Silver Peak spearheading SD-WAN demand in APAC
When Dean Vaughan joined Silver Peak as APAC Vice President last year, he had observed that the demand for software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) solutions and optimising traffic for cloud in the region is tremendous, particularly so in Southeast Asia.
“My first four weeks onboard has been spent mainly on learning the role, recruiting rapidly, putting a plan together for strategy, and getting it signed off with corporate. We want to empower customers across the region with our business-driven Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform and liberate them from the compromises of router-centric and basic SD-WAN approaches to transform their networks into a business accelerant,” he explained.
It’s what that’s been happening in between all of these that is encouraging and driving Silver Peak’s expansion and customer acquisition in APAC, however.
Notably, since earning the top right, or Leader, position of the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure, every SD-WAN request for tender anywhere in Southeast Asia automatically includes Silver Peak to bid for it.
“The amount of tenders, responses, bids, quotes since we were named a Leader in the new Magic Quadrant has boomed,” he said adding also that demand from Indonesia and Malaysia are ahead of the other countries, by a mile.
What is this new Magic Quadrant category about?
Gartner’s decree
According to the new Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure, “the market for branch office wide-area network (WAN) functionality is shifting from dedicated routing, security and WAN optimisation appliances to feature-rich SD-WAN and vCPE platforms.
“WAN edge infrastructure now incorporates a widening set of network functions, including secure routers, firewalls, SD-WAN, WAN path control and WAN optimisation, along with traditional routing functionality.”
Silver Peak named as a leader for this category, is a huge tip of the hat to its 3-year long effort to deliver a self-driving wide area network platform.
Perhaps more significantly, this title also reflects the confidence of Silver Peak’s over 1000 enterprise SD-WAN customers.
Silver Peak’s future in APAC
The company’s customer base is set to grow if Silver Peak’s expansion and increase in request for quotations (RFQs) are anything to go by.
On a worldwide level, Silver Peak has already updated its enablement tools and resources to support their partners and empower them to sell. For example, partners at the highest tier, platinum, have direct access to a unique online platform, accelerating the prototype, test, and demonstrate process, so that customers can quickly evaluate and purchase.
Training materials are also refreshed and leverage video and modular self-paced learning approaches. These can be instructor-led and are complimentary to all Silver Peak customers.
The growth plan
Silver Peak continues to attract and hire the best industry talent to lead its channel sales organisations. Vaughan himself is a 22-year industry veteran with a proven track record in building successful sales teams, having led business units and product portfolios for NCR Corporation, and more recently Oracle.
Now, he is responsible for Silver Peak’s APAC enterprise sales including go-to-market and channel strategies to drive customer acquisition and partner engagement.
He had said, “I am hiring to literally build an entire organisation. Geographically distributed enterprises across the APAC turn to SD-WAN as a means to drive cloud and digital transformation initiatives. We are direct touch so we need to work hand in hand with partners to speak to customers on their unique wide area networking requirements across the region to build end-user relationships!”