Page 18 - Mobile World Daily - Day 2

FEATURED INTERVIEW | GUAVUS

Anukool Lakhina,
CEO and Founder of Guavus

MNOs are Moving
Forward with Data
Analytics

Many mobile network operators struggle to benefit from the huge and growing amounts of structured and unstructured data that they, their partners, and
their customers generate. The growth of the Internet of Things is further complicating matters. Anukool Lakhina, CEO and Founder of Guavus, a big data
analytics company, tells Mobile World Daily how mobile carriers can turn big data to their advantage as they develop new services and partnerships, enhance
customer experience and deploy technologies such as NFV and SDN.

MOBILE WORLD DAILY (MWD): The network centre and the call centre, for data management is about being able to AL: The shift to SDN and NFV makes it
WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT example, are probably the two biggest silos make correlations between different data easier for operators to manage more
CHALLENGES THAT MOBILE that exist today. Organizational and technical groups and draw conclusions that add value elements of their network -- whether it is
OPERATORS FACE TODAY WHEN boundaries inside carriers often meant as the data hits the network or to even predict congestion, the routing of traffic, or the
TRYING TO MONETISE – OR EVEN resistance to breaking them up. Today, what it is going to happen in the future. The response to failures – and to do so with
SIMPLY MANAGE – BIG DATA? however, big data has become a C-level topic carriers that are most successful in managing greater flexibility. This ability to fine tune the
and there is a top-down move to use analytics data are those that are able to make useful network goes hand in hand with the
Anukool Lakhina (AL): We've been around to eliminate silos that get in the way of doing associations that assist in decision-making. generation of much richer network data. But
for more than a decade and it is interesting to business leading to a more holistic way to if operators are going to reap the full benefits
see how practices and attitudes have evolved. spot intelligence across the different The other problem of course is the sheer of SDN and NFV deployment and use
Data management is still about the challenge organizations. velocity with which data travels, which can network data to improve customer service or
of dealing with the volume, velocity and leave operators wondering how to take to develop new products, then they cannot
variety of data, but how it is dealt with is Of course carriers face a growing action. The smartphone was a real game rely on manual intervention. Instead there
increasingly sophisticated and has become a aggregation challenge, but when it comes to changer. Five years ago North America saw will be an even greater move to automate the
real area of concern for C-level executives. At volume it is a question of sizing the problem, the impact of the smartphone and carriers analysis of data and any resulting actions.
the board level there is a realisation that data and is it possible to store volumes in a cost- had to adjust how they prepared their Virtualizing network functions also means
analytics is not just about filtering and storing effective way. networks. The question then moved from that some of the legacy reporting and
information appropriately; it is about being 'how do I keep my network from element management systems might not be
extracting and understanding information in When it comes to dealing with the variety choking?' to 'how do I deliver a better at par with the newly deployed technologies.
a timely manner and ultimately, not just using of data, carriers are a lot more sophisticated customer experience?' It's a shift that
it to answer questions in ways that enable than they were previously and there is a new operators in some other regions are going MWD: CAN THE USE OF DATA
businesses to derive value, but to take appreciation of the complexity issues. The through now, as they evolve from marketing ANALYTICS IMPROVE OPERATORS'
immediate actions. traditional way to deal with disparate data subscriptions. COMPETITIVE POSITION IN AN
sources had been to bring everything into one ENVIRONMENT WHERE SERVICES
place and look for insights. But successful Again it's a question of understanding what SUCH AS WHAT'SAPP ARE
you are dealing with and the effects of the IMPACTING REVENUES?
“Data analysis is a critical piece of actions you take. If a customer is watching an
enabling that cooperation, as both the online video, an operator with the right AL: At the heart of the debate is the mobile
OTT and MNOs bring complementary information can handle network issues by operators' business model. They lost part of
sets of information that, when combined, dynamically making changes to the the consumer value chain to companies such
can be used to help improve customer bandwidth and avoiding service degradation as Google or Apple, but carriers cannot afford
experience.” issues. to look at OTTs merely as killers of voice or
SMS revenue. If you take a step back it is clear
MWD: WHAT DOES THE ROLL OUT OF that both carriers and OTTs want to deliver a
NFV AND SDN MEAN FOR high quality experience to customers, and to
OPERATORS' ABILITY TO GATHER do that they need to co-operate more.
AND ANALYSE INFORMATION IN REAL
TIME?

PAGE 18 Tuesday 3rd March MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS DAILY 2015 | www.mobileworldcongress.com