Brocade, on Thursday announced the appointment of Eric Yu to the newly created position of vice president for Greater China, with the remit of accelerating the company’s market leadership and business growth in software networking with partners across the Greater China region spanning China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Yu will be based in Beijing, China, and report to Brocade vice president for Asia Pacific (APAC), Adam Judd.

Yu brings to Brocade over two decades of specialized industry experience from the data center networking industry. He was most recently vice president for Greater China at Juniper Networks, where he built out the company’s regional business with some of the largest service provider and enterprise customers. Prior to Juniper Networks, Yu was regional sales manager for Service Providers at Cisco Taiwan.

“Many operators and service providers across Greater China are planning to deploy SDN and the OpenFlow protocol in their networks in various phases over the next two to three years. Brocade is uniquely positioned to help provide a clear upgrade path to SDN by enabling service providers to leverage existing network investments and start deploying SDN in parts of the network with minimal risk. It is an exciting time to be in data center networking, and I am excited to join Brocade, a strong proponent of open networking technology, which I truly believe is the future at this important juncture”, said Eric Yu.
 
“We are seeing strong end user momentum in the software networking segment in Greater China with enterprises and service providers transitioning to real-world software-defined networking to customize network operations for specialized environments and commercialization. As we introduce greater synergy, resource alignment, and end user engagement in a unified Greater China support model, I am confident that Eric’s proven leadership will help Brocade achieve increased growth and operational excellence quickly. This appointment validates our longstanding commitment to our end users and partners in Greater China, and our dedication in working with them to leverage open networking technology to transform their networks into a platform for innovation,” said Adam Judd, vice president for APAC at Brocade.

According to a study conducted by Plexxi, SDNCentral, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) market is expected to surpass US$35 billion in the next five years. The percentage of spending on SDN-enabled network equipment is expected to increase from 2 percent this year to 40 percent in 2018.