Joel Sheppard Named as New Regional Manager to Meet Unprecedented Demand and Rapid Expansion
Edison, New Jersey – September 24, 2020 – Opengear, a Digi International company (NASDAQ: DGII), and a leading provider of solutions that deliver secure, resilient network access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, today announced unprecedented growth across Canada, having more than doubled its sales and new deployments since 2017. The company experienced similar growth with its channel partner program in Canada, which now accounts for more than 15% of the company’s resellers across North America.
Opengear’s growth has been largely fueled by demand for its Resilience Gateway products, which provide capabilities like smart out-of-band management, failover to cellular, network automation, remote network monitoring and management, and more. These capabilities are essential to delivering flawless network reliability and secure remote access to critical devices through a separate management plane, particularly as networks become more robust and geographically disparate.
Industry forecasts project IT spend in Canada could reach $91 Billion in 2020; of which $4.9B will be invested in data center and $11B in new devices and hardware.
“Today’s networks are becoming increasingly complex, as organizations introduce more new devices and push closer to the edge. This is a growing trend everywhere, but particularly in Canada, where adoption is rising at an incredible rate,” said Todd Rychecky, VP of Americas, Opengear. “Organizations are recognizing the need for network resilience, and Joel’s deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities will be invaluable in supporting our customers and partners.”
Opengear also experienced an uptick in sales following the launch of its two new NetOps Console servers earlier this year – the OM1200 and OM2200 – the first-ever solutions to bring Smart Out-of-Band management and NetOps automation together in one piece of hardware. A recent study from Opengear found that 95% of North American businesses improved their network reliability after implementing NetOps automation.
Today, many of the largest businesses and organizations in Canada rely on Opengear to keep their networks running. These deployments range from a Fortune 500 multinational consumer electronics retailer to a government agency managing Canada’s federal IT services, a global pharmaceutical company producing medicines and vaccinations for pets and livestock, and one of Canada’s largest banking and financial service institutions responsible for over one trillion dollars in total assets.
To help the meet growing demand and need for network resilience solutions, Opengear has appointed Joel Sheppard to the newly created position of Regional Sales Manager, Canada. In this role, Sheppard is responsible for leading and growing sales and strategic partnerships throughout the region, while supporting and expanding Opengear’s growing roster of channel sales partners.
“I am very excited for the opportunity to help organizations secure their networks and protect their businesses with best-in-class solutions,” said Joel Sheppard, Regional Sales Manager, Canada at Opengear. “Managing networks has never been more demanding. With the latest strategies and technology from Opengear, organizations can not only keep networks online today, but also future-proof for the challenges of tomorrow.”
Sheppard has over 10 years of solution sales experience in the technology industry. He brings nearly a decade of reseller sales experience, having previously worked for CDW and Zones. Most recently he was an Enterprise SAAS Account Executive at NiTorom Inc., a leading infrastructure monitoring provider.
About Opengear
Opengear, a Digi International company, delivers secure, resilient access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, even when the network is down. Provisioning, orchestration and remote management of network devices, through innovative software and appliances, enables technical staff to manage their data centers and remote network locations reliably and efficiently. Opengear’s business continuity solutions are trusted by global organizations across financial, digital communications, retail and manufacturing industries. The company is headquartered in New Jersey, with R&D centers in Silicon Valley and Brisbane, Australia. Opengear was acquired by Digi International in December 2019, bringing together two organizations with a deep commitment to providing the best products, software and services that meet the demands of mission-critical networks. Both companies will continue to build and support strong customer relationships. For more information please visit www.opengear.com.
About Digi International
Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII) is a leading global provider of business and mission-critical Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity products and solutions. We help our customers create next-generation connected products and solutions to deploy, monitor and manage critical communications infrastructures and compliance standards in demanding environments with high levels of security, relentless reliability and bulletproof performance. Founded in 1985, we’ve helped our customers connect over 100 million things, and growing. For more information, visit Digi’s website at www.digi.com, or call 877-912-3444 (U.S.) or 952-912-3444 (International).