Roy Zisapel
Analyst · Needham
Thank you, Yisca, and thank you all for joining us today. We ended the first quarter of 2024 with revenues of $65 million. And non-GAAP earning per share of $0.16; both above the high-end of our guidance. We diligently managed expenses and improved our profitability.
Similar to previous quarter, we witnessed a favorable business environment marked by an uptick in large CapEx deals, more customer engagement and a healthier pipeline. In the first quarter, total adjusted ARR increased 8% year-over-year, driven by growth in our cloud and subscription business. Subscription revenues now account for 46% of total revenue compared to 41% in the first quarter of last year, demonstrating our ongoing shift to SaaS model.
Our cloud security business sustained robust growth with cloud ARR growing again 22% year-over-year. This performance is also underscored by a record number of new bookings and new logos. The momentum behind our cloud security business is driven by 4 key growth drivers that we believe are sustainable.
First, our product offering fueled strength consistently draws security-conscious customers. Our cloud security offering leads with a large battery of AI-powered security algorithms designed to detect and block attacks without disrupting legitimate traffic slots. Customers highly value these unique capabilities, driving numerous new logos and expansion deals.
Second, the ongoing expansion of our cloud security offering creates additional growth and upsell opportunities. During the first quarter, we announced the expansion of our cloud application and network security services to include a new Radware load balance as a service and enhanced cloud network analytics services. These services assist organizations in optimizing application performance, Thank you, Esa, and thank you all for joining us today. We ended the first quarter of 2024 with revenues new bookings and new logos. The momentum behind our cloud security business is driven by 4 key growth drivers that we believe are sustainable.
First, our product offering fuel strength consistently drove security-conscious customers. Our cloud security offering leads with a large battery of AI-powered security algorithms designed to detect and block attacks without disrupting the legitimate traffic slots. Customers highly value these unique abilities, driving numerous new logos and expansion deals. Second, the ongoing expansion of our cloud security offering creates additional growth and upsell opportunities. During the first quarter, we announced the expansion of our cloud application and network security services to include a new radar load balance as a service and enhanced cloud network analytics services. These services assist organizations in optimizing application performance, ensuring availability and maximizing network monitoring and visibility during this time. They complement the value we provide, further strengthening our proposition to clients.
Third, the steady expansion of our geographical footprint, it creates new customer acquisition opportunities. During the first quarter, we expanded our global cloud service network and launched a new DDoS scrubbing center in Paris. We plan to introduce additional locations later in the year.
Fourth, a pivotal factor is the surge in application and network attacks, in particular, layer 7 web DDoS attacks, fueling customer demand for enhanced protection. This new wave of web DDoS attacks has been motivated by major geopolitical conflicts and activist activities. A trend set during Russia invasion of Ukraine has led to an increased frequency and sophistication of web DDoS attacks. These attacks emerged last year and intensified in the previous quarter with expectations for further escalation in frequency, complexity and sophistication throughout 2024.
The growing demand for advanced real-time protection is evident in the success of our DefensePro X solution, which provides protection against web DDoS and advanced DNS attacks. DefensePro X has performed very well and been highly competitive.
The AI-powered offering is unmatched in its ability to automatically detect and surgically block web DDoS attacks. This result is improved security and faster time to resolution, crucial for maintaining customer business continuity. The strength of this value proposition is evident in some of our first quarter wins. For example, we signed 2 major 7-digit defense DefensePro X deals: one with a Tier 1 carrier in North America that upgraded their DDoS protection. The other win was with a major European financial institution that experienced a large layer 7 attack. The latter also replaced their incumbent cloud DDoS provider with our hybrid cloud DDoS solution for a complete protection.
Our partnership with Cisco and Check Point were another contributor to our performance in the first quarter. We kicked off 2024 with record fiscal bookings following a record year in 2023, while Check Point also demonstrated a strong start for the year. To protect our customers, we're constantly innovating our offering. With AI at the fingertips of attackers, threats are becoming not only increasingly complex and adaptive, but also with reduced time to attack. In response, we're taking a Fight AI with AI approach to security.
A good example for our Fight AI with AI strategy is the enhancements we introduced to our bot manager. The newest addition of our bot manager is designed to automatically mitigate a new generation of aggressive AI-driven in human-like bots without blocking legitimate users. For our customers, this means better end-user experience and a reduction in costly business impacts like customer churn and lost revenues.
Another example is the AI-powered rule-free DNS DDoS protection solution. Using our patented algorithms, it automatically distinguishes between legitimate and attack traffic and instantly adapt DDoS defenses based on the specific attack.
According to our recent threat intelligence report, DNS Flood attacks increased nearly 400% between 2022 and 2023. And these new algorithms will significantly shorten time to resolution when countering even the most sophisticated DNS attacks.
Our offering continued to receive recognition by industry analysts. In Quadrant 2024, Spark metrics reports for DDoS mitigation, Radware was named the leader for the fourth consecutive year. Radware was also named as an [ other ] leader as well as product, innovation and market leader in KuppingerCole's Leadership Compass report for web application firewalls.
In GigaOm 2024 report for application and API security, Radware earned recognition as a fast mover and leader. In addition, we were the only vendor to earn GigaOm's top scores for AI-enhanced vulnerability detection and key bot management features.
In one quarter, we were recognized as a leader in DDoS, in web application firewall and in API security. This is another evidence for our best of fleet approach. We provide customers with an integrated suite to protect applications and data center attacks, while our capabilities in each of the core pillars of DDoS, WAF, API and bot security lead the market when evaluated as a standalone capability.
Our customers receive best-of-breed security alongside a fully integrated fleet, hence best of suite.
In summary, we began 2024 with a solid performance. We delivered sustained growth in cloud ARR, improved profitability, expanded market presence and leverage momentum with our OEMs. These results were supported by improvements in the business environment, rebounding customer spending and heightened cyber-attacks. We believe Radware has the right offering to meet the market demand for best-in-class security and faster response and recovery times, and we intend to capitalize on that for ongoing growth and increased profitability. With that, I will turn the call over to Guy.