2025 ZKast #35 with Rami Rahim, CEO of Juniper Networks at MWC25

0:00 [Music]

0:05 welcome to zcast everyone I'm Zas

0:06 caraval from ZK research and I'm inside

0:08 the Juniper stand in the huge Juniper

0:11 stand at mobor Congress 2025 I'm with

0:13 Ramy rahee the CEO of juniper Ramy how's

0:16 it going it's going great thank you for

0:17 having me zos how's the event been so

0:19 far it has been wonderful busy as always

0:22 but uh a lot of really quality

0:24 conversations with some great customers

0:26 and Prospects yeah um so we're going to

0:29 talk obviously a I since that's what

0:30 everybody talks about I I saw you on uh

0:33 Telecom TV or whatever the the the local

0:35 stream inside here is talking about AI

0:37 for networking and networking for AI and

0:41 I think

0:42 um I'm not sure the world yet

0:45 understands the relative importance of

0:46 the network to AI yeah um certainly that

0:49 hasn't shown for the capital markets uh

0:52 nor do I believe people really fully

0:54 understand that the network needs to

0:56 change right the way we deployed it in

0:58 the past won't work and so talk a little

1:00 bit about that why what is unique about

1:03 Ai and why is the way we deployed

1:05 networks in the past no longer

1:06 sufficient so it's a great question you

1:09 know Juniper was born in the era of the

1:11 internet and uh back then we really had

1:14 to innovate push the limits of

1:16 technology to be able to scale core and

1:19 Edge networks to meet the demands of the

1:22 incredible growth that was happening on

1:24 the internet back then fast forward to

1:26 today I kind of feel like there's been

1:28 full circle a AI has resulted in a need

1:32 to push the limits of Technology all

1:34 over again in networking and more and

1:36 more people are recognizing the

1:37 importance of networking I mean look AI

1:41 uh AI gpus um 1 2 10 barely do anything

1:46 now add hundreds thousands tens of

1:49 thousands hundreds of thousands and

1:50 pretty soon they're going to be

1:51 connecting millions in these super

1:53 clusters and now the attributes of the

1:55 network become absolutely critical and

1:59 so we are having to go to new

2:01 technologies like liquid cooling

2:03 co-packaged Optics these things are kind

2:06 of nice to have until now but in the

2:08 Noto distant future they're going to be

2:10 absolutely musthave it's an exciting

2:12 time to be in this industry it's an

2:14 exciting time to be in

2:15 networking yeah I I think that's uh

2:19 that's true and in fact um I was

2:20 watching uh Jensen's keynote the CEO of

2:22 Nvidia from CES where he was talking

2:24 about how the next wave of AI is

2:26 actually physical AI yeah where

2:28 everything that's autonomous will move

2:30 and I was thinking about or everything

2:32 moves will be autonomous and I was

2:33 thinking about the network implications

2:35 of that just the massive number of more

2:38 connections that we're going to have

2:39 correct yeah well there's massive number

2:41 of more connections and capacity to be

2:44 satisfied within the data center

2:46 connecting these gpus together in

2:48 backend networks but then there's also

2:51 just the massive capacity you need in

2:52 the wide area you connect data centers

2:54 together and to connect uh AI

2:56 applications to the consumers of those

2:59 applications today much of the

3:01 Investments as you know has been in big

3:04 learning data centers the large uh model

3:07 Builders but I think in the Noto distant

3:09 future we're going to talk about

3:10 inferencing and inferencing is going to

3:12 happen at the edge it's going to happen

3:13 on premises and so the connections for

3:16 these large inferencing data centers is

3:19 going to have to be built yeah so it's

3:21 it's fair to say that the Network's

3:22 never been more important yes right and

3:25 what that does I think is it not only do

3:27 we have to change the way we build them

3:29 but the way we run them yes and I know

3:31 you've been a big proponent of AI for

3:33 networking yes uh well even before I

3:36 think we started using the term yes yeah

3:38 and so talk about the vision there and

3:39 how we eventually get to this easy

3:41 button for nevering so I think Juniper

3:44 is really a Pioneer in AI for networks

3:47 right leveraging artificial intelligence

3:49 to simplify the day-to-day operations of

3:53 those networks to simplify the life of

3:55 those Network Heroes that have to keep

3:57 their networks up running and serving

3:59 their user all the time and to Delight

4:01 the end user right to do practically

4:03 anything over the network today and I

4:05 believe there are like really three key

4:08 ingredients that make a a network into

4:11 an actual AI native Network it's sort of

4:13 an overused term but we wanted to

4:15 crisply Define it the first is you must

4:18 have the right data you must have not

4:21 just the data that tells you whether the

4:22 network elements are up but how your

4:25 users are experiencing the network in

4:27 real time are my users actually happy

4:30 second is you need to have a proven

4:33 Cloud a cloud architecture that scales

4:35 from the smallest to the largest of

4:37 deployments that's easier said than done

4:39 you need true Cloud scale architectures

4:41 to make that happen last but not least

4:43 you need to have an accurate response

4:45 okay and I think some of our peers sort

4:47 of stop at the observability and they

4:50 fail to understand the importance of

4:51 actually deriving Insight from that

4:54 observability and translating that

4:56 insight into actions that achieve real

4:59 outcomes for the end user crushing the

5:02 number of trouble tickets reducing the

5:04 time to deployment of new te networks or

5:06 new Services um reducing the time to

5:10 understanding where issues happen and

5:12 how to remediate them these are the

5:14 kinds of things that we're driving with

5:15 our missed AI native networks each and

5:17 every day yeah networking and I'm a

5:20 former network engineer so I will say

5:22 that uh from personal experience you

5:24 almost thrive in complexity yeah right

5:26 and uh although you if you translate

5:30 that that the AA everybody talks about

5:32 how expensive GPU Cycles are things like

5:34 that now all of a sudden that extra

5:37 complexity that adds to downtime that

5:38 leads to Long troubleshooting times that

5:40 could cost companies real money right oh

5:42 my god well certainly it can cause

5:46 companies to spend way more to deal with

5:49 complexity to deal with downtime but you

5:52 mentioned something that's really

5:53 important which is GPU Cycles I mean

5:56 right now for anybody that's building

5:58 learning or in inference data centers

6:01 the most precious asset are those really

6:04 really expensive gpus yeah any downtime

6:07 for GPU or any inefficiency that's

6:09 caused by congestion inside of a network

6:13 is evil and so we are having to leverage

6:16 automation principles high performance

6:18 networks low latency networks to

6:20 alleviate and basically eliminate the

6:23 the potential of any congestion and

6:24 that's something that we've done both

6:26 with the industry's first 800 GB

6:29 ethernet r and switching products but

6:31 also in some new really Innovative

6:32 capabilities we introduced into our data

6:34 center automation Suite that helps us

6:37 understand where congestion might occur

6:39 for specific workloads and then

6:41 configures the network dynamically to

6:43 alleviate that congestion now one of the

6:45 things I've always liked about Juniper

6:47 is strength both on the SP and the

6:49 Enterprise side and mobile Congress I

6:51 think for the most part is a service by

6:52 a show when you think of the transition

6:54 to AI

6:56 networking um what are some of the

6:59 similar IL arities you see between

7:00 Enterprises and service providers and

7:02 the differences

7:04 so all of the above Enterprise service

7:06 providers Cloud providers all are in the

7:08 business of providing ubiquitous

7:11 connectivity but there are differences

7:13 as you suggest um Enterprises tend to

7:16 not have the technical IT staff to deal

7:18 with a lot of complexity in their

7:20 networks service providers don't just do

7:22 connectivity they rely on their networks

7:24 for Service delivery Cloud providers

7:27 have obviously leveraged and harnessed

7:28 the power of the cloud but they're

7:30 dealing with massive scale right the

7:32 scale problems they have to solve is

7:33 just stunning um but that being said uh

7:37 since this is a service provider uh

7:38 focused show still for the most part I

7:41 think both AI for networks and networks

7:44 for AI play a very important role for

7:47 service providers in AI for networks if

7:50 you look at just the complexity that

7:53 service providers have to deal with and

7:55 the cost that goes into running their

7:57 networks I believe the days of looking

7:59 AI as a nice to have are over they're

8:01 behind this they must leverage AI in

8:04 order to run their networks efficiently

8:06 uh and effectively and then also for

8:08 networks for AI I sincerely hope and

8:11 much of the conversations we're happen

8:13 we're having in this show is around

8:16 making sure that service providers don't

8:18 miss this trend as a revenue generating

8:21 opportunity and so we have rolled out an

8:24 AI as a service GPU as a service um

8:28 architecture for service providers that

8:30 really make it very simple for them to

8:33 roll out these kinds of new age services

8:36 to generate new revenue revenue streams

8:38 for themselves and we're hopeful that

8:40 there will be a few operators that can

8:42 lead and set an example for the rest I

8:44 want to shift gears a little bit to

8:45 intent-based networking now um that that

8:48 was a term that got pretty widely used

8:50 for a while seems to have faded a little

8:52 bit um I actually think that it was uh

8:56 at a juniper Enterprise event where I

8:58 first heard the term um and so uh you

9:02 know Jun is an early adopter of that

9:05 how's that been going and what kind of

9:07 traction you seen there so it's a good

9:08 question you know our 4A into

9:11 intent-based networking really started

9:12 when we acquired this great uh company

9:15 had a great product called

9:16 abstra um abstra is a truly unique

9:19 solution in a few ways first it's the

9:22 first truly data center infrastructure

9:25 agnostic solution so it works equally

9:27 well irrespective of what underlying

9:30 uh infrastructure switches security uh

9:32 routing that you have second it operates

9:36 at a level of abstraction that truly

9:38 simplifies the day-to-day operations of

9:41 a network that's what intent means you

9:43 sort of provide business logic high

9:45 level intent on what you're trying to

9:46 achieve and it does the nitty-gritty

9:49 details of ensuring that the network is

9:51 always operating to the intent that you

9:54 set third it is the quickest time to

9:58 Insight in any solution that we've seen

10:00 out there so it's truly differentiated

10:02 now we've had this little bit of inside

10:04 baseball a little bit of debate inside

10:06 the company about if you got this

10:08 intent-based networking it's necessarily

10:09 a deterministic solution do you also

10:12 need AI Ops and what we discovered is

10:15 actually there's room for both AI Ops is

10:17 really good at understanding issues that

10:19 sort of are day Zero issues they've

10:20 never happened before like they could be

10:22 a fan issue in a switch that's never

10:24 sort of happened before and you're

10:26 detecting anomalies and truly

10:29 understanding understanding where those

10:30 anomalies are going to Ser affect the

10:32 service and ultimately do something

10:34 about it proactively so what we've done

10:36 is we've started to seamlessly integrate

10:39 our intent-based networking and our M

10:42 aops together in a solution that's all

10:44 sort of one package for our customers we

10:47 did this just recently like a a few

10:49 quarters ago and the demand has been

10:52 incredible way ahead of our expectations

10:54 so that's going to be the strategy that

10:55 we're going to continue to execute on

10:57 yeah no I can see that I I think you

10:58 should go hand in hand in fact I would I

11:01 would uh imagine that AI for networking

11:04 would discover some insights perhaps

11:07 that in intent base wouldn't but then

11:10 using intent base you'd be able to

11:12 remediate against whatever that is and

11:14 so it's not an or it's an yeah yeah yeah

11:16 so that makes sense now uh the other

11:18 area strength that jud's always had a

11:19 security how does AI networking fit into

11:22 that so you know Day Zero taxs don't do

11:26 well for sort of traditional

11:28 signature-based security methodologies

11:29 you need data you need AI okay the bad

11:32 guys leverage AI all the time the good

11:34 guys also have to leverage data now fire

11:38 right exactly exactly and if you think

11:40 about what I just said earlier around

11:42 the critical ingredients of AI networks

11:44 the or AI native networks the first is

11:47 the right data so we are already as part

11:50 of our missed AI platform collecting

11:54 massive amounts of useful information

11:56 that can be used for a host of reasons

11:58 right delighting the end user with an

12:00 assured experience but we can also

12:01 Delight the end user with a secure

12:03 experience as well and that's the

12:05 strategy that we're embarking on we're

12:07 going to leverage that mplatform to

12:09 seamlessly integrate security and tap

12:11 into the rich uh Network and user

12:14 experience data to make sure that we

12:17 give the bad guys the hardest time to do

12:19 their dirty work yeah do you think also

12:23 that um you know this concept of bring a

12:25 security networking together is

12:26 something uh I remember writing about

12:29 this when I was in Yankee group like 20

12:31 years ago yes and for the most part it's

12:34 been a solution looking for a problem

12:36 yeah do you think with the rise of AI

12:39 and the importance that security plays

12:41 that this will be finding the thing that

12:43 actually brings security and AI together

12:45 or security network together I you know

12:47 I believe in that as an eventual outcome

12:51 irrespective of AI to be honest it has

12:53 to happen right well think about it no

12:56 security threat can succeed without

12:59 leveraging the network right I mean the

13:02 network is the way that bad guys get to

13:04 the resources that they want to steal

13:07 okay or the disruption that they want to

13:09 cause was lateral movement right

13:10 absolutely and so you like you just said

13:14 Fight Fire with Fire you must leverage

13:16 the network to basically create the best

13:19 overall security posture this is why for

13:22 our customers that Leverage The Miss

13:24 platform instantiating a security device

13:27 at the edge in the cloud is as simple as

13:30 a click of a button that has to be the

13:32 case and now you can have the right

13:35 security detection capabilities across

13:38 the network but then equally so the

13:40 right blocking capabilities at the right

13:42 part of the network so you're not

13:43 causing too much disruption there is one

13:46 other element of security I just want to

13:47 mention that AI I think has caused us to

13:52 like has caused us to rethink and that's

13:54 around performance so many customers did

13:57 it now are dealing with such an increase

13:59 in traffic in their networks data center

14:02 interconnect inside the data center um

14:04 out into the wide area that traditional

14:08 Next Generation firewalls are just not

14:10 keeping up they're literally falling

14:12 over from the volumes of traffic for

14:15 that reason for the last couple of years

14:16 we've been hard at work and we've

14:17 literally around the corner from

14:19 Shipping the world's fastest firewall

14:21 the SRX 4700 to solve exactly that

14:24 problem in the age of AI yeah I also

14:26 think that it's funny because AI has

14:28 brought on Prem security back yeah as

14:31 well into the data center right and for

14:33 a while it seemed like everybody wanted

14:35 to move all their security to the cloud

14:38 well that was fine whatever your data

14:39 was in the cloud yeah but with all the

14:42 the volume of data people used to train

14:44 and you know the they're just dealing

14:47 with a lot more data it makes no sense

14:48 to move to the cloud and back and so

14:50 yeah well when you're talking about a

14:51 data center on Prem security is the data

14:55 center it's the cloud itself so that is

14:57 the strategy yeah all right Ramy

14:59 anything else you want to add I think

15:01 that we covered it all yeah yeah so we

15:02 got the AI native networking for

15:04 security for intent-based networking M

15:06 uh I think uh over time you'll start to

15:08 see SP Enterprise networks managed not

15:11 identical but I think there'll be some

15:13 common traits as well well I think

15:14 eventually both service providers and

15:16 Enterprises are going to get more and

15:18 more comfortable taking their hands off

15:20 the steering wheel just like with our

15:22 self-driving cars today it takes a

15:24 little bit of an adjustment I think this

15:26 is happening right now across the board

15:28 across of our customers well it takes a

15:30 long time to prove it in fact I think uh

15:32 you would know that from personal

15:33 experience the Mist AI engine has been

15:35 Best in Class for a long time but

15:37 getting people to trust it to do things

15:38 automatically is an entirely different

15:39 thing it it can take a little bit of

15:41 time but the pace at which new customers

15:43 are embracing it and trusting it yeah um

15:47 is just amazing it's a it's fun to

15:48 compete in the industry today all right

15:51 uh well congratulations on the product

15:52 launch and and hope you have a good show

15:53 thank you so much D apprciate on behalf

15:55 of Ramy rahee the CEO of juner networks

15:57 I'm Zs car Al from ZK research and

15:59 thanks for watching uh give us a like

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