New Riverbed Executive Talks Strategy, Key Federal Market Trends

New Company, New Role

Riverbed Technology hired former Oracle executive Davis Johnson in February as its new senior director of public sector sales and business development, responsible for setting Riverbed's innovation strategy for the needs of U.S. federal agencies.

Johnson has more than 25 years of experience in the government technology market and was previously group vice president at Oracle, overseeing infrastructure sales and business development for U.S. government agencies. He understands the additional obstacles working with the federal government and the current trends in the public sector.

Johnson tells CRN about what changes Riverbed customers can expect with their popular SteelHead product, as well as the current state of the public sector and U.S. federal market, and where solution providers can capitalize.

Are there any new Riverbed products coming down the pipeline you could talk about or are excited about?

We are planning to roll out some major changes to our existing platform very soon.

One of the changes our customers can expect to see over the next year is to our popular SteelHead product, which will perform at speeds up to five times faster. That is something we think will have a major impact on the market.

We also are starting to find more targeted use cases for our SteelFusion product. There are many instances overseas or in remote areas where an IT professional or local data center is not available. By implementing our SteelFusion product, agencies can function worry-free and ensure that, regardless of the deployment, their information and apps are moving across the network quickly and effectively. Across the product lines we're all about delivering solutions that provide unparalleled visibility, optimization and control of IT resources.

What is your vision for Riverbed’s public sector business development?

My vision for Riverbed in the government market is closely aligned with the company’s vision overall -- to continue our dominance in the WAN optimization space while expanding the use of our performance management suite of products including SteelCentral and SteelFusion.

Federal agencies, in particular, are facing mission-critical performance management challenges, and we’re innovating to ensure that applications and networks are optimized so that IT resources are always available to federal workers when they need them. Looking ahead, and given my past experience working in the cloud at both Oracle and NetApp, I believe I will bring a tighter alignment to some of our cloud initiatives. When agencies move apps to the cloud, it creates a huge need for performance monitoring, and performance optimization, which are areas where Riverbed delivers great value.

Why leave Oracle? What excited you about Riverbed?

A number of factors attracted me to Riverbed, but the main thing was that the company is in an exciting transitional period. We are still the market leader in WAN optimization with SteelHead, which continues to grow and provides us with a strategic foundation, but Riverbed's Application Performance Platform also includes SteelCentral and SteelFusion, making our total addressable market at least five times greater.

I also like the size of the company and the vast growth potential. I know from my previous roles that Riverbed is well respected within the partner community, and I was excited to be a part of the new strategic direction.

Where are the biggest trends in the public sector and where are partners making money?

Cloud computing and data center consolidation remain top trends across the public sector, but cybersecurity is No. 1 and No. 1a.

If you look at the Edward Snowden effect and everything that is going on in the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and intelligence agencies, inspecting their networks and optimizing capabilities will play an increasingly important role, which will translate to significant growth in the market.

Just how big is the market opportunity for partners in the federal market and public sector? What about for Riverbed?

The growth opportunities in the federal market and the public sector are very closely aligned.

Overall IT growth in the public sector has been driven quite a bit by health-care legislation -- just like it has in the federal government. As far as size of the public sector market at Riverbed, it can typically be anywhere between 10 percent to 20 percent of the company's overall revenue.

What IT trends are you seeing in the U.S. federal market and where are partners making money?

A major growth area right now in the U.S. federal market is cyber. Our performance monitoring tools provide broad network visibility, and when this capability is combined with point cybersecurity solutions, federal IT leaders are empowered with a comprehensive view of potential risks.

As a result of where we are, and our expertise, cyber is a huge growth area for us and our partners. We set a high bar for our partners and, as a result, we like to reward them for their investments. It is extremely rare that partners aren't able to reach their margins with us.

Are there any additional obstacles working in the federal market compared to other markets? Do partners have more difficulties working in the federal market?

In the federal market, we are heavily installed in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and intelligence space and, as a result, our partners who cover those markets need to maintain their own security clearances. It's a tight-knit community and, overall, you don't see this type of security in the commercial market.

Something that is consistent with the public sector and federal market is the need to stay in-sync with all the gyrations around the budget process. Usually companies that are willing and able to focus on a multiyear campaign win by attrition in the both markets, and some deals can take 1 to 2 years to come to fruition.