Jabil Helps Gigamon with Network Visibility Solutions

IT security is a top business priority for enterprises, government organizations and service providers around the world. However, limited visibility into data traversing physical and virtual networks, as well as public and private clouds, makes it increasingly difficult to see what’s happening across complex networks.

Gigamon has responded to escalating demands for more effective security with the industry’s first security delivery platform that leverages the company’s market leading network visibility offerings to enable faster time to threat detection and expedient performance management. The company’s innovative Visibility Fabric™ which underpins the GigaSECURE® security delivery platform provides the security technologies attached to it with fast access to network data and metadata, the very information these products need to uncover anomalous behaviors and potential network breaches.

As the leader in network traffic visibility, Gigamon currently services more than 2,000 customers with global deployments across a variety of vertical markets. More than 75% of the Fortune 100 rely on Gigamon to help fight cybercrime and safeguard critical corporate IT assets. “What differentiates us is a maniacal focus on improving visibility to data-in-motion,” says Paul Hooper, CEO of Gigamon. “Rapidly growing demand for our visibility fabric is giving rise to a new security market segment. Part of our competitive differentiation going forward is delivering to customer requirements with expediency, quality and unparalleled service.”

Scaling to Meet Accelerated Product Demand

As one of today’s fastest growing technology companies, Gigamon has experienced sequentially accelerating demand for its innovative solutions since the company’s founding in 2004. As a market pioneer, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company put a premium on being able to scale manufacturing to keep pace with ever-increasing customer requirements. “It’s critical to have an elastic operation assumption, so we can scale seamlessly in response to peaks,” says Hooper. “In seeking a manufacturing partner, we wanted an organization that could give us that elasticity while bringing to bear experience and a global presence.”

To that end, Gigamon contracted with Jabil early in the company’s history looking to leverage operations, manufacturing and supply chain experts. Still, when Dave Cox, vice president of worldwide operations, joined Gigamon in 2013, he saw an immediate need to further expand the current manufacturing operation.

With worldwide responsibility for managing IT, manufacturing, supply chain and technical support, Cox realized Gigamon’s continuous growth was affecting all aspects of manufacturing, from the fast pace of adding new product lines to the company’s expanding global footprint. “As Gigamon scales worldwide, it’s crucial to maintain the very high quality standards we’ve embraced since the beginning,” Cox explains. “We also need to build our products at the right cost while ensuring that customers have the most positive experience using our solutions.”

Cox’s long history with Jabil prior to Gigamon proved essential for taking the relationship to the next level. Having worked with Jabil at Cisco more than 20 years earlier and then periodically since, Cox knew the manufacturer was capable of meeting rapid growth requirements. “Jabil’s executive team, along with people in the trenches, have long tenures, which says a lot,” Cox adds. “The company also is well known for its global footprint, world class capabilities and customer commitment. I knew Jabil was the right partner to take us into the future.”

Perfecting the Manufacturing Process

For Gigamon, Jabil’s focus on stability and continuous improvement were key to devising a broader strategy for scaling Gigamon’s manufacturing operation. The company first relied on Jabil to assist with circuit board assembly and test capabilities, before adding box build and direct fulfillment requirements. Initially supported at Jabil’s San Jose, Calif. facility, Gigamon opted to move to Jabil’s larger manufacturing plant in Guadalajara, Mexico. At that time, the team also decided to leverage Jabil’s direct fulfillment capabilities out of Laredo, Tex., to drive additional operational efficiencies while saving time and costs.

In transitioning from San Jose to Guadalajara, Gigamon experienced serious challenges, which Jabil worked diligently to resolve. “I was very impressed with the proactive, strong commitment from Jabil executives to ensure that our requirements were ultimately met,” Cox recalls. During a particularly difficult quarter’s end, Jabil did whatever it took to meet Gigamon’s business goals, including using expedited shipping methods while Jabil executives on the ground oversaw various touch points in the end-to-end process to ensure on-time product shipments. To this day, Gigamon continues to be impressed by Jabil’s ability to continually honor customer commitments.

As part of the move to Mexico, Gigamon also took advantage of Jabil’s Advanced Mechanical Solutions (JAMS), which provides vertically integrated capabilities in metal fabrication and machine assemblies. JAMS also enables customers to curb production costs through design for assembly and design for manufacturing methods. By using Jabil’s machine component vertical integration, Gigamon capitalized on a great opportunity to reduce costs while increasing lead-time flexibility for two of its most in-demand products.

Previously, Gigamon was sourcing those particular mechanical elements from another firm. By redirecting that requirement to Jabil, the company eliminated significant overhead. “Using Jabil’s vertical integration enabled us to slash certain component costs by approximately 50% while reducing lead time from 12 to four weeks,” Cox says. “This was the best move for us.”

A cross-functional team of Jabil and Gigamon employees embrace continuous improvements to optimize product quality, operational efficiencies, timeto-market and cost savings. During Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), Jabil and Gigamon make additional modifications based on key performance indicators (KPIs) for technology, quality, cost, availability and ease of doing business. “It’s all about the Gigamon customer experience, so we address these metrics on a weekly basis throughout the quarter to demonstrate we’re doing all the right things,” Cox adds. “This also ensures a ‘win-win’ for both companies.”

Full-Speed Ahead with Jabil’s End-to-End Services

As part of its customer-focused approach, Gigamon is expanding use of Jabil’s end-to-end services to scale seamlessly while unlocking greater business and product potential. “We’re excited about our global growth opportunity and the role Jabil can play in helping us increase our international presence,” notes Hooper. “Bringing Jabil’s experience and understanding of how to deliver products in more of the geographies we target will make a significant difference.

“There are additional areas in which we can evolve our relationship with Jabil to deliver faster performance, which ultimately delivers faster performance for our customers,” Hooper adds.

Gigamon leverages short- and long-term flexibility provided by Jabil, as the manufacturer can react quickly and effectively to last-minute changes in production forecasts. Part of this flexibility comes from Jabil’s intelligent digital supply chain, which provides Gigamon with real-time visibility into intelligent digital supply chain activities and suppliers down to the component level. This enables Gigamon to better understand and balance inventory of crucial parts and components. “I’ve been very impressed with Jabil’s demand-pull capabilities,” Cox says. “Based on Jabil’s dynamic model, we can easily understand and balance product orders, so we’re always building what we should be—not more or less.”

Gigamon regularly taps into other Jabil value-added solutions to optimize the lifecycle of current products while providing useful feedback on next-generation product builds. During the engineering verification test (EVT) for new products, for example, Jabil offers feedback on how to optimize circuit board design for manufacturability. “Jabil adds tremendous value to ensure when we’re in full-scale production mode we can achieve the highest yields at the lowest landed cost,” says Cox. “Jabil is equally proactive about recommending design changes that could lead to higher optimization.”

Jabil and Gigamon share an “innovation- and employee-first culture,” which enables Jabil’s manufacturing and fulfillment teams in Mexico and Texas to operate as seamless extensions of the Gigamon manufacturing team. Regular face-to-face meetings and open communications ensures transparent operation and strong alignment of the cross-functional operations. “Jabil’s approach, which is to always do what they say they’ll do, has really elevated the level of trust we have in the relationship,” says Cox.

From a competitive perspective, Gigamon credits its relationship with Jabil for enabling the fastgrowing company to respond faster while being more agile and leaner. “We’re growing four times faster than our closest competitor,” concludes Hooper. “With Jabil’s help, we can continue to scale our business significantly while meeting spikes in product demand, new customer expectations, and changing market conditions and opportunities.”