Exciting times are in prospect for the next-generation, network and cloud security company A10 Networks, which plans to launch a major new office in Saudi Arabia in the fourth quarter of this year.
While the company already has a presence in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, much of this has been focused on sales, but the new operation will be on a much larger scale and will include significantly strengthened technical support.
Especially notable, says Abdulmajeed Al Obailan, A10’s country leader for Saudi Arabia, will be the inauguration of a laboratory that customers will be able to visit.
Currently the company is seeing huge opportunities in Saudi Arabia and is investing a lot in the market.
“At that [earlier] time, A10 didn’t have a solid team based in Saudi Arabia. However, today, we now have a new management and new team on-ground, which helps us accelerate our business and build stronger relationships with out customers,” said Al Obailan.
The company has become better able to visit customers to understand their business challenges and how its solutions can help. It reflects, says Al Obailan, the “massive support” that A10 Networks offers the Middle East from the highest levels of the organisation.
Indeed, Al Obailan says that A10 Networks’ way of doing business in Saudi Arabia involves offering consultancy and advice to clients.
“We recommend solutions even from our competitors to help our clients to overcome [their challenges],” he said.
A10 Networks’ brisk growth in Saudi Arabia comes as the country’s government is investing heavily in digital solutions and in fields such as the Internet of Things. Such investments, says Al Obailan, “helps us on sales on the ground to pitch our messages”.
“I think with the digital transformation journey that’s happening in Saudi, everyone is moving into digitised infrastructure,” he said.
“A10 can leverage cloud security and network infrastructure, and use them with our AI [artificial intelligence] and machine learning tools.”
A10 Networks’ enterprise business in Saudi Arabia is expanding especially quickly, according to Al Obailan. “By next year, we need to have equality between the service provider and the enterprise business. My target is to have equality and even exceed the service provider,” he said.
