Alcatel-Lucent AVP: Ray Gilbert

Dan Farber: Ray, thanks for joining me.

Ray Gilbert: It's great to be here.

Dan Farber: Now as someone who's deeply involved in talking to CIO's about networking, what are you hearing from them? Are they really confused about telecom?

Ray Gilbert: Well there are a lot of things sort of at play today in telecom. There are items you might consider over-hyped and there are things that have gone through a number of phases. One of the largest areas that keeps coming up continually when I meet my peers and talk to them and share our own experiences about IT projects, is the question of the next generation in the network and the question of how to embed mobility effectively in corporations keeps coming back and back.

Dan Farber: So what's the answer? I mean, how do you embed mobility into telecom? I guess we're really talking about the converged network and maybe you could give your definition of converged network.

Ray Gilbert: Well I think what we're seeing is convergence happen in a couple of ways. One is voice and data, sort of traditional convergence we've heard about historically a number of times. That's very real today. The other part that's becoming very common is the mixing of mobility with what would have been more traditional wire line services, making them available in the office and immediately also allowing them to be available as you wander about in, say, a wireless environment. So that is a new transition that's taking place now.

Dan Farber: So, for example, that would be the kind of content services that we're seeing start up.

Ray Gilbert: Correct, content would be very important with the ability to have handsets or devices that will give you VoIP over WiFi in one facility and at the next juncture will run on a cellular network and do that seamlessly, maintaining sessions, maintaining conversations. That kind of ability is becoming very attractive to organizations.

Dan Farber: Now you mention that kind of passing off between WiFi or WiMAX to 3g or whatever is attractive to organizations but where are we really at with that technology?

Ray Gilbert: Well, it actually exists. You can see very strong demonstrations available today to show how that's working. The biggest part of it is, clearly, you want to be able to get that on a ubiquitous, very large geographic footprint. The people that give us that capability are the carriers around the world. So they haven't fully deployed those, although most of them have trials that have been going on roughly for the last year and I'm sure more into the future. But they need to get to the point where they're very comfortable with that, see the very strong business attraction to it and then get a chance to roll it out on large geographic footprints.

Dan Farber: Now as a supplier to the carriers, Alcatel-Lucent has a roll somewhat, kind of in the background. But what's going to convince the carriers all to work together to create this kind of seamless reality?

Ray Gilbert: Well there are a number of standards being created today. There's a very strong conversation on IMS, the IP Multimedia Subsystem, and virtually there have got to be 300 carriers around the world all working on that technology and piece parts of it as they come to market. So I think there really is a heartbeat inside the industry to be able to migrate the networks and their performance to be able to meet those standards and deliver wonderful packaged and converged solutions to enterprises.

Dan Farber: Can you apply some numbers to the kinds of speeds and feeds that users in corporations can expect when we have this so called converged network?

Ray Gilbert: I'd like to focus that answer on the wireless face today. I'll take the North American footprint because that's the area that I have the largest experience with. We're really seeing multiple carriers today begin to provide networks that bi-directionally, at peak rates, give burst rates that are better than T1 services. Now at an end user level, on average, you're not going to get a full T1 experience but a significant fraction of the T1 experience is being laid down, is currently available, and in most cases can be hired by multiple vendors or multiple carriers around North America. That's a quantum leap, factor five to ten, from where it has been roughly two years ago.

Dan Farber: But the U.S. is still far behind other countries in terms of broadband penetration, rollout and speeds?

Ray Gilbert: That's an interesting concept. It is in the sense of, if I pick mobility again, in terms of people using mobility but more on the consumer side, North America has less penetration on that side. But actually, the fact is we get lots of visitors from around the world asking us why North Americans are so prolific at using data, cellular kinds of data solutions in business applications. So in the day to day getting work done in North America we actually have more users using a richer suite of services than other people around the world.

Dan Farber: But even today, things like EVDO, while coverage is pretty good the speeds are still fairly slow.

Ray Gilbert: I'd have to disagree with you. What I'm finding is I meet individuals who apply it to business; they tell me how delighted they are to work with that technology, how much of a step forward it is for them when they put it to work in their businesses. There are large populations inside organizations who can deal with small bandwidth as long as ubiquitous coverage works very effective for them and it's extremely compelling business cases. The fact that we've got the things like EVDO or HSDPA, those technologies are now at peak burst rates of beating a T1, essentially. When a user gets that, plus the advances in reduced latency, they're actually delighted with that experience. It covers a very, very large portion of all the work they need to do when they're outside of their campus.

Dan Farber: One of the issues around voice over IP has been, at least in the past, quality of service and levels of service that can be guaranteed. Is that being overcome at this point?

Ray Gilbert: I personally haven't seen that experience yet. I know there are plans in the system but I really couldn't offer feedback from peers or others who have worked with it. I have got some feedback from individuals who really are at the edge of testing it. What I mean is actually doing VoIP over wireless experiences. They're seeing how attractive it is but they're not yet convinced it's the kind of thing they'd roll out as a standard tool inside their organizations.

Dan Farber: Where does WiMAX fit into the rollout plans?

Ray Gilbert: Well I think WiMAX is a couple of things. First of all it's an excellent tool if you're doing sort of fixed point communications today as a bypass for what people would call normal DSL wire line connections, a very, very useful tool. There's a large promise to it on what it can do on the mobility side. That's still being worked out and I think we're still a couple of years away from seeing that rollout in huge volumes across different markets. But you'll see announcements today where there are different jurisdictions and different carriers who are demonstrating they'd like to put in WiMAX today and begin to provide it. So we're seeing the first evidence of it

Dan Farber: Similarly is the Internet protocol in the back office iPBXs, do you see that overtaking the traditional PBX?

Ray Gilbert: I think most statistics have demonstrated that today. I think the other part that, if you meet enough CIO's and talk about what's possible, there really is a strong appetite for VoIP on what I'll call traditional wire line infrastructure. They see ways where that convergence is giving them terrific opportunities. They are very hungry. We're at the conference here today at UCLA where there must be half a dozen speakers talking about the desire to watch convergence take place, to get people down to one cell phone or one phone number, or get people down to one mailbox or one experience at their desk and the mobility off their desk. So there is a demand for it. Most are articulating that they see the current legacy equipment they have holding them back a little bit. It'll take a couple of years to be able to migrate their businesses into that environment, but they're very eager to see that happen.

Dan Farber: And this notion of converged network that results in unified communications where you have one number, you have a very smart so-called cell phone, when do you see that becoming more mainstream and where we see more CIO's and companies in general willing to make the big investment?

Ray Gilbert: I think I'd like to reflect a little bit on what our colleagues shared today at the conference. Very few are looking for a mass switch-big huge investment in going down that road immediately. The reason is because most organizations have a legacy physical infrastructure, either in offices and plants or telecommunications equipment, so they can't just switch it out that quickly. What I do see is medium, small-medium business, or anyone actually, it was reiterated multiple times today, anyone who has a new greenfield project, that's the only direction that they're considering. They want to see it go in. They want to see a plan of, everything isn't here today what's the steps going forward, so they can actually migrate and stay on that unified platform in the future.

Dan Farber: When you talk about unified platform, there's also the issue of working globally.

Ray Gilbert: Yes.

Dan Farber: And how does the unified platform map when you've got offices in 40 countries?

Ray Gilbert: Well, it can be very hard today. There are some relationships you can have and some carrier relationships which will help that a long way, but it won't cover every corner of the Earth today. It just isn't possible. But what is visible is as all of these companies and all of the carriers begin to focus on those standards, like IMS, that the ability to transfer those experiences and those services around the world will get better and better. It's just not going to be an overnight thing. I've been at multiple conversations with folks and every company is different. Someone has an operation somewhere in Brazil where the service just isn't available. They can't get that ubiquitous coverage. But if you're in the European, North American environment, the ability to move that experience across those continents is becoming easier and easier.

Dan Farber: What do you hear from CIO's regarding use of the bandwidth? Obviously there's a lot of video that's going over that bandwidth and certainly companies don't want to clamp down on their users who might be spending too much time on YouTube or something, but is that an issue that comes up?

Ray Gilbert: To be honest, it hasn't. I haven't seen a lot of concern about, basically, the consumption of bandwidth which is not productive for organizations. It isn't a topic that's come up in the top ten, or a key issue. By the way, security continually comes back. We've got a number of colleagues here today that work in the government space, or the defense contracting space, absolutely still a keystone, an important issue that needs to be addressed there. That's the one that comes up all the time. Security devices, we've talked about some opportunities, new technologies, that will help address that. So all of those keep coming back over and over.

Dan Farber: What are some of those new technologies that could help address issues like device security?

Ray Gilbert: One of the ones that we talked about earlier that we know has recently been announced here on the West Cost is something called Everos that Alcatel-Lucent has put together. It's essentially a smart AirCard, which has intelligence on it, memory on it, and its own power. But it becomes a wonderful extension for an IT department or an IT group, to be able to control that remote device, that laptop out in the field, and apply the corporate security policies, automatically on behalf of the employee. So it takes a big burden off the shoulder of the IT department, and makes life very easy for an employee, particularly a remote worker.

Dan Farber: Ray, in your conversations with the CIOs, how much does the collaborative applications come into play, in the mobile space especially, as a motivating factor?

Ray Gilbert: Its becoming a very, very common topic. Again, I like to come to UCLA and watch the discussions from all the different industries that come here. Everybody from venture capital to government and education. In every case, every presentation we've seen this morning has a collaborative component in it. Different flavors for different industries, but absolutely, collaboration is becoming the key buzzword because in most cases, we're running our organizations where the majority of our staff are no longer on our campus. It's a direction we're moving. It's becoming a very virtual mobile environment, to then put people in a working situation and be successful. And so that collaboration is essential to move the corporation forward.

Dan Farber: So you're saying a lot of these companies talking about the virtual workspace...

Ray Gilbert: Absolutely. The virtual whiteboard, the ability to cause instant conferencing, things like active phone book so you can essentially have an IM session with your work group at any instant, wherever they are in the world. Those are becoming critical to moving productive activities inside every company.

Dan Farber: And is there a feeling among the people you talk to that the kinds of devices we're starting to see, mobile devices, that they will start to really become powerful enough that you can leave your laptop at home?

Ray Gilbert: Well, actually, there's two components to that that I think we've seen. One is the change in expectation of the employee. Very common discussion for new hires, people...

Dan Farber: Trying to deal with Generation Y.

Ray Gilbert: Absolutely.

Dan Farber: New people come in to work, young people...

Ray Gilbert: Absolutely, the generation wants to be mobile, wants instant access. It doesn't take no as an excuse. And so it wants convenience, and that's a requirement being applied to every corporation and every IT leader, to be able to provide that, and its not going to go away.

Dan Farber: So it's really like saying, if you want to get the really talented people, you better provide mobility in the fashion that these people are accustomed to.

Ray Gilbert: Yes. And a lot of the discussions that I'm having with colleagues is that clearly no corporation can take every new device that comes on the market, so its got to have the intelligence, its got to have the partnerships, its got to work the ecosystem. Have the relationships with suppliers so that it knows what's behind the curtain and can plan for it in a very proactive way. You can't be passive any longer and just say in two years from now I'll upgrade something. There'll be multiple versions coming at you in between. Each of those has some value, and you've got to help the corporation understand what will work for them, and either bring it into the corporation or don't bring it in, but have some rational for that.

Dan Farber: Do you ever see a time when the basic notion of a carrier goes away?

Ray Gilbert: Not really. I sort of have a philosophy that carriers are extremely rich corporations, in the sense of what they can bring to market. Really deep pockets, in terms of what they can invest in, enormous and really capable networks that they have. I think the difference is, maybe a carrier in what we would have thought as having a fixed set of bundled services that are sort of tariffed, that notion may go away. I think there will be a much richer portfolio being offered to us. They're going to work heavily in the content space, application space. I mean, I have relationships now where carriers sell to me, and where I'm the customer. On the other side of the table, our conversations moved dramatically in the last few years. We used to spend a lot of time just talking about the commodity: the T1 that we might purchase, the private line service. Today we spend two-thirds of an hour talking about the very broad network of sub-suppliers that they have and the applications that they'd like to work with us. That's a complete change, and that's happened roughly in the last, nine months to a year, in terms of the conversations that are very, very common on the supply side.

Dan Farber: All right. Thanks very much for speaking with me.

Ray Gilbert: It's been my pleasure.

Dan Farber: I've been speaking with Ray Gilbert, who is the Assistant Vice President for Alcatel Lucent, and its IT enterprise collaboration group. For CIO Sessions, I'm Dan Farber. Thanks for watching.