Barracuda Sets High Growth Targets For Malaysia

Barracuda Networks, a California-based security networking and data protection provider is optimistic about achieving 100-percent growth in Malaysia for the year ahead.

Founded in 2003, and established a year later in Malaysia, they grew very quickly from providing anti-spam solutions for a largely U.S. market, to offering content security, networking and application delivery, as well as data storage, protection and recovery solutions to over 100 countries, today.

Rick Tam, Barracuda Networks regional director for Asia said, “Many enterprises are not prepared for any of the network security challenges today. Cybercriminals are launching sophisticated attacks and stealing data. With more enterprises adopting BYOD policies for remote work arrangement, mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets have become gateways for phishing and spam.”

He added, “We take pride that we are a global technology leader with a local presence. We are well positioned to help local businesses secure their users, applications and data in today’s dynamic IT environment. With our team of certified support engineers and channels, we are ready to expand our reach and provide the ROIs that CIOs are looking for.”

Within eight years in Malaysia, Barracuda now has almost 30 government agencies onboard and using their anti-spam solution as well as load balancing and firewall solutions.  Tam explained, ” We are 100-percent channel focused and we never sell direct.” This channel is well-supported by Barracuda’s on-site enterprise solutions team comprising of Thiban Darmalingam, regional director in Southeast Asia and Mohd. Fadly Mohd. Hassim, sales engineer for Southeast Asia.

In fact, Barracuda has built a strong network of local channel partners including Kabaz Sdn. Bhd., Mesiniaga and Packet Systems Malaysia, that each go-to-market across a range of industries in the SMBs to big enterprise segments.

Tam also identified Malaysia as the top revenue earner for the security vendor in Southeast Asia with as much as 60-percent of this region’s total revenue generated from this country. He cited that the top five local banks already use their solutions, and that they have good presence in the manufacturing, telecommunications and education sectors.

Rosy optimism
The Hong Kong-based regional director owes his optimism in Malaysia to a growing demand for Web application firewalls (WAF), which he differentiated from firewalls as it “Detects application-sized attacks, SQL injections and protects the application before it goes into enterprise systems.”

Barracuda aims to position itself as a next-generation firewall (NGFW) solutions provider, with more functions like app control that can even complement competitor’s appliance-based offerings via plug-ins.

Tam shared that “WAF is gaining traction and more customers are getting onboard now.” He also mentioned a proof-of-concept exercise that is currently underway with a very big local organisation. “There is a strong pipeline demand for next-generation firewalls and Web applications firewalls in Malaysia. There is a solid stream of requests right now,” he emphasised.