A Conversation with Juniper Networks' Sally Bament on 5G, Networking, Telecom and MWC 2023

0:00 hello and welcome back to the podcast

0:04 Now video cast on Maribel Lopez the

0:07 founder and principal Analyst at Lopez

0:09 research and I'm really excited to be

0:11 joined by another great senior leader in

0:15 the tech space Sally Baymont she is the

0:17 vice president of service provider

0:19 marketing at Juniper Networks hey Sally

0:22 um in her role at University is

0:23 responsible for leading and executing

0:25 the company's marketing plans to drive

0:27 demand awareness sales enablement for

0:30 industry-leading service provider

0:31 Solutions so that's some of what Sally's

0:34 been doing she has many years of

0:37 experience in marketing Communications

0:38 product management program management

0:41 sales NM a in specifically in areas of

0:45 networking and Telecommunications Sally

0:47 welcome to the program thank you Maribel

0:49 and looking forward to the discussion

0:53 you know it is that time of year we are

0:56 approaching Mobile World Congress 2023

0:59 it's actually nice to have it be back at

1:02 the beginning of the Year again to have

1:03 it be in person again uh in a more

1:07 meaningful way than I think it was last

1:09 year and I thought we might start there

1:11 and speak a little bit about you know

1:13 what is your perspective on the state of

1:15 the mobile industry right now

1:18 yeah so um to be honest with you

1:21 um Maribel it's exciting times I mean

1:24 we're seeing we're certainly seeing 5g's

1:29 um potential grow from what was just

1:32 massive bandwidth and capacity and high

1:34 density with the roll out of these new

1:37 and Innovative Services

1:39 um and the other thing that's um amazing

1:41 to see is how quickly things have

1:42 shifted to Cloud hosted cloud-hosted

1:45 applications and Services I mean almost

1:47 everything now is cloud hosted whether

1:50 it's you know latency sensitive

1:52 applications like you know video

1:54 conferencing and gaming secure

1:57 applications in banking and finance but

1:59 Telehealth as well and even you know

2:01 when we think about here at Juniper even

2:04 though we're all encouraging our

2:05 employees to go back to the office all

2:08 of our business applications now we can

2:10 get access to on our mobile phones for

2:12 telecommuting so even a juniper you know

2:15 everything is has become Cloud hosted so

2:17 great opportunities for operators

2:19 there's some challenges too but I'm sure

2:21 we're going to get to that

2:24 it's interesting where you started on

2:26 this and the whole concept of everything

2:28 moving to the cloud and everything being

2:30 so Network centered you know people that

2:32 have been in networking and Telecom for

2:33 a long time I think we always thought it

2:35 was Network Centric but now we're in

2:37 that land where the experience of the

2:41 network really matters so yes the

2:43 connectivity matters uh the latency the

2:48 Broadband capability of it the

2:51 distribution of applications and

2:53 services throughout the globe and trying

2:56 to actually monitor that really means

2:58 that service providers are quite

2:59 critical in in this new world order and

3:03 you mentioned 5G and I know we've been

3:05 talking about 5G for some time but I'm

3:07 wondering what are some of the things

3:09 you think mobile operators should be

3:11 thinking about today as they look to

3:13 capitalize on 5G I know originally it

3:15 was just like we're moving to 5G we're

3:18 starting to light it up but you know now

3:20 we're in the midst of it so what do you

3:22 think

3:23 yeah so I mean you hit upon experience

3:26 right from our perspective it's all

3:28 about the experience they're delivering

3:31 to their end users the people who

3:33 connected to their networks and quite

3:35 frankly we think that's going to really

3:36 determine the winners and the losers you

3:39 know I talked about you know the way

3:41 that we consume content the way we

3:43 connect to it uh the way we're

3:45 connecting to each other

3:47 um it's it's changed dramatically and

3:50 more than anything it's had a big change

3:53 on traffic on the network network

3:55 traffic in two areas just the sheer

3:57 volume of it

3:59 um but also to your point the actual

4:01 traffic flows themselves because content

4:04 apps workloads they're all distributed

4:07 now closer to the end users so you know

4:09 what's going to be interesting is the

4:11 operators are going to have to deal with

4:13 this transformation in the network

4:14 traffic while still ensuring that their

4:18 customers users you know folks connected

4:21 to the network still have an amazing

4:23 variants

4:25 um so so that'll be a key Focus for sure

4:28 okay I'm gonna Focus I'm going to switch

4:30 back to that experience point in a

4:32 moment but we were just recently talking

4:34 about how there's a lot of opportunity

4:36 but they're also some challenges so what

4:39 are some of the challenges you're seeing

4:40 operators facing and you know how does

4:43 that translate into some of the things

4:45 you believe you need to invest in to

4:46 help operators overcome those challenges

4:50 yeah so you know great questions when

4:52 you think about you know the the

4:54 changing traffic patterns as I just

4:56 mentioned and being able to support you

4:57 know fantastic experience it's all about

5:00 making sure that the network is

5:01 certainly scalable and agile again to do

5:05 to you know deal with this traffic

5:08 um highly automated

5:10 um and particularly because things just

5:12 got more complicated right particularly

5:14 with you know Edge Cloud hosting and 5G

5:17 and that tied to the fact that many of

5:20 these operators are dealing with skilled

5:21 staff shortages as well

5:23 so you know the opportunity to automate

5:26 uh and particularly AI driven operations

5:29 to deploy Services faster you know to

5:33 detect issues faster and then to

5:36 remediate before users do is all

5:38 important as part of that experience

5:41 um

5:41 security that's another area right as

5:44 we've got seen these networks distribute

5:47 and you know the attack surface is now

5:49 larger so being able to integrate

5:51 pervasive security zero trust security

5:54 and being able to instantly identify

5:56 issues is is really really key

5:59 um cloudification you know leveraging

6:01 the benefits of uh virtualization for

6:04 agility is also key and I can't not

6:06 mention sustainability right top of the

6:10 list for almost every major cloud

6:13 service provider these days and it's you

6:16 know sustainability not just in terms of

6:18 the planet regarding you know energy

6:20 efficiencies Etc but also people and

6:24 profits right how do they sustain

6:26 business growth all of that is top of

6:28 mind and all of those things all of

6:30 those areas are going to be Focus areas

6:33 for uh operators as they deploy the

6:36 networks

6:38 so many of the things you said could

6:40 apply to businesses in general in terms

6:43 of creating that agility needing that

6:45 visibility needing that security

6:48 what I think is different the service

6:50 provider landscape is really about the

6:52 scale that we're talking about and then

6:54 you've mentioned experience a few times

6:56 and I know that Juniper has a company

6:58 has been talking about experience first

7:00 networking and I know in the service

7:02 provider landscape we have quite a few

7:05 discussions about creating

7:06 differentiated Network experiences

7:10 for different groups of people from

7:13 individuals all the way through specific

7:15 companies to Applications

7:18 and in some ways I mean differentiated

7:20 Services isn't A New Concept where we

7:22 talked about this when we moved into

7:24 mpls networks and other things but if we

7:28 fast forward to today

7:31 I'm wondering how you're seeing the

7:34 concepts of these play out in the market

7:36 today you know are you starting to see

7:39 this experienced first networking gain

7:42 traction power service providers

7:45 thinking about deploying these

7:47 strategies so they can get to

7:49 differentiated Services can you give us

7:51 a little bit of context on where we

7:53 actually are today yeah and maybe I

7:56 should stop by just clarifying the areas

7:59 that we're investing in Maribel and you

8:01 know our Focus you know from a strategy

8:04 perspective well first of all I mean we

8:06 are incredibly fortunate to call sort of

8:09 the largest global Service Providers our

8:11 customers it really service providers is

8:14 really the heritage of juniper right

8:16 it's it's where we started and

8:18 um our partnership with our service

8:20 provider customers really drives a lot

8:22 of the investment decisions that we make

8:24 and you know if I were to start at a top

8:27 level and you've touched on this it is

8:28 all about experience but in two areas

8:31 it's simplifying the network operator

8:34 experience

8:35 and it's simplify or sorry you know

8:38 improving the end user experience so

8:40 it's two aspects of it the operator and

8:43 then the end user connected to the

8:44 network and that's what we call

8:45 experience driven uh networking and um

8:49 there's really three key areas

8:51 investment areas

8:52 um that we've uh focused on for service

8:55 providers the first is what we call

8:58 really scalable IP Services fabric that

9:01 is essentially all about automated IP

9:03 transport it's about our heritage in

9:06 coron Edge routing but more importantly

9:09 it's about the investment we've made in

9:12 metro metro access and aggregation and

9:15 that is the part of the network that's

9:16 going through the most change right now

9:18 because almost all traffic is staying

9:21 within the Metro you know flowing

9:23 between those

9:24 um you know distributed Edge compute

9:26 locations so that is a big area of focus

9:29 for us the second of the three areas is

9:32 what we call Cloud first platforms

9:35 that's all about the automated Data

9:37 Center and it's about simplifying day

9:40 zero day one and day two operations in a

9:44 multi-vendor environment for Telco Cloud

9:47 Edge cloud and just data center

9:50 operations in general for service

9:52 providers

9:53 and then the third area which is kind of

9:55 an interesting area for us is

9:58 um building out our full stack of AI

10:01 driven Enterprise managed services

10:04 and then

10:05 um having allowing operators to

10:07 essentially leverage that to deliver you

10:10 know Cloud delivered Revenue generating

10:12 and differentiated managed services to

10:14 their business customers and this is

10:16 obviously a lot of what we've done with

10:18 the full stack implementation following

10:20 our acquisition of mist

10:22 um to allow operators to differentiate

10:24 themselves and make money in terms of

10:26 you know delivering on a fantastic

10:28 experience for business customers and

10:31 then you know lastly I'll say thread it

10:33 through those three solution areas

10:35 Automation and that's automation from

10:39 the radio access network with our Rick

10:42 technology and our orchestration

10:43 technology through IP transport all the

10:47 way to the cloud or sorry to the core

10:50 and the data center through our Paragon

10:52 and then abstra automation portfolios

10:54 and then the second is security you know

10:57 we've done a lot in terms of enabling

10:59 the network to participate in securing

11:02 itself securing you know users devices

11:05 and also applications and workloads so a

11:09 lot of investment areas that I should

11:11 have touched upon first of all

11:13 and then you know obviously your

11:15 question about are we seeing traction I

11:18 mean absolutely when I go back to those

11:21 three key areas

11:23 um first of all scalable IP Services

11:25 fabric we have a phenomenal relationship

11:28 with a strategic Alliance partner called

11:30 NEC NEC have fully embraced our you know

11:35 core automated IP transport portfolio

11:37 but also our newer Cloud Metro offering

11:40 and actually one of our recent wins was

11:43 with a sizable service provider in

11:45 Europe they chose our Cloud Metro

11:49 portfolio to basically improve the end

11:53 user experience for them Metro Network

11:56 um also

11:58 um they got benefits from the power and

12:01 space efficiency of our solutions to

12:03 improve their own total cost of

12:04 ownership and also we built them a

12:07 network that allows them to scale for

12:09 the future with performance and capacity

12:12 that they can grow into you and that

12:14 actually helps with you know system

12:16 longevity and reducing E-Waste because

12:18 they now have platforms that are going

12:20 to take them into the future so great

12:23 example one example where you know we've

12:26 seen a lot of what's playing out in

12:28 terms of requirements on the network you

12:30 know take shape with what we're where

12:32 we're investing

12:33 secondary automation our partnership

12:36 with raccoon Symphony that actually

12:39 started about a year ago

12:40 they selected Juniper's Cloud native

12:43 routing stack for their next Generation

12:45 du called simware

12:48 but more recently they've started to

12:51 offer our Rick our radio intelligent

12:54 controller technology on simworld which

12:57 is their Marketplace they chose us

13:00 because our Rick offering is very open

13:03 and standards based and it allows them

13:05 to build a partner development ecosystem

13:07 if you will so another example where you

13:11 know agility cloud-based is all coming

13:13 into play in this new world and I'm

13:16 going to mention a couple more one of my

13:17 favorites manage services our

13:20 partnership with Verizon certainly you

13:23 know we do a lot with Verizon from an

13:25 infrastructure perspective but we

13:27 partnered with them for their Verizon

13:30 connected Healthcare initiative this is

13:33 a collaboration Hub that they built in

13:36 the UK and it's all about obviously

13:39 leveraging Verizon's industry leadership

13:42 and private 5G with our AI driven

13:45 Enterprise portfolio and it essentially

13:48 allows is a joint solution that allows

13:51 for patients in healthcare in the

13:54 healthcare environment to get access to

13:55 information you know incredibly quickly

13:58 it allows clinicians to basically you

14:02 know

14:02 um make sure information is delivered

14:04 when and where it's needed and it

14:07 includes some Advanced location services

14:08 so essentially clinicians can locate

14:11 medical devices

14:13 people Specialists doctors you name it

14:17 uh so it's a an example where 5G is

14:21 turning into something real in terms of

14:24 a real application a real you know

14:26 value-added service and then I I can't

14:28 not mention the data center Vodafone

14:30 Vodafone turkey they chose Juniper's

14:33 abstra to manage a multi-vendor data

14:36 center network with multiple data

14:38 centers and that was all about

14:40 simplifying operations because things

14:43 are more complicated and they wanted to

14:45 be able to simplify the operations of

14:47 that data to network long answer to the

14:49 question I know

14:51 but I think it really gets to

14:54 the opportunity that we see right there

14:57 isn't just one thing you can do as a

15:00 service provider there's lots of levers

15:02 that you can pull and they have

15:05 different impacts on the business

15:08 and you give the audience any maybe

15:11 previews of some of the things that they

15:13 might see at the show from Jennifer or

15:16 just how are you thinking about what mwc

15:19 is going to be for you yeah absolutely

15:21 Maribel and I can't believe how quickly

15:23 it's coming up to be honest with you

15:25 I know

15:27 um it's crazy I know so um so a key

15:31 message is experience the network of the

15:34 future now

15:36 um so you know we've already talked

15:38 about you know the fact that you know

15:40 the amount of data at our disposal is

15:42 continuing to grow and the need for

15:45 networks and operations to keep pace so

15:48 what we'll have is a number of demos

15:50 showcasing just how we can help with

15:52 that

15:53 um we'll have one demo around our Cloud

15:57 delivered transport automation portfolio

16:00 and that actually is all about Cloud

16:02 Metro and how our Cloud Metro solution

16:05 that we announced last year delivers

16:07 speed agility you know an amazing

16:09 service experience all in a highly

16:11 sustainable way

16:13 um so you know that's a bit of a teaser

16:15 but you know there'll be a highlight of

16:17 demos around that

16:19 um the second uh demo area will be about

16:21 our intelligent operations in the

16:23 automated data center so back to the how

16:27 do you simplify day zero day one and day

16:29 two operations in a multi-vendor world

16:31 and and we'll also be tying into that

16:34 some of our uh Cloud native

16:37 capabilities particularly with Telco

16:40 Cloud applications

16:42 um so that will be a second area third

16:44 area will be our open run

16:48 orchestration and controller Solutions

16:51 and how along with our key Partners

16:53 we're helping operators

16:56 um add value and innovation in the radio

16:58 Access Network

17:00 um and then the fourth one will be all

17:02 about that full stack of AI driven

17:05 Enterprise managed service offerings you

17:08 know very similar to the Verizon

17:09 application that I talked about but how

17:11 operators can really generate Revenue

17:14 through a highly differentiated and

17:16 cloud-based um full stack of uh

17:19 Enterprise services and we'll have

17:21 security also you know threaded through

17:23 all of those uh four demo areas so uh

17:27 we've got a lot going on a lot going on

17:29 I was going to say there's a lot the

17:31 they're in that there might just be one

17:32 or two things Etc like there are several

17:34 uh now just you'd alluded to this

17:38 earlier but I was wondering if you had

17:40 any broader predictions for what's going

17:41 to happen uh at mwc and one of the

17:44 things you were talking about with

17:45 sustainability I personally think it's

17:46 going to be a big year talking about how

17:49 sustainability

17:50 impacts networks impacts the future of

17:53 technology in general I mean what other

17:56 things are we going to be hearing about

17:57 are we going to be talking about uh 6G I

17:59 know we've spent I'm talking about 5gs

18:01 and like that time now that we've gotta

18:03 you know throughout the old G and get a

18:04 new G

18:06 well you know

18:08 um someone's going to be talking about

18:09 6G and I I don't know yeah seriously and

18:13 I don't know if you've watched the Super

18:14 Bowl on Sunday but I saw an adverted

18:16 tenji it was a bit of a spoof but that

18:19 was actually in the uh uh the Super Bowl

18:22 ads this this weekend which is hilarious

18:24 but yeah no seriously

18:25 um based on the conversation we're

18:27 having with operators and actually we

18:29 took a quick look at the uh glomo the

18:32 gsma glomo shortlist Awards of which by

18:35 the way Juniper is uh selected for a

18:37 couple of them when I look at the the

18:39 shortlist there and obviously the

18:41 conversations we've been having I think

18:43 absolutely Energy Efficiency and and

18:46 because of sustainability but just also

18:48 because of the cost of energy and also

18:51 system longevity and how you reduce

18:53 E-Waste will be important aspects that

18:56 will come you know up in conversations

18:58 again related to sustainability to your

19:00 point Maribel and until the in agreement

19:02 with you

19:04 um I think you know I think we will hear

19:06 about Network experience and I think we

19:08 will hear about it from the perspective

19:10 of an operator as well as the end user

19:13 uh I think there'll be a lot of AI

19:16 driven Automation and it'll be you know

19:19 focused on speed to deployment agility

19:22 and reliability right and that's all

19:24 about speed to again to detect and

19:27 remediate issues in the network

19:30 um and you know security is a bit of a

19:32 given but you know the need to

19:35 continuously improve security offerings

19:38 particularly again as you know we are

19:41 opening ourselves up to more you know

19:43 vulnerabilities I think that's going to

19:45 be top of mind as well to be honest with

19:47 you so those are my kind of predictions

19:49 but yeah somebody will be talking about

19:50 6G and who knows it'd probably be

19:52 Juniper

19:55 well I'm looking forward to hearing

19:57 about what's coming next Sally thank you

20:00 so much for your time and attention and

20:03 I hope you have a great mwc thank you

20:06 Maribel and great to chat with you