EonFibre Prepares New Zealand for the AI Era

1 00:00:05,570 --> 00:00:09,010 The digital economy has changed over the last two years. 2 00:00:09,010 --> 00:00:11,890 Previously, the focus was on driving fibre to the home 3 00:00:11,890 --> 00:00:14,330 across New Zealand. So New Zealand, over the last 10 4 00:00:14,330 --> 00:00:16,910 to 15 years, has had an ambitious fibre build programme 5 00:00:16,910 --> 00:00:19,650 connecting up the majority of homes and businesses. 6 00:00:19,650 --> 00:00:21,670 That is now complete. New Zealand has some of 7 00:00:21,670 --> 00:00:24,730 the highest fibre penetration rates globally. 8 00:00:24,730 --> 00:00:27,340 And now that that's done, the focus is moving to 9 00:00:27,340 --> 00:00:30,810 providing high capacity fibre in and out of New 10 00:00:30,810 --> 00:00:33,790 Zealand. Firstly, through subsea and then within 11 00:00:33,790 --> 00:00:36,270 New Zealand the focus is on upgrading the fibre 12 00:00:36,270 --> 00:00:39,320 networks to connect up data centres in anticipation 13 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:41,550 of the growth and demand we're going to see. 14 00:00:41,550 --> 00:00:44,690 New Zealand as a country is actually uniquely 15 00:00:44,690 --> 00:00:47,690 positioned to become a data centre destination. 16 00:00:47,690 --> 00:00:50,450 It has got lots of renewable power, excess renewable 17 00:00:50,450 --> 00:00:54,310 power at globally competitive rates. It's a very 18 00:00:54,310 --> 00:00:57,430 stable environment in terms of geopolitically. It's 19 00:00:57,430 --> 00:01:00,490 got strong government support and backing. And it 20 00:01:00,490 --> 00:01:02,870 also happens to be cold, which is a great, great thing 21 00:01:02,870 --> 00:01:05,950 when you're looking to cool down data centres. So 22 00:01:05,950 --> 00:01:08,650 New Zealand is positioning itself as a data centre 23 00:01:08,650 --> 00:01:12,410 destination and EonFibre is there to support that 24 00:01:12,410 --> 00:01:14,470 ambition. So, as one of the leading bandwidth 25 00:01:14,470 --> 00:01:17,670 infrastructure providers in New Zealand, we're ideally 26 00:01:17,670 --> 00:01:20,590 positioned to support that growth in the coming years. 27 00:01:25,210 --> 00:01:27,910 so, it means that we're solely focused on providing 28 00:01:27,910 --> 00:01:31,400 high capacity and resilient services that are scalable. 29 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:33,910 Ultimately, it means that ensuring that our customers 30 00:01:33,910 --> 00:01:36,290 are able to grow without having to worry about the 31 00:01:36,290 --> 00:01:39,830 underlying network and so that shift has happened over 32 00:01:39,830 --> 00:01:41,610 the last couple of years. We're only formed two years 33 00:01:41,610 --> 00:01:45,430 ago in recognition of this demand and it has allowed 34 00:01:45,430 --> 00:01:48,160 us to focus solely in that segment of the market 35 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:50,790 to partner with our customers as they look to deploy 36 00:01:50,790 --> 00:01:53,310 high capacity fibre both in New Zealand but also in 37 00:01:53,310 --> 00:01:55,930 and out of New Zealand. It allows us to be fast-to-market 38 00:01:55,930 --> 00:01:59,110 and so because that's all we focus on it allows us 39 00:01:59,110 --> 00:02:01,570 to be commercially flexible and so all of those traits 40 00:02:01,570 --> 00:02:03,510 have meant that we've been able to position ourselves 41 00:02:03,510 --> 00:02:06,030 as a leading bandwidth infrastructure provider. 42 00:02:10,690 --> 00:02:14,130 Ciena have been instrumental. So, Ciena are our main 43 00:02:14,130 --> 00:02:17,510 supplier and they've been fundamental in supporting 44 00:02:17,510 --> 00:02:19,730 both the growth that we've seen over the last 45 00:02:19,730 --> 00:02:22,590 couple of years in bandwidth infrastructure, but also 46 00:02:22,590 --> 00:02:24,710 in our vision to become the leading bandwidth 47 00:02:24,710 --> 00:02:27,050 infrastructure provider. And the ways in which Ciena 48 00:02:27,050 --> 00:02:30,110 support us, firstly, by providing us with scalable, 49 00:02:30,250 --> 00:02:32,830 high-capacity optical networking. 50 00:02:33,290 --> 00:02:37,470 Secondly, by supporting our operational stability. 51 00:02:37,670 --> 00:02:40,530 Thirdly, by being at the forefront of optical 52 00:02:40,530 --> 00:02:43,350 innovation. And then fourthly, by supporting 53 00:02:43,350 --> 00:02:45,590 us in our journey to full network automation. 54 00:02:45,590 --> 00:02:48,390 And so it's been a fundamental partnership to 55 00:02:48,390 --> 00:02:50,790 us and one that's, if I reflect on the last 56 00:02:50,790 --> 00:02:52,810 couple of years, has become increasingly important 57 00:02:52,810 --> 00:02:55,430 as the demand for bandwidth has increased 58 00:02:55,430 --> 00:02:57,670 and Ciena has supported us in that journey. 59 00:03:02,250 --> 00:03:05,380 So, New Zealand is a country at the end of the world 60 00:03:05,380 --> 00:03:08,670 and it's a long way away. It's also quite a long, thin 61 00:03:08,670 --> 00:03:11,710 country, sparsely populated and it's subject to 62 00:03:11,710 --> 00:03:14,810 things like earthquakes but also some pretty extreme weather 63 00:03:14,810 --> 00:03:17,010 events so resilience has always been a really 64 00:03:17,010 --> 00:03:21,010 important part of who we are. We spend a lot of time looking 65 00:03:21,010 --> 00:03:23,110 at how we can make the networks as resilient as 66 00:03:23,110 --> 00:03:25,530 possible we spend a lot of time with our customers to 67 00:03:25,530 --> 00:03:28,630 ensure resiliency in the network and coming up with solutions 68 00:03:28,630 --> 00:03:31,290 that are both commercially and technically feasible 69 00:03:31,290 --> 00:03:34,010 for them so it's a fundamental part of of what we 70 00:03:34,010 --> 00:03:35,990 do and we've got lots of experience in this space because 71 00:03:35,990 --> 00:03:39,390 as I said it's a long way and it is subject to 72 00:03:39,390 --> 00:03:42,970 earthquakes and some pretty adverse weather as well. 73 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,700 Yeah, so it's undoubtedly in AI. We're just at the 74 00:03:50,700 --> 00:03:52,880 beginning of that journey. New Zealand's probably a 75 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,020 couple of years behind some of the leading markets 76 00:03:55,020 --> 00:03:57,940 such as the US and Australia, but there's no doubt that 77 00:03:57,940 --> 00:04:00,180 we're starting to see that growth coming through. 78 00:04:00,180 --> 00:04:03,640 The areas that we're seeing that growth is in subsea 79 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,360 at the moment, so our customers are kind of 80 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:08,380 planning for the future and the growth that's coming. 81 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:10,900 New Zealand, interestingly, probably wasn't 82 00:04:10,900 --> 00:04:13,940 considered a destination for AI workloads a couple of 83 00:04:13,940 --> 00:04:16,880 years ago, but what AI has done is change the 84 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:19,980 location equation and so actually there are quite 85 00:04:19,980 --> 00:04:22,620 a number of AI workloads that are latency 86 00:04:22,620 --> 00:04:25,020 insensitive and that could be hosted in a country like 87 00:04:25,020 --> 00:04:27,300 New Zealand to serve the rest of the world and so 88 00:04:27,300 --> 00:04:30,180 we're working with our customers on identifying 89 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:33,600 locations in which they can deploy compute and then 90 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:35,320 the first part of that journey is around subsea 91 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,000 and then secondly on the terrestrial side we're 92 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:39,880 working with our customers to design our network so 93 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,400 that's scalable for that future growth and at the 94 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:44,620 moment the focus is very much on that data centre 95 00:04:44,620 --> 00:04:47,580 to data centre connectivity. But then over time, 96 00:04:47,580 --> 00:04:50,820 we anticipate that as AI workloads get embedded into 97 00:04:50,820 --> 00:04:52,980 enterprises, we'll start to see the growth in 98 00:04:52,980 --> 00:04:56,120 capacity or in demand required at the access layer.