Executives at the Edge Podcast | Power Play: Tech Landscape Transformed
Welcome to Executives at the Edge, a podcast brought to you by MEF. I'm your host, Pascal Menezes. Join me as we explore thought-provoking perspectives from the leaders and change-makers propelling enterprise digital transformation forward. Welcome to this special "Power Play" episode of MEF's Executives at the Edge podcast. This recap highlights the transformative power of technology, including satellite networks, cloud, and AI, and their impact on various industries. Experts Declan Ganley, Arun Dev, and Maciek Simm
explore how businesses can leverage technological innovation to drive change and stay competitive. We're calling it the Outernet. It's a distinct and separate, much more secure and faster global communications network. It can connect any part of the planet to any other part without touching the internet. To achieve this, we've designed and innovated a low earth orbit space-based constellation consisting of 24 orbital planes in polar orbits at 1050 kilometers altitude. We'll be putting 600 routers into lower earth orbit. Each satellite
will have four lasers, creating a mesh, like a fishing net cast around the whole planet, including the poles. This network, without touching subsea cables or ground relay stations, will connect point to point faster than anything over 4,000 kilometers. With fewer attack points, it will be inherently more secure, even before encryption. The architecture makes it more secure by design. We believe the Outernet will be the biggest innovation since the internet. That’s impressive. Declan, with the increasing convergence of terrestrial and satellite networks, what does the future look like for enterprise connectivity, and what role does Rivada play? We're offering Network as a Service, focusing on enterprises and governments, not regular consumers. The network we're deploying is MEF-compliant. We come from the terrestrial
wireless world, so we understand the need for interoperability. The MEF standards also cover APIs used between service providers and customers, reducing friction. Any current or future user of terrestrial carrier ethernet services will be able to incorporate our services into their solutions. Enterprise-grade connectivity providers can extend their coverage globally using Rivada's Outernet. Our technology is different because it doesn’t touch the internet, making it inherently more secure. We’re ensuring that the satellite delivery mode is addressed in the MEF standards, and we’re engaging MEF-certified vendors. This ensures our customers can use standard APIs to integrate their
systems with ours. We’re learning from carrier ethernet users and providers to meet their requirements. By 2025, our services will be MEF certified, showing that we’ve successfully lifted the enterprise layer of connectivity off the earth’s surface and into space. This creates global service freedom, a game-changer for businesses. Most enterprise conversations are about the cloud. Early on, everyone wanted to move all workloads to the cloud, but now customers are more selective. Some workloads are better suited for certain public clouds, while others are better on-premise. The complexity
of managing these environments is becoming a barrier. This is where Equinix comes in — we simplify connectivity solutions for customers, whether they’re running at Equinix or between clouds. We offer flexibility, whether they want an OpEx model, CapEx model, or virtualized services. Multi-cloud environments are complex. What can IT leaders do to get ahead of this and make their jobs easier? Multi-cloud has reached a breaking point. CIOs are
dealing with complex infrastructure. They need a trusted partner to help simplify these challenges. Equinix has been cloud- and network-neutral for 25 years, offering low-latency access to clouds. We provide solutions for cost, complexity, security, and control. Standards-based integration is key, and we’re making it easier for enterprises to connect with new capabilities like our Cloud Router, which we launched in December. So, Cloud Router connects enterprises to any cloud or private cloud? Exactly. Traditionally, enterprises set up physical routers at Equinix to connect to clouds, repeating the process in different markets. Cloud Router changes that—it’s a fully virtualized service.
You can spin it up in under a minute and connect to a cloud in 45 seconds without worrying about licensing or infrastructure. What’s your take on AI in this space? AI is coming up in every conversation. Enterprises are cautious, taking a strategic approach to avoid putting their intellectual property at risk. Many are building their own AI models on private
infrastructure using proprietary datasets. This is private AI, especially important in heavily regulated industries like healthcare and financial services. Businesses need to balance the benefits of AI with the risks of data leakage and costs when using public infrastructure. Digital transformation is about changing the way you operate and do business, leveraging technology. It's not just about technology but changing how you operate. Many digital natives succeed not just because of the technology but because of new operating models enabled by it. For example, a company in my country disrupted traditional mail services by delivering to parcel lockers, eliminating the pain of queuing at the post office.
Successful digital transformation projects have three key elements: full support and alignment of senior leadership, a decisive product owner who turns strategy into results, and an environment open to experimentation. Without these, projects can’t succeed. Like Amazon, which doesn’t build most of the products it sells, telecom ecosystems rely on partners to deliver services. At MEF, we’ve enabled this through lifecycle service orchestration APIs, automating workflows between service providers. The biggest challenge for service providers
is that many of their BSS and OSS systems aren’t ready for LSO processes, which specify business processes between service providers, not just API connections. Often, systems are fragmented, with no central address database, for example. This requires process changes and automation behind the scenes to make the APIs work effectively. Many service providers are at different stages of this journey, but we’re gradually moving towards a more connected and automated future.
Thanks for joining us for Executives at the Edge. Don't miss an episode—subscribe today! Find all our episodes on your favorite podcast platform and at mef.net. [Music]
2024-09-18 15:21
