Less than two years after handing over the reins at Dimension Data, Brett Dawson is joining the board of Ubusha Technology, an African ICT company that offers cyber security, identity governance and access management solutions to the private and public sectors.
Dawson will offer strategic input to the firm and play an advisory role in building, guiding and nurturing the management team, which is ably led by Ubusha CEO Marius Agenbag.
"Ubusha is an identity-focused security services provider, the largest and fastest growing in Africa, with a clear path for sustainable growth into the future," says Agenbag. "Brett brings a wealth of international, enterprise and industry experience, which will be critical to our leadership team - we believe that his guidance, together with an investment from the Anuva Equity Fund, will prove invaluable in expanding the business into innovative areas of identity security, as well as further accelerating our growth."
Dawson is well-qualified for this new role, having served for more than a decade as the head of Dimension Data, a global IT services brand that services around 70% of US Fortune 100 companies. Under his stewardship, the firm quadrupled its annual revenue from $2 billion to $8 billion, expanded its footprint from 30 countries to 58, and grew its local and international employee complement from 8 000 to more than 30 000.
The focus for ICT firms has changed over the past decade due to the advent of 'big data' and the growing trend towards the migration of data management and software solutions to the cloud. Against this backdrop, the ability to secure customer and organisational information has become of vital importance, especially in regulated industries such as banking, FSI, securities exchanges, telecommunications and global listed companies. This is where Dawson's contribution will prove invaluable, as he will direct the culture and assist in creating an enabling environment for the management team to build on Ubusha's already impressive client base.
According to Dawson, the ability to robustly secure customer information is a key enabler for businesses in the digital age. "Ubusha is a market leader in this vital segment of the IT security market," he says. "There are tremendous opportunities to grow in the corporate segment by offering bullet-proof solutions that both protect and prevent unauthorised access to corporations' information assets."
Data breaches are commonplace and difficult to ward off, with major US-based brands such as Equifax, Kmart and Verizon falling victim to some or other form of cyber attack in 2017. The cost of such breaches can be crippling too - according to the 12th annual Cost of Data Breach Study, conducted by Ponemon Institute, the global average cost of a data breach reached $3.62 million last year.
These trends are great motivators for clients who approach Ubusha for focusing their security efforts not on the perimeter, but rather on the most critical risks: the identities. Ubusha provides the 'visibility' into access to critical infrastructure and sensitive data to ensure compliance, good governance and reduced risk for clients.
Ubusha has kept abreast of global IT trends and has positioned its services around both the protection of information and the prevention of unauthorised access to it. This is best achieved through a market-leading offering that combines service and software in a beginning-to-end solution, customised for the client's specific requirements.
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