SASE Specialist Open Systems Taps VMware Exec As CEO

The longtime networking and security provider has named IT veteran and former VMware Carbon Black VP Geoff Haydon as its CEO, with an eye on boosting its managed security business.

SASE provider Open Systems has a new CEO at the helm: IT veteran Geoff Haydon, who most recently worked at VMware Carbon Black.

Haydon has more than 30 years of experience in IT, with more than 20 years spent in cybersecurity. The executive plans to increase the company’s share of the managed security market, according to Open Systems.

Haydon succeeds Jeff Brown, who joined the company as CEO in September 2019 and worked to boost mind share in the United States around the company’s flagship SD-WAN offering. Brown at the time filled the shoes of former CEO and founding partner of Open Systems, Martin Bosshardt.

[Related: SD-WAN Provider Open Systems Shakes Up Its Strategy In Favor Of A 'Partner-First' Approach]

“The company is well poised for further success due to the strategic initiatives driven by our former CEO, Jeff Brown,” said Bernd-Michael Rumpf, Open Systems’ chairman of the board, in a statement. “These include expanding our platform to offer a very successful [managed detection and response] service, broadening our cloud security and management offering, and creating deep partnerships with cybersecurity powerhouses like Microsoft. On behalf of the board and the executive team, I thank [Brown] for his efforts and for ensuring a smooth transition.”

Haydon comes to Open Systems from VMware Carbon Black, where he served as vice president of sales and customer operations. Prior to that, Haydon served as chief revenue officer for Secureworks, CEO at Absolute Software, chief operating officer, Asia-Pacific and Japan for then-EMC, and as a vice president for RSA.

“I’m thrilled to join Open Systems at this pivotal moment in its expansion. I’m impressed with its deep commitment to the customer experience, and its approach to abstracting the complexity of cybersecurity technology into a single service delivery platform,” Haydon said in a statement. “Unlike typical managed service providers, Open Systems delivers outcomes, not alerts – and this is reflected in its 98 percent customer retention rate. I am eager to work with the team to build on the success the company has worked so hard to attain.”

Open Systems, which is co-headquartered in Zurich and Redwood City, California, has been offering secure networking services for more than 30 years. The company in 2019 kicked up its presence in the U.S., as well as built up its channel business from scratch by switching to a partner-first model two years ago.