David White, President Americas of Ipanema Technologies (interview)

David is a seasoned senior executive with over 25 years’ experience in sales, marketing and business development. David has a strong background in WAN Optimization and has worked extensively in both enterprise and service provider markets. Previously, he served as VP of Business Development at Expand Networks where he was responsible for their OEM relationship with 3COM/H3C as well as their acquisition of NetPriva, an Australian SoftWOC startup. David also led Expand’s entry into the virtualization market and managed their global analyst relationships. Droid Report recently interviewed David about his current role discussing mobile and WAN insights.

David White, President Americas of Ipanema Technologies

Droid Report: Hello David, could you tell us more about your current role as President Americas at Ipanema Technologies? What are your initiatives for 2014?

David White: As President, North America with Ipanema Technologies I am responsible for enterprise sales development of Ipanema’s branded solutions across the United States, Canada and Mexico. I primarily work with CIOs and IT executives at large, global enterprises to help them take full advantage of our technology allowing them to regain both visibility and control over their global networks, ensuring they maintain a high-level of performance and end users experience anytime, everywhere despite the size, complexity, or volume and kind of application flows. This is a very exciting time in my career as now more than ever companies are utilizing their networks in new and exciting ways to deploy innovative business applications such as unified communications or desktop virtualization across networks that span the globe. Helping technology leaders meet and address new usages coming from end users and giving them the tools they need to adapt to changes and to increase their agility and business alignment is something Ipanema and myself take a lot of pride in.

In 2014 our focus is to continue to build upon the momentum Ipanema garnered in 2013. We will expand our North American sales, presales and technical support team with high-level, seasoned professionals to support the growing demand for networking solutions to guarantee network and application performance. Globally, Ipanema is working with telecommunication companies and their service providers to deliver the application performance guarantee services (including visibility, WAN optimization, control and beyond) they need to manage increasing complexity and ensure the level of network and application performance their clients rely upon. Through partnerships with British Telecommunications, Ciena and AT&T, and Orange Business Services, Ipanema is well positioned to expand its global visibility and awareness amongst this sector.

Droid Report: Could you also share some insight of the changing WAN landscape and mobile?

David White: Mobile devices and mobile accessibility are becoming increasingly vital to workplace IT. Additionally, as smart phones are increasingly grabbing market share, this trend is certainly one that is not going away. By 2015, Gartner predicts that the number of employees using mobile apps in the workplace will double. By 2017, Gartner expects half of employers to require employees to supply their own devices.

The rise of bring your own device (BYOD) and bring your own application (BYOA) trends has caused increasing demands on business IT. This leads to a substantial increase in the number of applications using the network, causing stress while impacting the business critical applications. It is estimated that 20% of enterprise bandwidth today is used by non-critical applications. Employees expect to be able to access their personal and business applications everywhere from their laptops and phones, and IT managers need to compensate for the increasing strain put on the network from the rash of new connected devices. This truth is becoming ever more apparent to enterprise network managers, and purchasing bandwidth, the common solution, is no longer enough.

Managers of networks of all sizes are beginning to realize that WAN optimization is not sufficient enough to address the influx of mobile devices to the business network, and the traditional WAN acceleration model is falling short. They need to go beyond these practices by utilizing tools that provide them full application visibility and dynamic control of the network, allowing them to align the network with corporate objectives, always protecting business apps while adapting to new usages and optimizing costs and existing network resources.

Droid Report: How does Ipanema Technologies stand out when it comes to its competition?

David White: Ipanema goes beyond traditional WAN optimization strategies to adapt to the changing tide of network and IT management needs. Through Ipanema’s innovative solutions, IT managers are able to regain control of their business applications and guarantee application performance regardless the size of the network, the number of users, applications being deployed, connected mobile devices and global sites. Simply put, Ipanema allows enterprise network managers to (re)discover simplicity in an increasingly complex environment, aligning application performance with business priorities. And this is where we truly differentiate ourselves – the more complex the network and more hybrid the environment, the more efficient and effective is Ipanema’s solution.

Droid Report: What are your personal thoughts on these technologies, the future of mobility and applications?

David White: The rapid growth of technology, specifically smart phones and other mobile devices, has ushered in an era where users can access applications at almost any location. This time is also marked by a demand for a fast, efficient connection and excellent quality of experience. Unified communications, streaming video on any device, SaaS, and BYOD are just a few of the amazing capabilities that are changing the way people connect, communicate, and do business. In the future I fully expect these technologies to continue to streamline themselves into fully integrated, global, real-time communication across ubiquitous networks. What is not widely recognized, however, is that with these developments there are network managers and CIOs who are being relied upon to ensure that their networks run smoothly and efficiently to provide the greatest user experience possible. To deal with the rapidly changing environment and demands on the network these managers look to partner with firms such as Ipanema to help them navigate these exciting times.

Droid Report: Is there anything else you feel Android users and the Android market should know?

David White: I think the main point is that whenever you connect to a wireless hotspot or the internet – whether that be within your home, place of business, local Starbucks or even retail outlet – there is a complex network behind the scene that is ensuring your device will work seamlessly. So the next time you upload a video to Facebook or access your work email on the go, think of the efforts of the network managers and those they work with on your behalf to guarantee your application performance.

We live in an age where businesses are constantly battling to become more efficient, and increase output whilst minimizing costs. It’s a ruthless arena, and CIOs are consistently looking towards IT as a key enabler, and one which will give them an edge. IT solutions and innovations are embedded into everyday business functions. Desktop virtualization, cloud applications, BYOD, social media and unified communications are just a few examples of IT functions which companies rely upon on an everyday basis. All of these apps or services are offered to the user via private or public networks, and it’s the network therefore which needs to bear the brunt of the strain. Inefficient network = inefficient business performance.

We would like to thank David White for taking the time for this discussion and Ipanema Technologies.