Extreme Networks Development Unit Comes to Park
Broadband Innovators Lease Over 60,000 Square Feet, Plan for Growth
 

Darrell Scherbarth, vice president and general manager of Extreme Networks' Access Business Unit, sits at an engineering station with Extreme's trademark purple and green equipment.

By Jay Hipps
Network Editor

 Extreme Networks, a company that specializes in hardware and software for switched broadband networks, has leased over 60,000 square feet in Hacienda at West Las Positas and Hacienda for its Access Business Unit. The company's primary customers are large enterprises and broadband service providers.

"The majority of Extreme's products are sold to provide internal networking, what we call enterprise networking, inside a customer's facility," explains Darrell Scherbarth, vice president and general manager of Extreme's Access Business Unit. "We have large customers like Compaq and Apple Computer using our products to wire the large numbers of PCs that they have." 

The Access Business Unit provides products and technologies that complement Extreme's enterprise networking products with a variety of "first mile" products which connect facilities to existing networks, whether they be Internet switches at telephone company central offices or privately-owned metropolitan area networks. 

"We're focused (here) on developing products which extend our Ethernet and IP switching technology into areas where we can expand into first mile access," says Scherbarth. "Some of the technology that we've developed is being used, for example, to connect our facility in Pleasanton to our headquarters in Santa Clara. Thanks to our products, we become a transparent part of their network over the multiple T1 telephone circuits that we've run between here and Santa Clara." 

The division has also produced technology which allows broadband access at speeds of 10 megabits and higher into multi-tenant facilities such as high-rise office buildings. 

"We would locate a device in the wiring closet or basement of the building where you might have 15 to 20 tenants. That would allow us to provide 10 megabit Internet access to each tenant in the facility."

The Access Business Unit was started in January 2000 as a separate company, OptraNet. Extreme was an investor in OptraNet and, as part of that investment, acquired an option to purchase the company which they exercised at the end of last year. As of February 1, OptraNet became a business unit of Extreme.

"The technology we've developed internally here to date has been fiber-oriented, but as a business unit we're assuming responsibility for additional technologies," says Scherbarth. "In Europe, for example, service providers are doing fiber wiring to subscribers and we offer fiber-based products with 100 megabits per second on the individual fibers.

"We're going to continue to pick up responsibilities and look at new technology areas as well. There are a variety of technologies in wireless and fiber that we'll continue to develop." 

The company currently employs approximately 45 people in its Hacienda location but has plans to employ as many as 300. The group is composed primarily of engineers with product development duties, along with marketing and support staff.

Hoffman Media Systems Gets the Picture
Audio-Visual Specialists Work from the Board Room to the Network Ops Center
 

This large-scale network operations command center features large screen computer and video displays.

By Jay Hipps
Network Editor 

Hoffman Media Systems, a visual systems integrator, recently opened their Hacienda office at 5635 West Las Positas Boulevard, Suite 403. 

The company designs and builds conference rooms, executive briefing centers, education training facilities, media distribution systems, video conferencing, network operations centers, command and control facilities, and video broadcast facilities. Hoffman creates its custom solutions with equipment from companies like Sony, Mitsubishi, and Bose. Working with the customer, architects and engineers, they build the complete system.

"We are a company that has grown out of the audio visual world but is in the computer age," says president and chief operating officer Patrick McCall. "Where anyone is sharing information, collaborating, and using computers, all of this is our world. We design, install and service our products."

The company has worked on the formation of media systems with companies such as Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Pacific Bell, Chevron and Visa and with architectural firms such as Gensler, RMW, and HOK. 

"We are there to provide what companies want for the boardroom when they need information displayed," adds McCall. 

While high-end boardroom systems make up a significant part of Hoffman's business, McCall notes that the command control systems that allow computer networks control are also a specialty. These systems, which play a critical role in a growing number of businesses, can include more than 30 large screens.

"These are mission-critical rooms and these rooms have to be up and operational, so service is the heart and soul of the way we approach this whole business," he explains. "We really care about having the customer as a partner. We want customers for life and we want to be the group they can depend on. 

"We feel that if a client can count on us for the service, they can count on the systems functioning properly." 

McCall says that Hoffman has several employees that are outsourced to 3Com and Commerce One where they are there full time taking care of their video conferencing systems, yet another indication of his company's emphasis on customer service.

The company is a subsidiary of Hoffman Video Systems, a southern California firm that has been in business for 50 years and is one of the largest integrators in the nation. The Hoffman family of companies has offices in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Texas and the Bay Area with approximately 130 employees. The company has also recently opened its first international office in Tokyo, Japan.