there's going to be a lot of disruption. And there has been some amount of disruption just in anticipation of what's going to happen and the uncertainty around it.”

Meyercord noted that this has allowed Extreme to be “kind of a safe harbor” against that uncertainty. “It’s kind of funny to say that, but there’s a lot of uncertainty around what’s going on,” Meyercord added.

This discontent has been echoed by some analysts that have stated a consummated HPE-Juniper deal will result in a winnowing of platforms. HPE and Juniper’s management have attempted to quell these concerns, but many are not convinced.

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) pending lawsuit to stop the deal is adding further fuel to that doubt fire. Some have noted that HPE might have to divest some Juniper assets to get the deal passed, which is just adding to the confusion.

Meyercord’s boasting was backed by the vendor posting robust results for its most recent fiscal quarter. The vendor generated a nearly 74% increase in net income compared to the previous year, with net income turning around from a $64.4 million loss to a $3.5 million gain.

Meyercord did note during the vendor’s earnings call that Juniper is reacting to the market uncertainty.

“We've seen Juniper get a little more aggressive in pricing to win business,” Meyercord said. “They're somewhat in the same situation as HPE because they're stagnant. They can't provide real guidance to the channel or customers as to the future of the product roadmap, the technology, the solutions. They just they don't know. So that's helpful to us.”

Juniper’s reaction is also being pushed by stagnating growth. The vendor did post strong year-over-year growth for its most recent financial quarter, boosted by what CEO Rami Rahim noted in a statement was a 40% surge in product orders, but sequential numbers were down.

Rahim told SDxCentral following its previous earnings release that despite the challenge the vendor remained focused on operations.

“We haven't skipped a beat at Juniper as we go through this process, you can see it in our results,” Rahim said. “We're performing exceptionally well as a standalone company, but I am a firm believer that we will be an even stronger company when this deal is cleared and we become part of the HPE family. And then once that happens, I'm excited to partner up with Antonio to head up the combined networking business and to double down on the innovation that's happening both in the space of AI for networks and networks for AI.”

Cisco channel uncertainty adds to Extreme’s opportunity

Meyercord said Extreme is also seeing network opportunities from Cisco’s revamped focus away from its legacy core and onto its cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.

“Cisco has actually been pretty strong and competitive in the marketplace, hanging on to their market share,” Meyercord said during the earnings call. “I don't really have a lot to report on that front, except for the fact that with their focus as it relates to Splunk and driving SaaS revenue, observability, security, they seem to be moving away from or less focused on enterprise networking, and there are solutions there. This is what we hear from customers and partners. They remain the most complicated, unintegrated, and expensive solution in the marketplace. And so, the chorus of dissatisfaction from Cisco continues to grow. And the larger deals that we're talking about, in most cases, these are competitive wins from Cisco.”

Those wins are also coming from channel discontent as Cisco is pushing a revamped partner program.

Cisco unveiled its overhauled 360 Partner Program last year. It’s targeted at consolidating the vendor’s various partner programs under one plan.

Rodney Clark, senior VP for partnerships at Cisco, noted in a recent blog post that the initial phase of the overhaul will begin on July 25. This will see the implementation of different incentive programs and changes to partner payout programs.

The new incentive programs will focus on providing a bigger reward for partners on “strategic offers and adoption-based incentives,” and “more earnings for high-quality assessments.” The current “Cisco Services Partner Program” will have its payouts changed and the “Monthly Value Rebates for Cisco Success Tracks” will be ended.

The full program overhaul will commence in February 2026, with the launch of the “Cisco Partner Incentive” program that will replace “multiple siloed programs.” Cisco will also be cutting the annuity payout on software and services and its “Delivery Rebate” program.

“I understand these changes directly impact your business operations and profitability,” Clark wrote. “That’s why we’re taking a measured, two-phase approach that provides stability while allowing time to adapt.”

Despite those attempts at stability, Meyercord sees channel opportunities.

“In terms of where they're investing and where they're going to be focusing their incentives and their priorities, it's not in the core enterprise networking and solutions,” Meyercord said. “These are all things that create opportunities for Extreme.”