SAN FRANCISCO & DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Cloudflare, Inc. the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today announced that Dubai, UAE, will be the home of its first office in the Middle East, to further support its growing EMEA operations. Dubai represents a growing Cloudflare team presence in the Middle East and Turkey, following the company’s EMEA headquarters in London, and offices in Munich, Paris, and Lisbon.
Cloudflare’s Dubai-based team will help the company grow brand awareness, acquire and support customers, and recruit new talent. As part of the announcement Cloudflare is welcoming its first managing director of the Middle East and Turkey, Bashar Bashaireh, an experienced regional leader with more than 25 years of industry experience in software and technology, who will lead this new office and team.
“The UAE is home to one of the largest economies in the Middle East and an innovation hub for the region, and worldwide. This has always been an important region for us with an emerging, young population hungry for content delivered at high Internet bandwidth, and Dubai is home to one of our 27 data centers located in the Middle East and Turkey,” said Andy Lockhart, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa Sales at Cloudflare. “After an extensive search, we are delighted to welcome Bashar to lead and grow the team. With an office and a team based in Dubai, we're committed to this growing business landscape, being closer to our customers as well as expanding our business in the region.”
Cloudflare started to invest in the region by expanding its network into the Middle East and Turkey in 2015. Now with data centers spanning more than 270 cities in over 100 countries worldwide, the company continues to grow its presence to be even closer to Internet-connected users everywhere. In the MET region Cloudflare has 27 data centers located in Bahrain, Iraq, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.
With millions of customers globally, Cloudflare’s customers in the EMEA region represent a wide spectrum of industries and various scales. In December 2021, Cloudflare published its first annual Impact Report showcasing commitment to helping build a better Internet that is principled, accessible for everyone and sustainable. The company focused on crafting a blueprint for a zero-emissions Internet, improving efficiencies of its global network that already runs on 100 percent renewable energy, and launching new tools to help other businesses build sustainability into their applications. In February 2021, Cloudflare launched Project Fair Shot — a program that gave our Waiting Room product free of charge to any government, municipality, private/public business, or anyone responsible for the scheduling and/or dissemination of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Cloudflare’s first managing director of Middle East and Turkey, Bashar Bashaireh, will oversee and lead the company’s business and overall team in the region. “With digital transformation and increased cloud adoption, organizations are in need for a fast, secure and reliable Internet, more than ever, to optimally serve and secure their customers, partners, and employees, and Cloudflare is leading this transition,” said Bashar Bashaireh. “I have been impressed by what Cloudflare has built and I’m thrilled to help to promote such an innovative technology in the region to help to build a better Internet, and to support the development of the regional digital economies.”
Over the last two years, Cloudflare has grown its EMEA team by more than 100 percent and counts approximately 700 employees. For the Middle East and Turkey, the initial functions prioritized for the region include launching new data centers, increasing market share by building partnerships, and expanding our customer base and the local team to cope with the business growth to better serve our customers. Cloudflare’s Dubai location will join its other global offices in San Francisco, CA, Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, Seattle, WA, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Washington, D.C., Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.
To learn more about Cloudflare, please check out the resources below:
• Cloudflare Network Map
• Cloudflare Careers Page
• Cloudflare Platform Week
About Cloudflare
Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflare’s suite of products protect and accelerate any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures 2018 list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2019. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cloudflare has offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the benefits to Cloudflare and its customers of its newly-opened office in Dubai, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s VP of EMEA Sales and others. Cloudflare’s actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 1, 2022, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.