Name: Sudheer Matta, Juniper Networks & Jonathan Orlando, SiriusXM
Uploaded: 2024-08-22T19:26:00.000Z
Duration: 18 min 11 s

Clips
News
More from Juniper Networks AI-Native NOW from the New York Stock Exchange

Sudheer Matta

Senior Vice President Product Management

Juniper Networks

Jonathan Orlando

VP, Network Engineering

SiriusXM

SiriusXM supercharges audio experiences with Juniper’s AI-driven technology

Audio entertainment is a fast-moving space with technology as a key differentiator. Sirius XM Radio Inc., one of America’s largest audio entertainment companies, has taken a significant leap by integrating advanced technology from Juniper Networks Inc., particularly through the Mist AI platform.Unpacking Mist AI with Juniper Networks’ Sudheer Matta and SiriusXM’s Jonathan Orlando.“Most of the folks on my team and myself worked in network engineering for a long time,” said Jonathan Orlando (pictured, right), vice president of network engineering at SiriusXM. “Most of the wireless technologies out there are your typical controller-based local access type of rollouts

play_circle_outline Deployment of Juniper Mist and MX Routing in SiriusXM's network

play_circle_outline Benefits of Mist AI in reducing wireless issues and improving experiences

play_circle_outline Sudheer discusses Juniper's partnerships and outcomes in various industries

play_circle_outline Future trends in networking industry: AI, measuring user experience, and proactive networking

11:15

18:52

14:40

Info

Sudheer Matta, Juniper Networks & Jonathan Orlando, SiriusXM

Sudheer Matta

Senior Vice President Product Management Juniper Networks

Jonathan Orlando

VP, Network Engineering SiriusXM

Bob Laliberte

>> Hello and welcome. I'm Bob Laliberte, Principal Analyst at theCUBE Research, and we're coming to you today from the New York Stock Exchange. I've got a couple great guests today. We've got Sudheer Matta from Juniper and Jonathan Orlando from SiriusXM. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you for joining me today.

>> Thanks for having us.

Sudheer Matta

>> , Bob.

Bob Laliberte

>> So Jonathan, I wanted to start with you. Clearly, you've got a fairly large network. You're responsible for providing a lot of different experiences. Could you tell us maybe a little bit more about your network and what are some of the unique requirements for SiriusXM?

Bob Laliberte

>> Sure. Yeah. I mean, at SiriusXM, obviously, we're one of the largest audio entertainment companies in the United States today. My team manages the network anywhere between the studios, the corporate data centers, the on-air descriptive type of podcast topics that we go through. And then also, the cloud native solutions that we do with regards to our streaming products that are non-satellite based. So in our environment, we have lots of different devices, lots of different users, lots of different requirements. We go through lots of different situations where there's better technologies that are out there available for us to use. So I think that given the different kinds of topologies that exist in the network engineering space today, I think that we use almost all of that .

Bob Laliberte

>> Got it. And so, what specifically? Where have you deployed Juniper in your environment?

Bob Laliberte

>> So in our environment, we are a Mist shop. We've just recently completed our deployment of Mist AI within all of our studio facilities as well as our corporate offices. We also are a MX Routing customer. So we deployed our own MPLS-based routing topology across the country for our broadcast as well as our corporate networks and yeah.

Bob Laliberte

>> Awesome. Maybe you could explain to the viewers as well, what type of role did these deployments. Were they part of a digital transformation? Was it part of a network modernization? What was driving you to upgrade the network environment?

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. So I mean, myself and my leadership team came into SiriusXM just over two and a half years ago. So we had the opportunity to take a look at the environment, make the opportunity to do a reset, so to speak. And look and see what was out there, what are the requirements that we needed to solve for. We knew we wanted to be a more cloud-native for most of our products. We knew we wanted to have AI integrations into how we did things and we evaluated all the products that were out there. That's when we came across the Juniper team and did some evaluations with their new products.

Bob Laliberte

>> Got it. And so, what, specifically... What were the capabilities or the features that you saw within Mist and Mist AI that made it the right choice for you and your team?

Bob Laliberte

>> So I think that... Obviously, most of the folks on my team and myself worked in network engineering for a long time. Most of the wireless technologies that are out there are your typical controller-based local access type of rollouts. Mist, I think, did a big jump to the cloud-native platform that allows us to manage from a one pane of glass as well as have built-in integration to troubleshoot issues. So that our IT teams and our local onsite folks can have much more information in front of them when there's issues for people that are experiencing things. In SiriusXM, we have a... Typically, you have your users who would complain about a wireless issue. These are talents, right? This is celebrities and musicians that come into our office. So you definitely don't want to make them upset. You want to make sure that they're happy and everything is working as the production needs are required. So yeah, that was part of the evaluation process that we did before we selected them as a vendor.

Bob Laliberte

>> Awesome. So one of the things I'm always curious about is time to comfort. So when you're deploying a new technology, so it sounded like you're doing a lot of switching. You're going from on-premises to cloud-based management, moving to probably not having AI to having AI. Maybe you could share a little bit with the viewers as to what that transition was like from a... Not so much from the technical standpoint, but from the cultural standpoint. How long did it take your team to get really comfortable? Were they excited about it at first? Were they reluctant and had to grow into it and then learn the value of it? I wonder if you could share a little bit about that.

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah, no. Absolutely. Like I said, most of the folks on my team came from legacy deployments where you have a controller access point model, where you're doing tunneling, you're doing... Conditions back to whether it's multiple sites, single sites. So moving to a cloud-native platform was very... People were hesitant. They wanted to really do as much testing and validation as we possibly can do before we actually rolled it out into the production environment. Because once it's there, it's very difficult to roll back. So I would say that working with the Juniper team, they have great resources. Their sales team, their services team basically provided us all the information and details that we needed to make us feel comfortable Day 1 when we rolled it out in our crown jewel site of New York City here... That it was going to work as we needed it to.

Bob Laliberte

>> Okay. And then, one last question for you, I promise. Then, I'll go over to Sudheer because I'm really curious about this. So you've got it in, it's in production. Obviously, you've got a lot of talent who's very demanding and want to have the best possible experiences. How have the outcome... What are the results been like so far from the deployment?

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. A significant decrease in reports of issues when it comes to the wireless environment, right? The flexibility that it gives us to set up our... Like I said, our events environments or whether it's a large group of people are coming into the studio to record or to do some kind of a production rollout. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it significantly reduced our IT support requests over time.

Bob Laliberte

>> Awesome. Which then gives your team more time to work on some of the more strategic initiatives that are more fun to work on-

Bob Laliberte

>> Exactly.

Bob Laliberte

>> Cool. Sudheer, shift over to you. So we just heard a lot about what's going on at SiriusXM. What are your thoughts on this? Is this really... I mean, have you heard similar stories to Jonathan's and... Maybe start there and then I'll go from there.

Sudheer Matta

>> Thank you, Bob. First of all, let me start with, it's been a great partnership with SiriusXM. Right down to the product level, we are partnered. We get feedback. We... And building the full stack with the team, it's been phenomenal. So what our experience and ask is always... We want our customers to treat us as a part of their team. We want to be a partner to them, not a vendor to them. So that's our number one barometer. And that's why with Jonathan and his entire team, it's been a tremendous partnership. Relative to how does this compare with some of the other customers, right? So in a variety of verticals, we've seen three things happen whenever they come to Juniper Mist. It's always the fastest deployment they've ever done in networking. It's the fewest complaints they've gotten on the network since a very long time. And then, it enables and liberates you into a digital transformation. Meaning, the network can be completely programmable and the visibility ties you with end-to-end. And then, lastly, it enables you to do digital experiences indoors as well. So the fastest deployment, fewest tickets, and a digital platform, the network as a platform is the outcomes we see in retail, in healthcare, in higher ed, in enterprise. Across the board, consistent outcomes.

Bob Laliberte

>> Got it. From an adoption perspective, from a driver's perspective, are you seeing... Is it digital transformation? Is it modernization? Is it that need to support a better experience? Free... We all know the network has gotten far more distributed. Users are at home. They're back, right? They're coming into the office. People want to entice them back in. So we've heard a lot about re-imagining that office and making it more of a better experience for them. Were you seeing things like that from your organizations as well?

Sudheer Matta

>> It's funny, Bob. One of the CIOs of a large bank here in New York, he said, before the pandemic, when he went to present a digital transformation to the CEO, he said in seven minutes they shut down his presentation. And said, "We don't need to make it attractive for employees to be in the office. I mean, they're expected to be in the office, right?" Post-pandemic, people are struggling to put employees through the commute and bring them to the office. Everybody's realizing, "Okay. We want them in the office. Now, how do we make this experience good, right? Make it really, 'Wow. I got to get to work because the whole experience, the entire experience, is digital and is enriching.'" And so, yeah, very much, digital transformation is a driver. Hybrid workplace is a driver. But with that comes a couple of challenges, right? Our work has forever changed. There's teams in Zoom. Even when two people are sitting in the same room, we're always on collaboration apps. And so, being able to understand that experience and being able to triage if something happens, real-time remediation, all of that has made this front and center. So yes, the network as a means for a digital transformation is very much front and center. With that, the need for AI to help drive that forward, that's awesome as well.

Bob Laliberte

>> Awesome. Very good. And so, maybe back to you, Jonathan. So from along those lines, clearly you're not one that has to force people back into the office. Because in order for things to get done, people have to be in the office. You've got studios. Everyone's going to be there all the time. I always like to ask this question because I know and we hear anecdotally about you had said massively reduced the number of tickets. Did you ever get anyone come back to you and say, "Hey, wow. That's really good."? Did anyone ever come back to you and say, "Hey, what did you do differently? Because I'm having a great experience now."

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. I think that... Well, as somebody who worked in networking for a very long time, you get blamed first for pretty much everything. Everything is blamed on the network. So I think that the reality is that with significant metrics that can show what the reduction in issues can solve... I mean, that, as a manager, that really shows how you can take those resources and put them towards other things that you think are more in focus. Ideally, building more cloud-native applications and more AI-related technologies. Bringing them into your environment.

Bob Laliberte

>> Okay. Not to give away any secrets here or anything, but now that you've had some experience with the Mist AI and the wireless and some of the routing capabilities, is this a platform that you could see growing in the organization and expanding?

Bob Laliberte

>> Absolutely. I think that we are at the edge of our seat, looking to see what comes out next with regards to the Mist platform, and how we can integrate that much more deeply into our Layer 2, Layer 3, Layer 4 strategy within the application at SiriusXM.

Bob Laliberte

>> Awesome. Awesome. That sounds great. Well, I think what I'd like to do is wrap up with asking you both about, maybe, where you see the networking industry overall going and starting to evolve to in the future. And any inflection points that you see coming up in the future. So you're the guest, so why don't you start first, Jonathan. And then, we'll go to Sudheer.

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. I mean, I think, obviously, the networking industry is ever-changing, right? It's always... There's new technologies coming out every day. AI is obviously the buzzword these days, right?

Bob Laliberte

>> For sure.

>> So being able to utilize AI in any way that we possibly can, it's really, I think, the most important. I think that the key is companies and organizations that have automation strategies in place, that's where you can really take AI to the next level and utilize them for future growth. With regards to the network industry though, it's definitely interesting to see how some of the big players are consolidating these days. As a leader, I have to make sure that we understand exactly what's going on and what can be done to preempt some of the changes that potentially may come down the fight.

Bob Laliberte

>> Got it. Understood. Sudheer, how about yourself?

Sudheer Matta

>> Bob, I'm going to start at cultural level first. For the last 20 years, networking engineers were like, "I wish nobody knows my name. I wish I was invisible," and just, "Hopefully no one notices there's a network." That used to be our past. Today, I think leaders like Jonathan are sitting at the table talking about digital transformation, driving the organization's mission. I think, culturally, we've brought networking to be at the grown-up table and really driving the company's business. And so, we've seen this in verticals, in retail, in healthcare. One of the hospital networks we have deployed nationwide as a veteran comes in, they get turn-by-turn navigation to their doctor. They can actually see someone bring a wheelchair to them. It's the reduction in stress level for a patient that walked into a large hospital. It's immeasurable, right? So the outcomes are there. So the inflection points, as we look forward, I would say, are twofold. First, there's no question, AI is a means to the end. And the end here is, how can AI drive significant optimization and resources, liberating IT to do strategic projects? And how can AI solve auto remediation, self-healing, that kind of stuff? So no question, AI is an inflection point. And then, the second is for the first time in the industry, we're to measure experience. Collect, collate, and curate user's experience minutes. What does that mean is if you and Jonathan and I are on a Teams call and the two of you are having a great experience, if I was having a bad experience, my bad user minutes, I can collate to the network and say, "Hey, what was happening on the network specific to me that you both were not experiencing?" So we are going down this path of collecting this experience data, collating it with the network, and making meaning of it end-to-end. And then... We launched a feature called Marvis Minis and what that does is truly turns you proactive to the network. So it's about using AI to create efficiencies. It's about measuring experience so we can deliver a better experience. And third is really just being proactive to the network. There's so much potential. I feel like we are at the 20 yard line and we have a long way to go that we could innovate. And so, it's an exciting time to be networking.

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more so just did some joint research, theCUBE Research did it with ZK Research. One of the datapoints was, "Do you feel your network is more important to achieving business objectives than it was two years ago?" 93% said, "More or much more important to achieving our business objectives." So for the first time, what's always been considered plumbing is now suddenly getting, "Hey, we need this. This is super important." Especially as the environments become more distributed, you've got locations all around, datas all across the globe, things scattered between data centers, Edge, and public clouds. So we're really seeing, I think, a little bit of a renaissance of the networking is more important and that the AI component is becoming adopted. In that same research, we asked how they're leveraging AI and we typically see this bell curve where it's 20% say, "We're just using it for alerts." The other 20% say, "We want it for full automation." And then, the 60% in the middle is saying, "I want the alert and recommendation and the ability to do some manual automation." So your point about tying in the AI to automation, we're definitely seeing that come along. I think what's going to take... Again, this is that time to comfort. Let me hit the automation button ten times in a row. And then the next time when it comes up, don't ask me. Just do it and then tell me you did it and everything's fine and working good. So I'm super excited to see how AI impacts the network and network operations. And ultimately, those experiences and the connectivity that's being delivered. So I think there's a lot of exciting times for us to come in the networking space. And I'm definitely looking forward to following how that happens across the industry and hearing from how innovative customers, like yourself, are using the technology and deploying it to better your businesses as well also. Well, look, this has really been a great conversation. I think we're out of time for today. But I want to thank you both for being on and I want to thank everyone who's watching for joining us today. Again, Bob Laliberte from theCUBE Research coming to you from the New York Stock Exchange with Juniper Networks and SiriusXM. Thank you very much.

Sudheer Matta, Juniper Networks & Jonathan Orlando, SiriusXM

Bob Laliberte

>> Thanks for having us.

Sudheer Matta

>> , Bob.

Bob Laliberte

>> Got it. And so, what specifically? Where have you deployed Juniper in your environment?

Bob Laliberte

>> Got it. And so, what, specifically... What were the capabilities or the features that you saw within Mist and Mist AI that made it the right choice for you and your team?

Bob Laliberte

>> Awesome. Which then gives your team more time to work on some of the more strategic initiatives that are more fun to work on-

Bob Laliberte

>> Exactly.

Bob Laliberte

Sudheer Matta

Bob Laliberte

Sudheer Matta

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. I mean, I think, obviously, the networking industry is ever-changing, right? It's always... There's new technologies coming out every day. AI is obviously the buzzword these days, right?

Bob Laliberte

>> For sure.

Bob Laliberte

>> Got it. Understood. Sudheer, how about yourself?

Sudheer Matta

Bob Laliberte