For CSPs, AI success takes technology and people
Dell AI for Telecom solution combines data, infrastructure, software, services and use cases, along with Dell Technologies’ partner ecosystem
The technology problems communications service providers (CSPs) are currently navigating are complex and significant; decisions made today around cloud strategy, radio access network (RAN) disaggregation, modernization of business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems (OSS), and how to best leverage artificial intelligence (AI) set the stage for long-term network evolution. Despite that technological complexity, the business problems CSPs face are simple: can that technology, coupled with the right workforce, be mustered to help drive operational efficiency and, at the same time, foster more effective monetization of the network. Dell Technologies’ Andrew Vaz, vice president of product management in the Telecom System Business, thinks so. And the rise of AI presents the opportunity to take a horizontal, ubiquitous platform approach to reinvent telecommunications.
Vaz, in a conversation with RCR Wireless News, identified network automation as the tie that binds together ongoing network transformation initiatives with those fundamental business goals. He highlighted how a new offering, Dell AI for Telecom, combines data, infrastructure, software, services and use cases, along with a robust (and growing) partner ecosystem, to make AI-driven network transformation easier for CSPs to deploy and benefit from.
“The need for automation has actually been very clear,” he said. And “I would say there are some macroeconomic conditions as well where they have to be able to automate and make it simpler…It’s almost an imperative across the telecom industry.” And while automation is and has been critical, accelerating automation has been difficult. But AI is turning out to be a catalyst in helping CSPs move from rigid to automated, cloud-based, flexible architectures. “It’s steamrolling,” Vaz said. “It’s starting to increase in pace and traction…It’s a large lift in a lot of cases, but the journey has started.”
Click here to watch the full interview with Vaz.
Announced in September, Dell AI for Telecom, an iteration of the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA solution set announced in May at Dell Technologies World, holistically brings together data, infrastructure, software, services and use cases in manner designed to help CSPs quickly put together the pieces needed to align their technology strategy with their business goals. Vaz laid out a three-pronged value proposition: enabling CSPs to run any AI workload anywhere in their network; using a validated, turnkey solution to accelerate time-to-value; and access to Dell’s partner ecosystem to realize network enhancements from core to edge.
Vaz also discussed the organizational and cultural transformations that are needed to make a technology transformation successful. The headline is that the adoption of agile development methodologies to foster faster innovation is proven across verticals, but still difficult to do in the real world. Ticking off AIOps, CI/CD and DevOps, Vaz said, “They’re all common terms we say, but you functionally have a different method of development, test and operations.” And, he said, getting the people part of this right can lead to a faster innovation cycle, differentiated products and services, and long-term business success.
Big picture on AI-driven network transformation, Vaz stressed the importance of concurrently considering technology and people. He also made the point that from an architectural and cost perspective, bringing AI on-premises where data already is, is often more practical than piping data to AI running in the public cloud. And partnerships will be key, he said. “There’s a lot of building industry expertise. At Dell, we’re doing a lot around AI. We’re learning the hard way in some cases, and you can be the beneficiary of that expertise and partnership ecosystem.”
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