Feature[EC] Please describe the overall regional product portfolio of SolarWinds, its target end user community, and the principal use cases that SolarWinds supports?
SolarWinds is a leading vendor for IT management and monitoring solutions. Our products have the individual IT professional in mind, and because their job can be quite stressful, we want to put the right tools in their hands to help them solve modern IT problems. We deal with all elements and layers in IT: the network, applications, on-premises or cloud infrastructure, and all sizes and forms of businesses. IT problems are always the same, independent of what business you are actually in.
[EC] How does SolarWinds engage with end customers in the region? Through dedicated and specialised channel partners in the region, OEM relationships, two-tier traditional channel’s structure?
We run the traditional two-tier channel structure, with two major distributors in the Middle East. Both are value-added distributors, and they employ many SolarWinds Certified Professionals, SCPs, to help their local resellers with excellent technical knowledge. As a vendor, we also enjoy events like GITEX to get in touch with our customers directly.
[EC] Please describe the relationship of SolarWinds with the IT industry, especially leading software and cyber security vendors, and the IT organisation?
We have been in the business for more than 20 years, and we are well known in the industry. In fact, almost every IT professional on the planet has already used one or more of our tools in their career. We are in touch with the IT community on multiple layers. First, there’s THWACK, our own online community. THWACK is a platform for IT professionals to learn, share knowledge, and unwind. Furthermore, we have been in strategic or technological partnerships with many other vendors for years.
[EC] Please describe what is the SolarWinds Secure by Design service? What are the benefits and use cases in the region? What is the go-to market strategy?
Secure by Design is not a specific service or product. Instead, it means we used this opportunity to reflect on our own security practices and found opportunities to enhance our posture and policies. We focused on our internal environment and our product development process to ensure the security and integrity of the products we deliver.
[EC] Please describe the impact of the SolarWinds breach on the IT organisation, IT industry, OEM alliances and the way forward from those consequences.
We focused on our internal environment and our product development process to ensure the security and integrity of the products we deliver.
It has shown us the risk of supply chain attacks. We are open in our communication, as we see transparency as key. We hope our Secure by Design efforts will help other vendors and the industry minimise the risk of similar incidents happening again. Investigations are still ongoing, but we will continue to share our findings with third parties and with our customers.
[EC] What is the future vision of SolarWinds products and services, using technologies like AI, ML, analytics, IoT, dashboards, cloud?
Integration and consolidation are high on our agenda, and we are keeping up with the latest tech to help our customers solve their problems.
Our vision is an even higher integration of silos than we see now. Though individual parts of IT are getting easier to use with each technical innovation, the increasing number of those individual parts makes it more complicated to keep everything under control.
Our vision is an even higher integration of silos than we see now.
We are already using machine learning in some of our products, and this is the path to follow. As the underlying IT architecture evolves, so do our products. Integration and consolidation are high on our agenda, and we are keeping up with the latest tech to help our customers solve their problems, whatever they are.
Sascha Giese of SolarWinds Head Geek talks about the company’s regional product portfolio, its future vision and Secure by Design plan.
