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ISE EXPO 2016 Keynote Interview With Aamir Hussain, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, CenturyLink

Aug. 1, 2016
Trends ISE magazine: What are the trends you see as most impactful to our industry? Hussain: There are several trends impacting our industry today. The first is device proliferation, which […]

Trends

ISE magazine: What are the trends you see as most impactful to our industry?
Hussain: There are several trends impacting our industry today. The first is device proliferation, which is driving the Internet of Things (IoT) phenomena. The second is security; it’s paramount to any offering. The third is the network going to the cloud. More and more network services will be virtual over time. Since over-the-top services have become the norm, customers expect ubiquitous access, quick downloads, scaled business needs, instant communication, etc. Software defined networking will change the way we support our customers. This leads to two more trends, which are the adoption of public and private cloud, and the monetization of analytics and Big Data services.

These are all very important trends, but the most important is the shift in customers’ expectations. Customers are no longer satisfied with waiting or having old versions of their products and services. They want simplicity of services; the way they want them when they want them. Customer experience expectations are already very high and likely will continue to increase.

ISE: What is our industry missing?
Hussain: Our industry needs to better collaborate to support customer expectations and demands. A simple and consistent customer experience across multiple domains, footprints, and providers is the killer application.

CenturyLink Acquires IT Security Services Firm netAura

ISE: Talk about why this is important, and what it means for your area of the business.
Hussain: Having our customers trust that we keep their network, information, and business protected is key to our success.

"Our collaboration and alignment are key to moving CenturyLink forward with respect to our network delivery, platforms, and IT services. Maxine, Bill, and I are committed to our customers, shareholders, and employees."

The netAura acquisition enables CenturyLink to continue our focus on developing best-of-breed security solutions for our customers. We are accomplishing this by combining our security solutions with netAura’s strengths in managed security, consulting and security information and event management. netAura’s expertise around security information and event management (SIEM) and security operations centers (SOC) adds domain expertise within CenturyLink’s security consulting portfolio and accelerates the development, evolution and sustainability of our managed security services platform.

Collaboration

ISE: Last year, we discussed how you, Maxine Moreau, and Bill Bradley are working together to innovate and manage your network delivery/platforms and IT services. What are the top advantages you see with this approach?
Hussain: Our collaboration and alignment are key to moving CenturyLink forward with respect to our network delivery, platforms, and IT services. Maxine, Bill, and I are committed to our customers, shareholders, and employees. Jointly looking across all of our systems, networks, platforms, and services allows us to consolidate, evolve, and enhance our customer experience. As a result, our diverse expertise and experiences produce well-rounded and informed solutions, ultimately allowing us to drive success throughout CenturyLink.

ISE: What have been some new results from this type of cross-departmental collaboration that could not have been achieved without it?
Hussain: We have made an enormous effort to automate and consolidate our backend systems across all of our organizations. In the last year, we’ve made great strides in laying the groundwork for that effort. With a company our size, especially with our acquisition history, it would be impossible for this effort to come to fruition without cross-departmental collaboration and leaders like Bill and Maxine.

ISE: Are there any challenges that accompany this?
Hussain: There are always challenges, but I believe CenturyLink’s employees are the company’s greatest strength. Through continued collaboration and putting our customers first, I’m confident we will succeed.

IoT and The Network

ISE: The IoT has the potential to connect 212 billion devices to the Internet by 2020. According to Goldman Sachs, the 5 key verticals of adoption for IoT are:
1. Connected Wearable Devices
2. Connected Cars
3. Connected Homes
4. Connected Cities
5. Industrial Internet
What does the growth of the IoT mean for you and your teams?
Hussain: The digital transformation is real and IoT is driving it. An estimated 20% of the world’s Internet traffic comes across our network. As IoT grows, the amount of traffic on our network will only increase. Having IoT service offerings helps monetize our network and our analytics platform positions us to be a major player in the IoT arena.

"Virtualization allows us to meet the needs of our customers faster and more efficiently. Speed has become a table stakes expectation for our business and residential customers. The evolution of capacity is directly tied to IoT."

ISE: Does it change your network strategy and roadmap, and if so, how?
Hussain: CenturyLink’s differentiator is our network. IoT is driving more Internet traffic and reinforces our commitment to our network. We want to expand and upgrade our network to meet the growing needs of
our customers in 5 areas: 1.) virtualization, 2.) speed, 3.) capacity, 4.) security, and 5.) reliability. Virtualization allows us to meet the needs of our customers faster and more efficiently. Speed has become a table stakes expectation for our business and residential customers. The evolution of capacity is directly tied to IoT. More devices, larger content streams, and more users are driving the need for capacity. Reliability is self-explanatory but, nonetheless, the most important aspect of our network.

ISE: Talk about your network evolution roadmap over the next 2 years.
Hussain: We always use technology as a lever to become more efficient and provide better service to our customers. We will continue to enhance our cloud and analytics platform, virtualize our network, and provide reliable broadband access for our customers. More and more of our network and data and voice services will be virtualized over time. We continue to invest in our platform to make it a world-class platform that helps connect customers to the digital world.

Rural Challenges and CAF Funding

ISE: In August 2015, CenturyLink announced it would bring broadband of at least 10 Mbps to 1.2 million rural households and businesses in 33 states. Now, you are deep in the process of leveraging that approximate CAF funding of $500 million a year for 6 years from the Federal Communications Commission. What is the status of those deployments?
Hussain: We are making good progress with the deployment of 10 Mbps service to our target customer base. The deployment is on track and picking up momentum in the heart of the construction season.

ISE: What is the trickiest part of delivering to high-cost rural markets?
Hussain: The low-density, long-distance nature of rural markets makes it difficult to provide 10 Mbps service everywhere. Thankfully, the technology has improved, but the most significant cost continues to be trenching and deploying plant facilities.

ISE: What is your organization’s involvement in that process, and is there any new technology you have found to help make the task most cost-effective?
Hussain: We have pursued a number of technologies to deliver 10 Mbps service in a cost-effective manner, including copper and copper bonding, 600 MHz wireless backhaul opportunities, and alternative direct connect
access architectures and core designs. We believe we have made significant improvements in our deployment cycle, developing a core competency, which will also improve the cost effectiveness of the program.

Network Virtualization

ISE: Where is CenturyLink in the deployment spectrum of employing SDN and NFV?
Hussain: We are identifying and planning for the virtualization of most network functions across our portfolio
to reduce operating expenses. As part of that effort, CenturyLink completed the second version of our NFV/SDN platform, the Programmable Services Backbone (PSB), and we are bringing it online globally across our IP core and cloud data centers. PSB 2.0 contains rich orchestration, course-grained Restful APIs, multi-hypervisor support, and an integrated SDN platform networking into our MPLS VPN services. This NFV/SDN platform will be a major advancement in our efforts to reduce service activation times from weeks or months to minutes.

"We have pursued a number of technologies to deliver 10 Mbps service in a cost-effective manner, including copper and copper bonding, 600 MHz wireless backhaul opportunities, and alternative direct connect access architectures and core designs."

ISE: What is most exciting about this for you?
Hussain: The biggest value with our SDN and NFV technologies is enhancing the customer experience. Automation and rapid innovation of new products and features will give customers near real-time provisioning and more control over their service experience.

ISE: What are the greatest hurdles?
Hussain: The greatest hurdle is transformation. We must transform not only technology but also our skills, processes, and culture. Additionally, many of the challenges seen in the early days of migrating to the cloud are reoccurring in the shift to NFV and SDN. Most NFV-based services have been forklifted from physical to virtual environments, lacking awareness and optimizations for running in a cloud-like platform. When it comes to transforming our processes and culture, our biggest strength is our employees. With their hard work and dedication, CenturyLink will carefully plan and implement a smooth migration of network functions to create a programmable and scalable cloud-like environment.

Attend His Keynote at ISE EXPO 2016 on Wednesday, September 21, in San Antonio, Texas

Employees of ICT industry companies receive complimentary admission ($550 Value) when using priority code Direct1D. Register Today at www.iseexpo.com.
Non ICT Industry Employee Fee: $550

About the Author

Sharon Vollman | Editor-in-Chief, ISE Magazine

Sharon Vollman is Editor-in-Chief of ISE Magazine. She oversees the strategic direction and content for ISE Magazine. She also leads the educational content development for ISE EXPO. Vollman has created educational partnerships with the major communications and entertainment providers including AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications and Cincinnati Bell. She has covered the telecom industry since 1996. Prior to that, she worked in advertising with Ogilvy & Mather and CME. Vollman has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Advertising from the University of Iowa.