ACG HotSeat: Juniper Networks' Julius Francis and Jai Thattil Discuss the Cloud Metro Space

0:02 [Music]

0:11 hello and welcome to another episode of

0:13 the deep edge podcast cloudification has

0:15 been having a significant effect on

0:17 metro networking and ran in the network

0:19 to deliver differentiated services for

0:21 improved user experience

0:23 the metro has the potential to drive new

0:25 service opportunities for operators and

0:27 new improved experiences for network

0:29 users

0:30 it will become the place where

0:31 connectivity plus edge hosting plus

0:33 service experience converges while

0:36 openrend provides opportunities to

0:37 optimize the radio resource and deliver

0:40 innovations faster to the end users

0:42 julius francis senior director of

0:45 product marketing from juniper networks

0:47 and jaya that till senior director of

0:50 product marketing from juniper networks

0:52 join our ceo ray moda from acg research

0:56 to discuss the transformation happening

0:57 in metro networking and or on space yeah

1:00 so maybe what we'll do uh julius and jay

1:03 uh for our audience that aren't as

1:05 familiar with you if you don't mind

1:06 going into your background and julius

1:09 maybe you could start first

1:10 yes sure thanks trey um i'm julius

1:13 francis i'm heading up there

1:16 product marketing for juniper's

1:18 automated van business i'm really

1:20 pleased to be part of this discussion

1:22 today uh i'm chaita till i'm leading the

1:25 strategic marketing initiatives for

1:26 service providers

1:27 uh been in the industry for a while

1:29 leading some of the 5g and oran

1:32 activities

1:33 uh as well as like some of the emerging

1:35 technologies excellent so maybe um as

1:38 you know in the hot seat we like to get

1:39 started right away and and recently you

1:42 had this announcement that i was part of

1:44 related to this whole metro area which i

1:47 always thought there was what i call a

1:49 gap of innovation missing in the space

1:51 but when we when we look at the metro

1:53 domain it has the potential to drive

1:55 a lot of service opportunities for

1:57 operators and improve

1:59 you know the experience for these

2:00 network users but i always relate to

2:03 when it gets to a new topic is what are

2:05 some of the applications in the use

2:07 cases are going to drive this metro

2:09 networking

2:11 so thanks for the question ray

2:13 definitely if you before we get to the

2:15 use cases and applications that's

2:17 emerging if you step back and look at

2:19 what's happening in the metro metro is

2:21 becoming a new edge and it has a great

2:25 big growth potential for the service

2:27 providers we take a traditional metro

2:30 it's all about access aggregation it's

2:32 about aggregating the traffic and

2:34 pushing the traffic deep into the

2:36 network network for or for for services

2:40 now that model is transforming

2:43 now

2:43 the metro is about

2:45 connectivity edge cloud hosting and

2:48 service experience are converging more

2:50 workloads are moving in um they're all

2:53 moving in for various reasons about

2:55 greater experience right

2:58 but and also if you look at the

2:59 potential side

3:01 and

3:01 and the data pointing the fact that

3:04 subscribers are willing to pay

3:06 more for the great experience so great

3:08 growth potential great monetization

3:10 potential and and what you're seeing is

3:12 more and more traffic is coming to the

3:15 metro

3:16 at one of your studies seg study

3:18 pointing out more than five acts gonna

3:20 come and stay within the metro and it's

3:23 all pointing the fact that metro is

3:25 transforming

3:26 so given that

3:28 i think the use cases why

3:31 the more of the workloads moving in are

3:33 like mobile streaming is skyrocketing

3:35 right and they all need

3:38 low high bandwidth high error rate

3:41 high bandwidth and low latency

3:43 um and metro is the ideal location for

3:46 that

3:47 arvr

3:48 great uh heavy data streaming type of

3:51 applications ultra mobile and

3:53 relentlessly connected devices these all

3:56 need edge cloud type of metro uh

3:59 location and gaming cdn um so it is

4:03 going to be a very interesting space and

4:05 these are the some of the use cases that

4:06 are driving the need now

4:08 but there are and many of the operators

4:10 are trying to think about building a

4:12 converged metro not only for the use

4:14 cases of today but also cases for

4:16 tomorrow but before i i i end my uh

4:21 answer

4:22 all this

4:23 the question that's going through

4:25 service wireless mind is can i operate

4:28 my current traditional metro

4:31 in a sustainable way the answer is no

4:33 because you have to look at can i

4:35 operate in a high profitable growth can

4:37 i use and sustain the skill staff in a

4:40 manual type of operational model can i

4:42 even sustain a carbon footprint i

4:44 strongly believe that's a new approach

4:46 is needed

4:48 i know i think this is great because you

4:49 touched on the sustainability part of it

4:52 and i think that's something that's not

4:55 talked enough about about creating

4:57 sustainability to be able to be more

4:59 efficient especially after what's

5:01 happened but

5:02 uh maybe

5:03 if we look at some of the discussions

5:05 going further

5:06 is is that we see this whole

5:07 clarification of the ring right and it's

5:10 helping up the door for disaggregation

5:12 and

5:13 open ran right

5:14 how do you see this transforming the

5:16 network dynamic and what do you feel is

5:19 driving this adoption there

5:21 clarification definitely has transformed

5:23 the ryan uh

5:25 picture overall right it has moved into

5:27 cloud run and then the open run came

5:29 into the picture where you are

5:31 disaggregating the traditionally

5:33 integrated stack into multiple

5:34 components whether it's the

5:37 radio unit control units or distribution

5:40 units all can be now put in different

5:42 places with different vendors so you can

5:45 mix and match how operators are looking

5:47 at the vendor landscape as well

5:50 so it used to be one-winder system now

5:52 moved into multi-vendor ecosystem so

5:54 there are some

5:55 challenges and a lot of opportunities

5:57 coming along with that and i think one

5:59 of the key elements of this

6:00 disaggregation is this decoupling of uh

6:03 run intelligence and the evolution of

6:06 this what we call this brand intelligent

6:08 controller

6:09 and which uses like an aiml to optimize

6:12 the networks and

6:13 this platform now provides a a great

6:17 base and an ecosystem of applications

6:19 that can be onboarded

6:21 so traditionally operators needed to

6:23 rely on the single vendor ecosystem

6:25 where they need to look at their product

6:28 development life cycle to bring an

6:29 innovation with this disaggregation and

6:32 the rig

6:33 you can have these multiple applications

6:35 on board quite quickly and clarification

6:38 is key to that right so rick is designed

6:40 to be cloud native from day one it can

6:43 run on whether service provider is

6:45 private cloud or a hyperscaler public

6:47 cloud

6:48 so this has built a lot more dynamics

6:51 into the ecosystem how you see the

6:53 network from iran perspective the

6:55 disaggregation and not even ecosystem

6:57 has brought so much more innovation into

7:00 the network at the right side

7:03 you know the innovation i think is

7:04 something that definitely it's been

7:06 needed but i think as we

7:08 talk further into that right is you know

7:11 what are what are some of the

7:12 operational challenges and architectures

7:14 that you see because one of the

7:16 things that i always see is when you

7:18 look at

7:18 like automate right and automation is

7:21 what are the use cases that need to be

7:24 automated what are the key challenges

7:26 and drivers and automation that you see

7:28 in the metro any any advice for our

7:30 audience on how to overcome some of

7:33 these challenges as they look to

7:34 transform the metro space

7:36 absolutely uh definitely if you take

7:39 a look at as i earlier mentioned about

7:42 the contrast between a traditional metro

7:45 and what the

7:46 the the cloud metro transformation

7:48 trying to achieve

7:49 you have to look at the differences uh

7:52 all the way not only the operation the

7:54 system and the architecture on the

7:56 operational front um

7:58 in the traditional metrowise it's

8:00 focused mostly on devices and manually

8:04 manual operation and more of diy type of

8:06 model um and the expertise were

8:09 typically tracked within individuals

8:11 that model worked because it's all about

8:14 shifting packets

8:16 but when you now transform the metro to

8:19 deliver that experience now the focus of

8:22 operation should move into service

8:24 experience

8:25 and also the complexity of managing the

8:29 endpoints the devices the service

8:34 layer you have to consider moving the

8:38 metro operations into a more cloud

8:40 delivered as a service because that's

8:42 the only way you could as an operator

8:45 now could focus on operating the cloud

8:47 metro rather than

8:50 getting drawn in the complexity of the

8:51 automation toolset itself and and that

8:54 and also

8:56 you have to start thinking about

8:58 bringing the ai ops models because think

9:00 about these are distributed clouds uh

9:04 and the workloads are moving in there

9:06 and things are getting connected in a

9:09 rapid manner

9:11 and you don't want any degradation of

9:13 services

9:14 impacting the service experience and

9:17 which leads to churn

9:19 the important is to

9:21 keep the ai ops more of a

9:24 more of a predictive nature and

9:26 remediate issues

9:28 as i mentioned on the system side

9:30 definitely i think

9:32 in the previous systems and platforms

9:34 all about traffic aggregation

9:37 monolithic power designs

9:39 but now you have to make choices on

9:41 systems that deliver a richness on

9:44 on routing

9:45 which can help you scale

9:47 better and also

9:49 provide network slicing better

9:52 and also energy efficiencies keep kept

9:54 uh you have to really think in some of

9:56 the design choices you make on the

9:58 platforms as going forward

10:00 um and and

10:02 and bring future proofing that platforms

10:04 because as we talked about these

10:06 networks are not only for today but also

10:08 for tomorrow and finally on architecture

10:10 front you have to think about

10:12 convergence you have to think about how

10:14 am i going to actively assure

10:16 the services that i am enabling on this

10:19 uh network and finally it's all about

10:22 bringing zero trust security because

10:23 security is empowerment and power

10:25 important and it cannot be an

10:27 afterthought it needs to be built in i

10:29 think the addressing some of these

10:31 challenges but but jay do you see

10:33 similar challenges going on in the

10:35 overran space do you think the whole

10:37 clarification will help break down some

10:39 of those barriers

10:41 clarification is definitely bringing

10:42 down the barriers but i think like the

10:44 biggest challenge that orion has its

10:46 adoption itself right the technology is

10:49 still

10:50 at a very early stage but also if you

10:52 look from an operator perspective you

10:54 really don't want to rip and replace

10:57 this huge install base that you have

10:59 been investing for decades so to speak

11:02 so they are really looking at it as like

11:04 a piece me piece by piece

11:06 upgrade to the technology for specific

11:08 use cases and don't want to go for a

11:10 major overhaul then the biggest

11:12 challenge is the integration of course

11:14 by desegregation you opened up the

11:16 ecosystem you're bringing in more

11:18 players that also means like operators

11:21 don't get a single throat to choke when

11:23 something goes wrong so the integration

11:26 is definitely a key area and automation

11:28 has simplified a lot of it it's not like

11:30 how it used to be but with automation

11:32 and open apis you have managed to bring

11:34 multiple vendors together and some of

11:36 the vendors are already coming with the

11:38 pre-integrated solution so that is

11:40 helping automation together with

11:42 clarification but then there is another

11:44 part which is the standardization aspect

11:47 you really need to get those standard

11:49 specs

11:50 for each of those interfaces that we are

11:51 talking about and that effort is still

11:54 ongoing right with oran alliance and

11:55 others

11:56 but again i'll go back to the

11:58 opportunity side where you can bring in

12:00 these use cases that you can onboard

12:02 quite quickly

12:04 bringing efficiency you can steer the

12:06 traffic you can look into the slicing

12:08 you can assure like you know who you are

12:09 delivering when

12:11 switch off some of the towers if you are

12:13 not using them that way like you know

12:14 saving energy

12:16 and resources so there are several

12:18 opportunities and the biggest one i'm

12:20 seeing with the automation coming into

12:21 the picture is

12:23 pulling together the

12:24 ipv and the right side and bringing it

12:27 all together from an entrance slicing

12:28 perspective and that automation helped

12:30 you to manage and orchestrate from an

12:32 end-to-end perspective right so there

12:34 are a lot of benefits that is happening

12:36 the barriers are still there but it is

12:38 slowly brought down by clarification and

12:40 automation

12:42 yeah no this is good that you're seeing

12:44 because i'm seeing similar things from

12:46 that area

12:47 and i think the fact that automation

12:49 playing a big role will help reduce

12:51 the whole concept of

12:53 what we see moving forward there but

12:56 when we look at it from a juniper

12:58 perspective what role does juniper play

13:01 in innovating for this particular space

13:04 so

13:05 definitely

13:06 you saw us launching our cloud metro

13:09 solution in the market on july 1st it

13:12 wasn't an exciting um uh innovative

13:15 solution that we are bringing in because

13:17 what we have articulated so far is about

13:20 it's a new approach needed and we see a

13:23 new way uh

13:25 to approach uh solutions that is needed

13:27 rather than leasing platforms so in our

13:30 launch we are based pretty much

13:33 launching a new category for a

13:34 sustainable metro business growth i

13:36 think we addressing our solution in

13:38 three folds right first of all is

13:39 sustainable operation we are bringing in

13:42 paragon automation

13:43 as a cloud service

13:46 so taking away the complexity of

13:47 managing operating and moving away from

13:49 diy type of models and with with that we

13:53 are bringing ai enabled

13:56 to offer that ai ops capabilities and we

13:59 just on that launch day we demonstrated

14:02 our

14:03 device on boarding couple top one of the

14:06 top use cases uh designed by our service

14:09 provider customers

14:10 and second it's about sustainable

14:13 systems and before i move into the

14:15 sustainable systems the main thing about

14:17 the business outcomes that operators are

14:20 looking for and what we are delivering

14:22 with our paragon automation service is

14:24 about 50 reduction in deployment time

14:27 that's key when and then 70

14:30 faster new use case deployment these are

14:33 some of the rapid changes

14:36 service providers are looking for and

14:38 also 40 cost reduction these are key

14:40 outcomes and when it comes to operations

14:43 on the system from we have delivered

14:46 four news platforms all the way from

14:49 sell side routers to access to

14:51 aggregation to preact

14:54 and these systems are designed with

14:59 efficiency space and efficiency in mind

15:02 and when it comes to space and

15:04 efficiencies we are

15:06 we deliver the highest portfolio scale

15:09 all the way up to 345 terabytes per

15:11 second a massive capacity

15:14 and then high capacity per slot all the

15:16 way to 21.6 terabytes high port

15:19 flexibility um and most important thing

15:22 i want to highlight is about some of the

15:24 power innovation adaptive power

15:26 innovation what we have done we have

15:27 created a modular

15:29 removable power shelves and we paid

15:31 attention attention to uh our

15:35 chassis design in airflow and how we

15:37 cool the systems and also some of the

15:39 innovations on how do we turn off some

15:41 unused packet forwarding engines and

15:43 software functions these all points

15:46 points to

15:47 almost up to 77

15:49 lower power consumptions sustainability

15:51 right

15:52 uh space efficiency all the way to 64

15:54 percent and almost a lower tco cost to

15:57 70

15:58 so these are key business outcomes um we

16:02 delivered through our platforms and

16:04 systems and finally on the architectural

16:07 front we are embedding

16:09 our active assurance agents directly

16:12 into juno's evolved operating system

16:13 that means all these active service

16:15 instruments is available in all our

16:17 platforms

16:19 this means service product providers can

16:20 now actively

16:22 assure and validate all the services

16:25 proactively

16:27 and then finally zero trust security we

16:30 are securing the devices

16:33 and software

16:35 so cryptographically we are embedding

16:37 the device identity right into the

16:39 devices so this makes

16:41 service providers can build a secure

16:44 infrastructure and we are not stopping

16:46 with that we also delivered

16:49 the data security

16:52 data addressed and data in transit

16:55 and finally i also wanted to uh mention

16:57 that with this launch we also

17:00 delivered introduced

17:03 juniper branded co-developed 400 gig crc

17:07 opera zr plus coherent pluggable optics

17:09 so with this juniper is really taking a

17:12 a business outcome based approach

17:15 and thinking cloud metro transformation

17:18 as a solution set

17:19 addressing operation system and

17:21 architecture

17:22 to deliver the real outcomes that is

17:24 needed right into the cloud network

17:26 space

17:27 and jay what are your thoughts on this

17:29 related to o-ring

17:30 yeah for us it's simply to be an

17:32 independent platform provider with a

17:34 wider ecosystem uh that's that's the

17:37 goal um julius was talking about how

17:39 paragon automation is being used in the

17:42 cloud metro we want to extend that to

17:45 to the ryan as well to make sure we can

17:47 provide that end-to-end smo and it's as

17:49 a key provider of that

17:51 um we have been like since our

17:53 acquisition of rick from next year we

17:56 have been working on getting that

17:58 ecosystem ready and we've been building

17:59 that one by one we worked with intel

18:02 rakutan bringing brought in like some of

18:05 the

18:06 cloud native networking

18:08 then we had

18:09 the radio vendors like parallel wireless

18:11 and cancer systems then the technology

18:13 specialists and testers like keysights

18:15 and vrw so we have been shipping away

18:17 from that ecosystem and building that

18:19 wider ecosystem that is needed

18:21 then you must have seen like some of the

18:23 recent announcements that we did with

18:25 vodafone and turk telecontents of the

18:27 trials

18:28 so our focus has been to build this rig

18:31 together with the partners focus on the

18:33 key use cases and also work with oran

18:35 alliance in terms of developing the

18:37 specs and be the

18:39 key driver for what standardization is

18:41 going to be when it's finally done so

18:43 this is where we have been focusing so

18:45 far on

18:46 you know this is excellent i mean i

18:48 think what i like about it is the

18:49 comprehensiveness

18:51 of this it isn't just say here's a

18:53 strategy of position there's there's new

18:55 products there's a part about ai ops

18:58 simplification there's the use cases

19:00 that yourself and jay actually our

19:03 audience is going to give you

19:04 [Applause]

19:06 a round of applause for them so i it

19:08 wasn't too bad being in the hot seat was

19:10 it

19:11 not not really at all absolutely i think

19:14 we enjoyed the discussion is the needed

19:16 uh needed discussions uh especially in

19:19 this transformative stage yeah so and i

19:21 think there's some papers also that um

19:24 for the audience we could provide in the

19:25 link that they could download a look at

19:28 some of the details and go deeper dive

19:30 into some of the tco some of the

19:32 findings and some of the architectural

19:34 stuff so you're officially off the hot

19:36 seat jay and julius thanks for joining

19:40 thank you very much appreciate it

19:45 [Music]

19:53 you