I use AI to create this podcast, let me know what you think?

The ACG Research study highlights how application-driven traffic is reshaping the economics of fixed and mobile networks. While fixed networks benefit from lower unit costs ($0.06/GB vs. $0.33/GB for mobile), far higher household data consumption drives a 393% higher TCO per subscriber ($21.22 vs. $5.40). A small set of applications accounts for the vast majority of costs: 9 apps drive 92% of fixed expenses and seven drive 96% of mobile led by YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, Facebook, and Steam. Cost burdens are concentrated in the access layer for fixed networks (75% of TCO) and in the RAN for mobile (85%), underscoring structural vulnerabilities as video, gaming, and latency-sensitive applications proliferate.

For CSPs, these dynamics create rising margin pressure, which are exacerbated by OTT players that capture revenue while operators absorb infrastructure costs. To respond, CSPs must adopt application-aware traffic management to optimize QoE and defer CapEx, pursue commercial or regulatory frameworks to rebalance costs with OTT providers, and deploy CSP specific TCO models to guide investment and policy strategies. Sustaining profitability in an application-centric era will depend on combining smarter traffic engineering, fairer cost sharing, and tailored economic modeling.

Download report:

https://www.acgcc.com/reports/the-economics-of-application-traffic-tco-benchmark/

 For more information, contact Ray Mota or Peter Fetterolf.

Join Ray Mota, CEO of ACG Research and host of the Deep Edge Podcast, for an in-depth conversation with Kevin Vachon, of Mplify (formerly the MEF). In this episode, Kevin walks us through:
 • The Story Behind the Rebrand: Why “Mplify” was chosen, how market shifts toward multi-cloud, AI, and automation drove the decision, and the legacy of LSO and network standardization.
 • Building a Global NaaS Ecosystem: Strategies for fostering collaboration among service providers, vendors, hyperscalers, data-center operators, and enterprise customers—plus the engagement models that make it all work.
 • Certifications & Interoperability: How trusted transparency and standardized APIs reduce risk, boost confidence, and drive real interoperability across layer-2, APIs, and beyond.
 • Networks for AI vs. AI for Networks: Clarifying where Mplify plays in enabling AI-centric use cases, from on-demand GPU services to elastic bandwidth and consumption-based models.
 • Inside the Global NaaS Event (GNE) 2025: What to expect at this year’s Dallas gathering—real demos, rapid-fire user stories, business-value case studies, and deep dives into next-generation NaaS capabilities.

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-vachon-5675ab1/

Kevin's bio
https://www.mplify.net/people/kevin-vachon/

Mplify Board Link
https://www.mplify.net/about-mplify/officers-board-of-directors/


#mplify #acgresearch #NaaS #LSO

Join host Ray Mota as he sits down with Matt Biringer, Co-Founder of North Cloud, to explore the evolving world of public cloud finance. In this episode, we dive into:
 • Why cloud cost management matters – The shift from upfront data-center purchasing to utility-based billing and its impact on budgets.
 • The rise of FinOps – How finance, engineering, and product teams can collaborate around cloud spend—and the cultural and political barriers they face.
 • Visibility & automation – From 50-page invoices to real-time dashboards, and the AI-driven tools that right-size resources, alert on anomalies, and allocate costs automatically.
 • Agent North: Cloud FinOps AI – A sneak peek at North Cloud’s upcoming “Agent North,” which ingests your billing telemetry and technical docs to answer finance and engineering questions in natural language.
 • Security & governance – Balancing automation with safeguards, air-gaps, and scenario planning to keep your financial automation platform secure.

About Matt Biringer
Matt Biringer is the co-founder and CEO of North.Cloud, the AI-powered platform that helps companies cut cloud waste and control costs, without the spreadsheets. Before launching North in 2023 (literally from his garage), Matt spent 12 years selling datacenter technology, leading growth at Pure Storage, CDI, and SHI.

When he’s not scaling North, you’ll find him chasing his kids, training jiu-jitsu, lifting weights, or perfecting a new recipe. He also angel invests in early-stage startups, backing companies like NodeECO, Light, Data Herald, and Pipedream Labs.

Find Matt online: 
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbiringer/
Twitter
https://x.com/biringer_


About North.Cloud
North.Cloud is an AI-powered cloud optimization platform tackling the rising costs and inefficiencies of modern cloud infrastructure. By eliminating manual FinOps processes and rigid cost models, North delivers real-time, automated savings across AWS and GCP. Its dynamic platform helps companies reduce waste, improve efficiency, and gain transparency over their cloud spend. To learn more, 
visit North.Cloud
https://www.north.cloud/

Call to Action to our Community!!!

Join me in standing up for justice and digital inclusion—help secure a fair trial and release for Dawit, the visionary entrepreneur detained in Ethiopia. Share his story, sign the petition, and urge your representatives to act.

Today I’m spotlighting a colleague whose story demands our attention. Dawit, an American citizen and former Cisco leader, left a lucrative career in the U.S. to found Ethiopia’s first private ISP—bringing high-speed internet to 400,000 homes and empowering 110 direct employees (and hundreds more contractors).

Since December 2024, Dawit has been held without bail in a maximum-security prison on financial charges that stem from an incomplete audit—and despite an appeal still pending, he remains denied basic rights and medical care.  Company assets are frozen, threatening not only his livelihood but the connectivity of thousands of Ethiopian citizens.

When one of us faces injustice, we all do. The global tech community stands for innovation, progress, and fair treatment under the law. Here’s how you can help:

 1. Raise awareness—share this post and use #FreeDawitBirhanu
 2. Sign the petition for his release: https://chng.it/dJGpsJ99Xn
 3. Contact your elected officials to advocate for U.S. diplomatic intervention
 4. Engage industry associations to apply collective pressure

Let’s unite our voices and ensure Dawit receives the fair trial he deserves—and that his vital work to bridge the digital divide can continue.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/4ZV3GA-c-Uo

In this episode of The Deep Edge Podcast, ACG Research CEO Ray Mota sits down with Jamie Dobson—author of Visionaries, Rebels, and Machines and founder of Container Solutions—for a powerful, no-nonsense conversation on the hype, reality, and economic implications of AI. Together, they unpack how AI is reshaping corporate decision-making, exposing organizational blind spots, and challenging traditional innovation models. From Amara’s Law to strategic missteps, Jamie offers insight into why some enterprises move too fast with AI while others dangerously underestimate its long-term impact. With sharp analogies, war stories from the dot-com era, and lessons from the invention of the cloud, the discussion gives leaders a practical lens to approach AI—with no-regret moves, controlled experimentation, and an honest look at workforce readiness. This episode is a must-listen for business and tech leaders navigating AI’s promise—and its peril.

ABOUT JAMIE DOBSON

Jamie Dobson is the founder of Container Solutions, and has been helping companies, across industries, move to cloud native ways of working for over ten years. Container Solutions develops a strategy, a clear plan and step by step implementation helping companies achieve a smooth digital transformation. With services including Internal Developer Platform Enablement, Cloud Modernisation, DevOps/DevSecOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Consultancy, Cloud Optimisation and creating a full Cloud Native Strategy, companies get much more than just engineering know-how. Jamie is also author of ‘The Cloud Native Attitude’ available from Amazon and good bookstores and the soon to be published, ‘Visionaries, Rebels and Machines: The story of humanity’s extraordinary journey from electrification to cloudification’

Link to Jamie's book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Visionaries-Rebels-Machines-electrification-cloudification/dp/1917490070/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1QZWBMJDKAQJL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PpJEN6zER2QaX8-xzxgf8w.W4uDXhOduj5D-NKmyu7yYfpyv4Q7u4t6dXHqOFb6VqY&dib_tag=se&keywords=visionaries+rebels+and+machines&qid=1745942577&sprefix=visionaries+%2Caps%2C84&sr=8-1

Video Link:

https://youtu.be/lm3Q-3WvYFo

In this Deep Edge episode, host Ray Mota sits down with Cisco’s VP of AI Products, Anand Raghavan, to unpack the 2025 State of AI Security report. With 72 % of enterprises already running AI in production but only 13 % feeling prepared to secure it, the conversation probes today’s most pressing blind spots—from “Sleepy Pickle” supply-chain exploits and fine-tuning–induced jailbreaks to the surge of autonomous agents that widen the threat surface.

Together they explore why traditional cyber fundamentals still matter, how a tidal wave of AI-related legislation could speed (or stall) innovation, and what a verifiable AI supply-chain “safety seal” might look like. Anand closes with a clear, actionable playbook: boost staff AI-security literacy, illuminate shadow-AI usage, validate models before deployment, and guard them at runtime—so you can accelerate innovation without inviting catastrophe. Tune in to get ahead of the next wave of AI-driven risk.

Download: 2025 Annual Report The State of AI Security 
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/state-of-ai-security.html

Video Link:

https://youtu.be/iEkN0-OjIwI

Anand's bio:
Anand Raghavan VICE PRESIDENT OF PRODUCTS, AI
As VP of Products, AI at Cisco, Anand loves the excitement of working with world-class teams to build and market game-changing products. Anand was the cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Armorblox, the industry's first GPT-powered protection against targeted email attacks. Cisco acquired Armorblox in July 2023 to bring safe and secure generative AI powered assistant and automation experiences to Cisco customers. Prior to Armorblox, Anand launched ThoughtSpot out of stealth mode and built and ran product marketing and product management teams there. Anand was a founding team member and product manager at Blue Jeans Network, helping to grow it from four employees to 200+ employees and 2,000+ customers. Before that, he held several engineering roles, including six years at NVIDIA.  
Anand has a B.Tech. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors and was named a Palmer Scholar.

Welcome to The Deep Edge Podcast, where we navigate the frontiers of innovation shaping tomorrow’s digital economy. In today’s episode, we explore one of the most consequential developments in cybersecurity: quantum-secure communications. As quantum computing edges closer to practical reality, the imperative to safeguard data against future quantum threats is no longer the concern of governments and research institutions alone—it is rapidly becoming a boardroom issue for enterprises across all sectors.

We delve into how pioneering companies like Aliro are redefining the security landscape. With active collaborations alongside organizations such as Eastern Power Board, NIST, and the U.S. Air Force, Aliro is at the forefront of operationalizing quantum-safe networks. But the central question remains: How do we transition quantum security from a scientific breakthrough to a scalable business asset?

As major technology players enter the quantum arms race, Aliro’s sustained differentiation will hinge on its ability to execute at scale, foster strategic alliances, and maintain technological agility. With Cisco and Accenture as key stakeholders, the company is well-positioned to influence enterprise adoption—but the journey ahead is complex. We’ll examine the impact of these alliances and what they signal about the future ecosystem of quantum-secure communications.

Equally critical is the growing risk of “harvest now, decrypt later”—a cybersecurity time bomb where encrypted data stolen today could be cracked by quantum machines tomorrow. This episode breaks down why organizations must act now, not later, to begin migrating to quantum-resilient infrastructure.

On the technical front, we’ll explore how Aliro’s platform—including Aliro Orchestrator, AlirOS, and AliroNet—is simplifying deployment across diverse hardware environments. We’ll also discuss the role of simulation and emulation tools in reducing adoption friction and enabling network operators to assess, test, and optimize their transition strategies before making capital-intensive moves.

Whether you’re a CIO, a cybersecurity strategist, or a technologist trying to stay ahead of the curve, this conversation offers the frameworks and foresight you need to understand where quantum security is headed—and how to prepare for what comes next.

In this episode of The Deep Edge Podcast, host Ray Mota sits down with Callum Morrison, Account Director at Cologix, and Wayne Lloyd, CEO of Consensus Core, to discuss their pioneering partnership that is reshaping North America’s AI infrastructure landscape. The guests delve into the launch of the first NVIDIA-powered GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) at Cologix’s MTL10 data center in Montreal, exploring how scalable, on-demand GPU resources are empowering businesses in AI, machine learning, and 3D rendering. The conversation covers the strategic role of connectivity and interconnection in delivering optimal performance for AI applications, Canada’s emergence as a global AI infrastructure hub, and the vision for AI-ready data centers poised to support future edge innovations.

Welcome to episode 61 of the Deep Edge Podcast. In this episode, I take a deep dive into the fascinating crossroads of AI and global networking, dissecting a conversation that covers everything from hyper-scale data centers to the evolving challenges of network resiliency. I interview Mattias Fridström, Chief Evangelist for Arelion.

Key Themes Explored:
 • AI’s Insatiable Appetite for Bandwidth:
The dialogue highlights how artificial intelligence is not just a trend but a transformative force that’s driving unprecedented traffic demands. We explore the shift from traditional data center models—where fiber availability was king—to a future where power capacity dictates data center location, setting a new benchmark for infrastructure design.
 • Optical Innovations & Network Scalability:
Our guest unpacks the critical role of optical technology, such as NX 400G systems and dark fiber solutions, in managing the surge in data flow. As we approach the physical limits of fiber capacity, the industry is forced to adopt innovative strategies—like deploying multiple fiber pairs—to keep pace with AI’s growing needs.
 • Resiliency in a High-Demand World:
With AI applications becoming mission-critical, even a few milliseconds of downtime can be catastrophic. We delve into how network operators are rethinking resiliency, moving from dual-route redundancies to multi-path, 100% diverse connectivity solutions that guarantee uninterrupted service.
 • Ecosystem & Automation:
The conversation shifts to the importance of collaboration and automation in this new era. No single operator can meet the AI-driven demand alone. The future lies in an ecosystem approach where telecom providers, regional partners, and utility companies work in unison, augmented by AI-powered automation that transforms manual operations into proactive, data-driven decision-making.

This episode encapsulates a forward-thinking discussion on how our industry must evolve to support the next generation of AI technologies. It’s a journey through the technical intricacies and strategic shifts that will define the future of global networking. Tune in to explore how the convergence of AI and connectivity is reshaping our digital landscape.

— Ray Mota, Host of the Deep Edge Podcast

Welcome to The Deep Edge Podcast, where we explore the most transformative shifts in the telecom and technology landscape. Hosted by Ray Mota, this podcast delivers expert insights, industry analysis, and thought-provoking discussions with top executives, innovators, and analysts shaping the future of connectivity.

Special Guess: Doug Makishima from ECOBLOX
Doug is an advisor to MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum), a global trade body established in 2000 and headquartered in the UK with members across the world. As the voice of the mobile ecosystem, it focuses on cross-industry best practices, anti-fraud and monetisation. The Forum provides its members with global and cross-sector platforms for networking, collaboration and advancing industry solutions. 

In this episode, we break down critical trends such as the Telco to Tech-co transition, the monetization of Network APIs, and the growing impact of NaaS. From unlocking new revenue streams to addressing security challenges and fostering strategic partnerships, The Deep Edge provides a front-row seat to the innovations redefining telecom.

Join us as we dive deep into the challenges, opportunities, and future outlook for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), technology providers, and the broader mobile ecosystem. Whether it’s API-driven transformation, fraud prevention, or collaboration strategies, we uncover what’s next for the industry and how leaders can stay ahead of the curve.

Web: https://mobileecosystemforum.com/

Twitter: https://x.com/mef

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobile-ecosystem-forum

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MobileEcosystemForum/