Riverbed opens local office

Riverbed has opened an APAC office and appointed a regional director, Steve Dixon.

The operation, based in Sydney, will oversee growth in channel partnerships and market share for the WAN optimisation vendor.

The move follows the recent establishment of operations in India and is in line with growing customer and partner demand for a direct presence, Dixon said.

“We’ve been shipping locally for 18 months now and some major organisations have been taking us up,” he said. “We are getting phenomenal growth.”

Having a local office would be essential in keeping this growth steady, Dixon said.

“It’s only focus will be Riverbed,” he said. “There’s no way we’d get equal weighting by using a distributor instead.”

While the vendor would consider the appointment of a value-added distributor in late 2006, its immediate focus would be on recruiting additional resellers, Dixon said.

“We are aiming for a couple of major national or international partners at the top and some state-based or industry-focused ones underneath,” he said. “I’d like to see around seven signed onboard by Christmas.”

To support this recruitment Riverbed had launched a single-tier partner program offering partners discount product pricing and support services, Dixon said.

“The real benefit for partners is in what else can be done for the customer,” he said. “They could use our WAN optimisation products to create a centralised data back-up solution, or as part of a VoIP or application performance strategy.”

With its reseller network in place Dixon would work to take gain share from competitors like Peribit and Packeteer, and grow Riverbed's presence in the top end of town.

“Australia is a great opportunity because of the tyranny of distance and the latency inherent in that,” he said.