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Thomas Chin feels that Wide-area Data Services (WDS) have made a huge impact
on how people deploy technology, resource and investment in their businesses. He
plans to make the most of this opportunity and reach out to as many enterprise
customers as possible across Asia
From NetApp to Riverbed, how different is your new role? What are your key
responsibilities now?
My role at Riverbed is to provide the additional 'boost' in Asia Pacific and
Japan region, where we have a first class sales organization. I am very
fortunate to be a part of this company, and inherit a team of professionals who
have been delivering excellent services to the clients.
Riverbed provides a unique technology to benefit the people around the globe
on how they can work more efficiently, and collaboratively. We are an American
company, but our vision, from day one, was to provide WDS across the globe. No
country takes a backseat on the values or services we provide and in that sense
we are a true 'world flattener'.
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| Thomas Chin VP-Asia
Pacific and Japan, Riverbed Technology |
What kind of initiatives would you take in order to accelerate the growth
of your company in the APAC region?
WDS has made a huge impact on how people deploy technology, resource, and
investment closer to their business/customers. We plan to tell this story to as
many enterprise customers and provide this value across Asia. Riverbed has great
success largely in the Global 2000 base, which touches most of the Asian
countries. We will make every effort to extend this value across the region.
Every customer is unique to us, and we are working to ensure that his or her
application is truly productive and fully utilized.
Elaborate on your marketing and sales strategy as well as partner
acquisition plans for APAC.
We currently have great partnerships across Asia, and we will continue to
align strategic technology partners, and deploy channel partners addressing
specific vertical markets. Every enterprise, small and large has its own unique
business practices and hence different application requirements. We will assist
by signing business partners that addresses their specific needs.
As far as partner sign ups are concerned what qualities would you look for
in your partners for sign ups? How many partners are you looking to sign-up
afresh in this region?
It is always a two-way street; the value we bring to the market is real. We
will add channel/business partners on 'as needed' basis. We will be looking to
add partners with true business integrity and those who focus on customer's
need. Riverbed is viewed as a channel friendly company and we would continue to
build on that value.
What key applications according to you will drive WDS in the future and
who will benefit from the same?
Three key drivers according to me would be:
- Site consolidation: Consolidate servers, storage and remote backup. All
enterprises will get benefit from better RoI and data security.
- Bandwidth optimization: For international links; the link cost is very
expensive to international locations; the ROI can be less than six months.
- Data replication: Acceleration of data replication between datacenter and
the DR
What are the intricacies involved in deploying WDS? Briefly elaborate the
procedures, equipments, laws, etc, involved in deploying Riverbed WDS solutions?
Riverbed Steelhead appliances are easy to deploy. They allow for a
transparent deployment; auto-discovery and auto-interception. With no need for
changes in clients, servers, or applications, Riverbed WDS allows for robust
central management. Deployment can be in different modes, based on customer's
existing network. Some customers may still want to evaluate in their environment
to ensure that the applications are accelerated and therefore there may be some
customized applications also.
Are solutions providers in India mature enough to grasp the WDS technology
and its use? Where do they stand in comparison to the rest of APAC region?
Absolutely, different countries have different business challenges. Some
countries have lower bandwidth than others, some countries have higher bandwidth
costs, some have their 'home grown' applications, etc. However, it is in every
company's interest to make their investment and resource as productive as
possible. So India and the rest of Asia/world are no different. Riverbed has
changed the world in how people work, and will continue to innovate and lead the
industry in providing unparalleled access to users.
Can you brief us on the India market opportunity vis-à-vis the rest of
APAC?
India is a unique country, and certainly has become a global workforce in
the last several years. I don't view India any differently from a business
opportunity sense. We foresee opportunity in government, telcos/service
providers, manufacturing, financial services.
Subbalakshmi BM Page(s) 1
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