Swimlane Expands Into Middle East, Turkey and Africa

Swimlane, the low-code security automation company, today announced its expansion to the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) with the appointment of Ashraf Sheet as vice president of the region. Sheet will build on the increasing demand for Swimlane security automation throughout META while accelerating the company’s go-to-market and channel growth plans in the region.

According to a report, globally, there is already a shortage of some 2.72 million cybersecurity professionals, and a critical need for the workforce to grow 65% to effectively defend organizations’ assets. When you consider that the Middle East cybersecurity market on its own is projected to more than double from US $20.3 billion in 2022 to $44.7 billion by 2027, driven by significant government economic diversification drives, it’s fair to say that the recruitment of cybersecurity professionals from within the region or from international markets, will continue to significantly challenge organizations.

Making matters worse is the fact that security operations teams are overburdened by manual, repetitive and time-consuming tasks that are required to track, mitigate and respond to security events. Swimlane Turbine was introduced earlier this year to address this challenge, representing a breakthrough in low-code security automation that captures hard-to-reach telemetry and expands actionability beyond today’s closed extended detection and response (XDR) ecosystems. The platform provides maximum flexibility for META organizations with cloud, on-prem and air-gapped deployment options for secure-access environments.

“Ashraf brings immense credibility and go-to-market experience throughout META, and I’m excited to have him lead Swimlane’s expansion in the region,” said Jim Pickering, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Swimlane. “Our unique low-code approach to security automation is a game-changer for security teams in META, offering a solution that meets the region’s most-demanding and constantly evolving security operations requirements.”

Ashraf Sheet is an accomplished sales leader with more than 20 years experience in the cybersecurity market. He has held progressive roles leading sales and channel teams across local and multinational companies including InfoBlox and LinkShadow. Throughout his career and through customer and channel relationships, Sheet has established himself as a trusted advisor to many of the world’s most-recognized brands across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Sheet will be responsible for expanding Swimlane’s sales and technical teams across the region, as well as onboarding strategic channel partners and distributors to expand the company’s presence and market share.

“As the complexity and sophistication of attacks persists, security teams are making every effort to mature their operations with security automation at the center,” said Sheet. “Swimlane offers customers a system of record for security operations with the ability to enable automation in and outside of the SOC. Swimlane’s low-code approach to automation means customers can unlock new use cases previously not possible with traditional security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR).”

Swimlane is currently the largest and fastest-growing pure-play security automation company globally, and the company’s expansion into META comes following a recently announced $70 million growth funding round led by Activate Capital.