Day: October 23, 2019

Fortinet Ranked in Top Three by Gartner for SD-WAN Equipment Market Share by Revenue

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Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced that it is among the top three vendors in worldwide market share for SD-WAN equipment by revenue in Gartner’s Q2 2019 report titled, “Market Share: Enterprise Network Equipment by Market Segment, Worldwide, 2Q19.”According to Gartner, total worldwide SD-WAN equipment revenue in 2Q19 was $417M, up 30% quarter-over-quarter.In 2Q19, Fortinet’s SD-WAN revenue is reported to have grown 234% quarter-over-quarterto $46M. This represents the third highest revenue market share at 11.1%.

“Cybersecurity has become a top-of-mind strategic business issue for enterprises deploying WAN edge solutions,” says John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO at Fortinet. “We’re hearing from an increasing number of customers who are concerned about the security risks associated with SD-WAN exposing branch offices to the Internet. We believe our growing market share validates the need for Fortinet’s unique Security-Driven Networking approach, which tightly integrates security and SD-WAN functionality into a single offering. Fortinet is committed to SD-WAN innovation; just this year we released the industry’s first SoC4 ASIC specifically designed to increase SD-WAN performance and security. Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilitiesas well as the ability to extend SD-WAN to the access layer via SD-Branch. Because we deliver our SD-WAN solution in-built into every FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall, customers benefit from some of the industry’s best threat protection and threat detection capabilities, fully integrated with one of the top SD-WAN solutions on the market.”

Riverbed Names Rich McBee as New President and CEO

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Industry Veteran to Drive Expanded Growth for Company’s Digital Networking and Digital Experience Management Solutions

Riverbed®, The Digital Performance Company™, today announced that Rich McBee has been appointed President and CEO to drive continued momentum for the Company’s Digital Networking and Digital Experience Management businesses. McBee is the former President and CEO of Mitel, a global leader in business communications. 

McBee is a trusted leader with more than 30 years of experience holding top leadership roles driving market expansion, revenue growth and operations excellence at a range of technology companies. He departed Mitel after leading the company through a period of strategic transformation, including driving Mitel’s industry consolidation strategy, completing a dozen strategic transactions. During his eight year tenure as CEO, Mitel evolved from  a premise-based PBX pioneer to being the market leader of Public and Private Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions.

“Rich is a strong leader and strategist, and has a solid track record of driving business execution and results. Riverbed has experienced strong performance recently and Rich is the right leader to continue our upward momentum, as well as bring the passion and dedication to operational excellence that he is well known for in the industry,” said David Murphy, Riverbed Chairman and Senior Operating Partner, Thoma Bravo. “I look forward to working with Rich and the Riverbed executive team as we continue to deliver against our strategy and drive growth in two very unique and growing markets: Digital Networking and Digital Experience Management.”

“Riverbed has a well-respected brand, a history of innovation and a strong customer installed base that is well-earned,” said Rich McBee, President and CEO, Riverbed. “Riverbed’s current technology portfolio and strategy opens up significant market opportunities for our Company, as organizations worldwide are looking to capitalize on their digital transformation investments and enhance the digital experience of their users. I’m looking forward to working with our experienced team to accelerate our execution and drive great outcomes for Riverbed, as well as for our partners and customers.” 

Orlando Bravo, Thoma Bravo Founder and Managing Partner, said, “Rich McBee has the right skills and experience to lead Riverbed to greater success as well as deliver operational excellence. We remain fully committed to Riverbed’s success and look forward to continuing to deliver great value to Riverbed’s customers and partners, and maximizing the Company’s full potential in a $20 Billion total addressable market.”

Prior to transforming Mitel into a leading global provider of unified communications, McBee served as President of the Communications and Enterprise Group of Danaher Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for annual sales derived from carrier, enterprise, and SMB markets via both direct sales and channel partners. Rich joined Danaher in 2007 when they acquired Tektronix Communications, where he worked at since 1998 in a variety of leadership positions including: Senior Vice President and General Manager, Communications Business Unit; Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Service and Marketing; and Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Initiatives.

McBee holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Chapman School of Business and Economics and graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science in 1986.

The Riverbed Board of Directors conducted a thorough search for the new CEO. Prior to McBee’s appointment, Riverbed Chairman David Murphy took on the interim role of CEO. Riverbed is a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo.

ToysRUs partners with Capillary Technologies to increase store conversion with AI powered solutions

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The iconic toy chain is undergoing a digital transformation in the KSA backed by Capillary Technologies as a strategic partner

Capillary Technologies, a leader in omnichannel engagement solutions along with its partner Naizak AlElm have become a key technology enabler for ToysRUs in Saudi Arabia by providing the popular chain of toy stores with its AI based Instore solution. ToysRUs will benefit from Capillary’s retail marketing solution to accurately identify in-store walk- in’s and derive rich insights about customer behaviour and buying patterns to help plan store operations efficiently. 

According to research from Euromonitor International, Saudi Arabia’s retail market is expected to grow at 12.3% to be worth US$119 billion by 2023. Having recently established its regional entity ‘Capillary Arabia’ in the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia is the fastest-growing market for Capillary in the region. With this latest partnership with ToysRUs, Capillary aims to further consolidate its presence in the country. 

Offline retail in Saudi Arabia continues to contribute about 95% to the total spend. Consumers still prefer to visit brick-and-mortar stores to experience and feel the product before a purchase. Keeping customers at the center of attention, ToysRUs wanted to build an offline clickstream of data, similar to what ecommerce does, to support the company’s mission to provide an exceptional retail experience to customers.

ToysRUs deployed Capillary’s VisitorMetrix which not only enables it to analyze historical store traffic patterns to determine staffing requirements through power hours, but also gives immediate responsive data to changes, including studying the impact of promotional campaigns. ToysRUs uses this information to strategize their operations and marketing campaigns to look deeper at their performance and pull the right levers for improved productivity.

“While our ecommerce business is growing, we did not want to lose focus on the offline stores. Combining the instore consumer behaviour with the transactional data will give us a complete 360 degree view of our customers and will help us personalise our offerings and services,” said Mr. Mansour Al-Akeel, Managing Director and CEO at ToysRUs.

Capillary’s President and General Manager for META, Nitin Kaushal said, “Saudi Arabia is one of our key markets in the region and we are pleased to partner with ToysRUs and be involved in their digital journey. We will soon be launching VisitorSense to help retailers capture more in-store data. It will provide brands with demographics and fashion profiles of store visitors to better understand their buying habits, patterns and preferences. We look forward to establishing a long-term partnership with ToysRUs and help elevate their customer experience.”

Capillary has also partnered with Naizak in Jeddah to leverage its rich and localised expertise in the market to design localised loyalty solutions for homegrown brands.