Infinera - thoughts on Instant Bandwidth

I have a few thoughts I would like to share on Instant Bandwidth. Instant Bandwidth is Infinera’s strategy to allow customers pre-deploy large amounts of bandwidth that can be provisioned through software control as needed.

First, some background.

Many of the cloud providers such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon charge enterprise clients based on the cloud services they “spin up”. Customers pay monthly based on actual usage. Some providers also “pre-sell” compute power based on anticipated service needs, and they offer pricing discounts when they pre-pay. However, anything that goes over the allotted amount is charged as an extra for that month. Those of us on cellular data plans can appreciate how that might work.

Many times organizations can’t always predict their cloud computing demands, but, they are always allowed to spin up services to address the extra horsepower needed. Also, consumers on cellular data plans may see periodic jumps in bandwidth consumption in which the telcos need to address.

Here’s why I think Instant Bandwidth is important.

Instant Bandwidth allows Infinera’s customers to be in alignment with the same behavior model as the end consumer. And I think it is genius. Cloud providers, IXs and telcos can throttle bandwidth needs in-line with their own customer’s needs. Demand spikes by their customer can be addressed in minutes, and that cost increment can be passed directly along and packaged neatly within their service cost structure. The concept also allows providers to be more competitive in the marketplace - their operational costs are lower because they don’t have to pay for what they don’t use.

I believe this is a differentiator. To do the same with other system vendors you need to install all the extra cards and lines ahead of time - essentially buying a lot more hardware and fiber lines than you really need - or wait until it becomes a problem and then spend another 2-8 weeks to roll the lines and install more equipment.

I bring this up because Instant Bandwidth is even more a distinction today than it was in the past. However, I cannot quantify any of this into real dollars. I do know that when a customer provisions Instant Bandwidth is pure profit for Infinera. I leave it up as an exercise for anyone who would like to take up how this affects their bottom line - and if I can, I would love to help. I also welcome a discussion around my thought process on why I believe this is important.

Here’s a link for more background on how Instant Bandwith works: https://www.infinera.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Infinera…

Best,
–Kevin

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