Serial entrepreneur Dug Song, best known as founding architect of IT security firm Arbor Networks and as a community activist, is joining Barracuda Networks’ growing Ann Arbor operation.

Song’s wealth of expertise in network security could prove to be a significant boost for California-based Barracuda, which has nearly 70 employees at its office at 201 Depot St. on the edge of downtown Ann Arbor. The tech community activist will serve as Barracuda’s chief architect with responsibility for its product engineering capability.

“If it had not been for Barracuda, I probably would’ve done a startup in this area myself,” Song said, referring to “cloud computing,” the trend of companies renting off-site servers to handle various computing needs.

Barracuda is experiencing rapid revenue growth and is hiring about one employee every week at its Ann Arbor location, said Sean Heiney, director of new product initiatives.

"It’s a great fit for Barracuda’s expansion as we continue to build new products, and we look forward to using his leadership to not only build new products but to improve and evolve our" focus, Heiney said.

Song had been serving as vice president for engineering at Web video firm Zattoo, which is scaling back its Ann Arbor presence after hitting economic turbulence. He previously spent seven years at Arbor Networks, which now has some 300 employees at various offices, including one in Ann Arbor.

His decision to join Barracuda comes as the network security firm is in the midst of a major Ann Arbor expansion. The firm, which has some 700 employees worldwide, said in September that it would hire 185 workers over the next five years in Ann Arbor.

Nathan Bomey is the associate editor of the Ann Arbor Business Review. You can follow him on Twitter.