Netscout System, a market leader in service assurance and cybersecurity solutions was an exhibitor at the recently concluded GITEX Technology Week. Abhishek Hajra, regional director, Middle East & Africa, NETSCOUT discusses the company’s regional focus in this interview

 

Discuss what is driving demand for network and application performance management and monitoring solutions in the region?
Technology evolution has drastically evolved over the past 10 years, and more so in this region as the appetite for new technology remains high. One of the biggest driving factors has been direct customer involvement into technology consumption, be it regular social or community interactions or via services offered by the private or government sectors. This has put a lot of pressure on networks to evolve and support these services. Evolving technologies are helping support this greater demand, but with it, it brings complexity, and complexity leads to challenges of managing a network, and more so, the challenge of identifying a problem when something goes wrong. Today complexity has come in various forms; just having bare network infrastructure is not enough as companies need security IPS/IDS and they need to support virtualization, cloud, SDN etc.
Any business which is dependent on a network, be it a major organization, government entity, a SMB, or a startup, none can afford any down time. The financial loss, customer dissatisfaction, and damage to brand integrity are all catastrophic.
NETSCOUT’s nGeniusONE Service Assurance platform with ASI technology provides rapid and clear insights based on rich analysis, metrics and views into applications, service enablers, server transactions, user communities, and the network. This solution offers top-down contextual workflows, reducing mean-time-to-knowledge so customers can triage problems more quickly.
Here in the region, when our partners talk to potential customers, or if they come across our product, there is immediate interest. The demand is growing continuously and we are making the market more aware of our truly unique product.

Discuss demand for the OptiView networks analyser tablet devices you offer from enterprise users?
NETSCOUT OptiView enables Wi-Fi and wired network infrastructure troubleshooting by local technicians, giving them the portability to go anywhere – and the visibility they need – to solve problems down to the desktop. With automated discovery, mapping of the local network and multiple functions to isolate the root cause of infrastructure-related problems, NETSCOUT OptiView helps distribute problem solving throughout the organization, making everyone more effective.
Today in the market there is no competition for our product. Our customers appreciate the functionality of this one-stop-shop device that put the solutions on the palm of the technician’s hand.

What functionalities do security visibility devices from you offer for customers?
NETSCOUTS’s AirMagnet is a full-time wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS), wireless intrusion detection system (WIDS) and wireless network (WLAN) security monitoring system that provides dedicated monitoring of the airspace to enable the security, performance and compliance of WLANs. AirMagnet Enterprise is used by organizations for the most complete WIPS and WIDS, remote network troubleshooting, enforcing no-wireless zones, and proving compliance.
NETSCOUT AirMagnet protects against every wireless network (WLAN) security threat by combining the industry’s most thorough wireless intrusion detection system (WIDS) and wireless network security monitoring with leading research, analysis and security threat remediation.

What are the services your partners offer to customers with regards to their network infrastructures?
Today we are better positioned in high-growth markets like the Middle East and Africa and offer a broad portfolio of Industry leading product and solutions. Given the region’s focus on providing smart connectivity across various platforms and applications, we are inching closer towards the reality of a True Connected World.
NETSCOUT’s Business Assurance solutions, anchored in our unique ASI technology, address the combination of needs for IT transformation initiatives, including large scale unified communications projects, custom application roll-outs, and increasingly frequent public and private cloud projects, which require unprecedented levels of visibility and insight in real time for timely implementation and consistently high service quality. Business in the region are utilizing more information and demanding more digital assets. Our unique approach to Business Assurance is made possible through our ability to harness the IP Intelligence that is found in network traffic.

Through our patented ASI technology, we are able to create smart data that drives superior analytics. This provides the speed necessary for IT to respond to the needs of the business at the pace that is dictated by Digital Transformation initiative

Discuss your go to market model with SI partners and distribution partners?
NETSCOUT is a channel company and our partners are empowered to sell the breadth of products and solutions that we offer to the Middle East market. We engage our partners early and work more as consultants, rather than a vendor.
Our CONNECT360 is a channel-friendly, multi-tiered program that enables regional partners to market NETSCOUT’s entire enterprise product portfolio spanning service assurance solutions and portable network analysis and troubleshooting tools.
It is designed to enable highly-valued partners to sell more effectively and profitably by providing access to sales and technical resources that they need to be successful. Also the MyNETSCOUT partner portal also provides partners with a convenient, one-stop online destination for accessing the NETSCOUT solution knowledgebase, obtaining collateral materials, registering sales opportunities and applying for marketing event funds. As part of CONNECT360, a global, channel management team will be dedicated to supporting all authorized partners, including training, enablement and certification of the partner base and assisting when necessary on a pre-sales and post-sales basis.
NETSCOUT’s CONNECT360 channel partner program offers critical advantages, including investment-based tiers, structured training and enablement, annual certifications and a dedicated channel account team.