AI is all over the news and as a kid of the 80s I’m waiting for the headline that Skynet has become self-aware. So, is it time prep and build my backyard bunker for the dystopian future that lies ahead? Or maybe this future Skynet will just know what groceries I’m most likely to order next week? I suppose the changes AI will bring to our life fall somewhere in between. While we think about all the possibilities, something is for certain, the network needs AI. That’s why I’m at Augtera.
I’ve been to many customers over my 25 years in the networking industry. The network operations center or NOC used to be the crown jewel. Customers would routinely ask, you want a tour, and of course I obliged. The NOC is where they brought together talent, technology and data that produced insights about how well their network was performing. Customers were proud of how they did it and that excitement boiled over. However, over the last few years the NOC is no longer a stop on the tour, why?
I’ve thought about that for a long time. The talent is there, and IT has a never-ending supply of new technology. Just walk a conference exhibition hall and you’ll see a new way to solve a challenge at every layer of the OSI model. That’s when it hit me if it’s not people and technology then it’s the data. The network has been hiding when it’s going to break in the millions of data points and logs that are collected each day. I’ve been looking for an exciting technology that unlocks all that network data and actually knows what to do with it. That’s what makes Augtera special, Augtera’s AI sees right through the noise for the insights the NOC needs.
Of course, you do some due diligence. Coming off a Data Analytics and Engineering degree I’ve learned handling diverse types of data is no easy task. But Augtera has done all the hard work with data acquisition and normalization. I also learned you must know what the data means to do AI/ML properly. Again, Augtera shines, the pedigree of the founders and the time they’ve spent building ground breaking network technology is incredible. Their networking experience is key for AI/ML, because you have to truly understand the network to appreciate the nuances in the data sets you’re working with.
I’m thrilled to be here and be able to bring an exciting technology that will give the NOC a face lift. We’re putting the NOC back on the tour. For those familiar with another movie from the 80s, War Games, I’m not going to ask if Augtera’s AI would like to play a game… but I am going to use Augtera to solve the real problems facing our NOCs, finding issues in the network based on what the data is really telling us.
