In conversation with DriveNets founder and CEO Ido Susan and Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder Hillel Kobrinsky, the company’s remarkable journey unfolds.
The shift towards a software-centric network is revolutionizing the telecom industry, with DriveNets leading the charge. Their commitment to assisting service providers in simplifying, automating, and reducing costs reflects in landmark partnerships, including a significant deal with AT&T. As the industry embraces disaggregation, DriveNets emerges as a pioneer, fostering an infrastructure meritocracy through diverse partnerships and cutting-edge AI solutions.
Steve Saunders:
Hello, how are you? It's been a year, you've had a very difficult year, but the business is flourishing. Bring us up to speed.
Hillel Kobrinsky:
Yes, thank you very much. It was a great year for us. We gained new customers. What is more interesting is that our existing customers are extending the usage of our technology to new areas in the network, including the edge. So it's really, we love to do what we do and it's give us great moments when we see that we are expanding in our customer base.
Steve Saunders:
So expanding how is it the user case which is changing or the size of the customer or the geography?
Ido Susan:
I think both. Yeah, mostly we see more winning for tier one service provider customers. We see customer that we start from peering and call and just expanding to our metro and the edge because we developing more innovation, more features, more technology, but also we see some winning of the tier two customers as well.
Steve Saunders:
Really?
Ido Susan:
So I think it's both dimension.
Steve Saunders:
Yeah. And the actual code and the technology can be deployed from core all the way out to the edge.
Ido Susan:
Yes.
Steve Saunders:
And what are the advantages of having that uniformity throughout a telco network?
Hillel Kobrinsky:
So one north with unified boxes will give you the fundamental to right out fixation.
Steve Saunders:
So it's almost like triage, isn't it? The service providers start what is the most urgent thing? It's to reduce cost and then we work out how to monetize.
Hillel Kobrinsky:
Our passion and mission is really to take them hand to end and move them from their own hardware-centric network and into a software-centric network like the rs. So it's all automated and they can operate used networks with a really sizable amount of people and this is changing their cost structure which is a fundamental.
Steve Saunders:
Yeah, I'm sure I feel like they know they should do it, but it's something which is very new and carriers are not always the fastest adopters of new technology. But have you seen the attitude towards what you do towards disaggregation of infrastructure? Have you seen that change in the last year?
Ido Susan:
Yes. So if you will talk with any CXO, this is a vision on the mission. They want to simplify the network. They want to converge, they want to automate, they want to reduce the cost, the challenge, it's execution, how to do it. And we are doing this step by step with our customer. You need to get a trust. Trust of the engineer, trust of the architecture, trust of the operation, a lot of trust of the organization. So we're starting with one area in the network and then we expand it and this is what we see with the customer that we have. I don't think it's a question if it's real happening. I think it's already-
Steve Saunders:
Happening.
Ido Susan:
Exactly. Yeah. It's already happening and we just need to be there step by step with them and help them to do this generally. And everybody want to build their network like the hyperscale. They just don't know how to do it and we are there to do it.
Steve Saunders:
And you're there to partner with them to, well, the process I suppose starts with education and gaining their trust through knowledge and then you move through the phases of the traditional phases of testing and finally of course you have the huge deal with AT&T. Can we expect other deals like that at scale?
Ido Susan:
Absolutely.
Steve Saunders:
Yeah. That's fantastic. We're at MWC. The big story here obviously was programmability. Hillel, you mentioned that already and clearly that's something which you can enable from the ground up, but also AI. Is AI an increasingly important part of what you do? I mean it's kind of where you came from with the whole idea, right?
Ido Susan:
AI market, for us, it's super important and we launched last year the product for the AI. We are partnering today with a few big hyperscale that we was able to demonstrate our technology for high performance ethernet solution with a DDC. By the way, it's the same technology that the service provider are using, but here it's more feature set of switches and the service provider, it's mostly of the routing capability. On top of it, we are, once you convert the network to be a software based solution, then you are able really to monetize how the data model to training model and to be able to automate it not only by simple automation but really a training model that understand and learn the networking, the behavioral, the trends and the reaction based on the challenges that he's finding. So no question, we are digging the game for the AI.
Steve Saunders:
Digging the game for the AI and the leader in disaggregation. I know Cisco has enabled their iOS software to be disaggregated. Is that in recognition of are they trying to follow you and what's the difference If I go the drive net for your architecture versus what was the former routing leader in Cisco?
Ido Susan:
We are here to serve our customer and I think the train left the station, the ecosystem of the desegregation of the opening source network of growing day by day. We announced the partnership with Convert the layer one and layer three with Outlast technology, with the Cisco cashier, with Ciena, with Infinera, with Finna big partners. We are expanding our solution to more chipset, more ODM and more software company are coming and this is exactly what the customer need. They need diversity and they need to pick and choose the best performance, best innovation and best technology.
Hillel Kobrinsky:
We're welcome on the incumbents to go and open the system and do the ion and I think as Ido said, it's a fact. It's the market is there and so we are proud to lead it, but we are welcome and the other guys
Steve Saunders:
And you're creating infrastructure meritocracy, which is of course what we need in our industry now. I think it's very exciting and it's great to see you both looking so well, what can we expect from you this year? More of the same bigger customers?
Hillel Kobrinsky:
It's not more of the same. It's about, as I said before, people are thinking to redesign the network and we want to be there as their technology partner. We have the passion to help them to do this journey. It's not more of the same. It's the maturity of what we've been doing in the last seven years into the point that, okay, we are ready to do the big more and we are see some of our customers approaching this path.
Steve Saunders:
That's the big difference that I see versus 12 months ago when we sat here was that we've passed that inception point where people have embraced the need and now they're looking around for the solutions. And my goodness, you've certainly produced something extraordinary. Congratulations on that. We love talking to you and I wish you the best in 2024. And let's see each other again before next year though. That would be nice.
Ido Susan:
Looking forward as well. Thank you. Thank you.
Steve Saunders:
Thank you guys.
Ido Susan:
Take care. Thank you.