Build a Regional Cloud Provider

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All right. We're at a special event hosted by Juniper Enterprise Analysts and Influencer Conference here in Dallas, Texas at the Viewable West. And as you can see in the background, I have with me a Juniper customer. This isn't sponsored by Juniper, but it's super convenient. Rita, I'm not going to murder your last name. Can you pronounce it for us? My last name is Fou-the-ol. It's a French name. I cannot even pronounce it well, but it will be Fou-the-ol.

I love the name. I love the variety. And I think this is the theme of this conference that we've had down here at Juniper, where we've talked to everyone from service providers, which you work for a telco, a militant, and the service providers, enterprises, et cetera, about their innovation challenges. First, tell me, what is the mission? What do you guys do? Milico is a service provider that offers mobile services, broadband internet, and day TV in nine countries in Latin America.

We have 57% of our install base is basically for mobile subscriptions, and the other part is for fixed internet access. We also have B2B, and we operate in Central America and South America. We cover 80% of the population around those markets with 4G. And basically, we connect the communities, we bring the digital highways to ensure these communities, these rural areas, these urban areas, have access to the technology. So that's our main purpose. We basically provide connectivity. That's our main business, fixed and mobile, but we also ensure that most of these countries, you know, they are in the developing process, have access.

So we have multiple programs to help those communities to grow, to be better. So, you know, talk to me about the challenges around innovation, because I would imagine that economies of the markets that you serve, as well as the fact that you're just in a service provider role, you know, the enterprise has been on this digital transformation path for the past 5 to 10 years. Where's service providers, especially in the type of communities that you serve, where are you in your innovation journey?

Well, we started the cloudification of the tech and enterprises started 20 years ago. So we embraced this journey a few years ago with different projects. You have to build in blocks. You cannot do it all at once. But the main project that we are now in the middle is the cloudification of the network functions, ensuring we move from the physical appliances into more innovative type of services delivery model. And to do that, you need to go into your data center.

First, we started with 12 Tier 3 data centers in the region. S. and in other advanced countries. So we decided to create them inside of the data centers. We created the converged Telco Cloud and IT. So we are working and bringing in cloud skills, service provider skills with those capabilities, not just for the B2C customers, but also for the B2B. We have our internal converged Telco and IT cloud, which we call Iridium, and we have also the B2B cloud, which is for our enterprises, the public cloud, but they can still have their data inside of their own market.

We also combine that with the public cloud, with hybrid public and hybrid cloud proposals, and we are in the middle of, I would say, transforming the organization because it's not just about the technology. It's about changing the process, changing the operating model, making it efficient. We are working a lot in the centralization of those skills in the small markets. And instead of working in silos, we're making sure that all those capabilities are there. So talk to me about the unique challenges of being the pseudo cloud provider for these regions, but you don't necessarily have the resources of AWS or Google Cloud.

What's like your staff priority? Our priority first is to be efficient. Cost is everything for us, but you also have the time, right? So when you build your own capabilities, it takes time because it's a culture change. You need to change the mindset and bring new skills, pre-skill the people. And it's not always easier. So for the hyperscalers, they have all the money in the world. We are operating in markets where the ARCO is very low. So it's not like I'm going to bring these capabilities to increase the revenue three-fourths.

No, you do it. You know what is the market demands. We're number one, number two. Some markets were incumbent and others were the challenger, but we are super cautious about the cost. What is the cost of bringing a new technology? It's not just to bring a new technology because I'm an engineer, it's fun. No, it's what is the business case? What is the problem that I'm trying to solve for my corporation? And that's in the mind of every person in my team to make sure that we're adding value.

Tell me what is the process that we need to automate? Why? How many minutes are we saving? How many people? Headcounts. So it's difficult to find those people with those highest skill in our markets. So this is why we're concentrating them in a smaller team. But we need capabilities. We need tools. We need the, I would say, the tools that would help us to control the growth of multiple services while keeping a super control of who does it, how it does.

So talk to me finally about the value of partnerships, whether it's OpenShort for us or with traditional vendors, how do you rely on these partnerships to expand the capabilities of your team? Well, OpenShort is great because the cost is low, but you hit the fence when you are in trouble. So many years ago, I started all these disaggregation in medical. We were exploring open stack, open this, open that. But if you don't have the vendor behind supporting that technology and your team is in the learning curve, it's really difficult to keep your operations because you have productive environments at the same time that you are trying to innovate.

You are trying to bring those capabilities and you are alone, right? So we're not a big service provider like others. We're very lean. Our teams are very small. So we rely on the innovation that brings the open technologies, but we try to mix with the partners that can help us in that journey. So having those capabilities, professional services, good support when you need it is key in the success of the service provider. So the right combination, I cannot tell you a percentage, 50-50.

I think it depends on the area. In some areas, when your teams are more mature, you can explore more in the open area. But at one point, as you scale with the services, you may need to consider the support of a vendor. Well, Maria, I really appreciate you taking out your time and your schedule to sit down with us. We thank Jennifer for hosting us here in Dallas. We actually got a chance to go to a Rangers game last night.

Beautiful stadium at Goliath Stadium. Really appreciate that. com is the website. You can find the link to Rita's organization down below as well. Stay tuned for more CTO Advisor Studio from unique locations as conference season has hit.