Experience

 

Mr. Rickard has 40 years’ experience in the enterprise networking industry, including 24 years as a Gartner analyst.

 

He has guided large enterprises’ networking strategies, architectures and procurement, including proposal reviews for networking products and services.

 

Technology topics covered include SD-WAN, NFV, SDN, enhanced internet services, Ethernet, IP VPNs and MPLS.

 

He has worked with network service providers and network equipment manufacturers, from the largest multinationals to small start-ups, helping them develop their corporate strategies, portfolios, go to market and messaging.

 

Former (retired) Gartner Research Vice President focusing on Enterprise Networking

 

Mr. Rickard has spoken at numerous Gartner conferences and symposia, including delivering keynote presentations and chaired Gartner’s Infrastructure, Operations and Cloud Strategies conference in Europe for several years, including both in-person and virtual editions of the event. In addition he has spoken at many vendor events as well as public conferences including RSA.

 

He has authored several hundred Gartner reports on enterprise networking, including multiple Magic Quadrants, vendor ratings, cool vendors, hype cycles and RFP templates.

 

He served as Gartner’s vendor lead analysts for large vendors such as BT, coordinating Gartner overall research relationship and positioning with these vendors.

 

Prior to joining Gartner he held technical and marketing roles with Cisco Systems, StrataCom, Nortel, Timeplex and Marconi.