A10 Networks are delighted with its continued growth in the Middle East solidifying the existing relationships it has with some of the region's key industry players, whilst maintaining its continuous consistent growth.
Telecom Review managed to secure an exclusive interview with Chris Gale, Senior Director, EMEA Partners at A10 Networks during GITEX Technology Week. In a fascinating and thought-provoking interview, Gale highlighted A10's objectives in the region, its relationships with tier 1 telecommunication firms and ISP's in the Middle East, and his views on the exponential rise in DDoS attacks this year.
High profile cybersecurity attacks like Equifax in the US last month, and the WannaCry Ransomware attack in March, are just two of a number of severe cybersecurity attacks which have forced organizations, government and major enterprises to evaluate and re-think their security strategy - and the rise of DDoS attacks shows no signs of abating. According to Gale, it's clear that the attacks are now much more sophisticated, but conceded it's difficult for enterprises to protect themselves, as hackers are continually finding ways to penetrate security systems.
Gale told Telecom Review, "My personal opinion is that's it much easier to go and buy compute power on the internet. So if you want to go and build either through virus's or through some other means you can get access to an awful lot of processing power by intruding other people's equipment and I think that's probably been the way intruders have gone about building newer denial of service attacks. It's not students in a bedroom, this is very organized and they're now being very clever in the way they've gone about it, it's much more sophisticated and they've been able to get hold of much larger compute resources very cleverly. So I think it's the other side getting a lot smarter in what they do as opposed to enterprises not doing enough about their security. There's always this type of leapfrog process, you come up with some protection for something, and then they'll go OK we need to go and do this, so there's a continual cat and mouse on it."
A10 Networks are not making any major announcements or showcasing any new products or solutions at GITEX Technology Week, instead using the ICT trade show as a platform to engage with existing customers in the Middle East and meet with potential prospective new clients. Gale said A10 were delighted with the customers it's already partnered with in the Gulf region and said it will use its expertise in other regions to accelerate its growth in the Middle East.
Gale added, "If you look at our customer base in the Middle East, we've got relationships with all the major tier 1 telco's and ISP's already on our books. If you look at mobile handset usage and some of the other projects that they're working on, then it becomes clear they're having to grow very, very fast and scale. We know what that growth profile looks like, and that's where we help them. We also already have significant experience with both Microsoft Azure with their cloud services, and NTT DOCOMO in Japan, who are another of our biggest customers, so we already have some big clients in other places, and we know how to do it, so it's really just about using our pedigree and knowledge to execute our objectives and aims in this region and propel our growth and increase our revenue."
Gale highlighted its relationship with distribution firm Ingram as a key ingredient in A10 Networks success in the region. He insisted its focus in the Middle East was to firstly solidify relationships with the tier 1 ISP's and telco's and then look to penetrate large enterprise.
The Senior Director at EMEA Partners at A10 continued, "We've rebuilt the mechanics here in the Middle East, and we've got a great relationship with Ingram. This partnership is so important to us because the big tickets projects we're working on - means we've got to have a distributor who understands the commercial side of it. We've partnered with them for over a year now and we're absolutely delighted with what they've done for us, and we're looking forward to strengthening that relationship as we both move forward together. In addition to this, our objective has to be solidifying the relationship with our Tier 1 service providers and telco's - and anyone that's got any form of hosted environment which then hopefully takes us into that area of large enterprise."
A10 Networks have maintained a consistent growth pattern in the Middle East, and the security solutions company will hope to increase revenue in the Gulf region next year. On a global scale, 2017, has been a good year for the US organization, which is headquartered in San Jose, California. Its Q3 results have shown strong growth and with it set to solidify its existing customer base in the Middle East the future looks bright for A10 Networks.
