Data Center POST Interview with Jodi Carrier, Director of Business Development, Call Delivery Systems, and Guy Pearson, Global Network Architecture Manager, Interpublic Group
At International Telecoms Week (ITW) 2018, which took place May 6-9 in Chicago, Data Center POST had the opportunity to speak with Jodi Carrier, Director of Business Development at Call Delivery Systems, and Guy Pearson, Global Network Architecture Manager at Interpublic Group. Call Delivery Systems helps telecommunications carriers monetize their misdialed calls by pairing them with social science research firms around the globe who collect valuable market research data. Interpublic is an international provider of advertising and marketing services where Guy is responsible for the strategy and high-level design of its global data network, including MPLS, internet, VPN, metro area networks and public cloud infrastructure.
Jodi and Guy shared their experiences of the conference and discussed some of the hot topics that created a buzz at this year’s event.
Data Center POST, Caroline Kurdej (DCP-CK) Question: I hope you enjoyed your time at ITW 2018. My first questions are for Jodi. What were some of the trends that exhibitors and attendees were talking about?
Call Delivery Systems, Jodi Carrier (CDS-JC) Answer: Artificial Intelligence was hot on everyone’s lips at this show, especially with the new GDPR regulations about to go into effect in Europe, and all the recent controversy with Facebook and their issues relating to data privacy. Carriers very clearly understand the many benefits that AI and targeted marketing can lend, but will need to tread cautiously to ensure no breach in regulations.
DCP-CK Q: What was your favorite part of the show?
CDS-JC A: I loved the keynote with Dr. Hanson of Hanson Robotics and Sophia, the humanoid robot. The facial expression and animatronic quality was fascinating and unsettling all at the same time.
DCP-CK Q: Are you planning on attending ITW 2019, taking place April 14-17, when it moves to Atlanta?
CDS-JC A: As much as I hate to say goodbye to the beautiful city of Chicago, I am confident that the Capacity Media and ITW staff will make ITW 2019 as relevant and innovative as ever. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in Atlanta!
DCP-CK Q: This question is for Guy. In the recent ITW 2018 panel you participated in, “Cloud Networks Closer to the Source: Adapting Your WAN to Accommodate Cloud-Based Applications,” you and fellow panelists discussed challenges with inequality in web traffic, specifically the need to be able to identify applications and the continuous change of IP addresses by popular SaaS applications. Would you mind sharing an opinion as to how WAN will best maneuver around these problems?
Interpublic Group, Guy Pearson (IPG-GP) Answer: SaaS providers changing IP addresses is actually by design and a normal strategy. Most SaaS providers do Geo-DNS and load balancing to improve the performance of their applications. What a solution like SD-WAN will do is allow an enterprise to identify cloud applications like SaaS apps, as opposed to IP addresses, and set policy on how to route cloud apps over local internet circuits. For example, I want all Office365 network traffic to use my faster, better performing internet circuit, while basic web surfing would use a cheaper, lower performing circuit. These tend to be categorized as ‘Tier 1’ and ‘Tier 2’ ISPs.
DCP-CK Q: Towards the end of the panel, during the Q&A, a panelist mentioned PacketFabric’s benefit of no commitment and being “relationship-averse,” relating PacketFabric to the “Tinder of cloud connectivity.”
IPG-GP A: The Tinder of Cloud Connectivity. Yes, that came from me. I have a knack for making really cheesy, bad technology jokes. But it is a great analogy.
Network as a Service providers like PacketFabric allow enterprises to utilize their network for connecting to the cloud and only pay for what they want to use. It also allows enterprise customers to make changes to speed, utilization, etc., without any contract obligations.
DCP-CK Q: In years past, we’ve seen two major cloud players dominating the market: Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. In your opinion, is WAN opening up the marketplace for more competition and less-dominant network providers? Do smaller name companies have a chance at winning in this increasingly competitive market?
IPG-GP A: IPG has architected our network to assure that any of our offices have a IaaS cloud connection, VPN or direct connectivity, to an AWS or Azure data center that is within 10-20 milliseconds of the cloud region/zone. Our strategy is to connect our network to the cloud as close to the cloud data center as possible.
Now, further on market dominance, cloud computing adoption is creating more demand for internet circuits as opposed to WAN circuits. In my opinion, cloud technologies give smaller name companies an added advantage in that computing resources will become more accessible and affordable.
Further, I feel as though technology solutions like Software-Defined WAN will create more demand for smaller, less expensive internet circuits from smaller ISPs because SD-WAN can optimize how network traffic is routed over Tier 1 and Tier 2 ISPs. SD-WAN can aggregate Tier 1 and Tier 2 circuits, broadband cable, etc., into one virtual circuit. SD-WAN policy can be configured to route more latency-sensitive cloud traffic like Office 365, Skype For Business, and video over Tier 1 ISP circuits and basic web surfing over Tier 2 ISP circuits. As a reference, Tier 1 ISPs include AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink, while Tier 2 are smaller, more affordable ISPs.
DCP-CK: Thank you for your time today, Jodi and Guy. Data Center POST looks forward to seeing you both at ITW 2019, April 14-17, in Atlanta.
To learn more about Call Delivery Systems, visit www.calldeliverysystems.com/.
For more information about Interpublic Group, go to www.interpublic.com/.
