‘I want partners to know that we’re going to do business with them in a simple and predictable fashion that builds trust between us and them and that if we go to market together, they know what to expect, and that they’re going to solve their needed customer outcomes with ease with Extreme versus our competition,’ says Joe Spencer, Extreme’s senior vice president of global channel and strategic initiatives.
Extreme Networks in accordance with changing networking market requirements from enterprises and the demand for simplicity from the channel is launching a new partner program to kick off 2026, the company told CRN.
Extreme Partner First, revealed Tuesday, simplifies deal registration, serves up more transparent pricing, offers new training and certifications, and uses AI to improve time to revenue and profitability with less friction, according to Joe Spencer, Extreme’s senior vice president of global channel and strategic initiatives.
“Our program has been around for quite some time. It was designed for what the market needed several years ago, and we listened to our partners and redesigned for what they need today,” Spencer told CRN. “I want partners to know that we’re going to do business with them in a simple and predictable fashion that builds trust between us and them and that if we go to market together, they know what to expect, and that they’re going to solve their needed customer outcomes with ease with Extreme versus our competition.””
Spencer, a networking veteran, joined Extreme in May from Juniper Networks where he was responsible for channel sales and enterprise programs.
[Related: Extreme Networks Taps Former Juniper Exec To Lead EMEA Sales]
The new program comes while networking market heavyweight Cisco Systems is rolling out its fully revamped Cisco 360 partner program aimed at helping MSPs capture more AI opportunities.
Extreme, a smaller but mighty networking provider, however, is better positioned than ever before against the competition, Spencer said.
“More than 90 percent of our business is through a partner today, and that is not going to change in the future. I think more than anything, what we deliver into the marketplace is clarity and simplicity, and that’s what we’re striving for. It’s really easy to make a partner program complicated. It’s incredibly difficult to make it simple, and I feel very good about what we’ve done and offering that simplicity,” Spencer said.
Extreme Partner First offers a unified rebate structure, quicker deal approvals, and clearer pricing and benefits for partners. For more predictable profitability for partners, the new program will offer one global, SKU- and volume-based rebate model and a unified global framework for deal registration with a 48-hour target approval for service level agreements to make it easier for partners to pursue and scale international opportunities more quickly, Extreme said.
Extreme will also help partners close deals faster thanks to its new Partner AI Sales Assistant, a feature that helps partners find critical sales information in seconds, the Morrisville, N.C.-based company said.
The existing levels within the partner program—Gold, Diamond and Diamond Elite—are staying the same, but the company made some minor changes to the threshold levels of each tier, with the volume requirements changing for the Gold level, Spencer said.
Via new training and certifications, partners will be able to earn new combined certifications for installation and troubleshooting, with a specific focus on AI readiness and use cases within Extreme Platform ONE, the company’s offering that brings together networking and security tools, including products from third-party networking and security vendors. Extreme Platform ONE became generally available in July.
“We will ask our partners to further their certifications with Extreme to learn more about how to sell the technologies again that produce the exemplary customer outcomes,” Spencer said.
The company said that more information about the new certifications will be available to partners by May at Extreme Connect 2026.
