Posted by Mumbai: With the telecom industry gearing up for 5G roll outs in 2019, it is expected to make to a major impact across industries and segments. Besides, 5G will also have a huge bearing on the overall networking and IT infrastructure and will push enterprises and organisations to make fresh investment in the technology space.
Array Networks, is one of the oldest networking hardware and application delivery players in the industry. In this interview, Array Networks CTO & VP – Engineering, Vinod Pisharody talks to Pankaj Maru of TechHerald.in about the impact of 5G on the functioning of networks and network architecture, the fresh technology investments linked with 5G, and also discusses the challenges that the CIOs and CTOs will to have face in the enterprises and organisations with the emergence of 5G and much more.
Edited excerpts…
Q1.As the telecom industry is gearing up for 5G, how will this change impact the functioning of networks and overall network architecture?
Vinod Pisharody : 5G will be key in making networks ubiquitous. When we talk about networking, we currently picture computers, servers etc. The proliferation of computing into everyday lives has been happening for years now but the strength of our network infrastructure has muted its impact. With 5G, networks will mean IoT devices, cars, smart homes and much more. This will require much more in terms of technologies to both enable and guard the flow of traffic and these technologies will certainly alter networks.
Q2.Does the shift to 5G also means fresh technology investment not just for telecom and cloud service providers but also enterprises and businesses that will leverage 5G networks for their services and offerings?
Vinod Pisharody : Since 5G fundamentally changes the footprint of network devices, it will also change topologies, value added services, security services and most importantly, applications! So I definitely anticipate fresh investment in technology all across the board.
Q3.Do you see any major challenge/s that 5G will brings to the table for the telecom, cloud and other service providers? In your view, how should the CIOs and CTOs need to deal with those challenges?
Vinod Pisharody : I think CIOs and CTOs will need to provide visibility on all the possibilities that 5G brings to the table for different industries, telecoms and service providers. Service providers and telecoms will be less effective investing in enablement technologies if application vendors and the potential consumers of these applications (e.g. banking, inventory management for retail etc.) don’t see and put forth their ideas. Similarly, application vendors and their potential consumers will not be able to develop effective applications and technologies if they don’t fully grasp what the infrastructure can give them. So for the full realization of the benefits of 5G technology, all of these entities have to work in a synergistic manner with feedback going back and forth – facilitated by CIOs and CTOs.
Q4.How is Array Networks geared up to the 5G shift in terms of market demands and technology solutions?
Vinod Pisharody : Array Networks has been working with “enablement” and “defense” of network traffic for several years. We are studying potential disruptive applications and technologies and working on ways to help and assist with these. I think this is a great opportunity for us. Many of the problems from the past are not relevant any more (lack of bandwidth and technologies to combat this – e.g. caching, WAN optimization etc.) but new problems and security concerns are coming up with 5G. We hope to be in a good position to secure and facilitate application delivery early in the cycle, learn as the technology matures and enhance our offerings as we learn.
Q5.On the India front, can you brief how is the company looking at the Indian market in terms of R&D activities, technology solutions, partnerships and customers?
Vinod Pisharody : We are initially looking at investing in security and visibility to boost our offerings in the Indian market. Array technologies are in a unique position in terms of data delivery and management in customer’s infrastructures and have the ability to provide insights into application data that can be used to boost security as well as improve efficiency. We want to invest in technologies that will allow us to provide additional value in terms of security and application enablement. There are good technologies being developed in India that we can partner with in some cases that can present an excellent value addition for our customers.