Ribbon Communications: Channel Leader Talks R&D, Partners, Optical Networking, More

Ribbon Communications makes real-time communications software, IP and optical networking solutions for a range of sectors. These include enterprise, service providers and critical infrastructure.

The Plano, Texas-based company, with 82 global offices, continues to expand and has channel partners worldwide. In 2017, Ribbon formed from the merger of Genband and Sonus Networks, businesses that had acquired several other companies over their lifetimes.

Ribbon recently sold stock to raise $52 million to further pay off its debts and increase working capital. Specific investors, including JPMorgan Chase, bought the stock. Channel Futures caught up with David Hogan, the company’s vice president of sales. In this interview, he discusses this investment and how partners will benefit. Additionally, Hogan talks of Ribbon’s research and development trajectory, as the company has 1,000 patents to its name. He delves into a host of other topics as well including the importance of hybrid work and his daily responsibilities as a channel leader.

Channel Futures:  If you had to explain Ribbon to someone unfamiliar with the company, how would you do it?

Ribbon’s David Hogan

David Hogan: We are a what I like to call a secure communications infrastructure company. By that I mean we are a technology-driven company focused on assisting organizations with complex communication solutions, whether that’s voice networks, data networks or wireless networks. We are an infrastructure company that provides software and hardware in order to make those networks run efficiently and productively. That [might be] a carrier, a managed service provider or a very large enterprise. We are very focused on some specific areas where we can provide secure platforms that enable connectivity. We are in just about every service provider in the world globally because of the acquisitions and the mergers that we’ve had, all the way back to Nortel.

We’re in approximately 40% of the Fortune 5000 space from an enterprise direct touch environment. We’re focused on solutions that require government regulations, oversight, compliance, highly secure environments, protection of intellectual property, protection of customer information, like financial institutions and health care, and service providers as well.

See our slideshow above for the full interview.