Company increases investment in Middle East as rapid digital transformation of the region continues

Cloudflare, Inc., the leading connectivity cloud company, today announced it is pushing forward with aggressive investment plans in the Middle East furthering its nearly decade-long commitment in the region. The investment includes a new office in Dubai Internet City and growing team focused on partner enablement, innovation, and customer success. The company first invested in the Middle East early in 2015 and has been strategically placing its infrastructure closer to users in the region while building out its team, partnerships, and operations. Cloudflare announced its first office in the Middle East nearly two years ago.

Also today, Cloudflare officially opened a new office in Dubai Internet City, which included a ribbon cutting and remarks from Michelle Zatlyn, Cloudflare’s Co-founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer. Cloudflare’s Dubai-based team, led by Bashar Bashaireh, Head of Middle East Sales, continues to grow in the region, signaling the company’s ongoing commitment to its customers and partners.

“Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia rank among the highest worldwide when it comes to access to the Internet, making the region a powerful source of growth and innovation,” said Michelle Zatlyn, Co-founder, President, & COO of Cloudflare. “Increased cybersecurity protection combined with a faster and more reliable Internet is key to unlocking continued growth for businesses. In Q4 2023, Cloudflare blocked an average of 9.5 billion cyber threats in the region per day – another example of the important role we play in protecting the Internet worldwide. With our leading cloud connectivity services, our growing team in the Middle East is committed to supporting our customers and deepening our partnerships locally.”

Cloudflare protects nearly 20% of all websites. In Q4 2023, Cloudflare saw Internet usage in the Middle East grow by more than 20%, while cyber threats increased 31% from the previous quarter. Cloudflare identifies and mitigates attacks across the Middle East while helping to ensure these Internet properties remain accessible and operate fast, even amid attacks.

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Today, Cloudflare’s global network spans more than 310 cities in more than 120 countries, including 17 locations across the Middle East such as Dubai, Riyadh, Kuwait, Doha, Amman, Beirut, Baghdad, Jeddah, Muscat, Manama, and Erbil. The company first established data centers in the Middle East nearly a decade ago, and continues to build on its years-long network investment in the region.

Accelerating channel-driven business is also part of Cloudflare’s growth and expansion strategy across the Middle East. Last year Mindware, a leading regional value-added distributor, announced a strategic partnership with Cloudflare to provide sales support, go-to-market programs and after-sales services. Cloudflare also has an increased collaboration with service providers and global partners.

“The pace of digital transformation has rapidly accelerated in recent years, mostly driven by the organizational need to enable a hybrid workplace. Correspondingly, the incidence of cyberthreats has grown and evolved to an extremely high level of sophistication. In response to the needs of our partners and their customers, Mindware has been relentlessly enhancing its cyber security capabilities,” said Nicholas Argyrides, Vice President – Gulf at Mindware. “Today Mindware is one of the leading Value Added Distributors in cybersecurity in the Middle East and we are extremely happy with our fruitful collaboration with an industry leader such as Cloudflare in such a dynamic market.”

Over the past two years the company has been investing heavily in attracting the best talent in the region across a variety of functions including sales and marketing, technical support, operations and channel. Based on momentum and demand in the region, Cloudflare is forecasting to more than double its headcount in the region over the next two years.

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“The Middle East region, characterized by fast-growing and innovation-driven economies that are being fuelled by the digital transformation trend, represents tremendous growth potential for Cloudflare. Cloud adoption has also gained momentum in the region over the last few years, with the essential regulatory frameworks and compliance policies now established, to propel enterprises into the next phase of digital transformation,” said Bashar Bashaireh, Head of Sales for Middle East at Cloudflare. “Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud strategy gives enterprises a unified platform of networking, security, and developer services.”

To support its growing customer base, Cloudflare has team members across the region and aims to double the number of employees over the next couple of years with virtual and hybrid work environments.