ExtraHop Enters Saudi Arabia to Secure Vision 2030 Digital Future

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – February 17, 2026 – In a strategic move that underscores the critical link between digital transformation and national security, Seattle-based cybersecurity leader ExtraHop announced its expansion into Saudi Arabia. The entry, facilitated by the Gulf’s leading business expansion platform AstroLabs, aims to provide advanced network detection and response (NDR) capabilities to protect the Kingdom's burgeoning digital economy and the ambitious goals of Saudi Vision 2030.

This expansion follows a period of significant international growth for ExtraHop, which has seen increasing adoption of its technology across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. The company reports a nearly 50% year-over-year increase in new customers across the Middle East, establishing a strong foothold in key sectors like government, finance, and transportation that are now central to Saudi Arabia’s own development plans.

Securing a Kingdom's Digital Ambitions

Saudi Vision 2030 is one of the world's most ambitious national transformation projects, designed to diversify the economy away from oil dependency by fostering growth in sectors like technology, tourism, and entertainment. This sweeping initiative relies on a massive wave of digitalization, from the development of smart cities like NEOM to the modernization of government services and critical infrastructure. However, this rapid digital expansion creates a vastly expanded attack surface, making robust cybersecurity a non-negotiable foundation for success.

Recognizing this, the Saudi government has established a sophisticated and stringent regulatory environment. The National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA), established in 2017, acts as the central body for cybersecurity, mandating compliance with frameworks like the Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) for government and critical infrastructure. These regulations, along with the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), demand a high level of security maturity, requiring organizations to implement advanced measures for threat detection, data protection, and incident response.

ExtraHop's NDR platform is positioned to address these exact requirements. By providing deep, real-time visibility into all network activity—from on-premises data centers to sprawling cloud environments—the technology offers a definitive source of truth. This allows organizations to not only detect sophisticated threats like ransomware and zero-day exploits but also to generate the detailed audit trails necessary to prove compliance with NCA and SAMA mandates.

A Strategic Play in a High-Growth Market

The Middle East has emerged as a global hotspot for cybersecurity investment, and Saudi Arabia is its epicenter. ExtraHop's decision to establish a direct presence in the Kingdom is a calculated move to capitalize on its existing regional momentum and tap into a market with urgent, large-scale needs.

“Our continued international growth demonstrates the trust the world’s most demanding sectors place in ExtraHop to protect their networks,” said Fouad Tawk, Area Vice President for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa at ExtraHop. “Building upon this trust in Saudi Arabia is essential to ensure the most critical organizations in the world are protected. By bringing our expertise and unparalleled network intelligence directly to this region, businesses will be able to access the definitive evidence they need to rapidly diagnose and resolve performance and security issues, maintaining uninterrupted continuity.”

The company plans to back this expansion with significant investment in localized technical resources and support infrastructure. This commitment is crucial for building long-term relationships and ensuring that its regional partners are equipped to deliver mission-critical security outcomes for Saudi enterprises.

The Power of Local Partnership

Navigating Saudi Arabia's complex regulatory and business landscape requires deep local knowledge. ExtraHop's partnership with AstroLabs is a testament to a well-considered market entry strategy that prioritizes local expertise. AstroLabs has a proven track record of helping high-growth international technology companies establish and scale their operations in the Gulf region, providing strategic guidance and access to a vast network of decision-makers.

This symbiotic relationship allows ExtraHop to focus on delivering its core technology while AstroLabs handles the intricacies of market integration. For Saudi Arabia, this model accelerates the availability of cutting-edge technologies needed to achieve Vision 2030 objectives.

“ExtraHop’s modern approach to network security and operations is a crucial addition to the Saudi Arabian market's evolving technology sector," stated Fouad Fattal, Vice President, Commercial at AstroLabs. “As enterprises scale up their digital investments to meet the Vision 2030 roadmap, they require security that can keep pace. ExtraHop is the NDR leader to provide the level of visibility and detection necessary to secure critical infrastructure and ensure the resilience needed for the region’s largest and most vital transformation efforts.”

Network Visibility as a Cornerstone of Resilience

At the heart of ExtraHop's value proposition is the concept of the network as the ultimate source of truth. In an era of encrypted traffic, hybrid environments, and increasingly evasive cyber threats, the ability to analyze all network communications in real-time is paramount. Traditional security tools that rely on logs or endpoint agents can miss sophisticated attacks that move laterally within a network.

ExtraHop’s platform is engineered to decrypt and analyze network traffic at scale, using behavioral analysis and machine learning to identify anomalous activity that signals a compromise. This allows security teams to move from a reactive posture of cleaning up after a breach to proactively detecting and stopping attacks in their earliest stages. For the critical infrastructure sectors of Saudi Arabia—including energy, finance, and transportation—this capability to maintain operational continuity in the face of an attack is indispensable. By turning network noise into definitive context, the platform empowers security teams to make faster, more informed decisions and secure the very systems that underpin the nation's economic future.