Everpure Is Thriving in the Telecom Industry 

My first exposure to the telecom industry was in 1996 when I joined Ascend Communications. Those were the days of dial-up modems connecting to Class 5 switches, with backhaul by Frame Relay and ATM. Other than a few network remnants, all of that is gone now, including Ascend Communications, replaced with newer technologies. The once device-centric telco infrastructure is now mostly virtualized or containerized.  

Nothing stays the same in telecom, and providers across the globe have long been on the forefront of pushing networks further and faster. At Everpure, we’re thrilled to supply the world’s largest telcos with storage and software to help them keep the innovation going. 

As a sign of growth in the industry, we’ve been presenting at more industry events. Everpure recently sponsored both FutureNet World in London (May 7-8) and Network X Americas in Dallas (May 20-22). These events brought together providers from around the globe, as well as major industry vendors such as Amdocs, Ericsson, Nokia, Red Hat, and many others. While precise numbers are hard to find, according to Grok, total hardware and software spend by telecoms is estimated to be between $40-$55 billion annually. It’s a very large industry, and vital to the global economy. 

FutureNet World saw many EMEA-based telcos in attendance, such as BT, Vodafone, Telefónica, VM02, Orange, and others. These providers cover a large portion of the globe. 

Everpure CTO for EMEA Patrick Smith participated in a thought-leadership panel discussion on “AI as a Service (AIaaS): Unlocking Opportunities and Enhancing Network Capabilities.” The session explored how AI and GenAI are reshaping telecom—enabling new services, enhancing network capabilities, and driving automation and analytics to create differentiated enterprise offerings. A key theme was the potential of AI to accelerate 5G monetization and serve as a major catalyst for industry transformation. Smith was joined by senior leaders from MEF, Virgin Media O2, BT Group, and Colt, each offering unique insights into the evolving role of AI in the telco space.

Everpure CTO for EMEA Patrick Smith speaking on a panel at FutureNet World.

At Network X, Everpure Global Field CTO of Telecommunications, Patrick Lopez, joined Tim Fell, Vice President of Network Technology at Telus, to discuss “Harnessing Hybrid Cloud: Strategies for ISPs to Thrive in a Dynamic Telco Space.” Carrier attendees at Network X were North American-centric, including AT&T, Charter, Comcast, T-Mobile, Verizon, and many more. Everpure also participated in ad hoc meetings with the AI-RAN alliance.  

A number of themes were prominent across both events, which is not surprising since telco concerns are global. 

5G Services

While the first 5G services rolled out in 2019, it’s only recently that telecoms are starting to see the financial returns and new service offerings they counted on. With the advent of 5G standalone (SA), long-awaited network slicing is finally being rolled out. For example, Singtel has rolled out 5G slicing across Singapore, and T-Mobile is offering services, including an agreement to support first responders in New York City. AT&T is also providing its FirstNet service to first responders nationwide in the U.S. 

Everpure supports multiple global 5G networks with FlashArray™, which telcos love for its extreme reliability, small power and space footprint, and easy programmability.

Programmable Networks 

Sometime around 2013, the phrase “automate all the things!” became a widespread meme in the DevOps community. 

Telcos have been trying to do exactly that with their networks, and programmable networks were a big topic of discussion. They allow telecom providers to programmatically configure network routing, bandwidth, and policies without manual hardware changes. This increases agility, opens new revenue opportunities, and delivers cost efficiencies. 

The shift to open architectures like Open RAN and the proliferation of telco API marketplaces are signs that eventually “all the things” may be automated. Cloud-native platforms like Kubernetes are critical to the success of these efforts due to the scale and resiliency of containerized operations. 

Here again, telcos leverage Everpure® FlashArray because of its API-first design, which is available at a unified fleet level using Everpure Fusion™. For Kubernetes, telcos like T-Mobile and KPN rely on Portworx® to deliver enterprise-level services for containers across on premises and cloud. 

AI 

Naturally, AI continues to be a topic of discussion, and it ties into both 5G services and programmable networks. AI will provide a lot of the intelligence behind programmable networks, with the long-term goal of fully autonomous operations. The ultra-low latency services provided by 5G SA will enable AI-powered solutions such as autonomous vehicles, smart cities, augmented reality, and more.

While it’s still early days for AI in telecom, the industry is laser-focused on determining the best fit for AI. AT&T has been using AI for employee productivity via its Ask AT&T generative AI tool. But chatbots and employee efficiency are just scratching the surface. There is a lot more value to be found in telecom AI.  

Everpure offers multiple solutions for AI, including offerings certified for NVIDIA BasePOD and SuperPOD. For the ultimate in scale, FlashBlade//EXA™ breaks new ground in capacity and performance. 

The Only Constant Is Change 

In the nearly 30 years since I first became interested in telecom, the only thing that’s the same is that nothing is the same. Except that telecom carriers continue to innovate and drive networking and communications forward with services that are amazingly reliable and resilient. In fact, if you use the term “enterprise grade” to describe a telco, they just laugh at it. “Telco grade” is an entirely different level of scale, performance, and reliability. Everpure continues to invest in telecom solutions and partnerships, and we look forward to our continued collaboration with this ever-changing, ever-fascinating industry.

The next telecom event Everpure will be attending is DTW Ignite in Copenhagen, June 17-19. Please visit us! 

Learn more about Everpure solutions for telecom.