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Interview With Brocade's Sufian Dweik
Published Sep 5, 2012
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What is your assessment of Brocade’s current market position in the Middle East? Where do you think the company needs to improve?
Since Brocade launched in the mid 1990s, the company has continually led the market through innovation. In the early days, we brought to market Fibre Channel technology and the first fabric-based solutions for the data centre. Today, we continue to innovate through Ethernet Fabric technology and our new ICX 6610 switches for the campus network. With a robust portfolio of solutions for every part of the network, and a world-class partner ecosystem, we are well placed to leverage the market trends and expand our footprint in the market. However, every organization can improve in some way. For Brocade, improvement can come through better educating the market; as Brocade continues to innovate, we need to educate both our customers and partners on how to embrace new solutions (such as our new campus networking portfolio) to drive business transformation. We are making great strides here already with our Effortless Network virtual event.
How does Brocade differentiate itself from its competitors in the MENA region?
Brocade differentiates itself through its technology leadership. Over its 16 year history, Brocade has pioneered storage and networking innovation and we have several industry firsts to our name. Being a visionary company and seeing the growing trend towards cloud computing and virtualization, a year and a half ago, Brocade introduced Brocade One™, the unifying network architecture and strategy that enables customers to simplify the complexity of virtualizing their applications. By removing network layers, simplifying management and protecting existing technology investments, Brocade One helps customers migrate to a world where information and services are available anywhere in the cloud. Brocade leveraged its 15-year heritage in data center fabrics to transform Ethernet networks in virtualized data centers. In December 2010, Brocade released its VCS Fabric technology, the first Ethernet fabric technology in the industry. This is transformative data center technology that will have a huge impact on the industry for years to come.
What are the current growth markets for Brocade in terms of country markets and industry verticals? What will you be doing to capitalise on this?
The campus is a big growth area. As users demand access to information and applications anytime/anywhere, there is immense pressure being placed on the campus network to deliver high-performance connectivity and data center class resilience. Testament to this, IDC predicts that by 2020 there will be more than 10 billion mobile devices deployed globally. If you look at universities and healthcare environments, we are already seeing a myriad of devices used with few having a wired connection to the network. As this trend continues, the campus network will need to evolve to meet demand. At Brocade, we already have a range of solutions specifically engineered to meet this challenge.
What are your professional goals while regional manager, MENA, at Brocade?
My goal is to lead the company’s growth and expansion in the MENA region and in turn grow with the company. As mentioned before, Brocade is a technology leader and has a strong brand name. What I believe we need to do in the region is to interact and create meaningful discussions with end-users, IT consultants and the channel in order to gain a greater understanding of how Brocade can help companies solve their networking issues based on a customized approach to the region’s specific needs. Knowledge sharing and educating CIOs and IT managers on technology issues will be key to our success.
What will be your strategy in terms of channel partners in the region?
The strategy is the same as it has been for the past few years. Brocade has a highly selective channel model and we engage with partners that demonstrate the skills necessary to succeed in today’s challenging market. As we move through 2012, we are bringing to market new offerings around education and certification, but the nucleus of our channel strategy is to provide partners with the tools necessary to become trusted advisors for their customers. That has to be the key to success this year.
What is the current state of IT spending in the region?
According to Gartner, the worldwide enterprise networking market will be worth more than $45 billion by 2015, with the Middle East representing four percent of the whole ($1.9 billion). We are seeing prudent spending in the region.
Profile of Brocade
Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD) networking solutions help the world’s leading organizations transition smoothly to a world where applications and information reside anywhere. From data centers and enterprise campus networks to the service provider core, these solutions are based on the Brocade One™ strategy for simplifying network infrastructures through innovative technologies.
Headquartered in San Jose, California, Brocade has approximately 5000 employees worldwide and serves a wide range of industries and customers in more than 160 countries. Today, it leads the Storage Area Network (SAN) market with the industry’s most reliable, energy-efficient offerings. In addition, Brocade provides innovative Ethernet fabric technology and high-performance Ethernet networking solutions as part of a complete switching, routing, security, wireless, and application delivery portfolio.
To meet the increasing requirements of distributed and mobile computing, Brocade is extending its proven data center expertise throughout the entire network. This approach helps organizations achieve their most critical consolidation, network convergence, virtualization, and cloud computing initiatives through a commitment to:
• Unmatched simplicity to overcome complexity
• Non-stop networking to maximize business uptime
• Application optimization to increase business agility
• Investment protection to provide a smooth transition to new technologies
Brocade combines a proven history of innovation with standards leadership and strategic partnerships with world-class IT companies. Supporting the industry’s most extensive partner ecosystem facilitates open, best-in-class solutions for the broadest range of IT environments. To help ensure a complete, solution, Brocade delivers a full range of education, support, and professional services offerings.
Posted by VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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