Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:05):
So we're in Copenhagen for DTW Ignite 2026. I'm here with Alex Boyd. He is Director of Systems Engineering for Telcos at Everpure. Alex, great to see you again. Thanks so much for joining us.

Alex Boyd, Everpure (00:17):
Thanks for having me.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:18):
So how is the shift from network automation to true autonomy changing the way operators think about national infrastructure?

Alex Boyd, Everpure (00:29):
I think there are probably a few main areas that the telcos are going to have to think about. One is the controls and processes and change-control mechanisms that they have historically run with are going to have to change and shift and be made more autonomous — if that's an obvious thing to say. But we've seen this before with automation: if the adoption of changes to process doesn't happen, then you don't get the reward from the effort you put in. I think that's the first one. The second one is how do you adopt

(01:09):
Autonomous systems into your infrastructure assets? Because at the moment the infrastructure assets don't have any of these things. So again, we're going to have to do some kind of stitching together of the layers and the stacks. There are architectural decision points that need to be maintained across a period. So if I look at it, the architecture of the operation is going to be redefined so that everything is able to accept commands on a closed-loop basis, but also be very consistent — because I think that sometimes individual parts of the network are very consistently controlled and operated, but when you start to look wider and wider, those things all need to be consistently able to work together at that layer. And I don't think that's quite where we are now. I see things here at DTW that are starting to suggest that we're working towards that.

(02:00):
But I think from a telco perspective, they're going to have to be very mindful of the regulatory nature of their businesses and how they walk this in. It's going to be quite a sharp mindset shift, I believe.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (02:12):
Yeah. And we're starting to see those, and there's a lot of talk about it here at DTW Ignite, of course. But all of this requires lots of different changes in lots of different ways. So what kind of foundational changes are needed in data, storage, cloud and Kubernetes platforms to move from isolated AI pilots to closed-loop operations across the network?

Alex Boyd, Everpure (02:36):
Fundamentally, every element of infrastructure — every element of the systems software-based — needs to have an interface that can be targeted with controls, measures and commands. So if we look from the infrastructure layer upwards, everything needs to understand the new paradigm of agentic or autonomous networking. I think there's going to need to be some specifications around agent-to-agent communications and how those are going to be measured and run, and every element is going to have to understand that and be part of that system. We're seeing that starting to come in, where agentic interfaces are being dropped into the Kubernetes layer and into the storage layer, so that we can start to get more measurable responses from these systems in a way that's broader than it has been before — fleet-driven rather than individual items being configured and trusted. So it needs to be a holistic system that we can look at.

(03:39):
But again with the checks and balances built in. As I say, we're starting to see that coming to life now.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:44):
And as operators invest in their AI-native networks, what should they do to measure value — what they're doing there? Should it be cost savings, improved service continuity, stronger sovereignty? What kind of key KPIs should they be looking at?

Alex Boyd, Everpure (04:02):
Yeah, I think if we base it all on cost saving, we'll end up in a similar position to where we've been before with some of these initiatives, where it's difficult to drive that actual end state out. What needs to happen is value creation. As we build out agentic systems, we need to be lowering the headcount requirements — moving people on to do other tasks and freeing up cycles and also freeing up investment. So we may see an increase in cost initially, which is why the payback position may be over multiple years. But certainly one of the key measures is: what's the value return to the business, and how much CapEx is going to be freed up for them to invest? And that's one of the key parts — how do we generate enough CapEx to be able to invest in these agents in the first place?

(05:02):
That's something else to consider. But I think the key KPIs are going to be the traditional ones. You're going to have to continue to operate your network with the key service KPIs — customer lost hours, those kinds of things — built in, but measured in a much closer way. Bringing together all elements of the system so that you can see it, especially for a closed-loop system, you're going to have to guarantee that all elements are in alignment and within the parameters they're set to, so that we can actually measure that robustly. So I think there may even be a few new KPIs that need to be developed in this space. I don't see anything that quite fits the bill for how you measure an autonomous system at the moment.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (05:42):
And I guess that's why we come to events like this — to talk to other people, find out what organisations like the TM Forum are doing to help the community with these kinds of measurements, and see how things are developing. So Alex, thanks so much for joining us today. Great to see you again.

Alex Boyd, Everpure:
Thank you.