INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS
Spire Solutions appoints new country
manager in KSA
C
ountries across the Middle East are
stepping up cybersecurity measures in
response to the recent surge in attacks, but
none more so than Saudi Arabia.
According to a recent MarketsandMarkets
report, the Middle East’s cybersecurity
market is expected to grow from US$11.38
billion in 2017 to US$22.4 billion in 2022,
ab
with KSA expected to have the largest share
during the five-year period.
As it fortifies its regional presence in its
second decade of operations, ‘disruptive
distributor’ Spire Solutions is expanding
its business footprint into KSA with local
presence in Riyadh by adding a new
country manager, Ehab Derbas, to direct
its operations there. Derbas has extensive
experience in sales and management,
with an emphasis on IT and cybersecurity.
Derbas has extensive experience
in sales and management, with an
emphasis on IT and cybersecurity.
With over 18 years of experience,
he helps organisations understand
risk and adopt effective defence
strategies and solutions.
With over 18 years of experience, he helps
organisations understand risk and adopt
effective defence strategies and solutions.
He said: “Saudi Arabia is one of the
world’s highest spenders on cybersecurity
and with good reason. It has a robust
economy with some of the region’s biggest
organisations, a large population, a strategic
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geographic location and a strong consumer
spending power.
“All of this makes it an extremely
attractive target for cybercriminals, which
explains its growing need for security.”
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Kristian Kerr joins NetApp as Vice President
Partners and Pathways EMEA
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etApp, a leading data authority for
hybrid cloud, has named Kristian Kerr
its new Vice President for Partners and
Pathways in the EMEA region.
He will take responsibility for developing
and executing channel strategies and
programmes that support partners to deliver
innovation with cloud services, build cloud
infrastructure to accelerate new services
and modernise IT architectures with cloud-
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connected all-flash storage. Kerr reports to
NetApp Senior Vice President and General
Manager EMEA, Alexander Wallner.
Kerr is a veteran of the IT and
communications industry with more than
20 years of experience in a variety of direct
sales and partner leadership positions with
a deep understanding of the EMEA partner
landscape. He has extensive knowledge and
experience developing indirect partnering
models to capture new product and
service revenue streams through channel,
distribution, alliance, cloud and service
provider partners.
In his new role at NetApp he will be in
control of defining and executing NetApp’s
partner go-to-market strategy with the
firm goal to deliver growth through this
important ecosystem. “The market is
moving with increased velocity with cloud
leading this transformation in the partner
eco-system,” said Kerr. “As partners
evolve their business, they are looking to
NetApp to capture this huge opportunity
to modernise infrastructures and take
advantage of the seamless path to the
cloud that NetApp provides.”
He has extensive knowledge
and experience developing
indirect partnering models to
capture new product and service
revenue streams through channel,
distribution, alliance, cloud and
service provider partners.