Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (00:03):
I'm Clarence Reynolds at MWC26. HPE networking enters MWC with a new vision for service providers and enterprises where AI ops meets full stack architecture at global scale. Rami Raheem, EVP, president and GM networking at HPE joins us to share what's coming and what defines the next era. Yes. Rami, thanks for being with us today. Pleasure to be here. So this is your first MWC with HPE. So what is your vision for networking and how it's evolving?

Rami Rahim, HPE (00:35):
Right. So last year I was here and we were really talking about ambition of combining two great companies together. Now I'm here and we're talking about execution. We've combined two iconic businesses, great teams, amazing technology. And the vision that we're executing towards is that of the self-driving network. Essentially what it sounds like. A network that is self-healing, self-optimizing, a network that can self-diagnose problems and accelerate the time to remediation. This is what the industry needs and I don't think any other networking provider has achieved the level of progress that we have in that vision.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (01:20):
So there are a lot of service providers here at MWC. How has HPE evolved to meet their needs?

Rami Rahim, HPE (01:27):
What I really like about the HPE networking business is that it's got a diversity of customers. We've got a lot of business with cloud providers, service providers, and enterprises. And there is a lot of commonality between the different segments from the standpoint of what they require, but there are also quite a few differences. If I look at the requirements of a common telco today, they're really looking for two things. The first is they need to extract costs from their networks, especially from the operational aspects of keeping their networks up and running. And this is where this vision of a self-driving network really comes to light because we're essentially equipping telcos with the opportunity to reduce the amount of resources it takes to just keep the lights on so they can focus on the other much more important priority in my mind, and that is generating new revenue streams.

(02:26)
And there are a number of different ideas around how telcos can become more relevant in the AI era. And this is what we're mostly talking about at this event, especially with some telcos thinking about how they start to offer things like GPU as a service or full stack AI as a service. Now you think about what HPE brings to the table, not just from the standpoint of networking, but networking, compute, the automation and orchestration that ties it all together. We can really provide the easy button for the deployment and the ongoing operations for telcos in this AI era. And that's something that I'm extremely excited about.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (03:12):
And I really wanted to talk about AI and AI ops because it's really changing the landscape.

Rami Rahim, HPE (03:17):
Yes.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (03:18):
What is HPE doing to really help service providers, network operators deal with AI and AI ops in this new

Rami Rahim, HPE (03:27):
Landscape? There's really two aspects to AI when it comes to networking. The first is AI for networks, and the second would be networks for AI. Let's starting with the first one, and I touched on this. This is around the AI ops capabilities that make running networks as simple and as cost effective as possible. And again, I will say nobody has made more progress than we have in this area. But the one thing that really sets HPE apart when it comes to delivering AIOps for networks is we're not just interested in assessing whether the network is up. We're actually interested in the real time assessment of whether the network is delivering on an exceptional experience to the end user. Nobody else is doing this. So we're measuring how happy people are or agents or things that are connected to the network. That sets us apart. The second aspect is around networks for AI.

(04:25)
And this is around providing the cost effective, power efficient, scalable infrastructure that can keep up with the largest AI data centers that exist today. We just announced a series of new products, the PTX 12,000, the PTX 10,002, all go into this opportunity. There are market leading products. The demand for them is exceptional. So the innovation engine at HPE and HPE networking is very strong right now.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (04:52):
So I'm going to ask you to bring out your crystal ball and think about next year. When we're at next year's MWC, what do you think is going to be the defining moment for networking?

Rami Rahim, HPE (05:04):
I think what I'd like the defining moment will be, especially at a show like this, which is very network operator focus. We'll be operators that move from experimentation to actual creation of new businesses and new streams of revenue based on AI. And I think you're starting to see examples of that this year, but next year I think we're going to see full-fledged businesses and that's something we're helping our telco customers with. It's something we would love to see because we want to see our telco customers in a very healthy financial state. So the sky's the limit and we're excited about the journey ahead.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (05:51):
We are excited as well. Thank you so much for your insights. And we'll check again next year and see where we are.

Rami Rahim, HPE (05:57):
I would look forward to that.